The Taylor Tattler: Holidays

We were on vacation for the first two weeks of August and they were filled with activities. Here is a "short" recap...

Bisbee North

We ventured to our friends' cottage for the annual event & although the weekend is much tamer than it used to be, it is still fun. Sydney went tubing for her first time & had fun. I was thankful that I had her in a sitting position so that I could wrap my legs around her. Ed was lying with Matthew & there was one moment when Matthew caught some air when we were crossing over the wake. I think I would have freaked had that been Sydney.

Sydney just completed 2 weeks of swimming lessons each day & the continuity appears to be paying off. She was much more confident in the water & was jumping from the raft all on her own. Now we need to start working harder on Jason. He is quite content to play in the sand and wade into the water.

Our plan was to hit Santa's Village on the way home on Tuesday, but the weather stopped us. Oh well, hopefully next year. The kids were treated to a movie on the drive. We don't have portable DVD players because we don't spend too much time taking long drives so they seem pointless to us. However, Brad brought his laptop for the kids to watch a movie & it worked perfectly & of course they thought it was great. It sits on the armrests of our seats & has enough battery power for one movie (although I think he should get the extended battery as 2 hours is not long enough). I personally enjoyed the absence of "Are we there yet?".

Rainy night, enjoying a movie...

...& oven smores (much better than over a campfire)

Centreville

Thank goodness the strike ended & we could go here for the day- it was perfect for them! They went on 27 rides that day!

About 10 seconds after this picture was taken, Jason said "I changed my mind!" He watched Sydney from the sidelines.

Brad & Sydney went on the Log Ride 3 times. One because they liked it & two because he was waiting for his hat to be rescued from the water. Note to all, turn your hat backwards when on windy rides.

I don't do spinney rides. I feel sick for an hour afterward.

I didn't tell Brad that the guy was coming when he was in there being a "Monkey in a Barrel". :)

Jason rode the carousel 3 times while Sydney & I went to the Ferris Wheel. Each time he rode a different animal, but each one had to be black. I think he also rode a pig & a bunny.

Sydney joined for Jason's 3rd ride & went for height. She wanted to be as high as she could.

At the end of the day, we asked which ride did they want one last time. Sydney wanted ice cream instead. Since I too wanted ice cream, they got the best of both worlds. Sydney's choice was the tea cups & Jason chose the Dragon roller coaster.

Albion Falls

The quest to see all the waterfalls Hamilton has to offer may take longer than I thought, but we did get to one more over our holidays & it too was beautiful. It took us awhile to get to the fun part because we had to provide first aid to Sydney's knee after a tumble on the trail, we hiked the wrong direction for awhile, and had to wait for our pokey daughter to finish her lunch- she can be such a slow eater sometimes it is maddening. However once we got to the right side of the falls, we climbed down & got closer to the water. Sydney loves to climb & Jason loves to throw rocks, so this is a good day trip to satisfy both of them.

Brad provided the educational aspect of our trip & explained how the stones were used to make flour. We will see if Sydney pulls that bit of trivia forward sometime in her lifetime.

Waiting for Miss Pokey to finish her lunch.

Pigeon Lake

Last week we were at Camp Fisherman with Robb, Michele, Max, Gracie & Maddie. Although 4 adults & 5 kids does not sound like a vacation, we do have a good time together. The kids love playing together & after the kids were all in bed the adults got to play too. First we got to listen to Sydney loud whisper "Max!....Max!....Max!" in their room, but Max wasn't playing. Don't think he was willing to risk getting caught talking again. Sydney says her favourite part of vacation was swimming & she progressed even more over the week & can swim good stretches and stay under water longer. Jason says his favourite was playing with Gracie & Maddie. He is so good with them, it is so cute. The kids also dubbed our bedroom the "party room", so they all were often in there jumping on the mattress that was on the floor for Jason.

Looking through my pictures, I don't feel like I have much variety since the weather was so great we were swimming A LOT. Since we spent so much time in our swim suits there was actually a lot of clean clothes that came home since we did not need pants, sweaters, or long sleeve shirts. Considering the weather this summer, we scored large for our vacation.