It's The Worst!

So, I know this next post is supposed to be the Kingston adventures we had while my parents were here, but some of the pics are on my phone and I can't find the cord that connects to the computer so I can download, so I'm skipping it today and posting pictures that I have. It's my blog.

This week I am feeling the tightness in my chest that always accompanies back to school. It's worse this year because we're in a different place and I have two...TWO...kids going to school. We registered the kids yesterday. The school is close, and we met the principle and she seems awesome. The secretary in the office told the kids that she's new too, and that they would have to learn things together...super sweet. And then she let my kids push the buttons on the photocopier for her copies while Tyler and I filled out all the forms. ok, that was reassuring.

Lucy starts on Tuesday...ALL DAY! And Max starts Wednesday. He goes for an hour on his first day and I get to go with him to get oriented...orientated? one of those. He's really excited that I get to go with him...and I am too. Tyler said, "I could go with Max." and I was like, "Uh, no way!"

When my kids are bigger, will sending them off to school be easier? I hope so. It just feels like too much. Early mornings and schedules and strange people and buses. What about playing, and just being?

I asked Max the other day while he was trying on his new backpack if he actually had to go to school.

Me: "Why don't you just stay home and be my buddy? You don't need to go to school."
Max: "Yes I do! Mom, I have to learn everything!"
Me: "We can just play, you don't need to learn."
Max: "But I need to learn everything so when I have kids I can teach THEM!"
(nice to know he thinks we know everything...I wonder how long that will last?)
Me: "You're going to have kids?"
Max: "Well, the girl I marry, when I marry her, she'll have kids, and I'll be their dad."

So it looks like he has to go to school because he's got a life plan.

Both of the kids have told me that they think it's probably a smart idea for me to drive them to school on their first day, because they don't want to leave me crying in the street while the bus drives away. Very thoughtful. I'll just cry in the parking lot of their school I guess. I'm appreciating that Lucy starts one day, Max is the next only for an hour. They don't both go to school ALL day until Friday...so at least I can work my way up to it.

Anyway, because school starts this week, I've been trying to cram in some last summer fun this week. I went Visiting Teaching the last two days which took up a lot of our play time, so today was the day. We decided to hit up a park in the city that we haven't been to yet. City Park Splash Park. Seriously, it was awesome. They have a huge splash pad, two play-grounds, lots of green space and a sand pit all in the same place. And it's a block from Tyler's office. AND free parking! Seriously, it was all awesome.

The kids spent a few minutes on the playground but then headed to the splash park for the majority of their time.

















We had a picnic lunch surrounded by seagulls (stressful for Lucy!)

Then we hit up the sand-pit, climbed the cool side-ways tree and played on the park some more.
The cutest part was when we first arrived, I heard Max and another kid talking and Max said, "I'm Max. I'm from Alberta." They hung around together the rest of the time. Tyler tells me that he had a conversation with Max this morning about being brave at school. He told him that ALL the kid's in JK will be nervous and won't know anybody because it's their first time going to school. So he should just go up to someone and say, "Hi, I'm Max, wanna play?" Then he told him to practice...I guess he did. Brave boy!





Dad was supposed to be in meetings the whole time we were there, so we didn't expect to see him, but he surprised us for 2 minutes as he walked to lunch with a co-worker. It was perfect!

I'm disappointed that we didn't go here sooner. It was so fun. I guess the boys and I will have to check it out when Lucy's at school. Bummer.

Rosemary and Ken Visit the Nation's Capitol...

Well, my parents came for visit, we filed our time with them to the MAX and now they're gone. I didn't take time to blog while they were here, because time was precious, so here comes the mother-load! (I think...we'll see how far this gets).
It was a completely awesome, fabulous week and it was hard to say goodbye. I kept saying to Tyler that it was so nice to have someone from our life come out and see where we are and see this great house that we have and this great life we're creating. It makes it more real when someone else can validate it, I guess. Plus, now they can be reassured that we are doing good and we're safe and we have a great branch that is taking care of us. It just felt good. Plus, it was nice for Tyler and I to steal a few minutes here and there to get out of the house sans-kids and have grandma and grandpa there to play with them. We went out on a date for our anniversary while they were here, and it was the first time we had spent time together just the two of us in about 2 months. Crazy.

So here it comes - the goings on of the past 10 days:

My parents flew in to Ottawa on the Thursday, and we were planning on visiting my mom's sisters and brother in St. Isadore on Saturday (about 45 minutes out of Ottawa), so Tyler and the kids and I decided to meet them in Ottawa and do some sight-seeing there. My kid's made a welcome sign for my parents that was so cute, but I forgot to get a picture. They were so impatient waiting at the airport. How many minutes mom? How many minutes?

(Just hangin' with Sir John A...)

It was big hugs all around when they arrived...and big laughs. Oh my dad. He was wearing pants, and a long-sleeved button-up shirt, wool socks, steel-toed boots, and had a 'cool-fall/warm-winter' type jacket with him. We just shook our heads. Dad, you do realize that it's summer? And you're in Ontario, which means that it's humid? He was feeling it pretty quickly!

We got their luggage, rental car and checked in to our hotel. Logan went down for a nap, so my parent's took Lucy and Max to the war museum and Tyler and I got the rooms settled. Then we met them there. I knew my dad would love the war museum...we were not wrong. When we arrived, they had been there already for 2 hours. The war museum has 5 sections. Last time we did it with the kids we did the whole thing in just under 2 hours. So we figured, my dad will take a bit longer, but surely he'll be in section 4 by now. We went through section 4, and 3, and found them at the beginning of 2! Haha. They ended up spending 4 HOURS at the war museum...and we only left because it was closing! Oh dad.



Then it was back to the hotel for a late dinner (Poutine!!) and off to bed. It was a late night, but we hoped for the best. Tyler and I shared a room with all 3 kids and needless to say, I think I finally dozed off at 4am! Nightmares, sore ankles, and crying kids. Oy-vey!

Friday, we spent at Parliament Hill.


A lady at the door offered to take our picture before going in...she cut off part of my dad's head. nice.

It was a fantastically hot day, and so we wanted to enjoy some outside time. It was great! There were no English tours available for a few hours, so we decided to go on a French tour and figured we'd be able to figure it out. The tour promised to be 20-40 minutes. And hour and 20 minutes later and we were so done. Kids were cranky and hungry, and we were tired of not understanding anything anyone was saying. It was cool to see inside the Parliament building, but it didn't mean much, when we couldn't understand the cool things they were pointing out. Plus, chasing a tired Logan around and stopping him from touching everything was getting a bit draining.






There's a cat sanctuary on Parliament Hill that has been there since the 80s. They have little houses and the cats are taken care of by volunteers. With Lucy being the crazy-cat lady, we HAD to go see it. And we were lucky to see 2 cats while we were there. They had just been fed, so they were happy to be outside for a few minutes. Usually on hot days they stay in the shade of their little homes.


(Pure Joy I think!)
The architecture in and around parliament was amazing. We had heard that Jack Layton had passed away that morning, so all the flags were at half-mast.

After Logan's nap, we headed to Ikea in Ottawa for dinner and shopping. There's no Ikea here in Kingston, so Ottawa is the closest. We're still trying to furnish our house, so Tyler and I wanted to take advantage of the trip to take a look at some stuff. They kids played in the kid's section with my parents while Tyler and I busted around Ikea looking at everything we hoped to look at. Plus, a meatball dinner for $1.99 just can't be beat.

Tyler had been feeling sick all day, we figure from the late-night Poutine, so we tried to keep things light all day. But Saturday morning he was much better.

Saturday was the day to go to St. Isadore and visit my mom's family. She hadn't seen her sister Kathy, or her brother Phil in about 10 years. Her sister Linda had been out West to see us about 3 years ago. I hadn't seen them in about 22 years. There were lots of hugs and tears when we showed up...and then all the cameras were out capturing this special moment. When I saw my Uncle Phil, he commented that he hadn't seen me since I was about 7...then I pointed out Lucy to him and said she was about that age. It was weird that I'm now a mom of a child who is the same age I was last time I saw them. (Does that make sense?)

We had a great day visiting and dipping our feet in the jacuzzi to cool off. My Aunt Linda's boyfriend Bert has a beautiful piece of property and let the boys enjoy some time on his Quad.

We had a great BBQ dinner and we had a great day.

We got home to Kingston late that night and got everyone settled. It was church the next day and Tyler and I both had to give a talk.

I think I'll stop there...phew! Kingston adventures still to come.

Mind over Matter

While we were in a pool on Saturday, Max and Tyler were having races across the pool. Tyler would give Max a few seconds head-start where Max would scramble dog-paddle-style with his water wings on to reach my outstretched arms. I would then pull him to a narrow victory. All the while Tyler was swimming as slow as he possibly could without drowning. He would usually count to 3 or 5. One time Max, feeling the pressure, said, 'Stop Counting!' So I suggested Tyler start doing ABCs instead.

Max replied by saying, 'Count to Zed!'

It's Just Not

The weather here is awesome. I've said that before. It entices a lot more people to ride their bikes. I've seen a lot more people biking and walking then I ever did in Alberta. Maybe because a bike is a good investment here. You can use it for more than two months a year.

I have also seen a lot more scooters here. A lot. They go 'just' annoying less than the speed-limit, but still drive on the major highways. (Seriously, get out of the way). The funniest part about scooters, is the fact that I have seen grown men with their leather vests and tattoos riding flat-footed, Mr. Bean-style on a scooter. With another friend right beside him on his scooter. Really? A scooter is NOT a cheaper but just-as-cool version of a Harley. It's just not.

As we were driving the other day, and once again noting the number of motorbikes and scooters around, we came to a stop at very major intersection of Kingston, Bath and Gardiners. Each direction has a dual-turn lane. Intersection is about as big as a city block. Busy. We're sitting here, next to a motorbike and we notice this guy

He's sitting between two cars in the dual turn lane, ready to turn from Gardiners onto Bath. The light changes, and there he goes. With his arm out to signal left! We sat, jaws agape, and then came to our senses and scrambled to take a picture. Good thing he has his orange flag thingy...that'll keep him safe.

A motorized chair IS NOT the same as a motorbike. It's just not. I can't attach a motor to my lazy-boy and just start jetting around town. Well, apparently in Kingston I can.

Here's another weird pic.

Look REALLY closely. What's weird? Nice backyard. Beautiful house. Great patio furniture. Oh look, they must have kids because there's toys. Wait, what's that? Is that a person? Nope, it's some sort of freak-show doll that sits on their step ALL THE TIME! Wearing his little white hat with a crab on top.

These guys are kiddie-corner behind us. And the people directly behind us have never been seen. Never a light in their house. Never a crack of the door. Nothing. But the lawn is still maintained by some lawn company that comes over once a week and cuts it.

And right beside me is an awesome family (I don't know that) who doesn't like to turn on their air-conditioning during the day, (probably because their cable bill is so high with 4 satellites attached to the back of the house). They like to leave ALL their windows open and then let their children SCREAM for hours on end. Literally. Scream. For Hours! Isn't there someone above 5 feet tall in that house that could maybe tell the little one to stop screaming? It's awesome because their windows are right beside the windows where my son is napping. Ours are closed. But I am currently in my basement and can hear the kid like he or she is in the room with me.

And when it's nice out, they go out to the front yard and sit on the big square electrical box in front of my house and scream...sigh. I think I hear my son. He's awake. No surprise. My previous neighbours were awesome.

These are the weird things here. It's pretty much awesome...but these things are weird.