To the Beach!

Once the 'rents were here and settled and we made it through church (which is not something you just 'make it through'...but with that many people it was tough to organize the getting TO and FROM church), we hung out with some friends for the evening and had a great time visiting.  And then today, it was determined that we needed to head to the beach.  The wonderful beautiful beach!  I love the beach.  I love that Kingston is giving me a tan because I love the beach.

There were swimming lessons happening at the beach today, so it was a bit busier than usual.  But not really too bad.  The boys found these flutter boards and decided to use them as life rafts.  It was cute.

And Logan loved floating around with Bumpa.

We received some interesting news at said beach...my sister is getting married.  In 2 weeks!  In fact, she'll probably be cutting her trip out here short in order to get organized for getting married, moving, and melding 2 families.  Whoa.  I'm a little disappointed to hear she'll be leaving...and as of yet I haven't figured out whether we have the funds or ability to attend the wedding on such short notice.  But those questions will be answered.  Today, we beach.

Let it Begin!

The past few days have been a busy blur.  My sister and her kiddos arrived on Wednesday...I think it was Wednesday.  Maybe it was Thursday.  The kids and I drove to Ottawa to pick them up from the airport, where I got lost no more than 2 times.  Once on the way, once on the way back.  No biggie.  Fortunately, on the way there, I was sitting at a light in Ottawa yelling at my iPhone because it was telling me I was somewhere I wasn't and therefore was giving me the wrong directions.  A kind gentleman knocked on my window and said, "Where are you trying to go?"  When I told him the airport, he said, I'm going that way, follow me.  And I did.  Thank you anonymous gentleman.

Then, on the way home, I missed the turn off that would have led me right out of Ottawa and on my way home, and instead had to proceed to go all the way back through Ottawa to get out in 3:00pm traffic.  An extra 30 minutes on a 4 hour drive is no big deal, right?  Right.  At least my kids were entertained by the presence of my sister's kids...and Iron Giant.

Since then, we have beached it up and stayed up really late too many times.  It is now Saturday night and my parents flew in to Ottawa today as well.

This time, Tyler made the trip to Ottawa to pick them up and we (mom's and kids) hung out at home.  Super excited to see Grandma and Bumpa.  Even though Tyler was exhausted from a round trip to Ottawa I insisted that we would all really love to go to Fort Henry tonight and see the Fort Henry Tattoo...which was a one time only affair.  By we, I meant most specifically my dad.  But I knew it would be great for all of us.

What is the Fort Henry Tattoo?   

It’s a music lover’s dream - the marriage of finely tuned pipes, big brass and booming bass drums, unified for a grand performance on the parade square of Ontario’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site! The Fort Henry 2012 Tattoo on Saturday, July 28 is a one of a kind show that celebrates military traditions dating back to the 1600’s. "Tattoo" is a derivation of “doe den tap toe”, which is Dutch for "turn off the taps", a call which is said to have followed the drum beats in many a pub, letting English soldiers know it was time to turn in for the night. 

Fort Henry is proud to welcome this year, Ottawa’s Ceremonial Guard Band, Lorne Scots Pipes and Drums, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, 8 Wing RCAF Pipe Band, Cadets of HMCS Ontario, Toronto Signals Band, National Band of the Naval Reserve, and the Band of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry to join the Fort Henry Guard Drums as guest performers.

Don’t miss the massed pipes and drums performance featuring over 75 highland performers, and marvel at the spectacular finale as 250 musicians take to the square to perform underneath an electrifying, exploding sky of fireworks!

So, now you know.  As predicted, it was awesome.  And everyone loved it.  And the exploding sky of fireworks was outstanding.  It only lasted 10 minutes, but since we sat on the outer wall of the fort, the fireworks were almost literally in our faces.  Too awesome.  

(The people in the back row of this picture are not with us.)

It was right at sunset and we were, of course, facing the sun.  Made taking pictures tough.  

At the end of the show, we headed for the parking lot to go home (the parking lot consisting of hundreds of cars parked on the side of the hill).  My dad managed to come across an old man who was in tears because he couldn't find his wife.  He said she only walked with a cane and he had told her to wait here in this spot while he went and got the car.  When he got back, she wasn't there.  So in the dark, at 10pm, we looked.  She was found and their reuniting was picturesque.  He shed many tears of joy and she was embarrassed with his display.  Kind of heart-warming.  

Now my family is here for 2 weeks and I have lots of things planned for us to do.  Because I'm a planner.  It's gonna be awesome and exhausting.  

Arrr!

About 6 weeks ago, I went to a gas station.  To fill up with gas.  There are few gas stations here that I've come across that have pay-at-the-pump.  It's mostly annoying.  But, on this particular day, it worked out for my welfare.  I went inside to pay.  On the shelf by the window was a flyer for a pirate festival in Gananoque coming up.  I took the flyer.  I made a mental note.  The flyer touted a Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator, Shrek & Fiona, and lots of swashbuckling activities.  Sounds great for my little hooligans.

So today was finally the day.  The weekend of the pirate festival is here!  I have been on the festival website a number of times to figure out the timing of everything since today was the only day we could go.  Tomorrow we have a soccer tournament all day and Sunday is well, Sunday.  Not pirate day.

Gan is about 25 minutes away.  Activities were to be underway at noon.  We arrived with uncommon promptness at 11:50am.  Who are we?

Unfortunately, in all of my perusing of the website, I did not notice (and I still believe it was not listed) a price for this event.  I saw prices for the boat cruises, which we weren't planning on doing, but nothing for the festival itself.  We were pretty shocked upon arrival to find out it was $10 per adult and $5 per kid.  Logan was free.  $30.  It was an all weekend pass that allowed you to get into all the shows and music performances, etc, but if you're only coming for 2 hours for your kids to play in the kid zone, then $30 is pretty steep.  It almost put a damper on our day.

We walked the area for a while.  Checked out the lighthouse, and then decided to talk with the girls at the desk.  Tyler explained that we were only staying for 2 hours and just wanted to do the fun kids games.  Could we just pay for admission for the kids?  They agreed.  Phew!  I did not want to deal with that disappointment on the way home.  (Mine).

The kids had a great time.  Hanging in the gallows:

Pirate activities, which included throwing a ball through a pirate shark's mouth, golf (very pirate-y), digging for treasure

Throwing a ball through a pirate parrots board, carrying an eye on a spoon while wearing a patch, digging out the letters to spell pirate in a bucket, and walking the plank.

The kids also got balloon-things (not animals - a sword, a flower and a hat), had a picnic lunch and checked out the cannons.

Oh, and we did get a picture with Captain Jack!

Then we sat and listened to Cap'n Tor play some music which included 'Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for me', 'Follow the Leader' (from Peter Pan) and some other tunes we didn't know.

Then they asked for one of the kids to volunteer their mother to help with something.  My kids were kind enough to volunteer me.

The kids took turns throwing a ball at a picture of 'Island Mama'.  Every time the velcro ball stuck to the picture, I would have to put on that article of costume.  Until I was dressed like 'Island Mama'.  Then they handed out drums and I danced a shook around with all the kids.  It's a good thing I'm such a good sport.

It was pretty fun...and crazy hot under that costume!

Now we're home and ready to relax a bit before going for dinner at our friend's house for Elder Goodman's birthday and then I'm off to a RS Pool Party tonight while Tyler and the kids play in the pool at Hales house.  It's a pretty full day, but that's how we like it, since we're counting down the days for Grandma and Bumpa and Alison and the kids to get here.  The fuller the better.

I should probably clean my house a bit.  Another day.

Oh, and the day started off on a great note...with Logan going poo on the potty!  He got a sucker for his good work.  I can see the light!

Here's Hoping!

Today, we drove downtown to drop off the paper copy of Tyler's CV at Queen's campus.  He's applying for a Tenure track position at Queen's for a Biostatistician.  We're pretty stoked about it.  We took the opportunity to walk the campus a bit.

Why is it when I want to take pictures of my kids they won't cooperate, but when I'm not planning on taking any pictures, they pose like crazy?  Every 10 feet.

 Right across from where Tyler's office would potentially be is the Faculty of Religious Studies Theology Hall.  Maybe one day Tyler will be working right across campus from where I will be going to school.  That'd be pretty neat.

 We let Lucy have the camera for a while.  There were many pictures of flowers.