Where I come from

Last night, we went for a walk. My kids beg us to take them for walks. All the time. Most days we walk to the bus stop. We walk home. We walk to the bus stop at the end of the day. We walk to the park and play for an hour before dinner. We have dinner, and they're begging me to take them for a walk. We usually oblige. There's no harm in that.

So tonight we ventured to a new spot. Our street runs perpendicular to HWY 15. Across HWY 15 is a quarry. Who knew?! We did not. We were at our neighbour's house for dinner last week and they mentioned the quarry, and we were like, "Quarry? What quarry?" Yup...there's a quarry right across the street. There's no trespassing signs everywhere, but everyone goes there.

I guess it makes sense why Quarry Pond Court is called Quarry Pond Court. There's a quarry, and a pond, right at the end of our court. Funny how these things work.

We had been wondering why we had seen cars parked along HWY 15 throughout the summer and people coming up in swimming stuff, drying off. Where are they swimming? Certainly they're not walking all the way down to Lake Ontario from up here. Certainly not.

The quarry is a perfectly dug out piece of rock heaven. In the centre of rock heaven is a place where they've obviously done the most excavating of limestone. It is filled with water and looks perfectly clean, clear, and ready for swimming. That would have been an awesome discovery a little earlier in the season.

Oh well. It made for a fun adventure last night. Climbing. Throwing rocks. And a nice brisk walk.

Tyler and I also got a chance to hold hands a bit and talk while the kids crowded into the chariot for our trip home. He attended a seminar yesterday. Someone was researching happiness. How to get it. How it's measured. They did a survey to see how happy each of the participants were. He's pretty happy. (I'd say he better be!) Interesting part is, apparently sickness/health, infidelity/trusting relationship, death, divorce/marriage, financial trouble/financial gain (such as winning the lottery) does not affect happiness. It may make a person happier, or sadder, for a few months time, but the general happiness of a person is 50% genetic. Happy people are just happy. Go figure.

Well, my blood type is B+. So is my dad's. And as he has always said, "Why B negative, when you can B positive."

Guess I got good genetics. Although, winning the lottery would be nice.

HMCS Shawinigan and Summerside

Well, today was one of those days where it pays to live in Kingston. We had the great pleasure of going on a tour of a naval ship that was docked in Kingston for one day.

The Commanding Officers and ship's companies of Her Majesty's Canadian Ships (HMCS) Shawinigan and Summerside are visiting Kingston.

The ships arrived September 21 and berthed at Crawford Wharf. The ships are open to visitors Thursday, Sept. 22 from 9 a.m . - noon and 2-5 p.m and depart at 9 a.m. Friday.

The main purpose of the Great Lakes Deployment is to raise awareness among Canadians of their Navy as well as to highlight the many career opportunities in the naval service. The presence of the ship, its officers and crew will serve as a great opportunity for opening dialogue with Canadians who are unfamiliar with the Navy and would enjoy a visit to a warship.

It's not very often that you get to see a warship, let alone go on one. So we took the opportunity to take the boys for a look see. It was pretty disappointing that Lucy was in school the entire time the ship was open for tours and didn't get a chance to see.


When we got to the dock we saw the Island Queen III, which is the ship that does 3 hour tours of the Thousand Islands.

Tours were being held on the Shawinigan and we got there just in time for one to start. Fortunately, we had a lot of rain last night, which made for great puddle jumping while we waited in line.

When I told Max that there were Navy Ships in Kingston for today only he said, "You mean like Battleships?!" And he decided to bring his spotting scope to see if they thought he was a pirate.


We got to tour the Bridge and see the work-out room that they use on board to keep in shape even out at sea.


They have a flag for every letter of the alphabet, number, and symbol you could think of and the reservists have to study to learn what each flag means.

Our tour guide told us that these ships only travel at 15 knots (about 27km/hour) so they're not really fast. They're not used in battle but instead for rescue missions and to patrol fishing waters off the East Coast to ensure proper fishing procedure is being followed. No harpooning endangered animals, etc. There are 6 of these ships on the East Coast and 6 on the West Coast of Canada.

There were many cadets on board as well getting lots of training.

As we got off the boats the boys were given Navy tattoos and Key chains. It was really cool. Max loved it. What a great opportunity.



He really wanted to steer the ship, but we learned that these ships don't use a steering wheel and rudder, but instead use thrusters for more accurate control. Our tour guide told us that as the ships docked yesterday that it was quite the site to behold. They let down anchor and then did the most magnificent parallel parking job anyone has probably ever seen.

Fortunately there was an old-school steering wheel on-land that Max got to check out.


We're so proud of our Canadian Forces!

Home is like a Holiday

(pictures of my yard)


Since we moved in we've been filling our time with lazing around and enjoying the heat. We went for dinner at a friend's house on Sunday evening, along with the Elders. It was great. We're pretty used to having family around on Sunday, so it was nice to spend time with people.

The plan was to go the beach Monday morning, but the forecast wasn't great, so we hung out instead. Went to Walmart, bought laundry baskets and garbage bins. I also managed to do something to my back, so I've been a little down-and-out for the week.
We went to the park on Tuesday (there's a park within WALKING distance of my house!!) It was so hot out that we spent most of the time in the shade of a tree and then we walked home to have freezies.



Wednesday we went to Canadian Tire in the morning and bought a kiddie pool and slip'n'slide, so we could spend the entire hot hot day outside. It was great! We've been BBQing for dinner and just hanging out. The idea of the slip'n'slide was so the kids could play and I could lay down on the deck and rest my back (and hopefully get a tan), but setting up 3 kids on a slip'n'slide and kiddie pool for the first time is hardly relaxing.



I think I laid down for 20 minutes in 3 hours. Had to set up the slide, had to hook up the hose (I bought a cheap one and it's pretty short), had to blow up the kiddie pool, had to FILL the kiddie pool, get toys, bathing suits, sunscreen, lunch...Oh well. We have it now. Lucy laid in her towel for a while to warm up, and I went to join her, only to see that my towel had been stollen!







That night, we went for a walk downtown by Lake Ontario to check out the boats. We ended up spending most of our time checking out ducks instead, but it was a good time. I spent most of the time pushing Logan in the stroller because it gave me something to hang on to....it's like a walker. What an old lady I am.




Thursday morning we went to the beach. We went at about 10am because it gets way to hot (and busy) in the afternoon to be at the beach. It was gorgeous and fun. All 3 of the kids loved it.




Splashing, swimming (with new water wings), and building sand castles. We came home with sand in EVERYTHING, and big smiles on our faces.

That afternoon we spent furniture shopping...It was way to hot to be outside anymore. 41 degrees in the shade! Holy. We looked at SO many different couches, that they're all running together a bit. Oh well. We'll choose something eventually.

The funniest part of the week was on the way home from furniture shopping that evening. We had promised the kids an ice-cream cone for being so good, so we decided to stop at the McDs (kind of by our house, but a few minutes drive) to get a couple of cones. We were still in the rental car, so we decided that I would hold the cones until we got home, and then the kids could eat them. Good thinking. I didn't have the cones in my hands for even 2 minutes before they started dripping like a soft-serve shower all over me. Of course, I was trying to spare the rental car and the outrageous cleaning bill, so I just let them drip all over my shorts...Tyler quickly tossed his cone out the window on the highway, because he couldn't drive and save the dripping cone at the same time. We ended up pulling over on the highway and letting the kids suck down as much ice-cream as they could before it melted away. It was seriously ridiculous. But probably something we'll remember for a long time.

It feels a little bit like we're on vacation. We've skyped with family a few times, which is fun, but not the same. This past Sunday we didn't have any plans and so we stayed home and watched Netflicks (Beethoven - my kid's loved it), and ate chili. I felt it a little that day. I love living here. Love it. But I miss people.

Today I cleaned my house. That makes it feel a little more real. I felt a little excited about cleaning my house today. I'm sure that will pass.