I told you I would be back sooner rather than later.
For the last few weeks of summer we have been getting out and about a little - (again)
I finish work at 3pm on a Friday, so we took the kids down to the Forks for the late afternoon and dinner, They had seen the splash dash tour boats last time we were there and wanted a ride, so we decided to take them on a tour. It's only 30 minutes, but the boats are really comfortable and it's actually really interesting to see the city from a different angle. Seeing the coloured high water marks, hearing about how the floodway was built and how it has saved the city from floods on a few occasions as well as the history of the rivers and the surrounding sites and buildings was really cool. The kids loved the boat ride too as well as feeding the ducks at the end!
After the boat tour, we took a look around the Oodena Celebration circle, with its sculptures sundial and 'observatory'. Hannah really liked seeing the sculptures and running around the grass slope! Ollie just loved wandering around! Then a beer and some pizza for dinner before heading home. A really nice afternoon out that we all enjoyed. It was really nice that the kids now are able to wander around without being constantly carried or screaming to be carried. Life is finally getting a little easier.
The good weekend continued into Saturday - we took a trip out to Deer Meadow Farm, where you can pet the farm animals including sheep, goats, chickens and little horses. There is also a tractor ride through the forest to feed the Fallow Deer (and watch them poop, which makes the kids laugh), They have also just built a brand new kids' play area with climbing walls and loads of slides, plus a bouncy castle slide too! One reason to go this weekend is SunFest - a huge field of Sunflowers that you can walk through in a maze to find a viewing platform where you can look over the entire field. It's beautiful to see and on the lovely sunny afternoon, the kids loved it all. Hannah was great and loved the goats and sheep as well as letting the chickens peck her feet and Ollie decided he would have his own little adventure telling me to go my own way while he wandered off to explore the sunflower maze on his own!
Up until now, we have always done something in the morning and put the kids down for 'quiet' or 'nap' time just after lunch, So this was the first time we have actually planned to go out before lunch and let the kids enjoy a longer day out. They are knackered now but had a really good day. We gave them an extra special treat and put mattresses in the basement, where they fell asleep pretty quickly!
Sunday was the culmination of our big weekend - Our 2nd annual trip to the Prairie Dog Railway - a wonderful train journey on an old train built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, this year we were actually being pulled by the old Steam Train and had chosen the weekend of 'The Great Train Robbery'. We collected our tickets when we arrived and Ollie took charge, carrying the tickets, showing them to the conductor and even getting them clipped once on board. It's hard to believe he is still only 2 years old. He is so independent and confident.
The train ride started and as we steamed through the countryside, about 8 or 9 masked 'Bandits' rode up on horseback brandishing their six-shooters and made the train stop - Then after making sure the passengers were subdued they boarded and came through the train - collecting money from the passengers,(which actually went to a Cancer charity).
Luckily the Sheriff was on board and he rounded up the bad dudes and arrested them, walking them through the train for all to see, then we continued on our way to our stop at Grosse Isle, where the kids could pat the horses and rid the mini train as well as look around the old station and buildings. Then after Ice creams and a bit of a singsong, we got to look at the Steam engine footplate for a look at the furnace before getting back on board for our journey home. The kids were absolutely knackered by now, so we ended the weekend with a Shaun the Sheep movie and a bath before bed. It has been one hell of a full weekend, but we managed to get through it without any real breakdowns and without having to carry the kids.
During the days that followed we pretty much just mellowed out. Alana and Stef came over for a drink and a backyard fire on Monday - to celebrate their engagement. Ollie and Hannah played around the house - Ollie is especially crazy about cars at the moment so spends most of his time making car parks! We paid for a babysitter later in the week so Buffy Alena, Byron and I could have a night out at the Torque pub quiz and then we got packed up for the last weekend of the summer out at the cabin. It was a biggie though because it was Ollie's 3rd birthday and our 7th wedding anniversary!
On Sunday Susan and Jon kindly took care of the kids while Buffy and I went out for the afternoon for an enjoyable hike on a local hiking trail, before heading into Kenor for dinner and to swap our 7th anniversary (Copper) gifts. We decided to wander out onto a boat dock and time stopped when Buffy dropped her gift and it very nearly ended up at the bottom of the lake. Luckily it didn't so we could laugh about it later while we sat with a beer back on the swim dock at the cabin and enjoyed a late evening swim. We got back just after the kids went to bed and found out they had enjoyed a lovely afternoon and evening with the oldies - including getting some really professional face painting done by Grandma!
Monday was our last day, so we messed around for the morning, including swimming over to the old boat dock with the kids - the old dock has now been renamed 'Uni-Island' and may even get a slide on it for the kids sometime in the future. We packed up our stuff from the summer and somehow squeezed it all into our car for the trip back to the city. It's been a weird summer out there - The kids have had a lot of fun, and we did get to spend more time on the dock and swimming than last year but it feels a little lonely out there - There haven't been many visitors at the cabin so most of the time it's just been us and Jon and Susan. I hope next year there are more people out there. At least there may be more raccoons to play with if the ones that have suddenly appeared on the island survive the winter!
Its always sad to leave the cabin for the final time in the summer, but hopefully, Pat, Erika and Austin can get out more so the kids can play together and maybe we will be able to bring some friends along for a weekend or two, but this year it's been difficult for us to get anyone to do anything. People seem to have become not only unreliable but unwilling to plan ahead. Whether it's been to the cabin, camping or just days out we have been let down so many times by so many people recently that it's become very frustrating.
People don't seem to reach out to us to do anything together and when we reach out to them we get let down more often than not. There have been some good days with friends, but it feels like they are few and far between. When you combine that with our unusual family situation (We have half as many friends and family as most people, because I am not from here. Plus we both work from home a lot so see the kids during the day Monday to Friday too) we find ourselves hanging about with just our kids a lot more often than nearly all other parents that we know.
We are incredibly close with Ollie and Hannah, which is awesome, but spending so much time with them creates a bit more stress and frustration when we see so many other parents having 'free nights' out or having days out together with their family and friends and their kids. To put things into perspective, the afternoon that Susan and Jon gave us for our anniversary last Sunday was the first time ever we have had a weekend afternoon without the kids. Before that, we had a babysitter over for a couple of hours before or after lunch just a couple of times and Jon and Susan babysat for the evening or had the kids stay over at theirs while we had a night out.
While we were doing the short hike could feel the stress and frustration get less and less as we spent a lovely anniversary afternoon together. By the end of the evening, we felt as close to each other as we had in a couple of years. It was lovely. It's not wrong of us to wish to be able to do that a little more often and I hope we get the chance to do something similar in the future as well as get more time to spend with friends. I'm not trying to be controversial, cause arguments or blame anyone - we love our kids and we love each other, It was just nice to get the time to share those feelings with each other without thinking about kids or that we have to be home. And if somehow we can spend more time around friends without being let down so often, that would also make us feel a bit more 'adult'.
Anyway, that's enough of that - what happened this last week......
Well, back in the peg it's been full-on busy again...
Hannah started her second year at Laura Secord School - doing French immersion class in the mornings. She loves it so far and seems very happy - if a little tired. Buffy had a well-deserved night out with Meg and Brent and another night in with her musician friends, while I took the kids and stayed at Susan and Jon's empty house for the night. We had a lovely time there and took a trip south out into the countryside on Saturday, where as soon as Hannah smelled eth cow poop she exclaimed - The countryside stinks! We had already time in a park we like to visit where they can ride their bikes on a kid-sized road and this time a kind dad let them both try out his kid's electric rid on ATV!
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