Feeding the Giraffe
The boat ride
Dolphins!
The show at Marineland
Feeding the deer
Chasing the seagulls
Anderson and Joel running around
Part 3
DAY 4 - Friday
Today we had planned to go to Jungle Jam. Jungle Jam is an indoor playground. Huge slides, climbing stuff, etc. We were excited and were meeting Jen and Rich there at 9:30am. But when we pulled out we saw the employees from Jungle Jam standing outside and they informed us that the entire area had no power and that the latest word was that power wouldn`t be back on for at least a couple of hours! Darn! So we went to Plan B, changed directions and went to Froottogo Orchards! This is a really cool place that is only 15 minutes from Jen and Rich`s place. First of all they have a HUGE field that had hundreds of outdoor kids toys. A huge sandbox with tons of trucks. Dozens of riding toys. A broken tractor to play on. Slides. Swings. Huge piles of hay to jump off of. A giant corn maze. The boys had tons of fun playing with all of the toys.
After that we checked on the animals they had there. They had chickens and goats and an funny goose. The goose honked a crazy loud honk at Joel and he just about jumped out of his pants. It took us a while to calm him down. He was not a fan of that goose after that.
Then we went and picked some yummy delicious Royal Gala apples. Anderson and Joel rode in wagons and really enjoyed eating the apples!
Before we left, we had some samples of the fresh pies and baked goods they have there, and we decided to buy a pumpkin pie to have with lunch. I also bought some fresh dill pickles and homemade jams which I can`t wait to try!
We went back to Jen and Rich`s house and they made us a nice lunch of super duper delicious corn on the cob and homemade burgers. After lunch the boys went for naps. All four boys napped at the same time! It was Joel`s first nap of the trip! I think he was glad to have it! While the boys were napping, Jen and I went to Once Upon a Child which is one of my favourite stores to visit while in Southern Ontario. As usual, I got some great bargains and got both boys some Christmas presents! I was also very proud of myself because I drove there. I was nervous but I managed to drive through town and on the highway without having a heart attack!
When we got back, Joel and Anderson had just woke up and spent a few hours tormenting each other and stealing each other`s toys. They also played together nicely sometimes and enjoyed chasing each other around the house screaming at the top of their lungs! It was sort of funny because Anderson is a rough and tumble sort of boy and Joel isn’t. Anderson is used to roughhousing so he would go up to Joel and tackle him and try to wrestle with him. Joel did not like this at all! He would curl up like a turtle and cry! This happened quite a bit! But Joel did enjoy playing with Anderson`s toys! The tool set and the Car Transporter were big hits!
Before supper, Lauren and Chris joined us! We visited for a bit, then had a delicious dinner of homemade lasagne, salad and garlic bread. The boys went to bed shortly after supper and we spent a nice evening visiting! We woke up Joel and we went back to the hotel where we all went straight to bed!
DAY 5 – Saturday
Our last morning at the hotel. We woke up and we had time to head out to Mountain Equipment Co-op (the new one in Burlington) before we met Jon and Kate for lunch. We browsed around. We really didn`t need anything so we just browsed around and didn`t end up buying anything. Then we headed to Ancaster to meet Jon and Kate for breakfast. We met at a great restaurant called Coras and had a nice breakfast. Joel opened one last birthday gift! A Thomas backpack (had to have some Thomas in there), 2 books (Little Critters and Beranstain Bears) and Mr. Potato Head!
We wanted to time driving with Joel`s nap and it was a bit too early to leave so we went to Toys R Us to waste some time. We picked up a few things we needed and Joel has Trev wrapped around his finger enough to get a new McQueen toy which apparently he just `needed` since the McQueen he has doesn`t fit on the car track we got him for his birthday!
Thankfully when we left, Joel fell right asleep and slept most of the way to Andrew and Cindy`s place. When we got there, we set up playpens and unpacked the car, got dressed in our nice clothes and headed to Cindy`s parents place for a Barbeque. At 7pm, we headed to their second wedding reception (a lot larger than their first which was basically just immediate family and very close friends). Day 5 of almost no naps at all and I was really scared to see how Joel would do here when it didn`t even start until his bedtime. Joel was hyper and crazy, but he had a ton of fun. From 7pm until 8:30pm he danced and danced and danced. He was the only person on the dance floor and he just danced like a madman. It was so fun to watch! He was beside himself with tiredness, but somehow he stayed fairly happy. A few tears when it was time to get PJs on and head home and he collapsed into bed just after 9pm.
The next morning was breakfast at Cindy`s parents house and then finally the drive home. Both boys slept the whole way home!
Through all 5 days, Owen slept through a lot of it and smiled through the rest!
All in all in 5 days we did:
- Allergist appointment
- Dinner with Andrew and Cindy
- Elmvale Jungle Zoo
- Ikea
- Marineland
- Froottogo Orchard
- Tiger Direct
- Once Upon a Child
- Dinner with friends
- MEC
- Breakfast with Jon and Kate
- Toys R US
- Family BBQ
- Wedding Reception
And you know what, we somehow did it in a way that didn’t seem overwhelming or too exhausting. It was a lot of fun and most importantly I think Joel had an absolute blast! I`m sad it`s over!
I hope you enjoyed all of that because it sure took me a long time to recount our trip!
Today we had planned to go to Jungle Jam. Jungle Jam is an indoor playground. Huge slides, climbing stuff, etc. We were excited and were meeting Jen and Rich there at 9:30am. But when we pulled out we saw the employees from Jungle Jam standing outside and they informed us that the entire area had no power and that the latest word was that power wouldn`t be back on for at least a couple of hours! Darn! So we went to Plan B, changed directions and went to Froottogo Orchards! This is a really cool place that is only 15 minutes from Jen and Rich`s place. First of all they have a HUGE field that had hundreds of outdoor kids toys. A huge sandbox with tons of trucks. Dozens of riding toys. A broken tractor to play on. Slides. Swings. Huge piles of hay to jump off of. A giant corn maze. The boys had tons of fun playing with all of the toys.
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| Riding in the wagon |
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| Anderson checking things out |
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| Joel playing in the giant sand box (check out all of the toys in the background) |
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| Jen trying out the Ergo with Tait |
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| The hay piles for jumping off of |
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| Joel loved the tractor |
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| Jen pulling 3 of the 4 kids! |
After that we checked on the animals they had there. They had chickens and goats and an funny goose. The goose honked a crazy loud honk at Joel and he just about jumped out of his pants. It took us a while to calm him down. He was not a fan of that goose after that.
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| Joel looking at the chickents |
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| Anderson and the 'scary' goose! |
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| Yummy apples! |
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| One cute kid! |
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| Anderson picking apples |
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| Joel picking apples |
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| All of the delicous apples! |
Before we left, we had some samples of the fresh pies and baked goods they have there, and we decided to buy a pumpkin pie to have with lunch. I also bought some fresh dill pickles and homemade jams which I can`t wait to try!
We went back to Jen and Rich`s house and they made us a nice lunch of super duper delicious corn on the cob and homemade burgers. After lunch the boys went for naps. All four boys napped at the same time! It was Joel`s first nap of the trip! I think he was glad to have it! While the boys were napping, Jen and I went to Once Upon a Child which is one of my favourite stores to visit while in Southern Ontario. As usual, I got some great bargains and got both boys some Christmas presents! I was also very proud of myself because I drove there. I was nervous but I managed to drive through town and on the highway without having a heart attack!
When we got back, Joel and Anderson had just woke up and spent a few hours tormenting each other and stealing each other`s toys. They also played together nicely sometimes and enjoyed chasing each other around the house screaming at the top of their lungs! It was sort of funny because Anderson is a rough and tumble sort of boy and Joel isn’t. Anderson is used to roughhousing so he would go up to Joel and tackle him and try to wrestle with him. Joel did not like this at all! He would curl up like a turtle and cry! This happened quite a bit! But Joel did enjoy playing with Anderson`s toys! The tool set and the Car Transporter were big hits!
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| Taiten back at the house |
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| Playing the piano |
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| Me and Owen! |
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| Anderson and Joel wrestling |
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| Lauren playing with Anderson |
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| Homemade lasagna for supper |
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| Lauren and Trev at supper |
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| Enjoying some kid free time after all of the boys were in bed |
Our last morning at the hotel. We woke up and we had time to head out to Mountain Equipment Co-op (the new one in Burlington) before we met Jon and Kate for lunch. We browsed around. We really didn`t need anything so we just browsed around and didn`t end up buying anything. Then we headed to Ancaster to meet Jon and Kate for breakfast. We met at a great restaurant called Coras and had a nice breakfast. Joel opened one last birthday gift! A Thomas backpack (had to have some Thomas in there), 2 books (Little Critters and Beranstain Bears) and Mr. Potato Head!
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| Uncle Jonnie with his nephews |
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| Kate and Trev |
Thankfully when we left, Joel fell right asleep and slept most of the way to Andrew and Cindy`s place. When we got there, we set up playpens and unpacked the car, got dressed in our nice clothes and headed to Cindy`s parents place for a Barbeque. At 7pm, we headed to their second wedding reception (a lot larger than their first which was basically just immediate family and very close friends). Day 5 of almost no naps at all and I was really scared to see how Joel would do here when it didn`t even start until his bedtime. Joel was hyper and crazy, but he had a ton of fun. From 7pm until 8:30pm he danced and danced and danced. He was the only person on the dance floor and he just danced like a madman. It was so fun to watch! He was beside himself with tiredness, but somehow he stayed fairly happy. A few tears when it was time to get PJs on and head home and he collapsed into bed just after 9pm.
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| My boys all dressed up! |
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| Andrew and Cindy with Nancy and Dave |
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| Aunt Marj excited to finally meet Owen |
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| Joel with Andrew and Cindy |
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| The 'second' first dance |
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| Grandpa fed him cheesies to add to the overtired nuttiness |
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| Let the dancing begin! |
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| He danced with some girls |
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| He danced with Grandma |
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| He danced with Owen |
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| All that dancing sure makes a kid tired (he's not sleeping, just taking a rest)! |
The next morning was breakfast at Cindy`s parents house and then finally the drive home. Both boys slept the whole way home!
Through all 5 days, Owen slept through a lot of it and smiled through the rest!
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| Cutie Pie Owen |
All in all in 5 days we did:
- Allergist appointment
- Dinner with Andrew and Cindy
- Elmvale Jungle Zoo
- Ikea
- Marineland
- Froottogo Orchard
- Tiger Direct
- Once Upon a Child
- Dinner with friends
- MEC
- Breakfast with Jon and Kate
- Toys R US
- Family BBQ
- Wedding Reception
And you know what, we somehow did it in a way that didn’t seem overwhelming or too exhausting. It was a lot of fun and most importantly I think Joel had an absolute blast! I`m sad it`s over!
I hope you enjoyed all of that because it sure took me a long time to recount our trip!
Family Vacation - Part 2
DAY 3 – Thursday
The next morning was Marineland. This was day 3 with no nap so I was just praying that Joel would survive the day and it wouldn’t be a disaster. We headed out to Niagara Falls and arrived at the park for opening at 10am. We met our friends Jen and Rich and their kids Anderson and Taiten there. We headed in to the park and went straight to the kiddie rides.
Now I have written a few times about how Joel is scared of some funny things like bubbles, wind, random people, etc. He has actually gotten A LOT better about this in the past few months, but I was still not sure what he would think of rides. The first ride we got to Anderson was tall enough, but Joel was not (Anderson is only a few months older than Joel, but much taller). So we watched Anderson (who is absolutely fearless) and he just loved it.
The next ride was fairly tame. Little ships that didn’t go too fast or crazy. Joel was tall enough so we figured that would be a good first ride. I took him on and while we were riding, I wasn’t quite sure what Joel thought of it. He didn’t have a huge smile or anything, so I wasn’t sure. But as soon as it was done he wanted to go again!
The next in line was a ladybug roller coaster. This one actually looked pretty darn fast! I mean it was definitely a kids roller coaster, but it was pretty scary I thought. Again Joel wanted to go on, and again he absolutely loved it!
Joel went on every single one of the kiddie rides and loved every one! I was really proud of him and loved watching him have so much fun!
At 11am we went to watch the show. Joel was pretty good for the first half, but lost patience near the second half. The show was pretty good and definitely quite funny!
After the show we went for lunch. Yum!
After the park we went to see the killer wales and belugas. We saw them from the top of the tank and then we went below where you could see them from the bottom!
Then off to explore the rest of the park. We wandered around and Joel and Anderson chased seagulls for a while, while Jen changed a super duper poop explosion! They had so much fun chasing those darn seagulls! It was really great because since it was a Thursday after school was in there was barely anyone at the park. We never waited for rides. We just walked right on. We were often the only ones on the rides! Since it wasn’t so busy, Joel and Anderson could run around and we didn’t have to worry about losing them!
Then we went into the deer feeding area. Joel wasn’t so interested in feeding the deer, but he wasn’t scared of them which I was happy about!
After that we took an ice cream break!
Then we came across a really, really big ride! Anderson ran right up, and he was big enough so he hopped on! It was so big, I never even thought that Joel would be tall enough. So we sat and watched Anderson, but Joel kept saying he wanted to go on. So we checked and we were surprised to find out that Joel was tall enough. I just couldn’t believe that my little guy would go on such a big ride, but he kept saying he wanted to go and so Trevor took him on! I couldn’t see since they were up so high, so I didn’t know if he was loving it or hating it. When they got off the ride, Joel was crying. I figured he hated the ride until Trevor told me that he was crying because he didn’t want to get off! And so they went right back around and got on it again and he went again! I was shocked! After checking our videos I am really sad to see that the video I took of this ride did not turn out. Boo!
After this we saw some of the smaller attractions like the bears and the fish pond. Then we got to the giant adult roller coaster and Rich and Anderson went on it while Anderson napped in the stroller, Joel played and Jen and I fed the babies. They said the roller coaster was really fun (the largest steel roller coaster in the world!) and so they took a turn watching the kids while Jen and I went. It was pretty fun and it was nice to do something that was adult fun!
The boys were pretty tired at this point (It was probably about 3:30 pm at this point), but they still wanted to go on the rides again. So they each went on 5 or 6 more of their favourite kids rides and then it was definitely time to head back to the hotel. Joel fell asleep shortly after we left and snoozed until we got back to our hotel. We brought back pitas to our room and I think we got there around 6pm. This was Joel`s one major meltdown of the trip when we just got back to the hotel. He just started crying for no reason at all (probably because he was so tired and was woken up when we got to the hotel) and he just cried inconsolably for about 15 minutes. Some Treehouse TV and some milk managed to cheer him up and Joel had a little bit to eat before crashing for the night. Trev went out to Tiger Direct and I emailed the manager of the hotel (since we still hadn`t resolved the hotel issue). Then we watched another movie before heading to bed early ourselves.
To be continued - Fruit orchard, dinner with friends, breakfast with Jon and Kate, and Andrew and Cindy`s second wedding reception!
The next morning was Marineland. This was day 3 with no nap so I was just praying that Joel would survive the day and it wouldn’t be a disaster. We headed out to Niagara Falls and arrived at the park for opening at 10am. We met our friends Jen and Rich and their kids Anderson and Taiten there. We headed in to the park and went straight to the kiddie rides.
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| Taiten and Owen ready for Marineland |
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| Joel and Anderson running around the empty park |
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| Anderson and Jen on the bumblebee ride |
The next ride was fairly tame. Little ships that didn’t go too fast or crazy. Joel was tall enough so we figured that would be a good first ride. I took him on and while we were riding, I wasn’t quite sure what Joel thought of it. He didn’t have a huge smile or anything, so I wasn’t sure. But as soon as it was done he wanted to go again!
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| Joel really liked the ship ride! |
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| The ladybug roller coaster |
Joel went on every single one of the kiddie rides and loved every one! I was really proud of him and loved watching him have so much fun!
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| The airplane ride |
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| On the airplanes |
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| Waiting to go on again |
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| Anderson watching the dolphins before the show |
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| Joel watching the dolphins |
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| The show! |
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| More of the show |
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| Lunch time! |
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| The boys giving each other high 5s while waiting for the whale show |
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| The killer whales |
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| Baby Beluga! |
Then off to explore the rest of the park. We wandered around and Joel and Anderson chased seagulls for a while, while Jen changed a super duper poop explosion! They had so much fun chasing those darn seagulls! It was really great because since it was a Thursday after school was in there was barely anyone at the park. We never waited for rides. We just walked right on. We were often the only ones on the rides! Since it wasn’t so busy, Joel and Anderson could run around and we didn’t have to worry about losing them!
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| Anderson playing |
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| Joel running after the seagulls |
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| Anderson chasing the seagulls |
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| Jen feeding the deer |
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| Trev and Joel with the deer |
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| Anderson and Tait enjoying the ice cream! |
Then we came across a really, really big ride! Anderson ran right up, and he was big enough so he hopped on! It was so big, I never even thought that Joel would be tall enough. So we sat and watched Anderson, but Joel kept saying he wanted to go on. So we checked and we were surprised to find out that Joel was tall enough. I just couldn’t believe that my little guy would go on such a big ride, but he kept saying he wanted to go and so Trevor took him on! I couldn’t see since they were up so high, so I didn’t know if he was loving it or hating it. When they got off the ride, Joel was crying. I figured he hated the ride until Trevor told me that he was crying because he didn’t want to get off! And so they went right back around and got on it again and he went again! I was shocked! After checking our videos I am really sad to see that the video I took of this ride did not turn out. Boo!
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| Rich and Anderson ready to go |
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| And Joel wanted to go too! |
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| There they are! Way up there! |
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| Joel watching the bears |
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| The adult roller coaster! |
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| Owen enjoyed the day too! |
The boys were pretty tired at this point (It was probably about 3:30 pm at this point), but they still wanted to go on the rides again. So they each went on 5 or 6 more of their favourite kids rides and then it was definitely time to head back to the hotel. Joel fell asleep shortly after we left and snoozed until we got back to our hotel. We brought back pitas to our room and I think we got there around 6pm. This was Joel`s one major meltdown of the trip when we just got back to the hotel. He just started crying for no reason at all (probably because he was so tired and was woken up when we got to the hotel) and he just cried inconsolably for about 15 minutes. Some Treehouse TV and some milk managed to cheer him up and Joel had a little bit to eat before crashing for the night. Trev went out to Tiger Direct and I emailed the manager of the hotel (since we still hadn`t resolved the hotel issue). Then we watched another movie before heading to bed early ourselves.
To be continued - Fruit orchard, dinner with friends, breakfast with Jon and Kate, and Andrew and Cindy`s second wedding reception!
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