The rest of the trip!

Friday we went to Centreville.

It was fun.  We got there at 9:30.  The park didn't open until 10:30 so we wandered around the island a bit first.  There was a really nice playground and the boys enjoyed playing there.

Joel climbing the rope bridge

Jen and I on the really fun spring-loaded teeter-totter

Joel and Anderson

We got into the park and immediately the boys started spotting rides they wanted to go on.  Joel spotted a train and didn't want to do anything else before he went on the train.  So we headed there first.  It was great because it took us on a tour of the whole place.  Joel checked out all of the rides and told us which ones he wanted to go on.

Centreville Train

Joel driving a fire truck - ding, ding, ding!

Trev and Joel in the ski-lift type gondola that gave a bird's eye view of the park

Driving a boat

And now a car

We went on some tame rides first.  Fire trucks, race cars.  Joel loved them.  Anderson of course wanted to go on the scarier rides.  So did Joel.  The difference was that Anderson wanted to on them over and over and over while Joel didn't want to go on them again once he got off.  So Joel did the roller coaster, the drop-zone type thing and the flume ride and was terrified of all of them.  For the rest of the day he was basically terrified of all of the rides (even the tame ones) because he was just nervous in general.  Check out how he spent the entire merry-go-round ride!  I tried to convince him that it wasn't a scary one, but he wasn't about to let go of me to find out.

That's Joel in the red shirt with Trev beside him.  Jen 2 seats ahead checking out how Joel is doing.  Compare Joel and Anderson!  Haha!

Okay another Joel versus Anderson.  Joel to the left of Trevor

Anderson on the very left

How Joel spent the entire merry-go-round ride

So we decided that instead of being adventurous and trying new rides since Joel was quite obviously freaked out (this is a kid who makes us hold his hand tight in an elevator because he's scared) we would go back and go on the rides again that he already knew he liked.  So we did lots more fire-trucks and race cars and train rides while Anderson went on the Ferris Wheel and the Haunted House!

This is more like it!

Owen had a fun day too!

Later in the afternoon we went to the splashpad on the island.  The boys had tons of fun chasing each other around and getting wet!

Splashpad!!

Then we took the ferry back to our van and headed to Lauren and Chis's place.  The half hour ride took an hour and a half because of traffic.  Trev and I discussed as we always do how we are so thankful to live somewhere where we never have to deal with traffic like that!

The boys were pretty wiped and they headed to bed shortly after we got there.  Lauren and Chis made us a nice dinner (which I did not get any pictures of...darn) and we caught up for a while before heading to bed.

Saturday was a beautiful, hot day.  Jen and Rich and the boys met us and we went to the Mississauga Waterfront Festival.  There were tons of booths and we enjoyed checking them out.  Joel really liked a little train they had.  We wandered around until we got so hot we couldn't stand it any more.  Then we found some shade and hung out and had some lunch and played.  We headed back to Lauren and Chis's after this and Trevor had the brillant idea of going to get a kiddie pool.  The boys had a fabulous afternoon running around the backyard splashing and screeching.  And the adults had a great time drinking mojitos and watching the kids.  We had a BBQ for dinner and our boys were in bed by 6pm.  We played some bananagrams and watched some Top Gear before heading to bed.

Joel and I on the train...he was being stubborn and refused to smile!

The crazy train that could literally turn 180 degrees around in about a 6 foot radius

All 4 boys piled onto Trevor

Fun in the back yard

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Lauren and Chis enjoying the pool too!

Sunday we drove home.  By this time EVERYONE (Trevor and I included) were absolutely exhausted.  We wanted to stop at Vaughan Mills so we left around 9:30 and shopped a bit and had lunch there before heading home.  The boys were asleep within 5 minutes of leaving and we had a very peaceful hour and a half until they both woke up.  Cue crabby kids.  Joel whined a lot of the way home and Owen screamed for a lot of it.  He was just beside himself.  If we gave him a toy he would throw it.  Snack?  Throw it.  We tried music, stories.  Nothing worked.  Finally we resigned ourselves to stopping at the French River Trading Post to regroup (even though we just really wanted to get home at that point).  Owen and Joel both calmed down and Joel was good for the rest of the drive, but as soon as we put Owen back in his carseat he screamed most of the way back again.  Sigh.  It felt very good to arrive back at home.

I had booked today off to take the boys to the Laurentian Conservation Area on a field trip with the Best Start Hub.  I was thinking that it would be a disaster since the boys were so overtired.  And again, even though you'd think that overtired kids would sleep in, it's actually the opposite.  Joel was awake at 5:38.  We did our best to convince him to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening.  We put on Treehouse in our room and convinced him to sit quietly and watch TV.  Anyways the field trip was actually pretty fun.  I caught a frog.  We had a scavenger hunt.  Joel made a leaf print.  We went for a short hike.  Both boys fell asleep within minutes of being put down for their naps.  Joel of course had a fairly short nap (an hour and a half).  Owen I woke up after over 3 hours!!

Me and Owen on the hike

I just think this is a cute picture of the boys!

Joel ready to catch a bug or frog or snake!

Check out the little toad Mommy caught!

Joel collecting items for the scavenger hunt

A lady attempted to take a picture of the 2 boys and me and the toad.  This is the best we could do!  If you look really closely, the toad is peaking out of my hands!

I even got some stuff accomplished on my day off!  While the boys napped I got the pool vaccum in, got laundry started, watered my plants outside and trimmed all of our hedges (a big job)!  Tonight I took the boys for a swim since the pool is up to about 76 degrees!  We had fun!

Tonight in the pool

Back to real life tomorrow, but only for a few days since Trevor and I leave for an adults-only trip to the James Taylor concert on Friday!  Horray!


I'm too lazy to add pictures tonight, but I'll be sure to try to get them onto Facebook tomorrow!