Parry Sound departure & extra pics

Jul18

Saturday. After not having a nap yesterday, G was in bed by 7:45pm and ready to roll at 7am. The water was calm and it looked to be a beautiful day as we got out of bed! G was so excited to have Daddy at the cottage! They spent time on the dock and walked all around. G showed him how we fish off the dock, the secret blueberries, how we water the plants, and (most importantly) the sandbox.

Then we packed up lunches and headed to the Cathcart islands. Jeff took the SeaDoo and the rest of us rode in the boat. There was food, some ant stomping/ shouting, some running on the rocks, a snake spotting, and a visit from a green frog.

(G yelling at the ants.)

Back at the cottage we had a quick visit from Karen Reed and her family, then nap (for most of the kids, plus one).

Ba made chicken over the fire pit for dinner (so good!) and we had another round of roasting marshmallows for dessert. G showed dada how it’s done. There was some swinging, some sliding, a quick bath in the sink, then bed.

Sunday. More rain. Boo. G and I got up and met everyone else (the early risers) in the big cottage. There were pancakes being made and playdough creatures coming to life on the table. At about 10:15am, Jeff and I decided that today was the day we’d head home (rather then leave in the Sun on Monday and rush home for work on Tuesday). We packed everything up and left within the hour. It’s always a sad day when you leave the cottage- especially when family is still there and you haven’t had time to say your farewells to everyone.

It’s been another year of laughs and fun, memories, and time spent together. A lot can change in a year, but let’s hope that next summer brings more of the same togetherness. The Underhills will be growing by one new family member (soon)… and how fun it will be to have another little one at the cottage next year.

Now that we’re safely home after a long drive and an overnight in Burlington, VT, it’s time to get back in our old routine and baby prep… after lots of errands and laundry!

Smoothie & breakfast at home after a nice bath and haircut.

Some other pictures of our Parry Sound adventures: (waking in town.)

(Sibling love.)

(Waking through the train station.)

(Underwater at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto.)

(G taking momma for a SeaDoo ride.)

(Momma & baby bump busy hydrating as kids play on the beach.)

(More swimming with cousins!)

Aquarium and Daddy Day!

Jul14

Thursday. We awoke at 8:30 this morning to the excitement of “trucks” being out our window. You can see quite a few trucks from the 5th floor… and when you fall asleep talking about trucks (and everything else you can think of for 45 min), you wake up ready to see trucks. “Ssshhhhh!” we heard from the other wing of our hotel suite. Apparently one little girl wasn’t quite ready to get up and enjoyed snuggling with her Nana (or La la, as she says).

We ate a ‘quick’ Denny’s breakfast and jumped in the car to head back to the airport’s short-term parking. From there we hopped on the UP (train) into Union Station and walked over to Ripley’s Aquarium.

We saw jellyfish, sharks, stingrays, lobsters, eels, whale bones, horseshoe crabs, and lots of fish. The highlight of our visit was definitely the underwater causeway where fish, rays, and sharks would swim overhead.

We had lunch at a new restaurant inside the old train station, walked back over to the UP station and jumped on the train with 4 min to spare before departure. Phew! We cut it SO close that instead of buying the tickets at the station, we decided to purchase them on the train. Fortunately for us (the cute innocent looking mom’s with adorable children), the ticket collector didn’t make us purchase a ticket at all! (Or was it because we looked completely fried? Verdict is still out.)

Back at the airport we waited patiently for Daddy. Yeay Daddy!!! … and then we waited, and waited, annnd waited. There was the recommendation from one little 4yo boy that we just leave Uncle Jeff… but I’m sure he was joking; you never leave a fellow Spider-Man and Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon) fan.

Daddy finally emerged, happy to see us and ready to head to the cottage. We’re hoping that his missing checked bag will be following shortly behind… and until then, let’s hope the weather improves so the only attire we’ll need is a borrowed swimsuit.

(G was excited to see Dada, but had also grown tired of waiting. I’m sure he’ll be more playful once we get to the cottage and have had a solid nap.) Fortunatlely, the car ride was a success…

Friday. Another rainy day, but perfect for baking muffins, reading books, playing with toys, taking a trip to Art In The Park, and stopping at the library to pick up our winning basket! Graham had a phone call this morning from the librarian that he was chosen as the weekly reader in the summer reading program. Go Graham! We chose the Canadian Proud basket with a really cool hat.

…and Bears, Oh My.

Jul12

Monday. We had a rainy start to the day which meant time at our sandbox and playing in the water. G loves walking around the cottage and we’ve made it a daily activity to water plants with the garden hose. (This takes place regardless of recent rainfall and ‘watering the plants’ is a loose term we use for watering the grass, rocks, ferns, and even the ocassional passerby.) We all had lunch at the cottage then everyone, except Nana and Ba, zipped out to Palmaroy for some blueberry picking and swimming. There were only green blueberries last time we were there, but with all the rain and Sun, blueberries have popped! Even the little bushes around our cottage have produced a few small, toddler handfuls in the past couple of days. We’ve been sure to eat them up as quickly as they appear.

Palmaroy was a fun couple hours of blueberries (with two dedicated pickers and three determined eaters), some stick collecting, a centipede discovery, a catapillar sighting, and the rescue of a drowning dragonfly.

Nana and Ba met us at the island for a bite to eat; then we all left for home. G fell asleep in the boat (par for the course) and made a smooth transition into his Pack & Play for nap. Allie and I snuck out on the SeaDoo for a quick run in town. In route, we came across a momma bear swimming the channel (towards the rear side of our property) with her three cubs. I made a quick cell phone call from the SeaDoo to be sure someone was keeping a close eye on MY little sleeping bear cub. (Thanks Nana for sitting in the Little Cabin the entire time we were gone; it was nice to get back and find out that G was safely with his Nana, just incase Momma bear decided that our cottage smelled particularly attractive!)

With three dogs, three noisy children, and a timely trip to the dump to get rid of our trash today, the likelihood of seeing those bears again is slim. But we’ll be sure to keep eating up the wild blueberries, just incase.

Tuesday. Another trip to town. This time we went to drop books at the library and for their weekly activity. Today happened to be a Home Depot sponsored project: building a bug house. G did a great job with his hammering skills and everyone made awesome little bug homes. (The participating adults may have deserved a bumper sticker on the way out. Something that read: ‘I survived the noise & chaos of 25+ children using hammers on plastic tables’ would have been appropriate.)

The day improved as we headed back to the cottage. We spent time at our beach, walked around outside, did some bug hunting, and took a quick ride in Aunty Marion’s paddle boat before dinner.
Only two more days before Daddy arrives! We’re hoping he shows up with yellow squeezies. They’ve been requested quite frequently but we’ve run out! Dad will be impressed with how G’s sentences are getting longer and with his expanding vocabulary. I’m also fairly certain that he’s grown since we left on June 18th; he eats constantly and sleeps like a log. Today he had his first taste of strawberry milk… mmmm. He didn’t request more, but he did drink the whole thing.

Wednesday. Up and at ‘um! Today was the day we left Parry Sound and headed to Toronto. Uncle Randy flew out at 5pm, and then tomorrow Daddy flies in. Nana, Aunty Allie, cousins, G, and I will be staying the night and exploring the aquarium while we wait for Daddy (Jeff). It was a long car ride to the airport, but things got exciting once we checked into our hotel and started hitting the town. A trip to the indoor playground quickly turned into a nap in the car, a shopping trip to Whole Foods, dinner at Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill, and a whole lot of fun at the Chapter’s bookstore. We returned to the hotel with a few new animal toys, a whole lot of laughs, and a few wired and giggly cousins. Nothing says bedtime like three silly toddlers at a hotel sleepover. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s fun!

Leap Year?

Jul6

Hard to believe that it’s been a year since being in Parry Sound… and since my last blog posts about how G was learning to walk. Fastest. Year. Ever. Now he’s running around the Big Cabin getting into cabinets and requesting pancakes for breakfast.

We arrived on Thursday.

Friday we ran a few errands in town which included a long visit to the library for G & I. It’s a cute library! G built a fairly elaborate block sculpture completely on his own (I was impressed) and then played with trains along the train track that I had set up for him. We also signed him up for the summer reading program (since we’ll be here for 2.5 weeks). He checked out books and said hello to a few other kids that were there. We spent the rest of the day at the food store and prepping the Boat House for everyone’s arrival.

Aunty Allie, Uncle Randy, cousins, Aunty Jen and Ethan all arrived Sat. The weather has been pretty terrible since getting here; that didn’t change for them either.

Sat was Canada Day (July 1). Ba, Nana, G & I rode the boat into town in the morning to take part in the Canadian 150th year celebration. Unfortunately, the festivities were (almost) a total washout. We arrived at 11am- seconds before it started to downpour. Sheets of water blew across the bay and the after-puddles were shin deep in places throughout the parking lot at the town docks.

G was dressed up as ‘Seguin Sam’ and entered into the 18 & under costume contest. (Googling Seguin Sam won’t get you much information about who he actually was. From what I could dig up, Seguin Sam was a local trapper who wasn’t seen in the community very frequently. In the one photo online, he has longish red facial hair and wears a cap. We did the best we could.)

There was one other contestant in G’s category- an 11 month old boy who wore a similar hat and carried a toy chainsaw. We’ll find out soon who most accurately represented Sam. G wore overalls, a white t-shirt, a gray vest, and cap. He had a squirrel perched on his shoulder, some red facial hair, and a 150th star pinned on his vest with a Canadian flag. He was perfect (and adorable)!

We also had a chance to walk across the street and view a fire truck before it rushed off to, what we assume, was a fire somewhere in town.
Allie, Randy, and the kids arrived later that day. Followed closely by Ethan and Jen. It’s great to have everyone here… but we still miss dada!

Sunday seemed to be our clearing day with the wet weather. We had rain showers on and off, but the night sky was clear and the moon finally made an appearance. Ba, G, and I took the new canoe for a paddle after dinner (and saw a young rabbit along the shoreline; our first Parry Sound rabbit). G spent a significant amount of time in the sandbox today and running errands in town. We’ve picked up a wooden kids picnic table which, for $35, seems to be the perfect addition to the Big Cabin. We finally have a kids’ dining table!

Today was also ‘tent raising day’. This task requires help from everyone… although the pregnant lady doesn’t do much besides tie knots, take pictures, and keep the snakes at bay (a serious job not taken lightly).

We’ve named this guy, Waldo. ‘Where’s Waldo’ seems to suit him well. He’s at least 4 feet long and has been spotted twice in one day at various places on the property. We decided that it’s better to have him, a harmless giant, then it would be to host a Rattlesnake. So, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for Waldo each day… and hopefully with the Sun on its way, he’ll venture a little farther into the woods.

Oh…and there were smores and sliding!

Monday. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, a trip to the dump in the boat with cousins and mom and Aunty Allie, boat driving, a worm hunt so we could catch fish off the dock (twice!), castles in the sandbox, dinner with Aunty Marion and Uncle Don, smore making, swinging and sliding, and a bath in the kitchen sink… mixed with a lot of playing with cousins. AND, it was sunny.