Mileage

When all was said and done, and we'd pulled into our driveway at the end of our Canada trip, we'd driven over 1,800 miles! That's nearly 3,000 kilometres, folks. That means we drove around quite a bit in the Great White North.

Taking a Break From Driving

Here is our little guy getting a much needed break from the car seat. He was so ready to be done. This particular stop was in Flatwoods, WV. We got out, walked through a book store, played in the grass, and even sent Andrew into the Amish bulk food store to buy chocolate covered pretzels. Yum. I will not admit to how many of them I consumed by stealth next to Luke in the back seat. He's getting too old to sneak much of anything around him. I somehow convinced him that he should eat Crispix while I had pretzels. Yummy.


I think he looks a little disoriented here. Kinda like he'd been in a car for 10 hours. Oh wait...



We had some fun with bubbles. What a great thing to bring along on a trip! I had planned to use them in the car for when we needed a distraction, but that was before I remembered that we don't have AC. Wind whipping through the windows did not support active bubble blowing. :)


Lukey and Mommy getting ready to get back in the car for the final stretch. What a long day! We left Andrew's parents house around 4:30 in the morning and got home around 6:30 that evening. All things considered, a pretty good days travel.

Driving Home From Canada

Luke did so well in the car, really. It was long, it was exhausting, and it was hot, but it could have been so much worse. On our way up to Canada he did super well, and he did pretty well on the way home. It felt longer cause we were all exhausted from the festivities of the week. But here a few shots and videos of the happy times... Okay, these were taken right after a freak out session and I was trying to find something to make him laugh with. Sometimes it is crazy what kids think is funny.


Also, the car seat freak in me has to state that the car seat strap covers on his straps have since been removed cause I learned that they aren't considered safe unless they came with the seat and have been tested with the seat. It's funny the things you become passionate about in random ways. But we are now quite passionate about car seat safety! We're planning to keep Luke rear facing up to the limit of his seat and I have learned how to install it properly. Okay, end rant, and back to the blog!


I have no idea what is up with this picture... I'm pretty sure he's yelling "NACK!" while still chewing the previous animal cracker. No one who's met this kid would believe that, though...





Aunt Sue gave us a frisbee type thing that she got at the zoo and it turned out to be a lifesaver on the way home. Twisting it up and then letting it go equals big fun (and probably unsafe conditions for the driver... who was just talking about car seat safety???) for little boys.




And this is where Lukey learned to do it for himself. Sort of. :)

What happens when you disobey?

You get sent to the dog crate! Not really, but all week we'd been keeping Luke out of Waldo's crate, and this is the one and only time he managed to get in. He thought it was pretty cool.




I'd have closed the door, but I didn't want to scare him or get him covered in hair from Waldo's blanket. :) He had a good time, as long as the Wuh Wuh was in the crate.

Lukey Talks with Grandpa!

Can I just say... Luke was so sweet with Andrew's dad. He loved being silly with him and came up with his own version of sign language to communicate with his grandpa. It was so fun to see him run up and sign to grandpa and then run off. I tried all week to get a good video, mostly to no avail. But this one show a little of his signing skills. :) His sign vocabulary is increasing daily and I can't wait until he can talk with grandpa "for real."

Christian Chicken and a Five Pin Match

While we were in Canada Gramma and Grandpa Mack watched the kid for us so that we could go out to goof off for a bit. We went out to lunch at Swiss Chalet and then off to bowl a few games of five pin. We won't talk about who won, cause we don't want to embarrass anyone.



Here we are at our table. I like Swiss Chalet. I had it first when we were engaged, I think, or nearly so. It vaguely reminds me of Chicken Jose's in Puerto Rico.


Here's a shot of Andrew's Shirley Temple, which he was oddly excited to get. I guess it reminded him of his childhood. :)


don't you think the ball brought out the colour in my eyes? Or, at least my shirt...


Showing me how it's done.


Just being silly.


Oops! I'm pretty sure it's a good thing you can't see where the ball ended up!

We had a really good time. We had hoped to go to Wonderland but it was just too much to work in with Luke being as young as he is. But we had a lovely afternoon together.

Andrew and Nana

I tried in vain to get enough pictures with Andrew's parents and grandparents while we were in Canada. I hate it that I never seem to get enough pictures. I will have to try better next time!




Here is a quick picture of Andrew with Nana. It was so good to see her and Papa!




And here is where I tried to get a picture with Luke, but he was NOT interested. At least he has a smile on his face in this one... while he is trying to climb down and run! There was far too much to do and see to sit still for a picture!

Train Ride!

So the Peterborough Zoo has an adorable little train that takes you for a ride through a forest where you're supposed to find the lost animals that the zoo keeper lost... I hate that I didn't get any pictures of the actual engine. This is the same train ride (for a dollar more, now) that Andrew and I went on the day after we got engaged.



I think the train was just pulling into the station. I love the look on Luke's face!



Mommy and Luke on the train. It was a little cramped (hey, I think it was made for smaller passengers!) but so fun.



Family picture! Taken by Uncle Luke who was behind us with Aunt Helena.

This was the last thing we did at the zoo. It was a grand finale, in my opinion. We were gonna stop at the splash park, but we were running behind. So much to do and see at the zoo! It was so nice to get to spend the morning with family and friends.

P'bo Zoo

Here are some more shots of our trip to the Peterborough Zoo. Luke had such a good time with his cousins and aunts and uncles. It was a really good (but LONG) day.

This is in front of a cute little fountain... Andrew gave me a penny to throw in and make a wish! Poor Luke was almost asleep by this point.



Here is Luke with GrammaMack. He enjoyed looking at the goats etc., with her!




I love this picture of Luke. He was so enthralled with all there was to see.


He enjoyed climbing around on things. His expressions made me laugh!



Luke has such a happy look on his face here as he raced to look at... whatever!



Looking at the turkeys.



Luke had no shortage of cousins to help him up, or down, or feed him, or play with him, or hold his hand, or push the stroller, or... you get the idea. I had a bit of a vacation at Aunt Sue's house!



He is such a sweet boy! He had a lot of fun looking into all the enclosures (I don't think there was anything on the other side of this fence, but hey, it was awesome!). His favourite things were all the birds. Plus when the cousins got him to pat their shoulders and were then all clamouring for his attention yelling "Luke, pat me, pat me!" "No, it's my turn, pat me!" It made me laugh so hard.

All in all, we had a lovely day with family.

Lukes at the Zoo

It was lovely to be in Canada again. We saw SO many people and it was crazy busy, but it was good. I wish we could've stayed longer. Before the Peterborough family get together we headed to the Peterborough Zoo with cousins and friends. More on that will follow, eventually. But we were thrilled to be joined by Luke and Helena. It was SO good to see them again.



Here is a shot of Andrew and the Lukes on a climbing boulder.


Daddy and Lukey having a blast!


Here are the four of us. We've had a whole lot of fun with Luke and Helena over the past few years. They've proved to be really good friends and we so look forward to getting together with them. When's the next visit, guys?

A visit to Zwick's Park

One of my favourite places to go when we head to Canada each year (yes, even before we had Lukey) is Zwick's park. It is right up the road from Gramma and Grandpa's house. I can't wait for Luke to be excited about it, too! We managed to get there for a walk one morning, but poor Lukey didn't get a chance to swing or play much, because he was too ready for a nap! But, it was fun anyway. We met Uncle Matt and Cait there, and Grandpa and Gramma. It was a sweet way to spend some time.


Luke thought it was the coolest thing to hold Grandpa's hand as we walked. It wasn't so easy to push the stroller that way, but it was pretty darn cute!


Luke excited with all there was to see. You'll notice the Tim Horton's bag in Andrew's hand... :)



Learning to blow dandelion seeds everywhere with Daddy!

He couldn't quite blow hard enough, so he found another way to remove the seeds.

We enjoyed taking a bit of a stroll while catching up with family. Luke had a lot of fun running around and looking at all the dogs before we set out to walk a bit. He really likes dogs unless they look at him, or walk toward him, or breathe, or... you get the idea. But he's getting better!

Boxed In

Gloves Quack?

I've been trying to get a video of Lukey playing with this glove for a long time. This one isn't that great, but at least it's there as a little bit of proof, albeit with prompting. This poor kid. I think we've messed him up for life. Long story short is, he has a little duck puppet. Because of that, he now somehow thinks that anything that goes on your hand should quack. The first time I saw him running around quacking with Andrew's glove on his hand I nearly died laughing. And then he did it while I was stuffing the insert into his diaper. Oh my goodness, it was so funny! So he'll quack for our oven mitts (or anyone elses :)), diapers, gloves, ANYTHING. Just makes me laugh.

Birthday Fun

My birthday was at the end of July. Andrew and I went out to dinner and a movie while Mark and Jena watched Luke for us. We had SUCH a good time! I really needed a little time away and this was perfect.





Here we are in the car outside of Outback. Woo hoo!



And this is how we found our son when we arrived back at Mark and Jena's. I truly had no idea he would sleep there, and expected him to be awake when we got back. It was so sweet to walk in and find him knocked out cold. Apparently he fell asleep right around his usual bed time of seven o'clock and was still out when we got there at nine.


It's exhausting playing with cousins! Seriously. He has such a good time chasing all the kiddos usually that I'm sure he had a blast. And I was SO glad to be able to enjoy my evening with Andrew and not worry about Lukey. I think the only one who didn't have a good evening was Courage, the puppy. (Luke is scared of dogs and I think poor Courage got relegated to the front porch for most of the visit.) So thanks again, guys. We had a great time.

Also, I just realized that this post shows how far behind I am! Yikes!