If only “J” and I did not have this mid-western cold. It sure slowed us down. It has been so long since I have had a cold that I forgot how much it can suck the life right out of you. My head is full and my voice still crackly, so I was taking more frequent rests this weekend than I should have.
We managed to get the pool up and running. We decided to get a bigger pool this year for more swimming enjoyment and fun. Four summers ago, we got one of those semi-inflatable pools. It was 12′ around by 2.5′ tall. It was the best $150 we ever spent. Especially the summer I was pregnant with “J”. I just floated the last two months of my pregnancy away. We opted for a bigger (15’x4′) steel frame design this year. We were able to catch one on sale. It took three of us (four if you count “J”) and about three hours to put it all together. Then, it took two hoses and seven hours of running water to fill it. It was cold, but we went in anyway! “J” has a special suit with built in floatation in it, but he decided to sit it out on the ladder. Which is closer than he got all last summer. I imagine we will be having a summer full of swimming fun, I can hardly wait already.
In other news, it only took “J” until after lunch on Saturday to start going down the slide again. It is a very fast slide, but with a little coaching he was flying down in no time. Each time he is ready to go down he yells, “Look out below!”. Something I thought would be good when “J2” is here with him and of course for the poor dogs who thought it would be fun to lie at the bottom of the slide.
We aparently over did it outside this weekend as “J” had some heat stroke last night. He wouldn’t eat his supper and was quite shaky, sweaty for a bit. Then, well, he was sick… all over me… and he felt much better. He is back to his usual self this morning, eating his “Cheerios” and running around, so all is right in his world. I will have to remember that just because we can stay outside all day long, doesn’t mean that “J” can, even with all the sunscreen, hats, juice, shade from the umbrella, etc….
Hope you all enjoyed such a wonderful weekend!
We arrived home very late on Wednesday night. We awoke on Thursday morning to the biggest playfort you have ever seen!!! Hubby worked on it all weekend, in the rain, and it is loved by “J” and “J2”. However, on the second slide down “J2” did not see that his cousin was standing close to the bottom. As he got to the bottom of the slide he hit “J”, whom then flipped foward sinking his rather sharp two front teeth into “J2″‘s forehead. The blood was gushing, the tears were flowing, and two stitches later neither boy will go down the slide again. “J” keeps saying that it is too big for him. Well, in time I suppose.
Our plane ride home was rather uneventful, except that we did not have tv’s again from Calgary to Ottawa. And “J” did not sleep despite the time of day/night. But, all in all he is a great traveller. He kept saying all the way home that he missed his cousins and Auntie, which of course would bring me to tears throughout our 7 1/4 hour trip home. The poor flight attendants, probobly thought something terrible had happened, but no, I was just missing my Sis already.
We brought the good weather with us (yes, you are all welcome) and some nasty colds. “J” had picked up his cousins cold the third day we were there, but I did not get it until we were on our way home. And of course today is even worse than yesterday, so we will be hanging out close to home for a bit, as we don’t want to be sharing this nastiness with anybody.
So far, the hardest part about being home is that “J” now thinks we can hop on a plane anytime we want and go for a visit. And considering that we live right under the flight path, you can just imagine how many times he has asked to go back on the plane to play. Hopefully we will be able to go a little more often, but for now we have to wait for Christmas for another visit. Poor “J” doesn’t realize that Christmas is a little more than a few days away.
The weekend passed quickly and we are left with only two and a half days of our vacation. Hubby is missing us terribly at home and although we are missing him too, it is easier to be distracted with four kids and two adults trying to fill every waking moment with fun.
The kids are having a great time. With only minor disagreements, mostly due to tiredness and a cold they all have, they are all generally happy kidlets.
We attempted a movie day yesterday. We went to see “Over the Hedge“. “J” faired better than his two older cousins. There is a moment with a bear that appears scarey, but is over quickly. “J” never watches a movie all the way through the first time anyway, so I was surprised that he made it through a whole hour. We will have to go back to watch the rest when we are back home, possibly with “J2”. I am anxious to see the ending too! I will say that for the hour that I saw it was well done and quite cute.
We also went to Church yesterday. I was looking forward to seeing and attending my Sister’s Church, but unfortunately my Sis had signed up for nursery duty and her first time was yesterday. So, I got to be her helper as the other lady didn’t show up. We did get to attend the beginning worship with the band and “J” was dancing away as the band had quite a similar sound to “U2“. It was also quite neat as many people were looking at me funny like, aren’t you the Sister that used to live here? Me and my youngest sister are often mistaken for twins, only she is skinnier and has less wrinkles. Then there were the people that could hear my voice but not see me and thought I was my older sister. It was quite fun.
I haven’t spent a full week with my Sister for many, many years and it is quite amazing to hear both of us together as not only do we sound almost exactly the same, but we say the same sayings, talk to our kids the same way and have pretty much the same laugh. It has been really cool to be here. Not sure what we have in store for this holiday Monday, but am sure that it will pack lots of fun and include some more tour of the city!
**note: tried to add more photos, but had no luck, hopefully tomorrow.
