Turkey talk

Graduation day

The big day finally arrived, Isaac "graduated" from the toddler room at daycare up to the preschool room. Most of his "class" "graduated" with him. He finally gets to play with the big kid toys, including cars and trains, and go on field trips to the library on the city bus. Love the faux graduation boards they wore for their ceremony.

A sad moment, saying good-bye to Jenn, his first crush. It's OK Isaac, she's just downstairs if you ever want to snuggle...

Reaching for the top

Gabrielle finally conquers her Everest, a climbing structure at Clare Park.

All done vacation, let's go camping!

Hot on the heels of our eastern seaboard roadtrip was our annual camping trip with a big group of our friends. We basically had the time to unpack the car, wash everything, and re-pack it in time to leave. We again stayed at Bonnechere Provincial Park, which is a great campground for people who like... well... camping.

The spots are spacious and nicely located near a creek. We decided this year to share a campsite with Dan and Amanda (aka Amandan) and their kids Naya and Sawyer, as well as their dog Melanie. Their kids are very close in age to ours, so we thought it would enhance the experience if they had little buddies to share it with.

Turns out that although the sites are very spacious, so too are all our tents and camping gear. After Amandan showed up and set up camp, our site looked very much as I have always pictured Everest base camp.

Mark set up his little tent (I remember this baby from our honeymoon!) on the site, hoping the kids might decide to sleep in it. Alternatively, it could function as a play tent. Alternatively, it could function as a man nap tent. Note legs sticking out the end. Two of us, yes TWO of US slept in this little chamber of horrors for 6 weeks! Inhuman...

But I digress. So Mark got to take in some naps and Dan got to... uh, work on his knot-tying. When Dan commits to a project, he goes at it whole hog.

I got Isaac into the kayak with me - and he LOVED it! My shoulders were killing me after 20 minutes or so, but he kept egging me on "more, more!!"

Gabrielle and Naya had an awesome time together. The rest of the campsite was overrun with frog-catching boys. The girls spent an afternoon in the great outdoors drying their manicures.

Our next door neighbours were again Steph and Shannon and their son Sacha from Toronto. Steph and I decided that a great idea would be to permanently tattoo ourselves to commemorate the good times we shared at Bonnechere Provincial Park. Subtle and tasteful. 

(Translation for readers of this blog over the age of 50: BFF stands for Best Friends Forever. And no, they're not real.)

Bonjour Québec...

And so we arrived at the last stop of our road trip, Quebec City. Ahhh.... I was happy to finally breathe some city air.  I mean shop.

One of the reasons I really wanted to stop at Quebec City, other than the shopping, was because I had heard about their aquarium. I have a real soft spot for aquariums (aquaria?). I can't bear zoos, but there's something very calming for me about being surrounded by sea animals. In glass boxes, of course.

We took the free shuttle bus from our hotel that goes to the aquarium (by way of the humongous shopping mall which I did NOT get to see)... Mark and G look amazing in this shot, but why is his head eight times the size of hers? Mark must have run the shot through some crazy head shrink app.



There was a cool jellyfish exhibit at the aquarium...

A stingray pool where you could reach in and touch them as they swam by...





This guy's face was so human and he was glued up against the tank. People were photographing him like crazy, you'd have thought he was Daniel Craig.

There was a fun walrus show. Mark got this awesome shot of a big exhale.

And here's Gabrielle tiptoeing through the bullrushes...

Later that day, Mark and Isaac went exploring, checking out the canons and other war stuff that litter the old city.

While G and I went.... shopping! She loved this candy-covered bicycle. Who wouldn't? We went, of course, to Simon's - the mothership being in Quebec City. Gabrielle came into the changing room with me while I was trying on several pairs of pants. It was our first time shopping together for me but she was actually pretty helpful. I tried on a pair of jeans and asked her what she thought. She said: "how do they feel around the tummy? Are they too tight? Do you think you can sit down in them comfortably?" She basically started asking me all the questions I always ask her whenever she's the one trying on clothes. Funny hearing it all parroted back at me. Man, I'm annoying.

We really enjoyed our short, two-night stay in la belle province. Great road trip, guys! Let's do it again next year!