Camping with Cousins

Brade took a few days off of work so that we could meet his brother and family at a half-way point . . . which ended up being Sandusky, Ohio. We stayed at a campground where Duff, Rhonda and the kids could tent and we were in an "Amish" cabin beside them. The first night their tent was across the campground from us so the next morning everyone got up and helped move everything beside us - it was quite the procession - a tent, a tarp and a van!

Our first full day there we just hung out at the campground, going to the pool, playing at the playground, etc. Rhonda brought water balloons and the kids had a fun time with those too - although I'm pretty sure the dad's had fun getting in on it too.

We also saw a first out there - FIREFLIES!!! I know that we aren't the first ones to see them, but it was really cool and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. I guess we have the northern light and they have fireflies!

We caught them in a jar, but it didn't glow like they do in Disney movies - oops!

The kids loved having a bunnies at the campground and they would visit them throughout the day.

We spent a day at Cedar Point Beach, on the shore of Lake Erie - which was great! It was great to just sit and hang out while the kids (and dads) played in the water. It was shallow so we didn't have to worry about anything and they enjoyed jumping into the waves that would splash up.

The dads and kids playing in the water while Ezra and Rhonda watch from the beach.

Eli, Navia and Ezra

Ezra, Kaleb, Navia, Thad, Eli, Solomon, Emma

The Bailey Grandbabies with a special message for Grampa . . . we love you Grampa!

The next day we had a busy one - we left in the morning for the African Safari Wildlife Park.

The park starts out in a drive-thru - where you are given food for the animals and you drive through the park and feed them through your windows. There are some rules though and a big one is that once you've opened your window you can't close it when the animals heads are there. Simple enough . . . or so you'd think! As soon as you open your window you have a bunch of animals heads in your van trying to take all the food at once with three kids (and a mom) yelling for dad to move, but he can't because he'd hit an animal - yikes!!! We learned our lesson in the first 5 minutes and no, I don't have any pictures because I was trying to get away from the deer, elk, etc that were trying to come into our van!!!

The kids had fun feeding the giraffe carrots, although I didn't appreciate how his neck allowed him to reach into my side of the van!

As we were driving we had to stop because this guy didn't want us to pass. We slowly creeped ahead while he started moving towards us . . . the kids were screaming because they thought that daddy would lose the fight, but the guy moved over - a bit - and we heard the bump and scraping of his horns on our van - poor van!

When we looked back we saw that Duff's van was having a similar experience . . .

First the show down . . .

Then the moving ahead . . .

Then the bumps of the horns!!!

They also had a walk-through that the kids saw a bunch of different monkeys, kangaroo and other African animals.

The kids also were able to get free camel rides, which of course they enjoyed!!!

Navia in the front

Kaleb and Emma

Then in the afternoon we went to Put-in Bay to just hang out. There were two parts that the kids loved - the ferry over there and our mode of transportation once over there!

The kids waiting for the ferry to arrive.

Emma on the ferry

Our transportation . . . yep - 6-man GOLF CARTS!!! The ferry dropped us off at the opposite end of the island from the town, so we rented golf carts to boot around on - and it looks like that was the main mode of transportation on the island - EVERYONE had one!!!

Braden and Emma following Duff's cart.

Emma even did some driving around the island!

It seemed that their cart had a bit more "oomph" that ours!

Backseat passengers

While on the island we did some mini-golf, a huge maze, ate $1 tacos on the deck overlooking the marina, played on the playground and off-roaded and raced golf-carts!

On the ferry ride back to the mainland there were seagulls that would follow right behind the ferry, but of course they disappeared every time I took my camera out - oh well - we remember!

On the last morning we were packed up before 8:30am and went to McDonald's for breakfast before we said good-bye and took off in opposite directions.

We had a lot of fun hanging out together and it was a great thing for the cousins to see each other again - swimming, petting bunnies, playing swords & whips, chasing fireflies, being attacked by African animals, going on the ferry, golf-carting around, making campfires and roasting marshmallows, water balloon fights, cooking outside, and everything else that they did together! Can't wait 'til next time!!!

A Week of Cousins!!!

My sister, Coralie and her family, Larry, Aaliyah, Robyn and Riley came to visit us for the week and it was great! The kids had fun playing together (only a few little disagreements here and there) and it was so nice to have a sister around to just hang out with!

You can't come to Ottawa and not go to the Parliament Buildings, and so that is just what we did! But, with Canada Day celebrations going to happen the next day the Hill was pretty busy. When we arrived the Bare Naked Ladies were doing a sound check and we heard them sing "If I Had a Million Dollars" and then we sat on the grass and had a picnic lunch before checking out the Hill.

Navia and Robyn at the Eternal Flame in the middle of Parliament Hill

The kids hugging at the Library

Larry spent a lot of time behind the video camera while on the Hill and I just HAD to take a picture of it - hehehe! Sorry Larry!!!

With six kids in tow you can't really do all the tours, but we did go up the Peace Tower and see the Memorial Room - which they kids did really well with.

Robyn and Kaleb checking out the view from on top of the Peace Tower

They seem to like the view from up high!

The Spratt Family in front of the Parliament Buildings

Everyone at the Whispering Wall on the Hill

The day was a good one and the kids did really well with the walking and the waiting and just hanging out on the Hill with us.

The next day was Canada Day and it was a busy one - we started off walking to the neighborhood celebration - free bouncy castles, bouncy slide, for toddlers to big kids, free cotton candy, free magicians, free balloons, free reptile show and it was really fun for the kids.

Kaleb touching the crocodile

Aaliyah and Coralie with the turtle

Robyn having a blast on the bouncy slide

Navia running off the slide to do it all over again!

After the BBQ lunch we went home for Riley to have a sleep and after he woke up we went to Kanata to the fair and fireworks (the Hill just would have been to busy for the kids). The kids had fun on the carousel - even Riley!

Our friends and their kids met us at the Hill to watch the concert and the fireworks - which the kids just kept on oohing and aahhing.

The one thing that Larry really wanted to do was to visit the National War Museum - and although we didn't spend as much time in it with kids as we would have without kids, it was great to finally see it all.

Someone is happy to be here!

Daddy and the kids

Coralie and the kids at the craft table in the museum

Emma brought her camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING and so I just needed to take a picture of her taking her pictures - hehehe!

Emma in costume

Don't mess with this soldier boy!

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that soldiers shouldn't be this cute!

Riley is the cutest little cannon ball around!

Checking out the sub missile

The main floor is full of all the military vehicles, from motorbikes, to ambulances to food vehicles, tanks and even a plane!!!

After the Museum we went to Byward Market to eat Beavertails (yum yum), check out the market and the locks by the Parliament Buildings.

Church was cancelled on Sunday due to maintenance at the school so we decided to have a great relaxing day and we started 5 minutes away at Nicolls Island Locks . . . fishing! It was the first time that the Spratt kids had done this and they seemed to have fun - Aaliyah even caught her very first fish!!! (although I don't have it on camera I just happened to be videoing at that time and caught it all on film!!! the fish decided to make an appearance to be shown and then jumped right off the hook - but she still caught it!!!)

Kaleb sitting enjoying the day while fishing

The kids sitting on the floating dock waiting for their hooks "wormed"

Robyn taking her turn fishing on the dock

Yep - I'm thinking that they'll have to go out fishing again in Saskatchewan!!!

On the hot day we needed to do an inside, air conditioned, craft and so I had purchased pillowcases and had fabric markers so that each child could make their own personalized pillowcase.

Even Riley got into it!

Emma decided to make her a Bible themed one

Kaleb was busy with every type of drawing that he could think of

Kaleb and Navia took their cousins on their first geocaching adventure - a GPS treasure hunt. There are caches all over the world and we found a great one filled with kid sized treasure just 5 minutes from our place - actually just by the place we were fishing!

Kaleb leading the way with Aaliyah right behind

We found it stuck in the trees with camo duct tape - how cool is that!

Choosing the treasure they want to take home before we put new ones to replace them.

The kids with their finds

The last couple of days that everyone was here was hot . . . and not dry hot, but wet hot! That means that we were looking at +40 and +44 days - way toooooooo hot!!! Thank goodness for air conditioning because we spent the last couple of days at the house - doing bubbles, running through the sprinkler, jumping on a trampoline with the sprinkler underneath, slip'n'sliding, and doing the slip'n'slide under the actual slide making it a WATERSLIDE!

Oh, and I bet you didn't know that they named a street a couple blocks away from our place after Larry and Coralie . . . hmmm . . .

Oh ya . . . they truly did!!!

We took them to the airport and because they had a stroller they got to skip the line and go straight through to security! Yay! There is a little place on the second floor that you could see into the secured area and I just had to take a shot of them - unknown to them, but there they are, checking out their gate number and then they took off, back to Saskatchewan!

So this past week we went to the park, splash park, fishing, geocaching, bubble blowing, running through the sprinkler, trampolining, watersliding, picnicing, watching the locks, going on the carousel, watching fireworks, bouncy castles, eating cotton candy, going to the War Museum, Parliament Hill, Byward Market, eating Beavertails, slush run, chalk writing, scootering, playing and just hanging out!!! We loved having family here for the week and today the house is very quiet and kinda lonely . . . you guys are welcomed back anytime you want - we'll always have space for you!!! Love you lots and lots!!!