After a hectic final week of school and painting, I hastened to clean the house, pack, and drive off to Saskatoon on Friday, June 30th, after work. Thankfully my sister Elaine and her family put me up for the night, and even drove me to the airport at 3:30am on Canada Day. Yikes.

The flight was good. I mean, I haven't flown sans children in a long time. Thankfully there was another baby crying for most of the flight, lest I feel lost without the comforting sound. I then got picked up by Becca's brother Ben and whisked away up north to the Combermere/Barry's Bay region to spend a week at a cabin with my family and in-laws. Whisked isn't the best term actually to describe a normally 4 hour drive. This is Ontario. And it was Canada's 150th Birthday. Highway 401 became a parking lot. Peterborough became a mess of road construction and parades (seriously, who throws a parade in the middle of the day on July 1st anyway?). The final stretch of road became a practice in the virtue of patience. Finally I arrived! It was beyond a relief to see Becca and the kids again. And thus our week began.

I offer you a few pictures of what we were up to this past week. Note that I snapped these quickly with our iPod. I don't really have any pictures of the Mombourquette side seeing as there was a real camera being used for that (Becca will I'm sure add some pics later). And I obviously didn't take a picture of everything I did, or everyone I met. Nevertheless, here's a snapshot of our week:

After arriving Saturday we got up early and went to the 8am Mass at St. Hedwig's in Barry's Bay. Fr. Hattie and Fr. Shalla were there. How comforting. Afterwards I took the fam out for one of my all-time favourite post-Mass endeavours, brunch at The Ashgrove.

Becca mops her brow after a hectic few days. Finally time to relax.

Meanwhile Joseph stole the show by putting together his plate and forming a breakfast sandwich. Bonus points for adding the mini-Canadian flag to make it a Canadian Club. Never mind the fact that he later told me he found the flag on the ground in the parking lot.

And life at the lake (or river in this case) begins. There was plenty of time for canoeing, kayaking, and swimming.

A game called washers. It uses washers.

 Joseph telling John Paul what to do, as usual. John Paul ignoring Joseph, as usual.

 John Paul telling his cousin Oliver what to do. I'm not sure if Oliver is listening.

We took a day trip to spend more time in Barry's Bay. I really wanted to show the boys around.

Picnic.

 Lake Kaminiskeg. In the back is Mask Island where I used to live.

 Always happy.

 They put up an outdoor elliptical. So now people can strap on a baby carrier and work out in public while looking in the opposite direction of the lake, as Becca demonstrates here.

 What the heck! Barry's Bay has a Timmies!

Visiting Our Lady.

Well this is cute. This is the exact spot where Becca and I first met (and fell in love... cough). We were doing a reenactment of the scene, but all these kids kept getting in the way. I guess it was meant to be.

And here is the exact spot where we got married. The boys loved that! 

They wanted to stand on the spot. 

The Academy. Wait!!!! No!!! As we were reminded several times throughout the week, it is now Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College.

I just love this church to death. I want to take it with me wherever I go. But it belongs to Barry's Bay. 

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, our nightly routine involved showers and scrubbing to get sand and blood (bugs were bad) off of the kids).

On Wednesday we had some distinguished guests join us. Three members of the Platt family as well as OLSWA legend John Paul Meenan.

John Paul meets John Paul. The boys loved him!

On Thursday we visited with more friends from our school days. The Craines and Zylstras. Just like that there were 10 little kids around. That's the Catholic biological solution. Liberals die out. We take over. It was almost shocking to me to see other families trying to live the faith out like we are. We're not alone!

On Friday we packed up and left for the Toronto airport. Yes, a very important moment in the lives of me and the boys occurred. We passed a sign pointing to Bobcaygeon. You know, where the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time.

We had a somewhat terrifying drive on the 401. I'll leave it at that. Here's the ride.

 "I would walk 500 miles..." just to get to our gate.

 And look who was there! Uncle Stephen! He was busy watching a boxing match on Youtube. I don't remember what it was like to be single and not be chasing kids all around.

 We cut across and got some food at a classy little bar and grill while waiting for our plane. John Paul spilled water all over. Joseph goofed around. We know how to make a scene.

Now that's beautiful! And Emilie doesn't look too bad either. 

Seriously, what is this thing supposed to be? 

Flying home. What a loooooong day. Thankfully my sister Elaine picked us up and let us stay the night again. We then Latin Massed it up on Sunday morning (and confession too! I love how they do that). Then we headed down for the last leg of our journey. The best part of any trip is still coming home! We just gazed at our little house and yard very proudly. It's definitely home!

Oh and I surprised the boys with some new squirt guns and golf clubs.

It's great to be home indeed! Now I must get some sleep.

Vacation, Part 1

Whew! What a whirlwind! It's now past mid-July and we've been away from home for much of the last 3 weeks. We're trying to get back into a semi-normal-with-Daddy-home-all-day kind of living. Joseph is currently suffering immensely from not having numerous aunts and uncles or grandparents at his beck-and-call, but we're hoping this stage of tearful living ends soon so we can have our usual happy boy back.

So, Ontario. We thought the weather was hotter than heck when we were there, but as it turns out they've been dealing with an even warmer heat wave this week. Although my Dad was bemoaning the almost daily rain showers we had during our visit, I was thankful for the break from the heat and humidity that the rain sometimes offered.

Although we stuck around the home-base most of our visit, we took a short day-trip to Niagara Falls. Joseph was hugely impressed! His jaw-dropped exclamation: "Big l'eau." He immediately asked to take off his shoes and lifted his legs up to climb over the barrier and into the falls. We gave him the iron grip. And placated him with Timmy's lemonade.

No matter how many times we visit the falls, they never cease to stun us. To watch that much water crash over such a height is always and ever so impressive. Joseph was also thrilled by the little, muddy puddles made by the mist coming from the falls. We caught him most of the time before he stomped in them, but not every time.

Like I said, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the Mombo residence. Summer is a great season to spend around there, with no shortage of things to occupy a little boy's attention. Joseph spent the vast majority of his time wet and playing in or with water. His usual apparel varied from no clothing at all to a bathing suit and tank or just shorts. Diapers were always optional and yet somehow we used up almost all the diapers we brought.

The hose and/or a little baby bathtub were his favourite pastimes. Despite this great love for water, Joseph was not overly impressed by the pool. Neither was his Daddy. Just too cold. I swear it used to be warmer when we were kids. We spent hours upon hours in there. Granted, now the trees surrounding the greenhouse are taller and block the sun more... but I swear it used to be a lot warmer. Nevertheless, we still jumped in and out quickly to cool ourselves off -- especially as there was no working air conditioning. 

Re: pool pictures -- he might look happy, but this was the Joseph's one time in the pool and it lasted about 40 seconds, just enough time for 2 pictures.

We spent a bunch of time on the pond too -- paddling around looking for fish and turtles. Of course, Joseph wanted to paddle and we heard a continuous "I sorry" as he took our paddles away from us, pushing our hands back too. The iron grip had to be employed here as well, as he was liable to lean right over to get a closer look. Despite my best efforts, Joseph would not be taught to paddle forwards, but insisted on paddling backwards and Dan had quite the time maneuvering our canoe. 

A month or two back we happened to be watching "You Gotta Eat Here" when they showed a place not far from my parents'. Being that it's called The Burger Barn -- and you know how much we like our burgers -- we had to visit and check it out. We didn't realize it was on the Six Nations Reserve at the time, which incidentally means they can't serve alcohol for some reason, but it's a great little place. We were definitely impressed. And besides the burgers, they had some amazing bottled Root Beer -- which I can't remember the name of -- that we just loved!

Joseph had such a blast every day that he was oh-so-sorry to see bedtime come. Each night he'd lay in bed with me asking whether everyone else was going to sleep too. "Ben?" "Yes, Uncle Ben is going to sleep." "Blaise?" "Yes, Uncle Blaise is going to sleep." And so on... through the list at least twice. He wasn't ready to sleep until he was sure everyone else wasn't staying up having fun without him. And no wonder.

And so, our 10 day vacation came to an end rather quickly. Everyone was sad to see us go... or rather, saddest to see Joseph go. He's a lot of fun, for a two-and-a-half-foot monster so I can't blame them!