Avery's Christmas gift comes alive.

Last Christmas Cameron had given Avery an Ant Farm. She loved it. With the farm came a coupon to mail in for the ants but unfortunately the ants could not be shipped out until the warmer weather. Well guess what arrived in the mail today!?........A plastic test tube full of ants. Unfortunately only about six of the twenty ants arrived alive but Avery was ecstatic none the less. She has yet to come up with names for her newest creepy crawly friends but I have no doubt that soon enough she will.

Farewell to a fantastic weekend.

This past long weekend our town celebrated a reunion that happens every ten years. It was huge and the list of activities went on and on. Nana came up for the weekend so Mike and I could enjoy some of the night time festivities. The biggest event of the weekend was the Sunday night "shirtail parade". Now this being our 'first' we didn't really know what to expect. We very quickly discovered that it was an anything goes parade...literally. Mike and I were both wearing...clothes...and we were VERY overdressed. People were giving us a hard time because we were dressed. It was crazy. Most of the outfits consisted of duct tape, string and beer boxes. Yes, you can only imagine how many bare butts I saw that night. People were dragging wagons with coolers filled with their nights supply of beverages, some were even pushing baby strollers filled with refreshments. Fireworks were being let off all around us. There were thousands of people there. It was so much fun. The next time this reunion happens Cameron will be 19 and I am sure he will be participating in the weekend events....how scary is that.

Here are some 'family' pictures of the weekend.

Stunt man Cam breaking all the rules. It just looked like too much fun so what the hell...me and Avery decided to join in. This was Avery's first ever jump off the pier.
Avery and Isaac enjoy a ride together.....although I don't think daddy enjoyed pushing to much.

Hangin' out at the beach.

Hangin' out.

Just us hangin' out.

Campin' out.

Cam and Avery camped out in the fort last night. It was pretty exciting. Daddy slept in the tent just to make sure the rugrats were safe.

Our Massassauga trip.

Well The Massassauga is absolutely breath taking....more beautiful then Algonquin I would have to say. We will definitely venture there again but next time we will wait till later in the summer...the black flies and mosquitoes were wicked. Poor Isaac...the bugs LOVED him.

Isaac having a snooze in the canoe. Me and my boys.

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I did! I completed the 2008 Kincardine Womens Triathlon/Duathlon ( I did the duathlon part ...run-bike-run...I sink in water). I placed 55th out of 100 duathlon participants with a finishing time of 1hr 6min 8sec. This is the first time I have ever done anything like this so I'm pretty proud of myself. My goal was to 'complete' the race and since I have been fighting a cough for the last two weeks I wasn't feeling too optimistic about the whole thing...but I did it and didn't do too shabby either!!!!
Mike and the kids were at every transition point and at the finishing line cheering me on. Our neighbors came out to support me too. What a great feeling.
When you cross the finishing line you are given a medal....everyone gets one...but Cameron thought because I got a medal I won the race. Well I am proud to say that I did win, I won for me. And it was a good experience for the kids to see the end result of all my hard work.

This pic was taken just after I completed. Notice I am wearing my "winning" medal.
The most amazing part of the whole day was being able to cheer on the final athlete while crossing the finish line. She was 78 years old and completed the race in just over 2hrs!!!!! The crowd was going crazy cheering her on, I can't even begin do describe how amazing it was.

Algonquin, Mosquitos and a Moose

We just returned from a week long camping trip to Algonquin Park. We had terrific weather, great fishing and tons of bugs. We got to see a moose up close (it was my very first moose sighting ever)!!

The moose! The first catch of the week.

Isaac's first encounter with a big, bad chipmunk. The kids name him Oscar.

My fishermen and girl.

Isaac on his first ever canoe trip!!

Cameron waiting patiently for Oscar.

Avery just being beautiful.

Isaac's first steps.

Those precious moments that moms love to share with the world.

Happy Canada Day!!!!!

Make that two teeth!!

One on the top we discovered this morning and one on the bottom that showed up this afternoon.