After some time to reflect on things I feel like we had a perfect vacation. Here are some of my thoughts:
Travel - no airlines, no hassles, nothing lost or stressed over. The GPS was golden. There were no discussions of 'are you SURE we're going the right way?' as we weaved through the Adirondacks and every small town along the way
Food - oh my goodness. SJ's breakfast's in the hotel were lengendary. Two mornings of scrumptious waffles with a day of ham and cheese omelettes sandwiched in the middle. Grilled cheese and veggies for lunches. Inexpensive dinners of pizza n beer and pasta at local chain restaraurants that didn't break the bank in the slightest.
Company - the S family and their kids made things sooooo smooth. The boys each had someone to play with, there was company for the ride up there, the kids cancelled each other out in terms of their energy. It was just fantastic. Oh, and the parents were just as goofy as we are. Priceless Peter, just priceless.
Fun - the place was well designed and we had a great time. There were few drawbacks and lots of benefits. Thanks to the S family for suggesting this.
Family - we just had a great time. It was so nice to just be able to ask one of the boys 'hey, do you want to do this with daddy?' and be able to just go. Here's Big C and I waiting for our turns together on the surfing ride.
Extras - lots of packages delivered to the hotel (I forgot to take a photo of the shoe mountain that I stacked by our hotel door), duty free, cheaper gasoline, storytime by the fire at night, beer that we could buy at the Walmart (and drink by the pool). Oh, and the police dog on the way home as they were looking for partiers on St Patrick's day.
All in all it was just a fantastic trip. Here's hoping that the cottage this summer goes half as well and that future vacations are this stress-free.
Snuggling up with Big C for storytime:
Winning the race against Peter!!
Getting ready to go tube racing with Monkey:
and here's all she had to work with to come up with a Big C approved breakfast:
But Monkey didn't stop there. He enjoyed tube racing with both mommy and daddy. Here he is racing mommy.
Note: Yes I believe that Monkey won. Fun was had by all.
By far one of the favourite things that daddy and Monkey shared was the surfboard area. They had a C-shaped run of water that you had to jump off the top of and ride down on a wakeboard. You could then surf on the rushing water for as long as you could stay up. Although the camera either wasn't working or wasn't present each of the three times that Monkey went (argh) he was such a trooper. The first time he fell off after a little bit of time. The second time he did much better. He was beaming with a huge smile. So much so that the lifeguard at the bottom of the surf area said that in all her years she'd never seen anything like it. His third trip he even did a trick - moving from on his belly to getting up on his knees -without falling off. He was so proud when I mentioned to him that the next person in line asked me "Is that your son? He's really good!". I was so proud of him.
To me, this was his first trip as a 'big boy'.
I played there on Sunday when we arrived.
And Monday.
And Wednesday.
Can I go back there again soon??
There was much princess playing and casting of spells : )
Here are the photos of Monkey and I hanging the bird feeder that Annette made. Apparently when Dave adn Big C hung the other bird feeder he forgot to take photos : )
Some of our loyal followers will remember when Annette gave the boys some bird food to hang in the back yard. Apparently I forgot to post the photos of Monkey and Big C hanging the food as I can't currently find them on the blog (note to self, get caught up on blogging). Well this afternoon we pointed out to the boys (you'll notice that Big C is wearing his red sweatshirt) that the birds have been at the food. They were so excited.
He said that if you look at "Matt and Shayla's blog, we're doing okay". Good point. That post on voter turn out is not getting any more riveting.
I went in to snuggle Big C last night only to discover that he had snagged his sweatshirt from somewhere and changed in to it for sleeping : )
I went to see the caves at Aventure Lafleche last year and they were FULL OF BATS! We told Monkey about it and he wanted to go and see. When we went in the summer the bats were not in the caves. They are only there until about April when they are hibernating. So this winter Heather and I made plans to go and spend a special morning at the caves. I couldn't convince any of his friends to go. Apparently fewer little people than I thought are in to dark caves full of bats *confused look*.
Sitting right beside a bat.
Peering into the murky depths. He really didn't care about the tour information about the caves. He had already heard it this summer. He REALLY just wanted to get to the bats!
Heather coming through the tunnel.
This is the bench where we all turn off the lights and the guides tell a great story in the pitch black. It ends with everyone being told that there are porcupines under the benches and everyone freaks out. He was ready for her. Before we even turned the lights out he checked no less than a dozen times to be sure that nothing was under that bench!!
Standing in front of the ice.
BATS!!!
We had an awesome time. The best part of the whole trip?? When the bat woke up and was flying around right past our heads. HE LOVED THAT PART!
