Thomas the fish thank, the third

Way back in August I was walking down the road and I found a free fish tank for a beta fish. This seemed like a lovely idea and kicked off our adventures as pet owners. Thomas the fish tank was a lovely fish. He stayed at home until Monkey got bored of him, then he went to Mommy's work. Right before the Christmas holidays Monkey noticed that he was gone and asked to have him home. He came back home.

As it turns out, in the winter, those little beta tanks don't hold heat and the fish get cold. When they get cold they don't eat. When they don't eat...well, you can figure that out.

So Thomas the fish tank went belly up. On Christmas Eve. We had some tears.

Aunt Heather to the rescue. She was driving byt he fish store on her way to our house and was more than happy to pick up a fish for her little guy.

Enter Thomas the fish tank the second. Thomas the fish tank the second didn't make it long. Such a short time in fact that there are not any photos of him. He too didn't eat, he too suffered the consequences of this type of behaviour. More tears.

Heather emails over the receipt for the fish and off I go to the store to trade in my dead fish for a new fish and to ask questions about why these fish wont eat. They explained about the whole water too cold, fish don't eat thing. Then they tried to sell me all sorts of bigger tanks.

No thanks. The WBs are all set up. We have been dragging a great big fish tank and all of the accessories for the last 10 years. Dave has continually asked why this big empty tank is coming with us and never being used. I kept telling him that the day would come, the day would come. Well, the day is here.

Betas tend to live in tiny little containers. Well, not our fish. He has an entire enormous tank all to himself. And, this morning, he ate breakfast-phew!!

Beta Fish Home-Free

That is what the sign said as I walked to lunch today. It is nearing the end of the month and people are starting to get rid of their stuff as the move from one place to live to another. Sitting outside of an apartment building on my way to Coriander Thai was a dresser. On top of the dresser was a beta fish bowl, the rocks for the bowl and some beta fish food.

I immediately think of how excited Monkey will be if I get him a fish. I grab the free "home" , then I go for lunch and swing by the pet store on my way back. Now having been a foster parent with the Ottawa Humane Society, I fully understand the importance of really thinking it through when you decide to get a pet. It is not advisable to add a new cat or dog to your family on a whim. I can honestly say that I don't feel that applies to a $2 beta fish. Well, $7 by the time I bought the fish and some water de-chlorinating stuff.

I told him on the phone that I had a present for him. He pretty much frisked me when I got off of the bus! He loves his new fish. He has not decided if he is going to call him Lightening or Thomas. He even came downstairs after he went to bed tonight to double check that the fish was fed and comfortable. Heck, maybe in a couple of weeks we'll get him a puppy to raise.

Then again, likely not!!

Cottage Photos Part I - Daddy's Favourite Day

We had such a wonderful week at the cottage in Westport. It was a simple cottage with two little bedrooms, a small kitchen, an even smaller bathroom, but a beautiful spot on the lake. We spent almost all of our time outdoors and the weather was just gorgeous.
Here are some of the early shots from the week. I'll post more as this week rolls out.
Here's the dock and the view of the lake. The boat isn't there, but it spent the first hour and a half of our day out on the water exploring and chatting with the boys. Best bonding time ever.
I taught Monkey how to fish. Here's the before picture:
here's the bait that we went out and found. I taught the boys how to look for worms and 'catch' them. We caught two of them. Here's the first on the line:
and here's the after photo. He was so proud of his first catch:

Big C meanwhile was checking out the caterpillars that would fall from the trees:
By the way,after catching the first fish Big C was put in charge of watching the fish in the bucket and the worm next to it. Before I knew it Big C was telling me "Hey daddy, I fed the fish'. That's right, he'd tried to feed the fish that we caught the worm that we were going to use to catch more.What a cute kid.
We showed off Monkey's first two fish to mommy.:
and here he is releasing his catch:


We rounded off the day as I taught Monkey how to catch a baseball in a glove and throw it back, taught him how to build drip sandcastles
taught him how to skip stones on the water. There were so many moments, but that day was by far my favourite.

Crocosaurus Cove

With two boys on our hands with sunburnt arms it was wise to find an indoor activity for the day.  We'd already been eyeing up the crocodile zoo 3 doors down from the hostel and the boys were keen to make today the day we paid them a visit.

BigC was immediately taken by the barrimundi.  These are HUGE fish.  We actually ate barrimundi on our camping trip last week. During the fish talk we discovered that some of the fish here are venous.  I have given up being surprised when u hear these things.  I would like to request a list of the THINGS THAT ARE NOT VENEMOUS. I feel like this will be a nice short, easy to read list.

 The major attraction here are the crocs. They have large and small (ish) crocs and we got to see them all.

Here is a quick video of one of the big crocs getting fed and then of the boys "fishing for crocs" where they got to feed the smaller crocs.  They loved it!

 This guy was especially playful.  He spent quite a bit of time being cheeky right by the window of the theater room.

 Below you can see that he was as interested in the python demonstration as we were.  So many things that want us dead, all in the same space. *shudder*

Monkey was feeling every bit as cheeky as the crocs was!!

Monkey took a second opportunity to feed the little guys and got rewarded with a great little jumper!  It takes a bit of time, but once he got him, he really lept. Monkey was THRILLED!

The cottage

This year we returned the same fabulous set of cottages that Saje went to growing up. She made the arrangements last year when we left and the boys (and I) were looking quite forward to enjoying the spoils of her labour.
We arrived and got set up, then met the neighbours and started to settle ourselves in. We had an absolutely outstanding week.
The weather was gorgeous and quite often the water was still. This lead to many hours spent out on the water either rowing around as 'the guys' chatting about life, or with our fishing rods dropped in the water looking for fish. Thanks grandma and grandpa for the rods and reels - they were priceless. We caught lots and lots of fish, including our outing when E-Man, Charlie and Ry-ry dropped by. Here is a bit of the evidence of the fish that were caught (and soon after released).
I think almost every night we had a campfire and made s'mores. The fan favourite I think was the s'more combination that included a graham cracker on the bottom, a marshmallow, a belgian chocolate wafer , a second marshmallow and then a chocolate chip/butterscotch chip cookie on top. MMmmmmmmmm.
The grown ups read lots of books and enjoyed the shade.
The kids spent loads of time in the water thanks to their swim shoes and lessons! Also, the wind-sailing board (sans wind sail) provided countless hours of entertainment.
We've already booked next year's visit and are looking forward to another memorable week.

DPoD August 30th - Monkey shows off Thomas the FIsh

Monkey ran down the stairs eagerly this morning and wanted to show off Thomas the fish over breakfast. He and the fish have become quick friends. He fed Thomas and then blew across the water to make some ripples. They chatted a little and Monkey looked in from the top of the tank and the sides. It was really, really cute. Thank you mommy for picking this up and thinking of our little Monkey.

Big C, sensing a distraction since both mommy and daddy were watching Monkey, made a break for mommy's breakfast. Way to think on your feet little guy!

Grandma and Grandpa W come up for a visit!

Grandma and grandpa W are in town this week after a wonderful voyage up here on the VIA train. The boys have been over the moon with excitement and having a wonderful time with them. On Monday we settled in and just hung out for the afternoon. Then the boys picked their reading partners for bedtime stories and were off to bed.
On Tuesday grandma W noticed that the fish tank that mommy had brought home was empty and she wanted to do something about that. After going to Walmart and being told that they no longer carry fish (argh!) we headed out to Petsmart and the boys agreed on both a name and a fish. Here's the 5 th member of the WB clan - Thomas.
Tuesday night came to a close after Monkey had soccer and Big C went with mommy to the pool. They came home for some pre-bedtime reading and swapped reading buddies.
(more posts to follow as the week progresses!)

Day 11 - our journey to the Great Barrier Reef

Dave writing here.

Today was the day that I had told my wife, the day that we met, that I was going to go around the world to do. 

Little did I know that 17 years later our family of 4 would be going to see it together. 

Here we are gathered together for our 8 am departure to the Hardy reef. We were able to walk from the super cool hostel / caravan park out to the Airlie Beach port. 

 Saje was able to get a good snuggle in with Monkey up on the top deck while Big C and I kept to the inside where he felt more comfortable.

 He did perk up however when we stopped at Hamilton Island and he got an eye on all of the 'super -yachts' that are anchored here.

 On the advice of one of our many guides we decided to start our day without a line waiting for anything and headed straight for the semi-submersible boat tour. Here we are on the inside:

 We saw some amazing views of the reef from the coral to dozens of species of fish to a sea turtle were truly amazing.

 After our brief trip and our lunch,  we suited up into our stinger suits, snorkels, masks and flippers (plus a boogie board with a viewing window for BigC) to see the reef from above.

It was absolutely breathtaking.

As the fish swam around us in touching distance we could make out so many features of the reef. We could see massive  clams (Monkey's favourite), sea cucumbers that looked about 75cm long on the ocean floor,  countless fish and sea anemone  as well as hundreds of meters of the reef.
All too soon our time enjoying the reef was up and we were headed on our return journey.
As we packed up and got changed our sea turtle friend came back to wave his own goodbye.

Our full day on the water ended with a sunset return to the mainland. 

It us a day that will live in our memories for a lifetime.

NZ Day 27 and 28-Coromandel Peninsula to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga

We drove from The Coromandel Peninsula up to Paiai yesterday. It was our last long drive (and all the backsides said "yay").

We woke up and saw this momma duck with her ducklings. It's clear that people here feed them as she was willing to come very close to us. We didn't have any proper bird food so we didn't reward her bravery.

We knew that this far in to the trip we would want someone else to lead for a while. We booked in with Fuller's Great Sights to do their bus trip to Cape Reinga today and their boat cruise to the hole in the rock tomorrow.

This is the old people trip and we were good with that. So much "...and if you look to your left you will see.." perfect. We passed amazing scenery. AH-MAZE-ING. I all but started passing Dave's resume out to schools as we passed by. Sigh. 5 sleeps until we fly home. Wait, maybe I'll go back and pass out those resumes.

We are all SO EXCITED to be coming home. I'm sure that will wear off but for now we are looking forward to our family, friends, DOG, house...our lives. Having this 5 week break between leaving Australia and returning to Ottawa was a great plan (pats self on back).

We stopped for morning tea and played at the beach.  

We walked through a very old forest and saw some MASSIVE trees. Our guide let us know that these are actually just babies at 1000 years old!
 We stopped for lunch (fish and chips) and stopped at the beach. Anyone who knows BigC knows that all of this beach time was completely perfect for him.

We went to the very far north of New Zealand and got to see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. We learned a tremendous amount of Maori culture.

We went to some sand dunes on 90 Mile Beach and went sandboarding. BigC wanted to go but got a bit nervous at the top. Grandma, he loved it. Said it was better done than when you guys went.

 Monkey was like a fish in water! That kid went as many times as he could and even created a new track. I told him that he may NEVER ride a motorcycle. BigC drives luge carts and sand boards so cautiously that I'd likely give him my car keys now.

We went to 90 Mile Beach and picked clams. They were EVERYWHERE! Monkey is very excited to have some for dinner....until we explained that they would be out of the fridge for a few hours and that we didn't really feel like having a kid puking all night...

Today was awesome and exactly the right speed for us at this stage (more than 4 weeks in). Looking forward to tomorrow's boat tour.