Yet another trip to the zoo.

We have definitely gotten our money's worth at the zoo, and our passes don't expire until February!  We all just LOVE the zoo. 

This trip we spent most of our time in Africa.  Those are the animals that Kate knows best.  This highlight of this trip though - chasing birds while we were eating lunch.  At first it was just the seagulls.

But then the peacocks came to play.

Kate was so tired after all of our fun.  She was passed out hard!

Cousins!

Friday morning I got a call from Jennifer - we're in Barrie, can we see you?  So Friday night we hopped in the car and made our way to a park in Barrie. 

Konrad had fun being buried in the sand.

Kate and Ezra are 2 months apart.  Both Konrad and Anders kept pointing out that even though Kate is older, Ezra is taller. 

I've got to say, the view from the park was lovely!  The cute boys playing doesn't hurt the view either!

It was cute to see Kate and Ezra following each other around.  Someday they'll actually play together!

We finished off the lovely picnic - thanks Jenn for feeding us, with a trip to an ice cream parlour!  YUM!  Thanks for phoning us Jakob Family, Barrie is a heck of a lot closer than Ottawa!

The Bates-es-ses

July 12-23
My sister... My sister has always loved to drive.  I remember the heated arguments that we would have when we were teenagers, over who's turn it was to drive.  She drove here, there and everywhere.  For her second car she decided that she wanted to learn how to drive stick, so she bought a 5-speed and she did.  She's driven across the country many, many times.  I'm sure her most favourite journey of all was our trip from Provo to D.C. in the December before she started the Washington Seminar program.  Why all this talk of driving, well because if my sister wasn't so fond of driving I doubt she'd ever consider putting four kids (or in this case three) in a mini-van and driving for 12 hours - she being the only driver.  My sister is brave, braver than brave and slightly crazy!  And I'm so glad that she is.

She arrived in Tottenham on the evening of the 12th with Anna, Thomas, and Joey.  (We were almost ready to receive them!)  I was so excited for her and the kiddies to come so we could just hang out.  And hang out we did - mostly in the house, because although she isn't afraid of driving, she is afraid of 100% humidity, and so am I!  And then there's the fact that I live kind of in the middle of no where and although there are a few fun things to do, they mostly involve being outside - and more driving!

Suzanne and the three kiddies spent the first week with me in Tottenham.  On Saturday, July 17th, Isaac flew from Boston to Buffalo as an unaccompanied minor and Suzanne relocated to my Mom's in Thornhill for the second week of her stay.  Over the course of her visit I sadly didn't take very many pictures.  I kept forgetting about it, which is really unlike me... However even though there were many more things that transpired, here are a few of things we did when she was here.

We played at my house.

I tried to take pictures of the girls, even if it was sometimes dangerous for Anna!

The girls watched youtube videos with Grandma.

We celebrated Thomas' 5th birthday.

We went to the park.

Other things that we did that went undocumented - play time in the inflatable pool in my backyard, going to see Toy Story 3, a visit/swim at Auntie Lizzie's, a trip to Ontario Place, Suzanne went to meet baby Siena, a trip to the distillery district, a trip to Orangeville, a trip to Alliston, a family bbq with steaks from the KEG, and a trip to the airport in Buffalo.

I'm so glad I have a sister and I'm so glad my sister is Suzanne!

Eighteen Months

The many faces of my adorable girl.  The biggest change to report - since last month, Kate is walking!  For those of you not brave enough to read the epic post about Manitoulin, Kate started walking on Canada Day on Manitoulin Island.  She is slowly converting from being a crawler to a walker.  No worries about having to run after her quite yet!

M-A-N-A-T-U-N-A!

Without time to pause, school ended Wednesday and off we went to Manitoulin Island to spend some time with Ken's parents.  I grumbled a bit about the time line of events (no time to even unpack my school bag...) but I shouldn't have.  I find the Island such a peaceful relaxing place.  We drove to Sudbury on Wednesday night and stayed at the Hampton Inn - I highly reccommend it, great hotel.

Thursday morning - Canada Day, we set off for the rest of the journey to the Island.  Before we left the hotel Kate was being super cute rolling around the bed, so I just had to take a picture.  And of course it is the only picture of us in Sudbury...

After Kate started to recover from her initial shock of being somewhere new, she had to check everything out.  Mostly this meant the riding lawn mower.

The biggest shock of them all came later that afternoon.  Kate and walking... what to say?  She has been walking holding a finger, or furniture for ages.  And for whatever reason has not wanted to let go, until Canada Day.  She decided to take her first REAL solo steps on the day of her nation's birth... how patriotic.  And most happily to me, one week shy of 18 months and a milestone that would have been missed.  She walked across the porch a few times.  I cried, Ken sort of cried and the Grandparents cheered.  After this momentous event we piled in the van and went to Providence Bay to enjoy the beach, the Canada Day concert and the fireworks.

Kate loved the concert and insisted on hanging out right in front of the stage.  She walked all over the beach and all around the small museum type exhibit of animals inside the pavillion at the beach.  She loved everything until it was time for the fireworks.  I was convinced she wouldn't like the noise, Ken was unconvinced, until the first boom and the screaming!  I rushed her over to the van - screaming, and once inside the van turned on some of her music, the lights and I started reading her stories.  So no fireworks for me, but that's okay, there will be more in the future!

The next day, the 2nd, we started off the day by visiting Ken's parents at the Farmer's Market in Gore Bay.  It was the first time I'd been to a Farmer's Market in an arena.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures.  After visiting, grabbing something to eat and going to the park we went home to nap.  In the afternoon we drove to Little Current to explore.  The town itself is very small, but we found a really fun park by the lake.  Kate had fun walking around and splashing in the water.

On the 3rd we started off the day going to visit Ken's parents at the Farmer's Market in Mindemoya.  Another Market in an arena, and I didn't take pictures there either.  Thinking back on it, I have no idea why I didn't take pictures.  We went to a fun little restaurant - Mum's Restaurant and Bakery, for breakfast, watched a two car parade and then drove to Michael's Bay.  A friend had told me that there were beautiful sandy beaches that no one went to in Michael's Bay.  We drove down and well, there was no sandy beach, but we did see yet another part of the Island that we hadn't seen before. On our way back to Ken's parent's house we stopped in M'Chigeeng at a park for Kate and there was a beautiful beach, we'll have to go swimming there another time. To finish off the day we went to dinner in Gore Bay with Ken's parents and spent some time at the park for Kate.

The next day, Sunday the 4th we went to church.  Their branch meets in a store front building in Little Current and it's the best time we've had at church in a long time.  Church was only two hours.  Kate couldn't get bored, there wasn't enough time!  I even went to Sunday School and Relief Society, something I haven't done in months.  After church we came home for a fun afternoon of hanging around the homestead.

There was tractor riding and garden visiting.

There was time spent reading books on a blanket under a tree.

More tractor riding and cow visiting.

There was hanging out on the porch.

And the best Sunday activity of them all, shed building!

Our trip came and went far too quickly!  On Monday morning we set off for South Baymouth and the Ferry.  Ken and I had never taken the ferry before, we were excited.

Ken's parents saw us off.  (The gold coloured jeep... can you see it?)

Thank you Ken and Chris for a wonderful visit!