Ottawa et Val-de-bois

Friday, August 9
Having a Science Centre pass means reciprocal deals. In Ottawa we got into the Aviation and Space Museum as well as the Canada Science and Technology Museum. We left the hotel eventually, (after laundry, swimming and breakfast, and changing rooms) and spent just over an hour at the Aviation and Space Museum. It was just enough hands on for the girls not to be completely disappointed. There were lots of planes, and now that I've been there once, I'm good!

After finishing our aviation fun, we went to lunch at Subway and then we were off to the Canada Museum of Science and Technology. We went to the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. His mind blows me away. What it would be like for him to see his inventions come to pass... crazy! There was a big display about the Mona Lisa as well. It featured pictures from a study that was done. It showed what the original painting would have looked like at the time. The display was mostly look don't touch, so the girls didn't love it. (We dropped off some sun rocks.)

Then we had fun exploring until the many Elliott boys showed up. Janelle has just barely moved. I don't even know the exact date they moved - the 17th of July maybe? Anyway Janelle and Jon are now four doors down from Sonia and Ben and their boys will grow up together, which is just magical because cousins are magical. The Science museum is great, the kids loved it and had so much fun.

We stayed until close and then we drove over to Orleans and after having a tour of Sonia's we had a yummy dinner at the Janelle and Jon Elliotts.

I am so blessed to call these women friends.

Saturday, August 10
Cabin DAY! Ken's sister Jenn, her husband Eric and the boys all live in Tokyo right now but they have their place in Val-de-bois, their beautiful cabin that Eric built. The weather forecast wasn't too promising but we were determined to make the best of it. We got there pretty early, before too many people had got there. I liked that, because then I could visit with Jenn a bit. I was actually able to visit with Jenn several times throughout the day, and talk to other people, and it was good. Laura and Joaquin were there, and lots of Jenn and Eric's friends.

The girls loved catching frogs, kayaking, canoeing, swimming, and eating yummy food! It rained, it poured, and then the sun would come out. Alice was in heaven, all of them enjoyed themselves, but my Alice, she loves nature and roaming free and she was in heaven. I'm so glad that we made the effort and the expense of going to see family. Spending time with family up at the cabin is special.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and everyone had a shower/bath and then got tucked into bed. I had to take a picture of Fiona on the counter. She is undaunted by her size. She doesn't complain when she can't reach things, she just figures it out. Her independence and tenacity are such strengths!

Sunday, August 11
Today we got up, had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and went to church with Janelle and Sonia. The sacrament meeting was so powerful and uplifting. They had a bunch of the youth speak about their experiences doing Trek. Trek is a re-enactment of the pioneers crossing the plains with handcarts. The youth walked and camped for four days, pushing a handcart for 40 kms. Their testimonies about the Savior were so uplifting. I was so glad to have been in that sacrament meeting. It gave me so much hope for the future to hear them.

After church we drove to Prescott, Ontario, we stopped and had lunch and walked around this cute little, historic town.

I should add that while we've been driving we've been listening to the "How to Train Your Dragon" books. They are so funny and so great. We all love the stories. There are movies by the same name but they couldn't be more different - the only similarity being the names of the characters.

We continued driving, we stopped for gas and a bathroom break, but we kept driving until Colborne, Ontario. We'd never taken the girls to the big apple, so we decided to stop. It's mostly just lots of hype, but it's cute, and the food was good.

We got home safely around 9:30 and after emptying the car, everyone went to bed. We had a wonderful long weekend away and everyone was happy to be home.

Bad Mom

Somtimes...

I'm not sure where to begin. Today was mostly fine. We had a big playdate this morning. Friends from church came over, the kids all played really well, I hemmed Ken's pants. I did laundry. The playdate ended, we had lunch, we cleaned up and we packed for our weekend trip to Ottawa.

Ken came home somewhere in all of that and we finally got ready and left at five. Traffic was awful. There was a huge crash in the west bound lanes past Oshawa and it was stop go until we got past the crash.

The girls were pretty awful. They were bickering so much. I just wanted to listen to my book. I wanted to completely ignore my children. Ken was driving, he'd made a new CD and I was excited about listening to the music and my book. Instead bicker, bicker, bicker.

Looking back on it now what I should have done was engage with my children. I should have led a game or a conversation or something, anything. I shouldn't have yelled and critized, but I did.

Just before we got to the 416 Fiona barfed all over herself, and just after I handed her the barf bag. We were able to pull off and clean her up and clean up the carseat, but man oh man, not fun.

We got to the hotel finally, into the room and by the time everyone got into bed it was 11. Fiona took a turn being a stinker, and again, instead of being the calm to her crazy, I met her crazy with crazy of my own. And now I've been sitting here thinking about what a bad mom I am for the last hour and a half.

I wish I would have caught myself earlier. I wish I would have taken a moment to reflect. But I didn't. I suppose I do learn from moments like these. I do want to keep getting better at this mom thing. I want to be the mom that Kate, Alice and Fiona need me to be.

Here's to hoping the rest of the weekend is better than today, and here's to hoping that I'll be a better mom tomorrow.

August 6-8

Tuesday, August 6
In July on our first get together of the summer, Michelle and I picked another date, August 6th. Michelle and Amelie came to us. We were sad to miss seeing Marisol - she was camping with friends down in Pennsylvania. We had lunch and then we walked to the beach. Michelle has been over a few times and we've always talked about going to the water, but we didn't until today. The girls had fun, and Michelle and I had a great visit as always!

After Michelle and Amelie left we got ready for a babysitter. Jaden, one of the young women in our ward came to babysit for the first time tonight. Ken and I went to KB Food for dinner. We had a nice time, and Jaden seemed to have fun too!

Wednesday, August 7
Today was another Lim-Anderson day. We went down to Emily's. We got there much later than we had intended. We were supposed to get there for lunch - we got there late, but Emily still happily made everyone lunch. The kids played and we visited, and then Dagny and Javi came over to visit too. We had a fun visit.

The girls are really enjoying their bikes and after dinner the girls wanted to go on a bike ride and Fiona desperately wanted to go to a park, so we did. It was a long ride with a few bumps, and Fiona and Ken took a very long time to make it, but make it they did. Once everyone was at the park I walked home as quickly as I could to get the van because it was going to be too dark and buggy for the return trip. We're all really excited for family bike rides, but that's probably still a year away!

Thursday, August 8
This morning Kate, Hannah and Saraliya really wanted to have a playdate. We went and picked up Saraliya, and Debbie dropped off all her kids so she could go meet with the accountant. The kids played, and I got organized. It actually all worked out really well. I should have taken a picture of all the kids, but I only took one of Liam and Fiona. The two of them play really sweetly together. Liam had lots of fun with the magnatiles.

Ken's coming home early from work today, and we're going to go to Ottawa for some fun with friends and family!

Dad's Grave

I think the weirdest thing for me is looking at my pedigree chart on Family Search. My Dad has a death date. It's no longer some far away unknown date, it's there, final, but of course, not final! Dad passed away on November 12, 2018. We had his funeral on the 17th and he was buried that day. Mom and I spoke about getting a headstone, but it never seemed to be the right time. Over March break we made time, and went up to Newmarket and picked out a headstone for Dad's grave. At some point in July it was installed.

Today the girls and I went up to the cemetery to go see the stone and go say hi to Grandpa. I know he isn't there. I know his spirit lives on, but I really liked going there and feeling connected physically to him. The headstone is really beautiful.

Mom was teary. I imagine what it's like sometimes to be without my sweetheart, but actually living it, day to day is something I don't want to know anything about for a long, long time.

I like cemeteries. I find them peaceful sacred places. I like the plot I picked because it's really easy to find. I'm glad for this space, this place.

After visiting the grave, we went to lunch at Wendy's, and then Mom came over. She and the girls watched a movie and then we had dinner. It was a quiet sort of day, and that was nice.

Adventures in Getting to Church

Anyone else have fun getting to church sometimes?! A certain six year old was being her usual belligerent pre-church self. After yelling at me on and off for ten minutes about leaving her closet open (after helping her pick out a dress), she still hadn't come down for breakfast, and after a few more minutes she finally came downstairs in time to see me leaving with her sisters.

Ken messaged me fifteen minutes into church, she'd run down the street without her shoes, then eventually come back, then she finally agreed to put her shoes on, and they were finally able to come to church.

Not sure if she's an ox or if she's the mire, but I think we need to budget an extra hour every Sunday for her tantrums!!

(Good thing we go in two cars because my Ken is currently the financial clerk and stays late to do tithing.)

A Kate Date

Instead of a family trip to the Science Centre, Kate and I went and had a kid date. I know a few people that do kid dates, one on one outings with a parent (or two) and one child. I've always thought that these were such good ideas, but we usually just go out as a family. Today Ken was having a work problem that was taking forever to fix, and Fiona and Alice did not want to leave the house. (They're still so happy to be home from our Utah trip.) Kate very much wanted to leave the house, so she and I went to the Science Centre and we had a date!

It was really relaxing just being with one child. We had a really fun time. They had a casual "space" show, where we looked at the night sky and just asked questions - it was so fun. There was an awesome display about the space program and female astronauts. And we just generally had fun looking at stuff and learning! I love the Science Centre. Oh, and Kate hid her "Idea" rock at the Science Centre.

Kate's profile.

My profile.

Kate's face in bubbles.

It's also the 50th anniversary of the Science Centre. The walkway features information about innovations over the last fifty years. Pretty awesome. Kate and I had a really nice time. I'm so thankful to get to do so many fun things with my kids!

Orangeville Friends

Living in Tottenham meant going to church in Orangeville. Living in Tottenham meant lots of driving. The girls were pretty good in the car thankfully, and I would drive to see friends. For a while I would meet with the "girls" mostly at Terri-Ann's house. We would study scriptures and other good books and then discuss what we read. We'd talk about being moms, how to be better moms and how we supported each other. Thank goodness for year long maternity leaves! We are all very different women and mothers, and we had different ideas about how to do things. There were a few other women who would come here and there, but the core group of us were Erin, Terri-Ann, Kim and I. 

Orangeville is 1.5-2 hours away from Ajax which is far, and life is busy. Erin is currently completing a nursing degree, Terri-Ann just finished her first year teaching, and Kim is working with a designer and has her own clients, and of course they all have their kids - Erin has five girls, Terri-Ann three boys and a girl, and Kim four boys.

At the beginning of the summer I reached out to see when we could meet up for cheesecake. Cheesecake is a birthday tradition that I used to be part of when I lived in Tottenham. We arranged to meet up for cheesecake at Yorkdale and go to the Cheesecake Factory.

We waited two hours for a table, and we walked the mall and chatted. And then we sat and ate and chatted. Life is always better when shared with good friends and yummy cheesecake!