The Last of the Vacation Photos

Highlights of the vacation included: Spending time with my nephew! I was 2 for 2 in the "getting baby to nap" game! Aunt Kelly's still got it!!!

Seeing my daughters enjoy themselves tremendously, day after day!

Watching other people make them happy (Aunt Cynia picked up these simple pinwheels that had them in awe)

Nanny gave them sparklers & they were a big hit!
We got to go out to a nice restaurant for a family dinner on Rick's birthday & as we left, the restaurant manager put his hand on my arm to stop me and leaned in and told me very seriously, "YOU have GOOD kids!" I was soooooo proud of our girls!!!
Only Honey would pose for the family picture. I think I have almost the same picture from last year actually!

Rick checking out some beachfront condos that he'll never buy....

going for simple walks & seeing what we could find.

Seeing the girls' delight in the beautiful sunsets, they insisted on gathering everyone together most nights to watch the sun go down.

This was our best cottage trip with the kids so far. Last year was only half the time & they were twice as miserable. The weather was cold & windy so beach time was very limited and we made trips in to town to keep them entertained. We didn't have to do that at all this year but a couple days ago when we were saying prayers, Lovey said she was tired of the cottage & she started asking to go home & the others started mentioning it too. Maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing? Murray & I definitely enjoyed our time, we shamelessly abused the grandparental access and went out to dinner tonight at a steak place I've been anxious to go to for a few years and we had a massive dinner & enjoyed our date! We spent a good portion of it planning what other outings we should have now that we've got a couple of babysitters we can call on at home. We also got to go for walks on our own & I went biking with Murray on his runs a couple times and there was always someone willing to play with the kids when we wanted to sit & read or otherwise be an absentee parent! The girls LOVED having Daddy around all the time & are going to be sad on Monday morning when he goes back to his office!

Aha! I figured out the problem. Pictures galore tonight!!

Aunt Mandy's styling studio was a popular spot. They LOVED their straight hair but not enough to resist an after supper swim.

Honey's getting braver & braver!!
Sweetie's paddling around on her own some now but not when Nanny's available!

Rocket Man strikes again!

I wonder if multiple moms ever get tired of the matching thing????

The mighty feather!
Mr Bojangles!
Mr Cool

My shooting partner of choice : )))

New sport?
Our daily excursion to the beach, Christmas dress fits right in.
after supper walks, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Here, have a few thousand words...

G-man was helping Honey get through a hermitcrab infested section of the beach on our nightly stroll.
How cute is this girl????

High flyin' fun!

My longest running friendship! Stacey & I met in grade 2. She came out for a visit while we were at the beach one day.
Everybody loves a good game of ring around the rosie!
I love her moves!

and there were supposed to be a bunch more pictures but I couldn't get blogger to upload anything else today. We only have 5 hours of dial up time while we're here (by the way, dial up is TORTUROUS!!!!!!) and after 45 minutes I gave up trying to add any more. Maybe tomorrow!

Surf's Up Dude!

We have been hitting the beach & loving it! So far the weather has been incredible! We also have a friend of Murray's from university here with his family, hanging out with us & the girls are having a blast with their 3 kids. It's been late bedtimes 3 nights in a row with very very busy days. We were down at the beach for about 4 hours yesterday & again today in the full sun so I'm not sure how much longer they can maintain this kind of pace before something gives. I bet it's not much longer though so we'll have to try getting them down earlier tomorrow or the rest of the vacation could go down the tubes in a hurry! It is hard to drag them away from the action though and even when you do, they can hear it all clear as a bell since all the noise carries easily in this cottage. It also stays light out til 10pm so they don't really believe it's bedtime at 8, 8:30 or even 9! Rick & Nancy didn't come to celebrate the girls' actual birthday this year and decided to have a cottage birthday party instead & we did that last night. They'd already gotten their main present (pool for the backyard) but Nancy made them each a cake (plus a couple for the rest of us!) and still a few little other things. One of them was a science experiment involving mints & a bottle of diet Pepsi. When the mints dropped into the 2L bottle, the pop shoots up in a geyser straight into the air. The kids could have watched this a dozen times I think. Nancy went through two bottles of pop with Rick muttering "biggest waste of pop I'v ever seen!". Not a man of science apparently!

After supper tonight we took the kids for a walk down to the main beach and they had fun racing and running all over, wading through the water to get to the islands etc.

Honey has had a terrible time with the hermit crabs. She is TERRIFIED of them! Last night she woke up hollering for me, "Help! Mummy!!!! Help!" I got in there & the poor little thing was lying on her back with her knees pulled up to her chest, crying her eyes out, saying "the hermit crabs are going to get me!!!" I calmed her down and thought she'd fallen back asleep & started to slip away when she clasped on to my arm and said "DON'T leave me please!!!" This was at 12:30am so when I laid down with her "for just a minute" I was a goner! I woke up awhile later & got back to my own room eventually. Today she got a lot braver and let us carry her out in to the water and hold her so she could practice swimming. On the walk after dinner, she was eventually racing through the tide pools on her own so hopefully she'll be able to sleep tonight!


Sweetie was getting ready for story time when she noticed the bright orange ball of sun setting in the sky. She ran & grabbed Grampy and insisted he come out to watch it with her. All 3 girls ended up going & he felt quite special that they wanted to do that with him. He loves a good sunset anyway but sharing it with three beautiful girls must be a lot better!

Daddy & Lovey checking out the big bad hermit crabs down below!

The kids borrowed these water wings & were thrilled to swim around! It took some convincing to get them to give them up for the next person's turn when it was time. Might have to invest in a couple pairs of these. I'd been avoiding them as I was afraid they'd get too dependent on them & refuse to give them up & learn to swim on their own.