Jeff and I have decided that 2.5 years old is the minimum age that we want to do any more traveling on a plane with kids - they are old enough to just watch TV or movies and you can reason with them. Callum and Max did super great for most of the flight, until Jeff missed the tell-tale signs of Callum's motion sickness. As we began landing, Callum puked his guts out. Puke #1.
The first day there, the kids just wanted to play in the back yard in the dog-pool. Jeff's parents, Larry and Inge, have a golden retriever puppy but they sent him on "holiday" while we were there, since he is apparently still too aggressively puppy-ish to deal with.
(I will apologize now for most of the photo-quality during our trip since I mainly just used my iPhone).
Whenever Callum could convince his Grandpa to take him to the basement, he loved acting Train Engineer. Larry has a fairly significant model railroad under construction that will keep him busy for years to come, I'm sure.
Inge's Uncle was having his 80th birthday, so we were invited to join in the pool-party to celebrate. (Unfortunately, I realized much too late that I didn't actually get any decent photos of Jeff's family.)
We took the kids into Ottawa one day, so they could try a Beaver Tail (if you have to ask what that is, then you're not very Canadian) and go to the Children's Museum.
(Notice the "Vroom vroom" sounds they are making with their mouths!)
We were able to visit Jeff's friends, Rich and Sue, and their 4 kids too. Callum and Max were very impressed with the costume collection in their playroom. (Again, sorry for the low picture quality, but I thought these were too cute).
They played hide and seek in their costumes and this was Max's idea of a good spot - hee hee!
There happened to be a Puppet Festival in the area, so we took the boys and caught a Toopee and Binoo show. Of course, this was after Max puked in the car on the way there, (Puke #2) but he still wanted to go, even though he puked again when we were buying tickets (Puke #3).
One of our last days there, Rich and Sue invited us to join them up at their cabin on a lake. I wasn't sure I wanted anymore driving around, but I'm so glad we went up. Max and Callum loved hanging with Rich and Sue's kids, and it was just a perfect day hanging out playing in the sand, paddle-boating, tubing and BBQ'ing.
Callum with Cameron in the paddle boat.
I told Jeff to take a picture of me, just to record my existence on the trip too (and you can see the not-so-small bulge on my belly).
Rich took Jeff on a "real" tubing experience with a speed boat before we hooked the kids up to the more gentle pontoon boat.
Callum went in first with Hayden, Olivia and Cameron. Then Max came in and shared a tube with Olivia - he had a great time!
On our way to the airport, we stopped at Starbucks and returned to our rental car to find out it was the victim of a hit&run, so we got to hang out waiting for the police to take all the info before we could rush to catch our flight. We did make it, though our flight home was pretty painful for Callum as he spent the whole 5 hours puking or crying or holding a puke-bag to his mouth (Pukes #4, #5 and #6). I felt so horrible for him!!! If you ask him if he still likes flying on airplanes, though, he will still say Yes!
I didn't get any photos of the big family BBQ, where we visited with Jeff's extended family, including his brother Steve and his kids, Darren and Kelsey. It was good to get everyone together. Despite the fact that it would be cheaper for us to fly to Hawaii than to Ottawa, Jeff and I are glad we made the trip. I even got to pig-out on Ontario peaches and we managed to bring back 3 litres of Steve's Maple Syrup. Now Callum asks specifically for "the Uncle Steve syrup" every time we have pancakes - I guess even he can tell the difference between the good stuff and the Costco stuff. :-)
It's funny, I was talking to a friend just the other day about travelling with kids. I told her that I thought the airlines giving kids under 2 free flights is a joke because really, who wants to travel with a kid younger than 2? We definitely have to wait until we can reason with Julien and until he's happy to sit still with a video before we can even consider air travel!
ReplyDeleteNice to read how your family is doing and to see pics. Your baby belly's pretty cute! :)