July07 Fun Page

Welcome to our July07 Fun page... It is full of many memories form the FOI Reunion on Canada, Marsha's 2nd annual Family Picnic, more soccer and our trip out East... Keep reading...

We attended the FOI Reunion at Blackcreek Pioneer Village. This was the 2nd reunion that we have attended with wonderful agency. The location was a fun place and the kids had a fun time. Nyah really enjoyed her visit with some fellow China Sisters - Georgia and Vanessa. After our day at the Village, we headed back to the campsite for dinner and fun at the park.

As the soccer season progressed, you can really see how Nyah became more comfortable with the team and coach. She really enjoyed playing and running on the field. She seemed to also enjoy learning new moved and snack time.

We also got to attended the 2nd Annual Marsha Family Picnic. This year it was great to see all the kids playing and how much they have changed over the last year. The kids had fun running, playing pretend and mostly the water balloon game. Which I think was meant to get the partnering parent all wet. We all had a fun time... Looking forward to the 3rd Annual Marsha Family Picnic and all the new littlest that will be there.

Finally after lots of hard work at Lifelearn and packing we are heading to NB for our two week vacation. Nyah was very excited and hardly slept because she was just anxious to see all her 'friends'. Also as you can see from the first pictures, everyone else was very happy to see her too.... Some of you may not recognize the new fella with Olivia, that is her new beau, Colt, from PEI. He seems like a very nice young man with great manners and he is very nice to Olivia...

On our visit to Lorne, Nyah was very excited to have a fishing trip with Pere. Unfortunately the fishing holes are not as safe this year. So we all pack up the gear in the van and he took her to a pay by the inch pond. Nyah had a fun time, mostly with the worms, but still lot of fun. The fish were biting pretty fast, as soon as the line would hit the water. We also got some really fun pictures of Nyah in front of a miniature log cabin.

This vacation we had lots of fun just hanging and enjoying the warm sunny days. We really got to smell the flowers. One afternoon we went to visit Taunt Ingrid and Uncle Rodney. Nyah had such a fun time picking wild strawberries. She had even more fun time eating them. We also got some really fun pictures of Nyah seating in the flowers and the girls playing kung fu.

It was really funny, Nyah was determined to have a sleep over at Taunt Krista's house. She made the trip down three nights before she actually stayed the night. Each night I would get a call and Nyah would say Mommy I don't think I want to sleep here. So we would get all dressed-up and head down to get her. From the pictures that Richard gave me I really think she just wanted to go to play games. She really enjoyed the twister game. Nyah also made a one night attempt to stay at Taunt Ingrid's. Maybe next year, she will go and sleep on the first night down.

That evening, we were very lucky to tag along with Victoria for her horseback riding lessons. It was lots of fun (except for the stinky smell Nyah said). Nyah enjoyed watching Victoria and making funny faces with Taunt Krista. After Victoria's lesson, Nyah was happy to take a ride around the ring on the horse too.

After returning back to Miche and Pere's the girls got ready for a sleep over. They had a great time... Doing make up, watching moves and playing games. I think Nyah mostly enjoyed making Colt (Olivia's boyfriend) pretty.

Congratulations Mom... 5 years of Survival. While we were home, we had a surprise party for Miche to celebrate and honour her amazing accomplishment. She was very surprised and was happy to see how everyone came out to celebrate with her despite the threatening weather. The dark clouds keep rolling by and after a few rain drops, we were fortunate for it to hold back for a little while.

The next day (our last night in Lorne), Nyah got all dressed-up to attend my cousins wedding. Miche and Pere were just excited to take her with them and show her off. While they were out, Marc and I got to go to dinner and a movie with my sisters and their husbands. It was a really nice treat. One I don't think we have done before and one that we need to do more often.

Moncton here we come....

We were very excited to be heading to Moncton to visit with Memere and Pepere and Grandpa and Grandma along Mike, Stephanie and the boys.

We were all meeting at the cottage in St. Mary's. The weather was just beautiful. Everyone we very excited to see us. It was great to see the kids playing together... Nyah, Gibson and Austin... You would think they got to play together all the time.

They had loads of fun finding lots of frogs... It was really neat to see Nyah in that environment because we normally don't look for frogs or any of that stuff.. But although she wasn't interested in holding the frogs, she wanted to find more and more of them and put them in the little houses that Memere had for them.

The big boys spent some time putting together Pepere's new wagon to be pulled the four-wheeler... Oddly they named the turtle. It was a neat little wagon that made it easier for everyone and all the gear to be carted to the beach. And with that in mind, we all got in our sets and headed to the beach for some fun in the sand and surf.

The kids had a wonderful time at the beach... Mind you I also think uncle Mike had more fun shooting the boys across the lake on the body board. Nyah was surprising really brave in the water having fun, with her recent swimming lessons, I was concerned that she wasn't going to have fun. But she had a great blast in the water and the sand.

After a day of fun, the next day was another good day at the beach. Nyah and Helen spent a good time of the afternoon building a village in the sand. They apparently had England, China, South Africa and just the rest of the village. It was really funny. At the end of the day, we took a nice boat ride to the ice cream shop on the other side of the bridge... It was a great ride and the sights was wonderful. The water was so calm and relaxing... It was a nice quiet comfortable ride.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA... I am very excited... In my many years growing up in New Brunswick and going to many places, I really don't ever remember going to Halifax... I really don't think I have ever been there. So today we decided to take a day trip to the big city. The views were amazing and the harbor was loads of fun.

After lunch we took a ride on the Harbor Hooper, it is an amphibious vehicle that goes on both land and water. First we took the ride on a tour of the city and all the landmark sights like Citadel Hill then we entered the water, which was really cool, and we saw the Harbor from the water. It was great to see all the other boats out there. It was also cool to see a submarine that just came into the Harbor a few days before. I think they we in the process of cleaning the algae off of it. Once we were back on dry land we headed to Cows of Prince Edward Island for some amazing ice cream. Apparently they are rated as the Best Ice Cream in Canada by Readers Digest and I fully agree. I really don't remember the actual name of flavor but it was amazing. And I would fully recommend you do the grand experience, a freshly made waffle cone with a chocolate rim with peanut sprinkles... Truly dreamy. I will remember my trip to Halifax forever. I was a great time.

The next day we were off to Dorchester to visit with Grandpa and Grandma. It was nice to see them and hang out. They really have a nice property that seems to go on forever. We actually got some pretty pictures of Nyah and them by the gardens. Nyah and I were hoping that we would take a ride to the Bay of Fundy which is just about 15 - 20 minutes away... Unfortunately as the day went on the clouds and fog started to roll in. In the mean time we got some really great pictures of the Humming birds hovering over the feeder eating. The birds were really fast but Marc was able to get some neat shoots. We had fun watching them. They are so beautiful.

After we headed back to Moncton, we met up with Mike, Stephanie and the Boys are the park. The park had a water pad which was a great relief on this hot summer day. The kid had the most amazing time playing in the water and jumping around. I only which I had my swim suit but I may have looked a little funny jumping around in the splash pad too... Oh well maybe next summer... It was lots of fun.

After the water play, Marc, Nyah and I headed back to the cottage to see Memere and Pepere. We had a great time having a wonderful dinner and another boat ride. It was actully really funny as we were heading out on the water, Nyah, Memere and I were seating at the end of the boat while Pepere and Marc were sitting on the other end. Pepere was trying to start the boat and as he pulled on the cord the handle cut his finger, it was quite a cut believe me. As he was shaking his hand the blood went flying all over us at the other end of the boat. Nyah thought that was quite something. It was something on her mind for the remainder of the ride. As soon as we got back to the camp, Doctor Nyah got all dressed-up and with the help of Nurse Memere they cleaned his cut and put on a sanitized bandage. Doctor Nyah gave very strict instruction on how Nurse Memere should take care of the patient.

Although we don't have any other pictures from our trip and the remainder of our time in Moncton. We had a nice visit with Marc's grandparents and Grandpa and Grandma for one last time.

We also went to the beach for an afternoon. We collected Amethyst and headed to Plage de l'Aboiteau Beach. It was our first time ever going there and it was just wonderful. I was also hugely surprised by how warm the ocean was. I grow up going to the beach a lot but I don't ever recall the water being so warm. After lots of fun and play, we headed back to the restaurant for some tasty Fried Clams. They too were just truly amazing. Now that was a nice treat.

Now as the last night in Moncton, Marc, Mike and Guy had a nice night on the town. Having a few drinks and doing some bonding... While the guys were out, Nyah, Claudette and I took a trip for some ice cream and back home to just play and relax while Memere caught up on some laundry.

We are now back in Ontario. This time we took a little part of the Maritimes back with us - Cousin Victoria. We were all every excited to have her come for a visit. She will be here a little over two weeks. Luckily Victoria was able to see Nyah at her last soccer practice. Nyah was really looking forward to getting back to the team and giving Coach Paul his parting gift. We put together a sand gift with some sea shells and a starfish to give to him. Nyah was really surprised that at the end of the last soccer game, she got a medal. It a wonderful treasure.

After all the excitement we headed down to the Boathouse Tea Room for some ice cream to cool us down from the evening. We met up with Lynn, Tom and Mayah for the cool treat. It was really funny actually that was we were sitting and enjoying our treat and the girls were watching the ducks swimming in the Grand River, this very rude goose came up to Nyah and took her ice cream right from her hands. It was hilarious. Needless to say that was the end of Nyah's chocolate ice cream and the girls ended the evening sitting on the picnic table.