Hello everyone,
This is our last entry for our summer blog. This year we headed over to Canada's Wonderland. Louise, Jacynthe, Jasmine, Adrien and I left on Thursday after lunch to have supper at Mandarin's and then drove to Tottenham to my brother's place to sleep. Julianne spend two days with her grand maman in North Bay.
We were up early Friday morning and made it to the park for opening. Duane and his family joined us for the fun this year.
I spent most of the day with Jacynthe and Jasmine riding thrill rides. We bought our Fast Passes as we did not want to wait in line. The park was busy and people were waiting a long time to get on the Leviathan. Our wait time was about 5 minutes maximum.
We get got to ride the Sledgehammer this year as it was broken the last two years. We also noticed that the Behemoth now has a seat belt. Wonder what happened for them to add this added security.
We broke our Leviathan riding record by riding 14 times this year. Eight of those times were in a one hour span. We rode at night for the first time. It was awesome. Adrien rode the Bat a couple of times with us but is still a little young for roller coasters.
Adrien spent a couple of hours in the water park.
We tried the new Guardian roller coaster which was a disappointment for me but the girls seemed to like it. I thought the 45 minute wait was not worth the thrill of the ride.
We were quite lucky as the weather cooperated and we had no rain. We made it back home on time Saturday for Jacynthe to work.
I hope you enjoyed our blog this year. We are not sure what we are doing next year but I'm sure whatever it is we will have a blast.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Halfway Lake
Hello everyone, we are back from a 10 day camping trip to Halfway Lake. It is our fourth year going to this Provincial Park and our longest camping trip ever. We stayed in our favourite campsite, site 162.
The weather was so so this year as we had a couple of days of rain. It was quite cold on most nights with the mercury dipping to single digits many times. I spent quite a bit of time reading Game of Thrones and then Clash of Kings. I'm hoping to watch the first two seasons on video this winter with Alex.
We were joined by my brother Rhéal, his wife Mélanie and their two daughters, Eve-Marie and Arianne. Jasmine and Adrien spent most of their time with their cousins biking around the paths, on the beach and in the park. Julianne spent most of her time in our campsite with us as she was a little too young to be with her older siblings and cousins. She was homesick about halfway through the trip, she wanted to see Jacynthe. Louise took her to the park a few times to change her spirits. Next year we might bring her a little friend.
This year we took part in a few park activities with the kids. For those who know me well know how much I like snakes but I touched one for the first time in my life. Next step is putting one around my neck. I am working hard at overcoming my fear of snakes.
Louise, Jasmine and Adrien took part in a nature walk before leaving yesterday. We got home at around four and opened up our camper in our yard. It looks like this will be our last camping trip for Summer 2014. We'll probably camp out in the yard with Adrien and Jasmine for the remainder of the summer.
With one week left in our holidays we are looking at one last adventure. Looks like we are heading over to Wonderland sometime next week. Then it's back to reality as I start work back up on August 18th.
The weather was so so this year as we had a couple of days of rain. It was quite cold on most nights with the mercury dipping to single digits many times. I spent quite a bit of time reading Game of Thrones and then Clash of Kings. I'm hoping to watch the first two seasons on video this winter with Alex.
We were joined by my brother Rhéal, his wife Mélanie and their two daughters, Eve-Marie and Arianne. Jasmine and Adrien spent most of their time with their cousins biking around the paths, on the beach and in the park. Julianne spent most of her time in our campsite with us as she was a little too young to be with her older siblings and cousins. She was homesick about halfway through the trip, she wanted to see Jacynthe. Louise took her to the park a few times to change her spirits. Next year we might bring her a little friend.
This year we took part in a few park activities with the kids. For those who know me well know how much I like snakes but I touched one for the first time in my life. Next step is putting one around my neck. I am working hard at overcoming my fear of snakes.
Louise, Jasmine and Adrien took part in a nature walk before leaving yesterday. We got home at around four and opened up our camper in our yard. It looks like this will be our last camping trip for Summer 2014. We'll probably camp out in the yard with Adrien and Jasmine for the remainder of the summer.
With one week left in our holidays we are looking at one last adventure. Looks like we are heading over to Wonderland sometime next week. Then it's back to reality as I start work back up on August 18th.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Chain Link Fence & Family Reunion
Hello everyone,
Here we are again. It's been a busy week as we got back from Marten River on Tuesday afternoon and set up our camper at home before the end of the day. On Wednesday Jasmine and I took the old wooden fence down and put up our new chain link fence. We decided to get rid of the wooden fence because it was too high and prevented us from seeing our driveway from our pool area. Putting up the chain link fence was easy enough. The only thing that took a while was adjusting the gate. We have one more little project that we hope to get done before I get back to work.
On Thursday Alex and Jacynthe mowed the grass so that our yard would be ready for the party on Saturday. Jasmine cleaned recroom in our shop. On Friday Jasmine and I cleaned the shop as they were calling for rain for our Saturday party. It had been two years since we cleaned up the shop. I'm thinking of putting the wood shop together again and start woodworking once more.
Saturday we had our annual family reunion/bbq. They were calling for rain the rain held up until after supper which was great. We decided to cook our supper on charcoal. Duane and Rhéal gave me a hand and the supper turned out awesome. The kids had a blast in the pool as the water was quite warm. It was great to see my brothers this weekend. We are all so busy that these reunions are becoming quite rare.
Here we are again. It's been a busy week as we got back from Marten River on Tuesday afternoon and set up our camper at home before the end of the day. On Wednesday Jasmine and I took the old wooden fence down and put up our new chain link fence. We decided to get rid of the wooden fence because it was too high and prevented us from seeing our driveway from our pool area. Putting up the chain link fence was easy enough. The only thing that took a while was adjusting the gate. We have one more little project that we hope to get done before I get back to work.
On Thursday Alex and Jacynthe mowed the grass so that our yard would be ready for the party on Saturday. Jasmine cleaned recroom in our shop. On Friday Jasmine and I cleaned the shop as they were calling for rain for our Saturday party. It had been two years since we cleaned up the shop. I'm thinking of putting the wood shop together again and start woodworking once more.
Saturday we had our annual family reunion/bbq. They were calling for rain the rain held up until after supper which was great. We decided to cook our supper on charcoal. Duane and Rhéal gave me a hand and the supper turned out awesome. The kids had a blast in the pool as the water was quite warm. It was great to see my brothers this weekend. We are all so busy that these reunions are becoming quite rare.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Marten River
Hello everyone,
I hope that you are all enjoying the summer holidays as much as we are. This past weekend Alex, Adrien and I spent 2 days and 3 nights at Marten River Provincial Park. A couple of years ago we spent some time there together too and had an awesome time. I think it is important for my boys to be spending time together and build their relationship as brothers. It is not easy for them as their is a big difference in age, but I hope that in time that difference will become less significant.
We left on Saturday afternoon after closing and packing our tent trailer. I ran into a couple of issues with the rear suspension on our truck as I thought I had it fixed but found out that the rear shocks were leaking air. We ended up buying a new hitch to bring the camper higher off the ground and got going a couple of hours later than planned. I still need to get the truck fixed.
We got to the park at around 3 PM and had our site setup by 5:30 PM. Adrien was quite excited to be spending time with his older brother and dad. The first night we cooked some kebabs and had an awesome meal. This year there was no fire ban and ended up burning over half a cord of wood over the 3 nights.
We were quite busy over the two days that we were camping as we went on a 4 km hike one day and rented a canoe and paddled across the river on the next. We played a couple of games of Monopoly which Adrien won hands down. Adrien and I played some catch and I spent quite a bit of time reading Game of Thrones. I'm reading the first book while Alex is well into the second one. Alex and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the various characters in the story and I now think I understand who is who.
While Alex and I were reading Adrien was playing Zelda on his Nintendo DS. I like having him play Zelda because it forces him to read to move tot he next level of the game. Adrien is not a big fan of reading.
This year the weather was awesome and it only rained when we got back home last night once we had the camper opened up again. I guess we lucked out compared to a couple of years ago.
We are looking forward to doing this kind of trip on an annual basis.
I hope that you are all enjoying the summer holidays as much as we are. This past weekend Alex, Adrien and I spent 2 days and 3 nights at Marten River Provincial Park. A couple of years ago we spent some time there together too and had an awesome time. I think it is important for my boys to be spending time together and build their relationship as brothers. It is not easy for them as their is a big difference in age, but I hope that in time that difference will become less significant.
We left on Saturday afternoon after closing and packing our tent trailer. I ran into a couple of issues with the rear suspension on our truck as I thought I had it fixed but found out that the rear shocks were leaking air. We ended up buying a new hitch to bring the camper higher off the ground and got going a couple of hours later than planned. I still need to get the truck fixed.
We got to the park at around 3 PM and had our site setup by 5:30 PM. Adrien was quite excited to be spending time with his older brother and dad. The first night we cooked some kebabs and had an awesome meal. This year there was no fire ban and ended up burning over half a cord of wood over the 3 nights.
We were quite busy over the two days that we were camping as we went on a 4 km hike one day and rented a canoe and paddled across the river on the next. We played a couple of games of Monopoly which Adrien won hands down. Adrien and I played some catch and I spent quite a bit of time reading Game of Thrones. I'm reading the first book while Alex is well into the second one. Alex and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the various characters in the story and I now think I understand who is who.
While Alex and I were reading Adrien was playing Zelda on his Nintendo DS. I like having him play Zelda because it forces him to read to move tot he next level of the game. Adrien is not a big fan of reading.
This year the weather was awesome and it only rained when we got back home last night once we had the camper opened up again. I guess we lucked out compared to a couple of years ago.
We are looking forward to doing this kind of trip on an annual basis.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Driveway
Hello everyone,
Please find the second post in my blog. This summer we decided that we would redo our driveway. We've been in our house for over 20 years and the weeds were overtaking our driveway. Louise wanted a little flower garden in the corner of our basement entrance. We also wanted to get rid of the train ties on the south side of the driveway.
Jasmine and I started last Saturday by moving the existing clear stone out of the driveway to the road in front of our house. On Monday, we finished moving the clear stone and took all of the weeds out. On Tuesday we started to install the wedge stone retaining wall on the south side of the driveway. Louise who is more patient than I, was in charge of installing the wedge stone. As always she did an awesome job. We decided to make the driveway a little narrower buy putting the wedge stone inside the existing train ties. We decided to use Robinson range colour. Below is a link to the wedge stone product we used.
Please find the second post in my blog. This summer we decided that we would redo our driveway. We've been in our house for over 20 years and the weeds were overtaking our driveway. Louise wanted a little flower garden in the corner of our basement entrance. We also wanted to get rid of the train ties on the south side of the driveway.
Jasmine and I started last Saturday by moving the existing clear stone out of the driveway to the road in front of our house. On Monday, we finished moving the clear stone and took all of the weeds out. On Tuesday we started to install the wedge stone retaining wall on the south side of the driveway. Louise who is more patient than I, was in charge of installing the wedge stone. As always she did an awesome job. We decided to make the driveway a little narrower buy putting the wedge stone inside the existing train ties. We decided to use Robinson range colour. Below is a link to the wedge stone product we used.
Once the wedge stone was installed we installed our ground fabric. We used propropylene ground cover. The ground fabric should keep the weeds out for a long while. I bought both the ground fabric and the wedge stone from my brother at Meker's Greenhouse. Below is a link to the ground fabric product we used.
On Wednesday I ordered 22 tons of clear stone. Clear stone is screened material that range in size from one quarter inch to one and a quarter inch. It is excellent for drainage or ground cover. Louise, the kids and I shovelled the clear stone for two days to cover the whole driveway. We also used clear stone to fill Louise's corner garden.
We finished putting the clear stone in Louise's garden on Friday. We are waiting for additional wedge stones to finish our retaining wall. We have about 5 tons of clear stone left over and we will be using it to build a path. I guess that will be next week's job.
We finished putting the clear stone in Louise's garden on Friday. We are waiting for additional wedge stones to finish our retaining wall. We have about 5 tons of clear stone left over and we will be using it to build a path. I guess that will be next week's job.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Windy Lake
Hello everyone,
Please find below the first blog post for 2014. I decided to blog about our summer holidays. A couple of years ago I did the same and find it interesting to go back and reminisce about our holidays.
This year our first outing was at Windy Lake with the Mousseau clan. Louise's mom along with 4 of her brothers along with uncle Norm, aunt Sue and Fabien joined us for 4 days of camping. The weather was very nice on the first day and the kids got on the lake and did some tubing behind uncle Guy's boat. The second day was cold and rainy but we still had fun fishing and playing board games. We got some much needed time together and reconnected as a family. I even slept two nights with Adrien on one side and Julianne on the other. I didn't get much sleep but the kids were happy.
I played some Texas Horseshoe and read half of the first book in the Games of Thrones series. The weather on the third day was even colder than the first two days. It was only 11C in the afternoon and rainy most of the day. Louise and her brothers went fishing but did not have much luck. Jasmine and I went for a ride to Dowling and stopped by Levack as I had lived there a couple of month about 25 years ago. The town was bigger than I remembered.
We packed up early on Thursday and headed to visit my cousin Josée on Ministic Lake. We were picked up on Otter Lake via pontoon and headed to her cottage on Ministic Lake. We spent the afternoon with Josée and aunt Pauline and uncle Laurier. We had an awesome BBQ supper and went fishing with uncle Laurier and the kids. Once again not much luck with the fishing but we had fun. We left Ministic Lake at around 9:00 PM and got home at 11:30 that night. We were all tired on Friday but enjoyed our first week of holidays. Next week we are redoing our driveway. It will be hard work but with the help of our kids it should be a bit easier.
Please find below the first blog post for 2014. I decided to blog about our summer holidays. A couple of years ago I did the same and find it interesting to go back and reminisce about our holidays.
This year our first outing was at Windy Lake with the Mousseau clan. Louise's mom along with 4 of her brothers along with uncle Norm, aunt Sue and Fabien joined us for 4 days of camping. The weather was very nice on the first day and the kids got on the lake and did some tubing behind uncle Guy's boat. The second day was cold and rainy but we still had fun fishing and playing board games. We got some much needed time together and reconnected as a family. I even slept two nights with Adrien on one side and Julianne on the other. I didn't get much sleep but the kids were happy.
I played some Texas Horseshoe and read half of the first book in the Games of Thrones series. The weather on the third day was even colder than the first two days. It was only 11C in the afternoon and rainy most of the day. Louise and her brothers went fishing but did not have much luck. Jasmine and I went for a ride to Dowling and stopped by Levack as I had lived there a couple of month about 25 years ago. The town was bigger than I remembered.
We packed up early on Thursday and headed to visit my cousin Josée on Ministic Lake. We were picked up on Otter Lake via pontoon and headed to her cottage on Ministic Lake. We spent the afternoon with Josée and aunt Pauline and uncle Laurier. We had an awesome BBQ supper and went fishing with uncle Laurier and the kids. Once again not much luck with the fishing but we had fun. We left Ministic Lake at around 9:00 PM and got home at 11:30 that night. We were all tired on Friday but enjoyed our first week of holidays. Next week we are redoing our driveway. It will be hard work but with the help of our kids it should be a bit easier.
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