Our Fall Trip to Canada

August 2009.

Our Fall trip to Canada!

.

We stayed at a wonderful "bed and breakfast."

Ok, so the bed wasn't that great, John.


Enjoying farm life - well, walking around taking pictures of it anyway.

Corn, corn, corn. We ate and ate and brought a van full home.

.

And pies? Whew.

.

The girls loved to help cousin Elizabeth in her garden.

.

Fresh potatos too.

.

And fresh eggs.
(These aren't eggs - they're the chickens
that are at least partially responsible for the eggs).


Lauren enjoyed holding an escaped chicken.



Justin: aack! (I think he meant: chicken!)

.

Justin helping herd the hens.

.

The barn's upstairs basketball court.

.

Josh in the hay.

Christy in the hay.

.

Lisa took a great picture of the outside basketball court at sunset.

.

Grandma Ruth Ann with two of her cousins from California.

.

Josh enjoyed picking, sorting and husking corn nearly every morning.

Justin with the corn that we eventually froze and brought home

(when I say "we" I mean that I took the pictures).

Justin playing with the house - moments before soaking himself.

Great picture - the gardens along Niagara Falls.

Lisa took this great shot of the Skylon tower.

Lisa and the ladies in front of the Horseshoe Falls.

All 4 kids enjoying the view.

Josh at one of my favorite spots in the world -

the water just leaps over!

Christy

Lauren

Justin

Josh, Christy and Lauren overlooking the whirlpool.

Why pay $12 a person to ride the aerocar over the whirlpool

when you can watch it for free?

With the ladies in front of the floral clock.

Why can the people who ask

"hey, would you like me to take a picture of all of you?"

never center correctly? Ugh.

Josh helping Justin count the Canadian money at the bottom of

the floral clock.

Justin enjoying the foliage.

A neat spot - one of the smallest churches in the world.

Just two pews that face each other in the whole church.

Nice statue in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

I'm sure of someone important; we didn't catch who.

The Prince of Wales Hotel.

Niagara on the Lake foliage.

The downtown clock tower.

Is it just me or does it look like Lauren it shooting Josh's head off?

Josh checking out the moat around Fort George.

The rebuilt Fort George.

.

Soldiers demonstrating their firearms.

.

Taking aim at the US.

Josh (and later Christy but the picture wasn't as good)

demonstrated with the blacksmith.

The blacksmith said he was making a candlestick holder.

I'm not so sure.

.

Christy enlisting in the army (War of 1812).

Josh, Christy and Lauren with some poor soldier

who stood still the whole time we were there.

More kids; same soldier.

Josh, Christy and Lauren on a cannon.

Josh refused to shoot his "home and native land."

An evening's entertainment with the Uncle Kevin and Tyler show.

Incidentally, Lauren has a previously unnamed male doll

who now goes by "Tyler."

Tyler taking a picture of his favorite cousin.

Speaking of Tyler, if you go to visit him, don't take this road home as a short cut; its clay.

I bottommed out so many times,

I had to turn down the radio so I could pray louder.

Scariest I can remember being in a long time!

Justin entertained by dumping water down his outfit.

We slept in John's room with his albino frog.

Josh out tractoring (or whatever its called) with his Great Grandpa.

The farm truck "Jakie."

Josh sitting on one of John's pumpkins.

Elizabeth teaching Lisa how to manage the stand.

Christy batting her eyes to sell another peach.

Lisa's turn in the stand.

Watching (not helping; watching) the cement being poured.

Christy with Ben; the other dog, Jill, isn't nearly as photogenic.

Josh helped with the indoor basketball court renovations.

Justin loved to romp with the dogs (and Mark, I think).

Grandma Ruth Ann's birthday party!

This has to be my favorite picture of the trip! Priceless.

We also visited Marineland!

This is the scariest kiddie ride I have ever been on.

I was squeezing Lauren (3) so tightly.

At the end, I said "that was scary." She said, "No, that was fun!"

Whatever.

Christy and Lauren on one of the rides

(since it appears I'm on the ride with them,

lets assume that its a merry-go-round of some sort).

Josh taking off! He went way higher than any of the other riders!

Grandma Ruth Ann flew with Christy (who appears to be saluting me).

Justin and Dad.

Holding the purses and taking the pictures.

Its a tough job but somebody's got to do it...

Josh in front; Grandma Ruth Ann and Lauren right behind.

Click PLAY to see their ride on video.

Josh and Christy on the kiddie ferris wheel

(yes I rode it and yes I was scared -

going down backwards was a bad idea).

.

Josh took this picture of Lauren and I

while I pretended to have a good time.

Our view.

Josh, Christy and Lauren looking for animals.

Along came a friendly beluga whale.

Josh and Christy - and lots of other people - watching the show.

The big jump.

Click PLAY to see video of their finale.

The big bow.

Proof #238 that we're cheap:

we brought our lunch and went out to the van to eat

before going back in to the park.

Josh feeding a deer.

Christy and Lauren (and an unnamed deer).

Justin appears to not be too shy of any animal.

(Note: I did not touch this or any other deer; I took the pictures).

Bears eagerly anticipating people throwing cereal at them.

The big ride - Devil's Mountain. Josh, Grandma Ruth Ann and Lisa went.

(Hey - somebody had to hold the purses, the girls and Justin!)

This I can handle! Literally.

I held the handle so tight we barely spun (spinned?).

Grandma Ruth Ann with Josh and Christy on the Viking Adventure.

.

Click PLAY to watch a video of their adventure.

The Killer Whale (or as Josh referred to him: the Orca).

We stood right behind his trainer.

Great view.

We laughed and laughed watching these people

getting soaked by the whale's tale.

Lisa didn't want to get wet.

We enjoyed the belly-flop.

This shot was taken seconds before the tale turned on us

and we were soaked!

Christy and Lauren with Aunt Janice.

Grandma 80 taking a picture of her favorite grandson.

So this is where Tyler gets his photographic skill from!

Christy and Lauren with Grandma Ruth Ann and Grandma 80

(who isn't really 80 anymore).

The girls loves playing with Elizabeth's dolls in the attic.

Josh built a fortress out of John and Mark's legos.

Just before we left, they purchased 4 little pigs.

Click PLAY to see a video of the pigs getting out.

John holds up a pig while Mark stares off into space

thinking of how to name a pig after Steve Nash.

Justin wasn't scared of them either!

Josh checking on the pigs after their first night.

They smell the horse but can't find him.

Less than 24 hours after arriving home,

Josh had already put together the Lego Mindstorms NXT

from Uncle Kevin.

Click PLAY to see Josh control his robot with his voice.