Merry Christmas, etc,etc.

So I'm back at work now - that's my excuse for not updating the blog - and franky, I think Cam has forgotten that it exists...so it falls to me to update everyone on the going-ons of the Arnold clan. We are now so geared up for Christmas Charlie's head might just pop off. He's pretty stoked that Santa is coming in 2 sleeps now. Sam doesn't care, but he's so aloof that he will be 8 years old and not caring. Such a character. So....Charlie is now 3 (as of October 21) and we had a great party for him both at my mom's place and at Little Feet Fitness with his friends. It was so cute to watch all the kids flying around the place like tasmanian devils - full of such moxy! We have been cottaging a little less frequently than I thought....between skating competitions for me and Cam working OT -it's been hard to get up there. Hopefully the new year sees us getting there more. I would love to get the boys on the ice and teach them to skate. Sammy won't be interested, but I could teach Charlie and Cam....I mean, not Cam....he skates great.....(clears throat)...moving on!

The boys are loving that their cousins are visiting the Cullen household right now. Faye, Nina and Sophia are great babysitters...the boys don't even care if I'm there...they love playing with their cousins and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I have been able to chillax a bit! Can't wait for Christmas when they are high on sugar and running around like fiends....I'll super love the cousins then!

So I as mentioned above, I'm back at skating this year. My team, Glide, is based out of Oshawa and there are 15 "adults" on the synchronized team. It's a great love of mine, depsite the protests when at 8pm on a snowy day I have to gear up for 2 hours on the ice....but I still love it. I have a couple competitions in the new year and hopefully we go to Canadian's in Ottawa in April - that would be great fun!

I'll get Cam on here to post a little message but I wanted to wish all our friends and family a great holiday season and a very merry new year!

Cheers,
Alicia

Message from Cam:

Great job on the update Suzy. You should really do this more often. Why are you so...(clears throat)...lazy?. You could get up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 and do it before you go to work. Or after work before dinner. Maybe after dinner before kids' bathtime? Then there is after they go to bed/just before you go to skating. What about after you get home from skating at 10:15pm? Just what do you do with all of your downtime...?

Merry Christmas all.

Some updates

October 1st

Okay okay – I know I always apologize for being so late and behind on my posts, but I genuinely have a good reason these days! At the beginning of September we (along with the Arnold’s and Theis’) bought a cottage! We have been very busy getting settled into our beautiful and near perfect new abode. I say near perfect, because even though we bought it “turn key” ready cottage, it seems that the boys are always busy doing something to improve the place. The first couple of weekends up there Scott and Cam spent all their time in the water clearing the shoreline and creating rock steps. The little men (Charlie, Andrew and Sam) have been having a great time exploring and playing on their new shoreline. They are communing in the basement bedroom and we hear them giggling and talking before bed – too precious! Cam has promised me he would update pictures so once they are here – check them out. We love the place – it’s large, open and airy. No drapes on the windows facing the water – how perfect?

I must admit that all the women of the cottage are going to end up fishing widows! The boys all love to go fishing. It’s so cute to see them all standing at the dock, casting in their lines. What’s especially cute is seeing Scott and Cam using the Buzz Lightyear and Diego rods! LOL! Scott is bound and determined to catch “General Sherman” – the biggest bugger of a fish living under the dock and generally making his life hell! Don’t worry Scott – you’ll bag him eventually – he will be full of your hooks and line, but you’ll get him!  Charlie loves to catch minnows and play with them and release them so that they can go have dinner with their mommies and daddies. Everyone is having a great time and we will be celebrating thanksgiving up there this year – it will be a good time.

Oh – so since we now have a family cottage- we sold the trailer. It was very bittersweet. We are mourning the loss of our camping lifestyle and our best camping buddies, but we hope that they will be able to park their rigs at the cottage and still hang out with us next summer! Hopefully we can acquire that boat that Cam keeps talking about and start the kids on the tubes next year – yaw hoo!

Charlie and I didn’t go the cottage last weekend – he had 2 birthday parties to attend – mister social butterfly! His friend Rebecca had her party at NEB’s fun world – he loved the bowling, pizza and go-carts – he was so tired afterwards I had to wake him up after a 2 hour nap to go out for dinner – sushi – his favourite and his request – twist my arm eh? Sunday was his best-friend Liam’s birthday party – they went to Tottenham to ride on an old diesel train engine. I dropped him off and his daycare lady Tracy took him in her van – she said he loved it so much he was practically vibrating with joy. I wish now that I had been there to witness it. He had a great time at his first party without me or Cam which is totally awesome.


So – my baby Sammy is one year old now. We celebrated his birthday on his actual birthday with 30 of our closest family and friends – and their kids! It was a packed house but it was great to have so many wonderful people there. We did the usual buffet fair and generally let the kids run wild. The timing wasn’t great though – a lot of people were kinda rushed after work but they got a good free meal on a Monday night – really, what more could you ask for. Sam had a great time! He loved crawling around and checking everything out. He got some great clothes, money for his college fund, books and his favourite – a ride on Caterpillar dump truck! All the boys were fighting over it – typical! I can’t believe how big my baby is now. He’s a toddler officially, but he will always be my little love. He is full of personality. He’s a comedian, he’s stubborn, he’s a daredevil and he’s a cuddle bug. I couldn’t ask for my children to be any better! Sam will be walking very soon and then it’s game over for me – I’ll be running to keep up with them both.


We have a lull for approximately a week, then its thanksgiving, Gigi’s birthday and then Charlie’s birthday. Just in the midst of planning that one now! Cam will update pictures later! I will post after our October festivities!

Cheers,
Alicia
(Cam, Charlie and Sam)

Buckslide Tent and Trailer Park - OMG!!!

Buckslide Tent and Trailer Park
July 31- Aug 3

Friday:
We arrived at Buckslide from The Arnold’s cottage rental around 1ish – the boys were tired and cranky and it was nice and hot. The place was a dump! Cam was so upset that they expected us and our party to fit on two tiny sites. After giving into the fact that the kids needed to sleep we set up much to Cam’s chagrin. He talked to the guy running the place and told him that our party would need more sites. To keep the peace, they agreed. Once everyone got there and got set up the disappointment went away (the beers helped too). The place was nice besides our sites. The beach was big, sandy and great for the kids. There was a playground for them also. We had a fire and just relaxed.

Saturday:
The weatherman was calling for rain off and on all day so we had no expectations for the day. We went to the kid’s BBQ and hay wagon rides at 1pm with the kids. They all enjoyed the ride (expect for Charlie who was too tired and cranky to even try to go on). Donna, Grant, Ally, Scott and Andrew all came for a visit. We walked to the waterfalls after dinner and the kids were pretty impressed…as were the adults. We went earlier in the day as well and Avery almost lost her shoe down the rapid! Ang’s mom Barb came with her niece Grace from North Bay for a visit as well…the girls loved having an older girl there….Charlie and Isabelle still did their own thing! After that the kids had a sleep and we….well….relaxed…that’s what we are there to do! The boys played some horseshoes while the kids were sleeping…down by the water with the “nice view” (right Alan)! Once the kiddies got up we went to the beach. The water was cool but it was still great to see them enjoying themselves and playing in the sand. We did get some rain but it was short lived so we were happy about that. They were supposed to do fireworks that night but the wind was considered inclement and they didn’t do it!

Sunday:
Beautiful day! Happy that we don’t have to pack up to go home we take full advantage. Beach, beer and babies….our typical weekend camping….I love this! It did up raining for about 15 minutes and that scared away Barb and Grace. When the kids went to sleep we decided to take on “The Beers of the World” tour which consists of sampling many beers from around the world. Needless to say…we got a little tipsy! It was a great time. We decided next camping trip will include Wines from around the world…better line up a babysitter! LOL!! The park said they were going to do fireworks that night so we kept the kids up as late as possible – but by 8:30 they were all in bed. Fireworks started at 9:15 and I very quietly went into Charlie’s room and he sat right up “Wha choo doin’ mommy?” I take him out and we go watch the fireworks. He was really impressed for about 5 minutes and then it was home to bed because he was so tired. He was happy to have seen him but I think he wasn’t awake when I went in! Oh well! Sunday after the fireworks…all hell broke loose! Ang, Jill and I had some more drinks and we got silly! It was hilarious! I think that is the most we have had to drink ever with each other….made for some very funny pictures and some funny stories that do not need to be captured in print…either words or pictures! Hopefully we remember our good times and the way we felt the next day and just leave it at that! LOL!!!

Monday:
Time to go home! L Sad day always. I was very slow to get moving so it was close to noon when we left that day. We (the women) were pretty sluggish and anti-social (or perhaps that was just me) but we said our goodbyes and headed out. Our next trip camping is Alexandria Bay but our next one all together will be the Labour day long weekend, also known as the weekend before I go back to work! YIKES!! Pictures to come soon….the camera is still in the camper parked at my parents place. The Evan’s clan were waiting for us when we arrived with the camper!

Emily Park - July 4-6, 2007

From my journal:

Emily Park – July 3-5 Site 244 – great site!

Thursday:
Our adventure starts on Thursday since Cam was off! We headed up to the Arnold’s summer abode (where the trailer was parked) and The Monty’s…. minus Jill joined us. It was raining – which we were told had been the theme of the week up there. With the arrival of 5 children under 6 – things got fun even with the rain. The kids had a great time playing and laughing and at bedtime we were all pretty tired. The boys (Cam, Grant and Alan) and I played some Wizard until about 10:30pm when we all turned in for the night. We were expecting an early morning with the kids so we had to get our beauty sleep…as much as possible!!!

Friday:
The morning started off rainy so we thought we were in for the same as the day before. We had breakfast and Grant read the kids about 6 Robert Munsch books while the babies had their morning naps. We packed up and headed to Emily Park after naps. Taking the windy back roads out of the cottage Charlie and I got a little queasy. Thankfully we weren’t on the windy roads too long before we were on the highway and barrelling towards the park. We arrived to sunshiny skies and warm weather. All the kiddies had to have a nap and it was great to see the Brooks-Barfitt’s already there! The adults had some wobbly pops while the kids slept and then we went to the beach! It was gorgeous…everyone but me went in – despite it being very frigid! LOL!! Can’t stop the kids from staying out of the water….born water babies! Alan kept the good times going with his beer in the kid’s bucket…they were well supervised despite that hilarity! Jill arrived around 5:30pm when we were getting back from the beach and we made some supper. After supper we went to the park with the kids. They had a blast and it took a lot of convincing to get them to leave. We managed to bait them with the promise of roasted marshmallows. When we got back Alan had the fire ready to go and the kids were able to gorge themselves on sweets before dinner. Bedtime went without a hitch and soon we were all drinking by the fire again…funny how that goes….

Saturday:
Early morning as usual, however, Cam let me sleep until 8 – awesome! Got up and ready for the day. Made the traditional BLT breaky and had our morning Caesars (not an option) and the day took off from there! It was cool but we were still in shorts (and we had sweatshirts on)…it was a little disappointing because it is July! The kids had no problems – they ran amok for the day and had a great time. All the babies are mobile so we were on high alert since the Monty’s fire pit was smoking all day (good job with the bacon grease Alan!). Cam set up a tent for the kids to play in (once Jimmy brought it) and they had a great time in there. Once naptime came the kids and Jill went down for a while. The boys played horseshoes while Jacky, Ang and I thought about baby names had a couple beers…well most of drank anyway…no more breast-feeding for me! On a side note: I had a sacral flare up and the pain killers I badly needed required that I stop nursing…so I’m done now. Made my 9 months though…pretty happy for that! Back to camping…the weather did improve a bit so we did do the beach after naptime. We had a great time again even though it wasn’t as warm as the day before…no parents swimming this time! Got back and had a great big buffet smorgasbord with tons of great food. My kids ate like champs and we discovered that salmon right on the grill is very yummy! Kiddies in bed after marshmallows again (and a lot of teeth brushing of course) and then Cam busted out the guitar and serenaded us while we stuffed our faces with more great snacks. Jacky had her iPhone with music on it so we listened to some other tunes after Cam’s back got sore. As always we had a great time chatting and enjoying ourselves. Earlier night tonight…all the drinking during the day makes for an early night!

Sunday:
Ugghhh – Sam was up for 1.5 hours last night! He is teething so he was crusty! Cam was a saint and got up with him between 3-4:30 and even let Sammy falls asleep on him. He came back to bed and then the boys were up at 6:30am. He let me sleep and then at 8 am Cam went back to sleep for a couple hours while I did the parent thing. Sam was much happier but still lacking a little sleep. Gorgeous day outside! Can’t believe how nice is it – always happens this way – the weather is gorge on a Sunday when we have to leave! So…Cam decides that he wants to take Monday off so we can go back to the cottage and enjoy the day. First things first – we need some more Caesars and the kids play outside while the adults tan! It was so nice that no one was in a hurry to get home. After baby naptime we all packed up – slowly and begrudgingly! No one wanted to leave! We packed up and headed out. Decided to try a new route that GPS said…bad news! Took the back roads to a dead end. Have you ever backed up a 32 foot fifth wheel on a gravel road with overgrown trees? Luckily we had a cottage driveway to use but it was still a challenge. Cam was surprisingly calm and collected…must have been my stellar steering directions! LOL!! Got the cottage after the boys slept in the car and we went swimming…. it was cold but the sun was so nice and warm. Played some cards and then an early night…we were expecting Sam to be up early again however, he slept! As always we had a great weekend. Cam has the boys to himself next camping trip at the Love family camping weekend – I’m off to Windsor for Veronica’s bridal shower – a weekend alone….how will that fare? Hopefully Cam will chronicle the weekend!




MORE PICTURES TO COME.....

Wonderland

Last weekend we took the boys to Wonderland. It was the annual OPG day so we got a deal on tickets and met a few people that we knew. We only lost Charlie for 3-4 minutes at the most so it was a pretty good day.
Cam

McRae Park

From my camping journal

McRae Provincial Park – May 29-31, site 165 – grassy, open and awesome!!!

Friday:
Arrived later than usual as Cam was on a training course at work and had to put in his time. We arrived at 6pm and shortly followed by the Monty’s. Very impressed with the sites as they are big, open and grassy. Not much for privacy but when there are 4 families on the 4 sites around you….it’s not a big deal. We fed the kiddies and put them to bed around 9ish – a little late for them and it showed….Charlie was wired up!!! Around 9:30pm he finally calmed down and went to sleep. We had some drinks by the fire and while most of went to bed around midnight – Cam and Alan stayed up until 1am! Crazy buggers! They had a great time chatting it up.

Saturday:
Calling for thunderstorms off and on all day. We had beautiful sunshine and heat all day. It was fabulous. The first time my skin has seen sunlight since February and the other ladies were lapping it up too. We all got pretty burnt but it wasn’t too bad because it felt so good and honestly, we didn’t know we were getting burned. The kids had a great time at the beach for about an hour and then all day they were running around and playing while the adults vegged out and watched the babies play under the shelter. It was a great day and it managed to convince Jacky that it is okay to go camping. Her rather frightening experience last time is slowly melting away. We started getting dinner ready around 5ish (after having some very yummy seafood chowder courtesy of Jacky – and yes, the tomato base was good Jill!). John and Marian had come to visit so they entertained the kids while supper was being prepared. Read: the kids were in the back of the pick up truck (the bed) and John was teasing them all – but they LOVED it! As soon as dinner was ready the sky turned and the wind picked up! Oh crap….here comes the storm. Cam ate dinner and watched the boys while I frantically cleaned up the site for the impending storm. We (the guys and I) got everything cleaned up and then the heavens opened up. Derek, Ang and the kids all came to our camper while the boys had baths and they watched a DVD. We were planning on spending the evening inside watching the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (yes, we had a tv!) but as soon as it was bedtime – magically, the sun came back out. It was perfect – we put the kids to bed and then we had a fire. It was pretty frosty after all that rain so by 11pm we were all in bed. It was a lovely fabulous day – the real reason we are addicted to camping!

Sunday:
Woke up to a cold and frosty day. The boys were awake around 7ish and Cam threw a movie on for them while I slept in until 8 – it was great! Sam had some breaky and then back to bed while Charlie (as per the norm) went to the Monty’s to eat his breakfast…LOL!!! We have to pack up today but we are not really in a hurry to get going. The weather turned for the worse and the wind picked up. We packed up and all of us were gone by 11am. We pumped out and drove to my parents house where Pat and Ted were visiting for the weekend. We saw them for about an hour and then we all headed out again. Going to Nana and Papa’s for supper…yummy!
Alicia

Trip to the (Oshawa) Zoo

Not sure if Alicia has posted about the zoo before (and too lazy to look). It really is more of a farm than a zoo but is perfect for the kids. Mom and Dad got us a family pass for the year which is great because it is a perfect place to go for a little walk and is only a 10 minute drive from the house. When we get there Charlie gets a bag of popcorn from which he feeds both the animals and himself. Always a good way to get some exercise and put in a couple of hours.

Cam

Emily Park - May Long Weekend

Again...my camping journal!

Emily Park – May long weekend – 15-18
Site 251 – soaking wet!!!!

Friday:
Arrived around 2ish and got settled in. The boys were supposed to nap and finally Charlie fell asleep – Sam on the other hand – did not want to settle down. The Monty’s arrived around 4:30pm – one of the earliest arrival times ever! It was great – we made pizza’s and had a feast (The Smith’s arrived shortly after as well – Cam helped erect their new camper with a couple bumps along the way) . It was Cam’s 31st birthday so The Monty’s had a mini chocolate chip muffin for Cam with a candle – it was very sweet! The kids were knackered so by 8pm they were all pretty much in bed. We lit the fire up and chatted as always. Most were in bed between 10:30-11:30pm.
It got pretty cold at night so Trigger bunked with us for the night – I’m sure she loved the micro furnaces blowing on her throughout the night. Well most of the night anyway….Sam woke up at 1:30 am and would not really calm down so I gave him a bottle but realized that the furnaces weren’t on anymore – apparently we popped a breaker and they were not working! Got that remedied and the rest of the night passed without a hitch!

Saturday:
Sammy woke up around 6am but stayed in bed until 6:45 when both kids came into bed with us. We tried to put on a movie so that we could catch a couple more zzzz’s but they were not having any part of that! We got up and Charlie and Cam went to play outside while Sam had his first nap. We knew the forecast so the boys got all dressed up in their rain gear and hit the puddles! Had a great day – splashing around! Donna and Grant came up for the day and arrived just around 11ish. Tricia and Kevin came also with their RV and it got stuck! They pretty much waited the rest of the day for someone to help them get out. Cam pulled them out with the maintenance staff’s chain. They were totally peeved….a huge lack of communication by the teenage staff…..hmmm…. We had a great feast of steak, potatoes, Caesar salad, asparagus and a Black Forest cake – who says you have to rough it when you camp? The weather cleared up so we had a fire once the kiddies were in bed. It got really cold and windy so we didn’t last long around the fire. I think it was about 9:30 when Cam went to bed and the last of us were not far behind – I was in bed at 10:30!

Sunday:
Sammy was awake a couple times during the night and between coughing fits and blowing my nose I know that neither Cam nor myself got much sleep. Woke up to very cold but sunny weather. Hung inside for a while until it got a little bit warmer. I honestly didn’t keep tight tabs on Charlie but he was playing around the gang for the day so he was always in someone’s line of vision! Sammy was still feeling under the weather but managed to get outside for a walk. Tricia’s friend Gabbey and her hubby Mark and baby Sophia popped in and we hung out at our site while my boys slept – all of them…even Cam! When they all woke up it was time to get supper started – yummy ribs! Cam helped Mike and Jacky pack up as they decided to leave a little early. Jacky has to return to work on Tuesday after maternity leave so she’s a little sad….don’t blame her…I remember the feeling fondly. We had some great supper as always and while Cam cleaned up I took Charlie out to watch the fire for a couple minutes before bed time. It got cold at night so Trigger was once again treated to the boy’s bedroom floor. Sammy woke up once and I just nursed him and put him back to sleep – it was an easy night.
Alicia

Monday:
Wake up at 7am with Alan walking in our camper! They were out of propane and their hypothermic children needed some heat! Cam got up and gave him a tank of propane and then the kids came into bed with us – for a couple minutes anyway…I kicked them out and went back to sleep for almost an hour – it was very nice! Cam cooked a nice big hash at Jill’s and then it was naptime for the little ones. We will be packing up after naptime and heading home. We are going to the Arnold’s house tonight to celebrate Cam’s birthday (which was on Friday) – more great food I’m sure!

Sandbanks Provinical Park

When we go camping I write in a journal - since I had the computer with us I decided to type out adventures! Enjoy!

Sandbanks Provincial Park – Mother’s Day weekend May 8-10/09
Site 607 – very open but perfect when chilly outside!

Friday:
We arrived at 3:30pm to a beautiful warm day in Picton. Check-in was a breeze and the attendant informed us there was an alcohol ban – who knew? Of course – we decided to strictly adhere to the law and cracked a beer when we got on our site. Jim and Madison were already here and happily came over to greet us. Charlie and Madison quickly went off together exploring. Charlie is 2.5 years old now and Madison is 7. This was Sam’s first camping trip of his life at 7 months old and he did swimmingly. He loves extra attention (who wouldn’t) so he was happy that the kids were talking with him. Alan and Jill (plus kiddies – Hayley 5, Avery 3.5 and Matthew 11 months) arrived around 8ish. They got stuck in some wicked storms on the way and we were waiting for it to hit us. However – no rain! Good times!
Bruce Huxter and his family came around 5ish and set up their camp and their friends Lyle and Connie came too – along with Jamie and Nicole – plus everyone’s dogs! It was a great campfire that night. Lyle is a bit of a pyro and did the fire up Newfie style – minus the tires!
I started the “crying it out” method on Sam to get him to sleep through the night (he was still getting up once or twice a night to nurse) so we knew to expect a different schedule from him. He was up twice but only cried for about 10 minutes each time. Didn’t wake up Charlie so we were all pretty happy about that. Charlie was a champ and slept on the top bunk despite a little bit of protest.

Saturday:
We were weary of the weather all day – the forecast called for scattered showers and 20mm of rain. It thunder boomed and there was lightening and lots of rain but it didn’t put a damper on our day. The kids were playing all day outside – riding bikes, playing soccer, making dandelion soup. We had sun in between the rain and some wicked wind but we had a great time.
I went with Jill and the kids for a little walk around our loop and besides being a little bit tortuous, due to an over tired child, it was nice to walk around – have to keep that up! Sam had great naps and ate like a horse – the fresh air does that do us all. Nothing extremely out of the norm for our day – just hanging around, enjoying each other’s company and loving that the kids all played together (and nicely for the most part). The kiddies all had baths and watched a movie at our place while we wound down from the day of fresh air and “sunshine”. Everyone was knackered so by 9pm the Monty’s were all-asleep and by 10pm Cam was. I stayed up at the fire for another 1.5 hours, as I knew I would get to sleep-in in the morning because it was Mother’s Day.

Sunday:
Charlie set the alarm for 6am – so that is what time we got up! A little bit on the early side but Cam let me stay in bed until Sam needed to be fed at 7:30. I showered and got ready for breakfast while Sam slept. It’s chilly out today but not raining so packing up will not be a big issue. We will have breakfast – hang out for a little while and then pack up to go home. It is Mother’s Day so I think we are off to the Arnold’s for dinner. As always the camping was great and I’m so happy it is camping season again! Next weekend is the May long weekend and we are off to Emily!
Alicia

Time is ticking!

I can't believe how quickly the time is going! Sam is 7 months old now and Charlie is 2.5 years! We haven't been up to much but busy as always. We are gearing up for the camping season - really looking forward to that! We go this weekend to Sandbanks (weather permitting) to continue our new tradition of camping on Mother's Day weekend.

We did our first family trip at the beginning of April. We went to Cam's friend Tim's cabin in Bancroft. We went to relax and we certainly did that! We ate, chatted and took the kids on the ATV's. On our way home we stopped at the Hunter's cabin and surprised them! It was a great time!
Alicia




My best friend Beth was married to her sweetie on April 18th and I was a part of the wedding so I occupied myself helping her out wherever I could. It was a beautiful day and a great wedding. Mom did the cake and flowers - truly stunning.


Sam starting swimming lessons in April and he loves it. He is my little fish. He happily goes under water and loves to splash! Cam was able to join us for his first class and took some cute pictures.



Charlie is talking up a storm and being as sassy as ever. He is looking forward to camping and loves being outside playing. Cam bought him a playcentre for the backyard and he is always interesting in playing. He also loves playing hockey. It's all about the "Stanley-O Cup" for him! A jock in the making I think!


So - I'll try to update during the camping season but we all know how horrible I am at updating the blog! Cheers!