60 Hour work weeks and cottage time?

Cam has been so busy with the latest outage at work that he is working the 60 hours a week - the rest of us (boys and me) have been enjoying the cottage, and Cam when he can squeeze a day off. The weather is getting nice and the boys are pretty much able to spend all day outside at the cottage. We got our first taste of swarming black flies this past weekend and we have been warned that the next couple weeks they will start biting...so...we may hang around home for the next couple weeks! I can imagine how lucious and juicy my red-headed babe would be to the blood thirty savages! We have lots on the go right now. Starting in June I will be doing a part-time rotation with the Public Affairs manager at OPG. I will be working Wednesday to Friday until March of next year. I'm really excited to have some extra time off with the boys and get to spend some extra time at the cottage. Charlie starts JK in August so it will be a great time to be off with them. Cam's outage is on until the middle of July so he is hoping to take most of August off...it will be a well deserved break for him indeed!

This weekend we are celebrating my dad's retirement with a friend's part at his golf club Wyndance! It should be a great night and he is looking forward to seeing some friends he hasn't seen in a while. Since my brother and I are already married, they don't get to plan big parties anymore - I think mom might be more excited than my dad (well maybe not...but they are both excited).

Here are some pictures of the boys from the past weekend at the cottage and a couple from "mornings with dad" - that would be from 6-8am when mommy gets to sleep in!




The view from our porch window at the cottage - gorgeous!

They are besties - best friends and best enemies - but mostly they are just adorable!

My "baby" is getting so big! 19 months on April 28!

They loved playing "superman" on the neighbour's jungle gym!



It's nice to see Sammy still looking small - he has to be next to his dad to see it, but he is still my baby!

Just a quickie!

I don't have a lot of time for an update but wanted to share that the boys are good. I took the kiddies to Florida in February for a week to stay with my parents and although the weather wasn't nice - it was still great to have a holiday. Here are a couple pictures of us from our holiday!

Charlie has now completed swimming lessons, I'm still waiting on one more skating competition in April and then I'm done - spending lots of time at the cottage and generally keeping ourselves really busy!

Cheers!

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