The Zoo

We enjoyed a day at Safari Niagara the other week with our family and a couple of friends with their kids. It was a beautiful day - a bit hot - but the kids enjoyed the splash park to cool down in twice that day!

Luckily no fingers were lost at this stop...big swan!!
The bears were busy fighting away (playing I imagine) - enjoying the cool of the water!

Watching the hippos in the water - the zoo-worker tried to entice them out of the water with a couple apples...but they were quite content staying in (too hot out!)

Enjoying the apple from the water

Lovely giraffes - amazingly tall!

Caleb on the look-out! He was chosen (as were a couple others from our group of friends) to feed the giraffes

Caleb and his 2 seconds of fame :)

For the other disappointed kids, we hung around and got up close and personal with the giraffes after the crowd dispersed

Our Group :)

Hyenas lazing around...as were a lot of the other animals - it became quite hot in the afternoon

Lovely pink flamingos

Might be a snowy owl...I'm not 100% sure - maybe if I saw him with some snow that might help ;)

Some kind of hawk or falcon

Another hawk...

Nothing like a bald eagle stare to put you in your place!

Ahhhh...time to cool down in the water park. Here Joel and Anna are having some water gun fun!

Joel having a blast!

Sara didn't really mind who was walking her...as long as she was being walked ;)

Oh to be a baby...taking a cat nap anywhere!

Afternoon siesta!

More napping...

Everyone watching the leopard - it was pretty active...especially with the smaller kids! I'm thinking it was thinking...snack!!

Growling at the kids

I found this lion quite hilarious...lounging around like a little kitten!

Better picture of the lion here...a little more dominant looking (compared to the previous picture!)

His mane was a tad scraggly looking - kind of sporting the dread-locks look!
Female lazing around...

Wolf hanging out in the cave...trying to keep cool

Esther and Kelsie posing for a picture.

Later in the day we saw the hippos out of the water...no wonder they like it in there so much...look at their body size compared to their legs/feet!

Sara hamming it up on the tram ride. We took advantage of paying the extra to take the train at any point in the day - it turned out to be helpful - cutting out some hot hot walking to get to the water park ;)

Kids in the groundhog hole. (apparently steaming hot!)

Back at the splash pad for another dip before heading home...

Sara walking, walking, walking again :)

Esther and Matthew waiting to be dunked!

Oh...and look - Sara walking again ;)

Overview of the splash pad.

We also all enjoyed some paddle boating with the kids...but forgot to take pictures of it...

So this is the best that I could do... ;)

Smart Anna

Alvar brought home sunflowers for me yesterday after work - I do LOVE sunflowers! (thanks hunny :)

Anna noticed the flowers sometime after supper - and here's what she said:

"Dad's a GENIUS for Mom!"

Yup, she's 100% correct ;)

Thank You!

I love getting the mail.

Call me a cheap date - but seriously, I love receiving anything in the mail - whatever...even bills (even though I don't want to pay them!) - it just makes me feel important and makes my day ;)

So, when I checked the mail today, I was pretty excited.

Was it a parcel?

Nope.

How about a letter from an old friend?

Nope.

Maybe an early Christmas card??

Nope (um that would be a tad early).

It was shoes.

Sandals to be precise. Sandals for kids - and they will fit Sara by next summer I hope because they are super cute.

So thank you to whom ever dropped them into our mail box (I really don't have a clue!). It was a nice surprise to come home to today - and I look forward to using the sandals sometime in the future!

Lunch Time with Sara

I had wanted to catch a video of Sara saying her first words - "All Done" - but Sara had better things to do then that!

What's Lurking in Your Backyard?

Ew.

Sara is One!!

It's hard to believe that one short year ago Sara joined our family! Last week we celebrated her 1st birthday already.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!!

You bring much joy and laughter to our family - always smiling and very content! We thank God for you and pray that God blesses you in the year to come!

Cyprus Lake - Final Part

With only a couple days left of our camping trip, we had to try to cram in as much as possible to make sure we did all we wanted to do! Well, looking back now I realize that we will just have to take another camping trip there to do what we missed! There's so much hiking and sight seeing to do, just not enough time in one week :)

One of the days we took the kids back to the Visitor's Centre for a creepy crawly session. The kids had a chance to look thru some murky swamp water and see some lovely (really exaggerating here!!) bugs. Gross. Really gross - there were some very big "things" in there that I would gladly stomp under my foot ;) The kids enjoyed it though and learned some new info about bugs!

Using medicine droppers the kids could push the water around to see the creepy crawlies in the water.

Everyone had a chance to play around in the bowls of bugs as we were the only people to show up - lucky for the kids!

On our way back to the campsite, we took a stop in at Singing Sands Beach - located on Lake Huron. We had heard of this place from Danielle (thanks!!!) and decided to check it out. All I can say is very cool! There is a huge sandy beach that leads into a very long walk out into the water. Quite literally it takes a very long time to get to the deep water - therefore the water was super warm (like bath water) and the kids enjoyed this little detour quite a bit!

The beach was VERY windy - not the kind of place to sit and soak up sun as it's just too breezy there - here's a shot of the ripples on the water.

Alvar is in the middle there walking out to the deeper water - he's only up to his knees here and I'm up to my mid-calves at this point...crazy how long it took to walk into the water!

There's Alvar again...wwwwaaaayyyy out there and only up to his thighs I think.

Caleb wasn't as fond of this beach only because of the wind...made it very chilly to be standing up - especially if you were wet.

Anna soaking up the waves

The next morning (I think this is Friday - second last day of our trip) the water was like glass on Cyprus Lake. Just beautiful, peaceful and so calm!

We enjoyed another hike this day as well - we cut past the Grotto and went further out to see more awesome scenery! Here is the rocky lake shore that separates Georgian Bay from Marr Lake. Hard to walk on, I think we were very fortunate to not sprain any ankles here!

The girls enjoying the breeze off the Bay

Some waves happening - it was beautiful!

Cousins enjoying the view

Some funky moss that covered entire pine trees - it was kinda cool!

Another scenery shot (couldn't get enough!)

You've seen this picture already - it's our new blog picture of the kids on a rock that juts out from the path. We were super careful because the drop was huge - but worth the picture in the end though!

We discovered a hole in the path that lead down to a cavern - so we went down one by one thru the rock. Even Sara was able to go down (kept her in the backpack) - it was quite a sight when we got down to the other side...

Esther taking her turn down the hole

This was the view from below the hole - it was so cool!

Sara in her favourite spot...the backpack :)

Alvar and I enjoyed a canoe ride together on the last evening of our camping trip. The lake was like glass that night, absolutely beautiful!

Canoe shot

Sunset on the lake

We even got to see a beaver! He took off pretty quick when we spotted him...

...and gave a big splash with his tail to let us know that we were not appreciated!
We also saw turtles and a lovely water snake - didn't get a picture of either (they were too fast)

The reflection on the water was gorgeous!

Another sunset shot

Ok...and one last sunset shot of our Cyprus Lake camping trip!

What a fantastic time - I think we all came away very thankful for such a great trip!

Thanks everyone for the great memories!