Happy Thanksgiving and GG's 90th Birthday

For Thanksgiving this year we headed up to Prince George. We don't usually go up as it's a long way to go for what turns into a one and a half day visit. But this year was a special event. My Grandmother's 90th Birthday! In our house she goes by GG in PG for Great Grandmother but at this party she and many names. Mom, Grandmother, Great Grandmother and Aunt to name a few. She's still going strong and lives on her own. We had relatives from all over including my cousins from Toronto and Vancouver Island.

The kids had great fun with their usual Prince George games including
1) Lego. This time with the aunts and uncles.
2) Playing with Dax. My parents cat.
3) The marble board. This game is older than my Dad.
4) The box of special toys.
5) A trip to Grandma's where there are more special toys.
6) A trip to Uncle Eric's to see Yoda. My brother's cat.
We didn't have a chance to get out to the lake this time.

This was also a time for Callie and Carter to have some fun with their cousins from Victoria. Erin and Kerri flew up with their kids Avan and Rovan.  These ones are my cousins kids making them my second cousins and I think Callie and Carter's first cousins once removed. I have no idea how many cousins there are now. It's hard to keep track. They had great fun rolling down the hill in the back hard and for some reason Callie decided to rake the leaves into a pile at the top of the hill. I think she convinced at least half a dozen of us to help her. She was trying to make a pile big enough for my brother's dog Misty to jump in though I don't think we ever got to that point. It was a really great weekend trip and much too short.

The Apple Barn

At the beginning of October we took a trip to the Apple Barn. This has turned into another one of annual our day trip destinations. It's mainly an apple farm where you can pick your own apples, however like many farms it's branched out into farm tourism. It's got a petting zoo, a pumpkin patch, and a giant air pillow. If you have the room (and I mean a lot of room) this is a much safer option for a trampoline. It slowly slopes off the sides into a sand walkway and for the adults it's a lot of fun creating giant ripples that send kids flying. (or so I hear.)

It was too early in the season for us to feel like getting our pumpkin and we find them cheaper at Superstore anyways, but if we had wanted to get one they had them nicely categorized by size and shape. Carter had great fun walking up and down and through the aisles of pumpkins. The funny thing about our trip was that it was too early to get pumpkins and almost too late to get apples. We did managed to get a bag of nice apples but the pickings were slim. I think early September is probably a better time.

We finished our day off with a trip through the corn maze. It was the ideal time for this as the ground was still dry and the corn was nice and full. It was a giant maze with five stations that you needed to find. You coloured each finger with a different colour and afterwards you got a task based on the order that you coloured your fingers. There were dozens of options so rather than explaining to Callie how it worked I just made her cluck like a chicken and had Carter act like a gorilla. Valid options though perhaps not matching up with their colour order.

A Trip to Krause Berry Farm

On Saturday we headed out to Krause Berry Farm. Even with the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland there is still some great little trips we can make to interesting destinations. Krause Berry Farm is just off of Highway 1 in Langley and is open during the summer season selling berries, pies, baked good and all sorts of tasty treats. They've got horse rides and pumpkin picking in the fall and they must be doing well as they've added a great playground.

I first made it out here by bike during the Fraser Valley Grape Escape bike for MS which was a two day 150km bike ride that included a number of Fraser Valley wineries as well as the berry farm. Our favourites are their pies and this amazing creation that's cream and berries in a single serving shortcake. Even though it was over a year ago Callie still remembers coming out with Kerry during 'Daddy's bike ride' to ride in the horse buggy.

It was a hectic summer so this was our first trip out there this year. The only berry picking that was left was blueberries and blackberries though they also have strawberries, raspberries and a few others. I need to get a hold of some canes of their raspberries as they're much bigger that the ones I have. The kids had a lot of fun ducking in and out of the rows of berries and of course we came back with a giant pie that was about 80% berry.

Carter's First Soccer Practice

Every couple months we get Callie and Carter into some sort of sporting class. They both started with swimming lessons and 'Boots to Blades' skating as well as multi-sport which was a mix of soccer, floor hockey, basketball and many others. We'll keep them both in swimming but we've also been watching to see what activities they'd like to continue. Callie has moved on to dancing which includes two class on Saturday's now. Tap Dancing at 9:15a and Ballet at 11:00a. For Carter it has been pretty easy figuring out that he'd like to go with soccer. Whenever there is a ball he's out there kicking.

We've probably dealt with a couple dozen different teachers now through the Surrey leisure programs. The swimming and dancing teachers have been pretty good but we were really getting varying degrees of quality for things like Multi-Sport. I wasn't expecting much better for this soccer class since it's for ages 2-4 and it's indoor. I was pleasantly surprised however with his teacher. She had a very clear plan for the first class and even though the ages were quite varying she was still able to keep the class together and moving. It helps that we're still at a stage where the parents are out there helping each kid.

By the end of the class she had taught them three important skills. The first skill was stopping the ball. I thought this was very ambitious but quite a few kids figured it out. Carter fell down a few times but he was eventually stopping with the best of them. She then moved on to 'little kick, little kick'. Carter has always been more of a 'big kick, run' kind of player so it took a bit to slow him down and then when he did he was only moving the ball about 2 inches at a time. The final skill was 'Blast Off' where they put the ball up on a flat cone and kicked as hard as they can. She brought it all together with a 'Little kick, little kick, stop, blast off' exercise. This should be a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Carter

I'm about a week behind getting Carter's birthday blogged. I'm choosing to believe that it's because I was behind on getting the cruise blog done but it's probably just because the second child get's forgotten. Good thing Carter's so easy going. Having Carter's birthday in mid September is going to be tough. When he's going to school he's going to have to show up with birthday invitations on the first day of school and with the first couple weeks of school being so hectic we're going to have to plan over the Labour Day weekend.

We did manage to get a bit of a party together for him in time. We didn't start Callie's friend birthday's until she was four so we kept Carter's third birthday to just family.  Uncle Corey and Auntie Carmen came over with Kristen and new cousin Ryan. Carter had decided that he wanted a Pirate theme so everyone had their best Pirate costumes on. (Mostly stuff we had from the Pirate night on the Cruise.) Even Ryan had a bit of a pirate costume on with the striped pyjamas.

Callie helped out a lot with Carter's gifts. She convinced him he wanted to get a scooter so that he could scooter around with her.  He got a nice red three wheeled scooter and a Cars sleeping bag from us as well as numerous gifts from friends and family. It was good when the family gifts were delivered because Callie was very worried that Carter wouldn't get as many presents as she did. It was quite refreshing to have her getting along with her brother so well even if it is for just one day. I think she feels he deserves at least one day. :)

Disney Crise - Our Final Day At Sea (By Kerry Schwab)

Today is our last day of the cruise. I got up this morning at 6:30a and headed up to the gym. I did 30 minutes of spinning and then tried to go up top but it's so windy that you can't even breathe when you try to cross the deck. I got some more cereal to add to our stash (Carter is living off of Rice Crispies) and one of the boxes blew across the deck and I had to chase it! Oh.. last night we talked to our tables mates about Ketchikan and they said it was a nice place and that they did get off the ship but only went into one store, (the one closest to the ship) and came back on. Good grief.

Everyone is still asleep so hopefully they are well rested and we have a good final day on board. Carter and Evan headed up to the buffet first this morning then Miss Callie and I followed, She didn't get up until 9:30. We went to check out the pictures on deck 4 when we were done eating and the kids spotted Mickey and Minnie just walking around in their sailor outfits. We didn't have our camera with us so I flew down two flights of stairs, grabbed the camera and flew back up. They were still there and they hadn't been spotted by the masses yet. We got some great pictures with them. We headed to the gift shop for our last visit.

The kids had $10.00 left each and so Callie decided that they would pool their money to buy a Mickey Pirate play set. While our room was being made up we hung out at our favourite quiet spot on deck 3, the Route 66 port hole seats. Evan and I took turns getting food from the buffet and bringing it back to our room. Today was seafood day! My plate was piled high with 2 types of shrimp and crab legs! Yummy! Callie and I also stood in line to see Donald and Daisy in their sailor suits. I love Donald! They are really laying the magic on thick today. There is music playing everywhere and we're always bumping into characters.

This afternoon was one of our best experiences. We took the kids to the lab to participate in Ratatouille's cooking school The kids had a great time making chocolate chip cookies. Chef Pepe was hilarious. He kept picking on Evan calling him a 'Crazy Canadian Guy'. We all had a blast. All of the bowls each individual kid had mixed were put in one big bowl and sent to deck 3 to bake for 2 minutes. They miraculously came back as individually wrapped cookies. Very fun. Tonight was our last dinner at Triton's. Poor Carter fell asleep at the dinner table. Evan and I both had the tenderloin and I had baked Alaska for dessert. It was delicious!

The show tonight was amazing! It was called Disney Dreams. We got to see Ariel, Beaty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Aladin, Pinnochio, Mickey and Minnie. It was fabulous show. Callie and I really loved it.

We really loved our cruise, the only issues we had were that the weather was really rotten and that resulted in no deck atmosphere. Hardly anyone was ever out there and the pirate deck party had to be moved inside which wasn't as exciting. We had a really wonderful experiences and have some truly amazing memories.

Disney Cruise - Ketchikan (By Kerry Schwab)

It is now 7:00a and I am sitting in the bathroom writing and eating fruit so as not to wake the sleeping beauties:) I got up at 5:30a and forced myself to go run my 6 laps on deck 4 and I'm so glad I did! I finally got to see a humpback whale! It was quite big and kept surfacing (just the middle of it ) and blowing water and air out its blowhole. It stayed with the ship for a while and then wandered off. Beautiful! I was actually able to see the sun come up this morning as it wasn't raining. Hopefully the weather holds up today but apparently Ketchikan is situated in the second largest rainforest in the world!

We don't dock until 1:00p today and are only there for six hours so unfortunately everyone will probably want to get on and off the ship at the same time. The people at our table have not got off the ship yet. I think Shaleena is about the same age as me and is a dentist at Metrotown. Her husband looks about 10 years older than her and is hard to understand. He said he's originally from India but grew up in Kenya. I'm not sure what he does but he's not working right now. They have a 6 year old daughter (Narissa) and an almost 2 year old daughter (Kalia) They live in Port Coquitlam and are ready to go home because they are cold and tired.

Carter and Evan went up to the buffet first while I wait for the "Princess" (to become less snarly). We left about 15 minutes later and she chose scrambled eggs and hash browns (just like the ones at McDonalds) and she ate it all. We met up with Evan and Carter and headed to the Promenade Lounge for the paper airplane contest (we didn't do so well). Then we took the kids to "The Lab" for the Jr Rangers Talk. The kids made Petraglyphs out of clay and quite enjoyed it. Afterwards we ventured to the Oceaneers Club where they played on the pirate ship and big slide and Carter made a bear mask. We then went up to the 9th deck and filled our water jugs. Callie decided she wanted to go for a swim so we went back to the room and picked up Evan (we had parted ways at the lab) and he took the kids in the Mickey pool while I took pictures. It was very chilly out there! Carter went under and got very scared so Evan bundled him up and took him back to the stateroom.

I grabbed lunch from Pluto's Dog House (right beside the pool) for the kids then grabbed Callie and we headed back to the room. There was only about a dozen kids in the pool. No one stayed on deck for very long. When I'm out in the morning I run into the same 1/2 dozen people everyday. I guess we're the only ones brave enough to be out there! We got off the ship at 1:45p in Ketchikan. The main street was the usual gaudy t-shirt stores and jewelry stores but we found our way to the South Alaskan Discovery Centre to continue the work the kids were doing with the Ranger program. They didn't have any activities running today so I asked about a nice walk/hike that we could do.

The Ranger sent us on a beautiful little tour called Married Men's Trail. It started at a very quaint little fishing village area called Creek Street. The shops were all on stilts with a boardwalk connecting everything. The stores sold merchandise that was almost solely made in Alaska. I got some jam, coffee and canned smoked salmon for Mom and Dad. Callie picked out some salmon treats for the dogs. The "village" was at the mouth of the river that runs through town. The salmon were crazily running. We saw two cute seals having lunch in the river. As we walked up the boardwalk the river was rushing really fast.

We walked past a salmon ladder on the way to the fish hatchery. Very few people were on the walk we went on so it was quite peaceful. It didn't start raining until we were almost at the ship so we got really lucky. The town was really old with lots of stairs and steep driveways leading up to the houses. Everything is made out of wood and a lot of buildings were rotting but it was a very lush and pretty place. Evan walked us to the ship and then I brought the kids back on board while he went into look around some more. There were stairs leading up to the top of the hill in the centre of town and a neat trolley elevator that was $2.00 to ride up that he was thinking of exploring.

Now to get ready for "Pirate Night!" Carter hasn't pooped in 48 hours so we are also awaiting a storm. Evan returned soaking wet but he found a geocache. Then we got ready for our last dinner in Animator's Palette. Carter was super cranky. He ended up falling asleep in my arms at the table right after my soup arrived. He slept for about 45 minutes then woke up as we tried to transfer him back to the room. He cried for a while then said that he was sick. Callie really wanted to see Gnomeo and Juliet in 3-D so I took her to the Buena Vista Theatre and left the boys in the room. Just after we got back from the movie it was time for the pirate deck party.

The weather wasn't good enough to have it outside so they had to hold it in the atrium. Callie and I checked it out for about 10 minutes but she thought it was too loud and there were no characters so we left. When we got back, Evan ventured out to see what the Pirate buffet was all about (the only late night buffet the whole week). He came back with an assortment of desserts, including crepes. I'm so sick of food, I couldn't even look at the tray. Tonight we need to set our clocks ahead an hour so it's technically midnight right now and everyone is still awake. It's really windy and the ship is rocking, so I thought as a responsible parent I should give everyone Gravol! Here's hoping we have a good night's sleep and a good final day tomorrow.

The dinner in Animator's Palette was very neat tonight. The night started out with everything in black and white; the pictures on the walls, the video screens and the server's vests. The walls and screens gradually started to turn coloured and at dessert time all the wait staff disappeared and paraded back in lead by Mickey in his Sorcerer's Apprentice cloak and hat and everyone's vests were now colourful cartoon drawings. Very cool.