Happy 1st Birthday Aubree!

Happy Birthday Aubree!

Aubree's new toy phone, hello hello

Aubree loves presents!

Isabelle gave Aubree some presents too, what a sweatheart she is

Birthday fun with the family

NY City Trip with Heather's Parents

This Friday we took Heather's parents into NY City. We drove in and parked near the Temple then we took the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry, where we rode it back and forth to get a closeup look at the Statue of Liberty and the downtown skyline. We then walked up to the World trade center area to see the construction. Then we rode the subway up to Times Square and ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. Next, we walked down to 5th ave. and Isabelle got something at the American Girl store and we toured the St. Patrick's Cathedral and watched the ice skaters in Rockefeller Center. We then drove home. It was a balmy 40 degrees but sunny otherwise. We had a really nice time. Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone!!

Eating good at Bubba Gump's Shrimp house

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry station

Enjoying the view on the Ferry

Ihop for Lunch today. Aubree has an affinity to all things book-like, including the menu. She will sit there and turn the pages over and over again. She has a tooth coming up this weekend and is mighty cranky.

After the big jump, success! This is Isabelle's "Superstar" pose.

Isabelle's first attempt at jumping off the diving board, this is very scary for her and nobody else in her class will attempt it. I just keep thinking how badly I want to do a backflip with a double twist - I think my brain is wired wrong after all those years on the trampoline.

At swiming lessons, we get to go in and watch Isabelle swim today.

Primary Activity Day

It's that time again, Primary activity Saturday, which means a lot of stress and rush to prepare a massive activity. This time it is a Pirate's treasure hunt theme, the kids were broken into 4 groups with a captain and they all got to wear eye patches and bandanas. They were all given a map of the church where different activities (primary focus of course) were marked and held. At the completion of each activity the team would get a puzzle piece that would eventually clue them into the treasure in the Bishop's office. They had a temptation room called the "Everlasting Chocolate Mountain" or something close to that effect that was not on the map to try and get the kids to trade in their puzzle pieces for candy, funny stuff. The children had a really good time as usual and I am now safe for at least another month or so until the next activity and I lose my wife to the world of frantic preparation...

Pirate's map of locations in the church for the activity

Heather is manning the "Bog of Eternal Stench" location on the map for the activity.

Pirate's booty for the Primary activity

Look, a pig in Toronto!

After a week in Toronto dealing with problems, I am obliged to take advantage of food. Near the hotel is a place called Boston Pizza that I decided to try out, it was very good. My outbound flight was a disaster to which I will have to forever strike from memory (after I write this of course). My flight was to leave for LaGuardia airport in NY at 11am so I arrived at around 9am to get through customs etc. only to find my flight was cancelled, so I then got booked on the 2pm flight but because of weather in NY they delayed, and delayed, and delayed forever. Finally the plane and pilots arrived (from LaGuardia of course) and we got on the plane at about 5:30 but then were told while we were trapped, that they would make a decision at around 7:30 if the plane would be able to take off, so we drove the plane to a remote location and sat there for 2 hours. We took off at about 8pm and the total flight time was only 1 hour!!! So my day was wrecked and 10 hours in an airport is something I would never want to do again.... blah. And all this for a half inch of snow at the stink'n airport, sheesh.

Alone in Toronto, eating at Boston Pizza, yummy brownie icecream delight