It Begins

It's Bagpipe Season.

What Fall Should Look Like..

(Wow, has it been a week since we returned home from our trip? Jeepers! Sorry all, had a bit of a hard time getting back into my groove. I am remiss and will try to make it up to you!)

The day we arrived at Grandpa W. and N.'s house, they had had an overnight foliage fall. BrilliantTrying to teach Izzie how to shuffle in the leaves.

"Why do you keep running away Mommy?" To take your picture, now hold still...

My little poser.

Oh, wait..she wanted to go down the hill.

So I tossed her into a pile of leaves instead!

This is her "Me no likey" face.

And then she realized that she was wearing mittens.

Still entranced by her mittens.

And then we went down the hill.

Picking out a leaf to bring back to Grandpa.

I think she's done.

Ah Winnipeg for all your fine qualities, and there are many, I just haven't experienced a fall day like this in your vast prairie-ness. So many colours. And the shining sun. Can you try and work on that Winnipeg? No? K, good talk.

Away

Hello All!

Izzie and I are taking a trip. A flying trip. (And leaving behind poor Phil.) We are flying to Toronto to visit friends and family.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and we'll see you here next weekend.

And to Phil, good bye my dear. I miss you already.

Sunday in the Zoo with Family

W. and E. start off our zoo pictures. E. had just looked over, hence the look on her face.

Phil tells the girls all about donkeys. Well, all he knows about donkeys which is repeating "Donkey" over and over again. The toddlers look amused.

Poppa catches Izzie's attention once again. Donkeys have nothing on him.

Imagine my shock and delight when I saw that the zoo was surrounded by trees. Trees people! I'm in the middle of the North Dakota prairies and there are trees surrounding me! They were cottonwoods, and there was cotton floating all around us. If you look closely at the walkway/ground, you can see some.

W. loves the horses, so naturally we spent a while with them. I don't know what Izzie thought of them, but....
...everyone sure seemed interested. (I love the line of noses in this picture.)

Ducks. Izzie loves ducks. Not as much as she loves parks, but close.

The otter habitat. We got there just as he climbed out of the water. He didn't climb back in, even after I offered to be his life guard. Jerk.

Phil's parents treated all of us to a zoo train ride. I look a little stressed (I can see my pinched mouth from here) because Izzie just saw a park (which was beside the train) and I'm trying to keep her in the train. We had to buy popcorn to keep her satisfied.
Last shot. The cousins on a sewer grate. They climbed up there, but once the cameras were brought out, Izzie changed her mind. Kudos to Poppa for trying to keep her on there. But once she's decided, there's no stopping her.

Well, that is all. I hope you enjoyed our vacation photos as much as we enjoyed our vacation.

Last Saturday

I promised you more pictures and I aim to please.

These are the pictures from the Saturday. We were very busy. Here, there and lots of parks. That's when we realized that Izzie does not like being taken away from parks. But more on that later.

Izzie and W. have fun with their Poppa. Izzie doesn't look too happy that he's on the phone and not paying attention to her....

And just like her mom, when she demands attention and she receives it! But not for the same reasons of course....
The Baby Magnet playing with the girls. This is E. Phil's sister and W.'s mother. I have decided that she is the Baby Magnet. Whenever Izzie was missing, I knew where to look.

This is Johann. (I think that's how it's spelled.) I love this freaking cat.

After spending a while at this park, we decided to sit in the shade. Izzie didn't like that idea. So she ran off.

"Return to me little one!" And she did...and then ran off to the park again.

Her reaction to our attempts to de-park her. Unhappy.

Phil, E. and W. have fun relaxing while Izzie plots her next move. Look at her back, you can see the plotting in her shoulders and in the top of her hat.

Post bath playtime. The girls get attention from a kitty who isn't afraid of them. Izzie is in heaven.
Ah, the fun of vacations. Soon to come are the Sunday photos. After I've done the laundry....

Traveling

I have no idea how my parents did it. We would travel from Toronto, Ontario to Kenora, Ontario almost every summer. It's a rough drive, 2200 kilometers, which is 2 full days of 10 - 12 hour drives with two young, cranky, bored children....long before mini-vans were equipped with portable DVD players. And then after a few days they'd have to drive back home.

We traveled to Bismarck, North Dakota to visit Phil's family last weekend. (It was a long overdue trip, since we hadn't visited since American Thanksgiving.) It was a fun weekend, but the driving was rough. We don't have a portable DVD player either.

A 7 - 8 hour drive, including stops for gas, breaks and possible runnings away from the car screaming. Just kidding. Izzie is a pretty good traveler. But she kept giving us the ASL sign for "All Done." No pumpkin, sorry, we just started.

None of us were fun to be around at the end of our trip! But we've all recouped and I have more photos to share...after I've unpacked.