It’s been a busy few weeks here on the farm and a quiet few weeks here on the blog.
First we were off on a sudden trip to Pickering to see Auntie Belinda and Uncle Stefan. On the way down we stopped in for a good visit with Great Grandma.
This time down, we went to LEGOLAND up at the giant Vaughn Mills mall.
Ella’s weight in LEGO.
154 LEGO bricks high.
This is the section I found the coolest. The Toronto skyline in LEGO.
Even Casa Loma. Sometimes the lights were on for ‘day’ but it looked so much cooler with the ‘night’ lights.
Trying out her car design (I tried not to think of the germs crawling around in those boxes of LEGO).
Lloyd, the Green Ninja. Ella can’t wait for the new Ninjago movie that’s coming out soon.
Happy LEGO girl. Ella was really happy because she was able to complete the mission and get all the stamps this time.
Next day we were off to the zoo.
Even though it was a scorching hot day, I think most of Toronto decided it was a good day for the zoo. So why we waited to get in we watched the carp in the creek.
Some of them were massive. Looks like the creek is having issues with algae bloom, like the lake here at home.
Still not too big for the carousel, though she was hoping it would go a little faster.
The grizzly bears were impressive. The picture doesn’t do it justice. These bears were massive, I certainly wouldn’t want to cross paths with one.
There’s a friendlier one.
Hard to imagine a penguin bigger than Ella. Also, $4 for that tiny Popsicle!! Thank goodness Uncle Stefan bought us wrist bands for the Zoomobile, that way we could do some riding instead of just walking.
Do you see what my crazy brave girl is doing??? The Gorilla Climb was so tall that I couldn’t get the whole thing in a picture. The website says it’s 33 feet! There was only one rope she didn’t walk across (at first), it had nothing to hang onto (just the tether rope). But Ella walked across it before her time was up. Special thanks to Uncle Stefan’s brother Nathan who stood in line with Ella while the rest of us hung out in the semi-air-conditioned cafe and re-hydrated.
Pygmy hippo, boy was he stinky.
Just a little hot. I should have packed my hat. I always kid Ella that she looks like Danica Patrick when she borrows Auntie B’s sunglasses. Danica is only our size and always wears over-sized sunglasses.
At the end of the Zoomobile route you get to go inside the enclosures.
Wild Mongolian ponies.
It was even too hot for Ella’s new red panda. Luckily we found a spot under a tree to wait for Uncle Stefan to bring the car.
We really wanted to see the baby pandas since they are leaving the zoo. But by the time we got around to them, it was an ‘at least’ 2 hour wait. Hopefully they will come back again.
We stopped to see Grandpa Jim and Grandma Linda on the way home (they are in Peterborough).
Sign of a good weekend in the City.
Came home on the Monday like always, then on Wednesday Colin and I headed out. We were off to the Hastings County Plowing Match. Wow, the parking lot was basically the size of Renfrew’s entire plowing match.
We didn’t hang around for the tillage demonstrations after all. All day we had been watching waves of black clouds passing just to the north of the Plowing Match. It was obvious this last one wasn’t going to miss. We just got in the truck when the heavens opened up. We actually waited a few minutes before heading out.
The plowing match was on the 23rd, our 14th wedding anniversary. One of the reasons we went to the match was it was located, literally, 15 minutes from one of my best friend’s home in Frankford. So we made it a holiday and stayed over a couple of nights with Ray and Tammy. They took us out for supper and then to the new casino.
That was kind of fun. Tammy gave me $20 to spend and I ended up coming home with $167! Colin threw in a twenty too and won $50. I nearly won $9000. That would have been so cool. I would have used it to put in central air and a new front door (you know, one that doesn’t need a knife jammed in it in the winter to help keep out the wind).
Tammy had to work on Thursday, so Colin and I headed for Prince Edward County. We wandered around Picton and found a yummy Greek diner for lunch. Mmm, that was some of the best souvlaki ever. I found a school book for Ella in one of the antique stores downtown. I really should have picked it up. It was Kenilworth and was only $8. I couldn’t get good reception so I couldn’t check the price. We drove around the County and saw the Lake on the Mountain
Lake on the Mountain
Big drop down to Lake Ontario on the other side of the road. Again, my pictures don’t do it justice. Try the website.
Stopped and checked out an antique store in Bloomfield (Dead People’s Stuff -cool name) and look what we found:
Apple boxes from home!! We often went to Gibson’s to get apples in the fall. I can buy Gibson’s apples up here still because they are part of Algoma orchards and are in the No Frills stores.
Last weekend Colin and I went for a hike at Shaw Woods. It was a good day, a little warm but we walked on the more shaded side.
Remember in the spring how badly flooded we were?
And remember when we came to check the dam on the Snake River up here at Shaw woods?
They had the dam WIDE open so it wouldn’t flood Lake Dore and to hell with everyone else downriver.
Well, obviously the right person lives on Lake Dore, because look how nice and high they are keeping the lake in the summertime:
Oh well, it’s just farmers -right??
We took a different trail this time. Look at those trees, they sure are determined to grow.
They had some fun trail markers talking about the old logging days. The trail on the other side of the road is all old growth and was never logged.
Lots of debris still in the river from the flooding.
This past week we had company a couple of days. Colin’s best friend and his family were up from London. I was worried about the kids. They are a few years younger than Ella and Ella’s gotten rid of most of her ‘younger’ toys. Luckily, the kids LOVED Minecraft 🙂
Tomorrow is our ‘Not Back to School’ picnic, if it doesn’t rain. Then comes all the craziness of school, Guides, swimming, and archery (Ella’s new sport this year). She’s decided not to skate. The arena in Eganville is under renovation and I don’t know when it’s going to be open. Also, we’re tired of the cliquey nonsense that goes on out there. Added to that Ella found out she’d be getting private lessons (she’s at that level now) and she doesn’t want them because she finds it too much pressure. I’m going to try hard this year to get out to the public skating in Pembroke, it’s during the day and we basically have the ice to ourselves.
So that’s about it for the last while. Hopefully once we get back into our Fall routine I can get back into my regular posts.
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