Killarney Retreat Photos

Our luxurious travel mode: school bus. We did not sing. But we made fun of the short people who you couldn't see over the extra tall seat backs, heightened for childrens' safety. This photo Cindy, Annan, Sylvie.

Teri Mai, Lisette, and the top of Christine G's head.
Helen's back and Gisele's peek-a-boo.

Arriving at the meeting room. Jim is pensive in the foreground. Denny and Derek discuss something midground. Gisele Teri Mai and Cindy walk up in the background.
Annan stopped to let me take his picture, and Helen thought she was quick enough to escape my shutter. Not so! :)
I don't know why I was standing at the door while everyone arrived, but I did. This is Nursing Manager Colleen and Sylvie.
The group! 21 of us. The flash went off and it wasn't strong enough.
Without the flash was better.

me!
My room. COMFY bed. Oh my goodness. It was like sleeping in a hug.
Team Building Exercise. We had the choice of picking kayaking, hiking or sailing. Sailing was least strenuous, therefore that was my choice :)
Me sitting on the little raised part of the stern. Linda MacDonald sat back here with me. She would later save my life several times.

Gisele has a fear of water. This was a great step for her.

We were still at the dock, Teri Mai and some others came by to say goodbye while on their way to Kayaking.
Still docked... Angie in yellow, Annan, and Brenda beside him.
David the Sailor Man shows us how to wear the lifejackets if we wanted to wear one. Gisele did.
Sailing!! We toured around Killarney bay and Eileen there in the white hat and her husband David told us all about the land and old buildings and stuff.

Gisele was showing off her comfort level by removing her lifejacket and then even standing up. I pushed her one step further and said she should stand on one leg. Which she did. Very obliging lady :)
Sailing Wing and Wing: both sails open in opposite directions in order to maximize the wind directly behind us.
Cute little lighthouse in front of the quartz rock mountains.

30 years ago the water was at the level you can see on this rock. People are concerned.

Homes on these islands can cost $1 M to build, not including cost of the materials.

Gisele was given the oportunity to DRIVE the boat! She was good at it. Didn't crash us or anything.

Can you see the old indian face profiled in these rocks?
The indian face from straight on.
Leaving the face.
So relaxed is Linda, with her warm cup of coffee.

Posing.
Natural pose.
I wanted to capture how angled the deck was when we got going faster. This was not even as tilty as we were going to be.
We have recovered from almost sliding right off the deck. We banked so steeply I swear the deck was at a 45 degree angle. We went into it so suddenly that Linda and I were sliding and seriously almost fell in. I was trying to get my foot against the little lip on the edge of the deck, but I got a rope instead. Linda saved my life by taking my camera from me so I could use both hands to get to a safer place. Even then, you can see me here holding onto my only handle, that little lip.
Angie and Gisele had the best seats during the extremly tilty time.

Gisele never saw a gas pump on a dock before and made me take this picture.
A spare tire on the tracker, a spare boat on this yacht. I thought it was funny.
Party Thursday night. Teri Mai is "rolling down the river" with Tina Turner.
Jim and Lisette rock out.

Karaoke and fun in the boy's Chalet. We didn't know how many mice were here too until Denny felt one on his back at 4am in his bed. YIKES.
After the Karaoke, the guitar sing-a-long. Complete with songbooks!

Yves from Ottawa and Christine B singing so nicely.
No no no! You can't move the King like that!

YES. That is a legal move.
Derek having a hang-over.
Did we dwink too much wast night Dewek?
Captain Morgan and Colleen laughing.
Pretty little petunias. The flowers were about the size of a dime.

Day Two and our mascot was discovered taking a nap in the window. Gisele, Cindy, Teri Mai, and Lisette investigate.
He was named Bloody the Bat.
All 21 of us, just after we finished all the work. I asked some guy to take this picture. I love Jim's Michael Jackson pose.
A more serious picture. YAY! What a great two days!!

Killarney Retreat

Hi! I'm going to Killarney tomorrow with work. Overnight! It'll be my first night ever away from both kids. I will miss them and Jake a lot, but I'm looking forward to the trip. Strategic planning. Might be intense. Might be hard work. But the evening will be fun! I'm bringing my poker chips. And several small bottles of alcohol. I hear everyone else is bringing wine.

Anyway I should go to bed, I am all finished packing and thought I would drop all y'all a little update.

Incidentally Jake and I got Spore the other day and LOOOOOVE it. It is such a great game!! You should check it out. It's cool. I am a herbervoir and make friends with everyone I can. Jake is a carnivore and attacks and destroys as many species as he can find.

Anyway 6:45 will come pretty early for someone going to bed at 12:40am.

Cheers!

MINDERELLA!!

Happy Birthday Mindi!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday you too!

Happy BIRTHDAY dear MINDIIIIIIIIII

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOO YOOUUUUU!!!!

Love you lots!!!!!!

More Sage Party Pics

Before I get to the pictures, when I left my camera in North Bay a few weekends ago, some mysterious body parts were amongst the photos found on said camera.



This is a very cute picture of the five Szabihussicots, plus Auntie Carol/Mommy.
Three Charbonneaus and a Daze. (Daze in blue.) At Sage's party. In the lovely shade that showed up after 3pm.

Sage eating the two off his cake. He grabbed it while it was still lit. Fortunately I was right there to snuff it out so he didn't burn himself.

Bouncy Castles sometimes require eye protection. Especially if it's cool (to two three year olds).
The spread!
Jake made an awesome fruit platter, eh?
Sage willingly (and surprisingly) wore his Birthday Boy Cake Hat, complete with candles.
Penny in the green hat, Carol in the white hat, Sheryl in the no hat, and various kids all chill out beside and in the pool.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Dear Sweet Sassy on her way home. Hey! Robbie's loot bag is still at our house! Remind me to give it to him.
Tilly at almost 5 months old. She was a VERY good doggie thoughout Sage's party and the thousands of guests who were here.
Hayden in mid-air.

Thanks again for everyone who came, and also for people's patience while I got these photos uploaded to my blog.

Sage Birthday Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Sage's party. Thank you for waiting.

The Bouncy Castle

Sage, Hayden in the bouncer, Keegan watching on the outside.

Hayden and Grampa
Anya with the hat, Elora, Hayden, and Sage

Please Stand By

Or sit, if you're more comfortable.

Our desktop computer has become increasingly insulted that we got a laptop last week and freezes every few minutes and needs to be restarted. I'm figuring out how to edit pictures smaller so I can post them from here. We're going to take it in and see if it can be salvaged for not too much money. Until I become familiar with the new software and get the pictures published YOUR PATIENCE WILL BE APPRECIATED.

THANK YOU.

oops the caps lock was on.

You're drowning. Float more!

Yesterday I took a semi-spontanious trip to North Bay with Hayden and Sage. Carol and BJ had a trip to the beach planned, and me n the boys tagged along. And oh my goodness, we had such a fun time! We got there just before 1pm and while the twins finished their naps, Hayden, Anya, Sage, Carol and I all ate lunch. She'd made an awesome tortilla soup that we mommies ate with feta cheese, and the kids had peanut butter and jam and grapes. We finished up, the twins woke up, and we were off! We found very good parking spots and on our way to a nice spot on the beach between a picnic table, shady trees, and the playgound, a guy stopped us and interviewed us about the Olympics. It was very brief, and I don't even know if it was for TV or just a school project. We settled into the sand and the sun shone down. We all had lots of protective sunblock on and hats and even brought two umbrellas with us. Great minds think alike, Szabbies and I both brought one. It turned out to be too windy for the umbrellas, but it didn't matter. It wasn't too cold, it wasn't too hot. It was perfect! I got my kids' suits on and we all went into the very wavy Lake Nippising. The water was very warm! It's pretty shallow for a long ways, so it warms easily. The wind was very strong and the waves were large. I held Sage's and Hayden's hands, and Hayden held Anya's hand, and Carol held Anya's other hand and we walked in, in a line. The boys were laughing their heads off as the waves splashed higher and higher as we walked deeper into the lake. (By 'deeper' I mean comparatively. We went in to about Sage's armpits.) Carol and I sat down and helped the kids jump through the breakers. The waves were very lively and so much fun. After a bit, Anya, who doesn't like moving water very much, had had enough and Carol brought her and Sage in. Hayden and I stayed out for a bit while the waves crashed over our heads and we laughed. The first time he got water on his face, he squished his eyes closed, turned to me, and asked me "can I have a towel please?" We ended up using his hat to try and dry his face. Which didn't stay dry very long. After a bit Hayden and I came out and drip dried. Carol and BJ took the twins into the water for a little bit, staying very shallow, and I watched the older ones dig and play in the nice sand. Then Carol and I went out deeper and hopped and body surfed and laughed and swam and dove and had more fun than I've had in a long time. It was like we were kids again. We kept laughing because the waves were so big and we were talking but our sentences would end in burbling bubbles as the waves crashed over us. At one point, Carol pointed out that if we were caught off-guard by a wave, it would be more prudent to float with the wave, rather than search for the bottom. At the height of the wave, we were over our head. In the surge prior to the wave, the water sometimes went down almost to our knees. Anyway what she said made sense, however it came out oddly, which of course sent us over the edge with hysterical laugher "you're drowning. float more!" because in a drowning situation, you should ALWAYS have the option of floating more instead. LOL It was also funny because she's always been the older and wiser sister, and in playing situations would take the lead with how to play. (I also could've said she was bossy.) So instructing me not to drown was just.. so her. If Vanessa and Sarah would've been there, it would've been a complete childhood replay. We went back to the beach after a bit and BJ went out to play in the waves. The kids snacked voratiously and we hung out. Hayden and Anya went to play on the slide and jungle gym and BJ monitored. After we decided we were ready to come home, Carol and I loaded ourselves down (BJ was at that time assisting the children with a bathroom break) and trundled off towards the vans. Back at home the Szabbies made rice and a delicious salmon and I cut up peaches for a peach cake.

I had such a good day. The only thing missing was Jake to share it with. He had stayed home as the beach doesn't interest him and he doesn't swim, so that had no appeal either. But he might've had an okay time. Maybe next time.

I want to move to North Bay. That is the best beach I've been to in a long time. The bottom is soft sand too. As if it needed to be any better! There were some weeds floating through the water, but we weren't near anything like the weeds that clog the bottom of Ramsey Lake... in which I'm SURE a large lake monster lurks. Or at the very least house a fish that might *shudder* brush against my foot or leg... It's kind of like Virginia Beach, only 22 hours closer and a lot warmer.

Did I mention the big waves? They were so big! It was so awesome! Okay okay I'm done. Thank you for not navigating away while I went on and on. You're the best!

Happy Birthday Sage!

Well today is Sage's SECOND BIRTHDAY!!!

(cue loud applause and hooting)

I have SO MUCH pre-planned today that I have time to sit down and write this blog entry. I also visited the future and snapped these pictures of what is to come.

Actually you can go to this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-b-c-d-e and check out Carol's pictures of the party while you are waiting SO PATIENTLY (ahem) for me to post our own pictures.

Neil Patrick Harris and other things

I love NPH. Carol recently posted a post about Dr Horrible, this 42 minute internet movie that they wrote and shot while the writer's strike was on. It's a musical. It's awesome. It stars NPH. And as of TODAY it's no longer viewable in Canada for free. WAAAAHHH!! I am on vacation this week and yesterday I watched it twice and my favourite songs I watched more than that. And today when I had some free time and wanted to hear Neil sing to me some more, I was DENIED. It was awful. Luckily I found it on YouTube, but it's poor quality because someone used a video camera to record their computer monitor. Oh well. I'll have to get the DVD when it comes out, which apparently will be sometime before January. yay *waves flag with little spunk*

So my dad and us Husses went to Killarney on Monday. It was a great day for it, sunny, hot, not crowded. Here are the pictures my dad took. (I forgot my camera in North Bay on the weekend.)

Just after a feast of awesome fish and chips THANK YOU DADDY! And incidentally no kids fell into the water, although we did look down and tried to see if we could see fish. All we saw was seaweed.
A beautifully calm lake. Too bad we didn't have swimming suits. It would've been great! My dad said he was here before and the waves were 3 feet high. You can see the open waters of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron from the rocks we're on.
I made him point. There was nothing there, just the aforementioned open waters.
Jake and Sage hung back so that no little ankles got twisted on the uneven walking surface. There were also lots of 'tide pools' that were ripe for falling into (but weren't).

Purdy. Jake's pants are slightly visible in the centre of this picture.
A stinky flower. Pretty tho.
At the lighthouse. Hayden and Grampa went all the way up. The way got a little steep for me and Jake and Sage.
So pensive is he, my boy.
LOL I love this picture. It looks like he's looking at that big cloud.

I love how his legs are sticking straight out in front of him.
My dad was impressed that he stayed where he told him to stay. Good thing because when they came down the mountain, my dad said "now some of these pictures look a little precarious... but not to worry." LOL I think he meant these. Gulp.Oh whew, not so precarious after all. Still a LITTLE precarious though.

catch up

well this will be a quick one, cuz I have to go to bed.

A) We hired a new babysitter. I put an ad on Kijiji, had a zillion replies, picked one that sounded the least axe-murderery (hm, should I even make that joke what with the Winnipeg horror last week?) had her over for a 30 minute interview/meet the kids thing, and felt like she was trustworthy. She has 2 references which glowed and am now sure she's trustworthy. We left her with the boys on Sunday night for a couple hours. She had started to organize their toys. If we'd been longer, they would've all been organized. I'm talking, all the blocks with all the other blocks. The stuffed animals with the other stuffed animals. The little people animals with the other little people animals. You have to understand that our house is like.. a melting pot of toys and toy bits. A set of toys comes in, like, for example, a Noah's Ark from Jake's parents. In a few short minutes Noah is under the couch, zebras are NOT marching side by side in the ark, which has split in two, part of which is in the living room, the other in the bedroom. For Hayden's first birthday, Carol and BJ gave him a huge box of 200 mega blocks. They won't be happy until every last corner, nook, and cranny has a piece in it. Anyway the point I'm trying to make is their toys are never together. And I was impressed that she was spending time putting them all together.

B) I am going on vacation as of 12:30pm Friday afternoon. I then have 9 1/2 days off. ahhhh. we have loose plans to go see Manitoulin Island, and I have very FIRM plans to relax and luxuriate in at-home-alone-edness.

C) Sage's 2nd birthday is fast approaching on August 17th. I'm having a birthday party with 16 adults and 10 children invited. How crazy am I? I hope to god it doesn't rain!! There will be problems if it's raining. Most likely a post-ponement.

D) Tomorrow Hayden and Sage go on a school bus and go out to Hanmer to see the petting zoo and have a picnic! There's an excellent petting zoo out there with VERY tame animals. I so wish I could go with them and take pictures.. and they'll all be wearing their royal blue Cotton Candy Daycare t-shirts and be all cute and stuff.. I wish I could take pictures. WAHH! I wanna see the 50 little kids all dressed the same!!

E) I made blueberry pie and it was excellent and I didn't take pictures. Sorry. And no, I can't put a piece away for you until you get here, Carol. I would like to, but I don't think I'll be able to resist it.

F) Sage weighs almost 33 lbs and Hayden weighs almost 39 lbs. Hayden has discovered that he can pick Sage up under his arms and lift him and walk around. At which Sage laughs his head off. And Hayden hardly drops him at all! Sage and Hayden take turns at various activities. Sage says "nurn!" and then it's his turn. His vocabulary has really developed a lot in the past few weeks. He says a new word pretty much every day. And says sentences! "I want milk" or "I want juice" or " no no no no no bip!" (bip is crib) which he says when he doesn't want to be put in his crib. The bedtime routine ends with me singing songs to both boys tucked into Hayden's bed. If they are good, they can both stay there. If they end up playing, we'll go in and tell them to go to sleep, but not move Sage. If Sage cries and gets out of bed after I've said goodnight, then he gets told he'll go into the crib if he doesn't lie down. Which most of the time ends in him getting put in the crib. The past week though he's been very good at staying in the bed and not needed to be put into the crib. Sooner or later we'll go buy him a twin bed of his own, and get rid of the crib.

7) I can't believe August is already almost one week over. How come time is flying by so fast? I will think about that while I get ready for bed and in the 10 seconds or so that it'll take for me to fall asleep.