Wow, August 15th already :-( In my estimation that means summer is 3/4 of the way through. Usually I'm a "glass half full" kinda girl but it's hard to have a "glass quarter full" attitude when we've hardly had any sunny days and I've spent the whole summer working.
So, in a effort to bolster my mood, lets review what I've been up to since the beginning of July.......
July 1; Canada Day, parade, fireworks, day with kids an my husband and some close family friends.
July 4-15; Liam did 2 weeks of swimming lessons, every weekday from 5:30 to 6pm! It was grueling but rewarding, I could really see how much he enjoys the water and he seemed to enjoy learning from an instructor.
July 12; went to an AWESOME concert at our local events centre... The Tragically Hip headlined and The Trews opened the show. To be honest I could have done without The Hip and just enjoyed 2 1/2 hours of The Trews (who are one of my top 3 favourite bands) but it was a pretty amazing show none the less, and I think Neil even enjoyed it (which is saying quite a bit)
July 15-18; Neil went on a fishing trip on the coast with his father and a friend which meant the I was at home with the boys on my own for the whole weekend. I made an effort to keep them entertained and they were pretty well behaved. Not saying much for my weekend but worth mentioning because Neil had a great time and really needed the break from his hectic work schedule.
July 29 - Aug 1; August Long Weekend, we went to the annual family gathering at Neil's Aunt and Uncle's place. They've got a gorgeous quarter section about a two hour drive from us. We borrowed a friends camper trailer and set up camp for 3 nights. There's always lots of family and activities, the kids have a blast and Neil and I get to relax and catch up with people who we don't see on a regular basis. To those of you who are familiar with this family gathering, I have one word which sums up the experience..... BINGO!!!
Aug 2-12; Liam's next round of swimming lessons, another 2 weeks of swimming everyday after work/daycare. I have to say, Rowan does amazingly well during the half hour that Liam is in the pool. He entertains himself by playing on the bleachers and watching the swimmers. We also play patty-cake and have a little Mommy and Rowan time together, I actually really enjoy it!
Aug 7; this year was Neil and my 7th anniversary! We didn't do too much to celebrate, we never do. We took the kids to my friends house for a birthday party and she was generous enough to keep our boys for a few extra hours so that Neil and I could go see a movie and spend some time together, just the two of us. We saw "The Change-Up" with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. It was a very entertaining movie with some VERY naughty language! I laughed my ass of, as did Neil, and I highly suggest that you check it out!
Aug 12; this was the day of our local Fall Fair Parade! The Fair itself opened up on Thursday night (I think) and the Rodeo started on Wednesday. It's a pretty big weekend for the community, we get lots of tourists coming into town to attend both the Fair and the Rodeo. There's also the Exhibition grounds where they have animals that you can go visit, this year there were llamas, alpachas (spl?), turkeys, donkeys, sheep, pigs and lots of horses! You can also go see the competition entries of home made pies, jams, etc. as well as the art, sewing and quilting shows.
So anyway, I took a couple of hours off from work and met Neil and the boys, along with Neil's parents, downtown to watch the parade. It was one of the longest parades I've ever seen in our city (and I've seen ALOT of parades here)! It was 50 minutes long and the boys collected so much candy I took it to work and sorted out all of the stuff I knew the kids wouldn't like and put it in our candy dish at the front counter.
After work I picked up the boys from daycare and took them to the pool for Liam's last swimming lesson. He has to repeat the level again, but he's doing really well and I'm pretty impressed with how his swimming abilities have advanced over the summer. Once he was finished I took the boys our to Neil's parents place for dinner and left them there for the night so that I could go spend some time with Neil at the beer gardens down at the Fair. Thank GOD for my in-laws, I seriously don't know what I'd do without them!
Neil is on the board of our local Junior B hockey team and every year they operate a food booth at the Fair/Rodeo to raise money for the coming season. So Neil has been at the booth for the entire week getting everything set up and organized as well as working in the kitchen while the booth is open for business. On Friday night I met him down there after leaving the kids with his parents. We went to the beer gardens once he was finished at the booth and spent some time visiting with friends. I got to see a couple of girls who I graduated with but haven't seen in years! It was great to catch up with them after so long.
The next morning (this was Aug 13, for those of you still keeping track of the days) Neil and I had to go into town together to get my car from the parking lot at the Fair grounds (he had driven me home the night before since I was in no condition to drive, if you get my drift). He stayed at the food booth to do some repairs and get things rolling for the first shift of the day. I ran a few errands and went to pick the kids up. The boys and I met Neil at the Fair and we did the family thing for a few hours....
The "family thing" is basically comprised of the parents spending a shit load of money so that the kids can go on a few rides and play some stupid games and eat a bunch of sugary and/or greasy food! Anyone who's taken their kids to any sort of fair in any city or town knows exactly what I'm talking about. Yet, somehow, it's all worth it to see their smiling faces on the rides and their sheer joy at winning those cheap prizes! Not to mention the 2 hour nap that you all get to have afterwards because of the sugar crash that happens once you get in the car to go home for the day!!
So, needless to day, this kids enjoyed themselves tremendously and Neil and I have blown our entertainment budget for the rest of the year (yeah, we don't really have an entertainment budget, but you were impressed for a second there, weren't you). I took the kids home and Neil stayed to work at the food booth again and didn't get home until close to 11pm.
Aug 14; so one more day of Fair/Rodeo fun..... since the kids were played out and my bank account was empty I arranged for our niece to come babysit the boys for the majority of the day. Neil was in at the food booth at around 9am and I was slated for a shift to start at 11am! I worked there from 11 to about 4:30pm! It was pretty good, not too busy and there were lots of other volunteers working, so things were moving pretty smoothly. Of course, my shift was supposed to end at 4pm but the Rodeo got out right then and things got a little crazy! I could have stayed longer but I didn't want to leave our niece with the boys for too much longer, she's already been watching them for more than 5 hours and I knew they were expecting me home for dinner, so I made my excuses and left during a brief lull in the activity.
So that gets you up to speed on the highlights of my summer so far. I guess, in retrospect, it has been a pretty eventful couple of months so far and I've got another 3 weeks to go before Liam starts kindergarten and Rowan starts at a new daycare. (That should make for a few interesting blog posts!)
3 more weeks of summer, hmmm, that's not so bad now that I look at it that way.....
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