DaddyJ's Birthday

For DaddyJ’s birthday this year, the kids and I headed out to Kelowna to surprise him! He was very surprised to have us arrive more than 12 hours early as the kids got to miss school. The drive started out with quite a bit of snow and ice and then became picture perfect. Remarkably, the 600km went seemingly quickly.

We all enjoyed a relaxing weekend of water sliding, stewing in the hot tub and visiting a few wineries. CubJ particularly enjoys trying to create tidal waves as big as DaddyJ when he exits the water slide. He is a keen waterslider!

As we continue to return to the same area, we are finding that the little J’s are developing their own favourite wineries to visit. The creation of tiny coinsures! Some of their favourites include Mission Hill and Quail’s Gate for their fantastic views, interesting architecture and most likely the sparkling juice they have as samples!

SparkJ was working on a project at school looking at how plants get ready for the winter and CubJ on recycling/composting. While we were visiting our favourite winery Summer Hill, we noticed that there were two workers busy with a screen over some large grape bins. We asked if we could come closer to see what they were doing, assuming that this must be an important part of the wine making process which was in full tilt. It turns out that both kids were about to see their science units in action. The two workers were separating the grape seeds from the skins after pressing. The seeds are saved for a variety of purposes including new growth, to be ground into an extremely healthy flour and for composting. The same holds true for the grape skins which help to create extraordinarily nutritious compost. SparkJ being the cutie she is managed to get bagful of organic grape seeds to show her class how grape vines prepare for the winter! It turns out that she received them from one of the owners sons, for whom our favourite sparkling wine is named! That girl, she is a lucky one .....

DaddyJ enjoyed his birthday. We all enjoyed being together and laughing a great deal all weekend. What a wonderful way to start another year with DaddyJ. Happy "saving one more second not pressing the down arrow so many times on the elliptical machine age button" 2010!

CubJ's 9th Birthday

CubJ’s 9th Birthday in California

Can you believe it, my CubJ is nine years old! I can not believe how quickly the years are going by, imagine half way to when he could be leaving the nest to go to University! ACKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

To celebrate the halfway mark of his childhood, we headed down to Southern California! Two days were spent in Anaheim at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. It is always to nice to get to see Mickey and his gang, ride Space Mountain and all of our other favourites.

SparkJ enjoyed riding many more rides this visit now that she is both older and much taller. CubJ especially enjoyed watching Daddy and me turn green on a few of the rides. When we did Matterhorn back to back, due to a slight mechanical issue upon disembarking, we were all clear on why the back four bobsledders tuck their heads inside of the sled! Who knows, maybe we will all try the Olympic bobsled track next.

After enjoying our time in the California Adventure being soaked, spun, flung and wowed we made the short drive to San Diego to visit Legoland. We have always adored going to San Diego.  We have so many fun memories starting from the time that CubJ was a little baby in that part of the world. It is hard to believe how quickly the time is going. Sniff Sniff

We spent our first day in Legoland taking in their new water park. While it is not a giant water park to the likes of Disneyworld, it is a great way to spend the day basking in the sun of southern California. It is a small addition to the park which is extremely enjoyable! We loved floating in the lazy river complete with add your own foam Lego blocks. The kids loved riding the slides as fast as they could get back up the stairs to do it all again!

Our second day, CubJ’s actual birthday we enjoyed riding all of the rides in the park, munching ice cream and shopping for as much Lego as we could fit in his suitcase. It was a special day for our special guy. CubJ had mentioned that he would like to have dinner at Chuck-e-Cheese so he could game and eat pizza to cap off his ideal birthday. Accordingly, we located a nearby C-e-C and spent the last of his day watching his happiness.

We all returned home the next day pleasantly tired from all of the fun, weighted down with Lego, thankful for how lucky we are to have these opportunities and for our CubJ!