Avery & McKinley Adkins

Avery spent the week of March break with her Auntie Brianna and her cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She was kind enough to send me lots of photos and emails with detailed descriptions of the events. Her writing puts mine to shame so enjoy the stories...

Speaking of the next generation, the main reason for this email is to give you a heads up that I am going to be sending a flurry of emails with pictures from the most recent March break vacation I had with the kids and Avery at Grandma and Grandpa's cottage. It was an interesting week...Graham was in Whitehorse earning his keep and making me feel jealous of time spent with the Callan threesome, I had resolved to tackle Finley's habit of waking every 2 hours through the night and mom was jet-setting to and from London which meant that JJ and I were at the helm of the Lake House Daycare. Of course, through all of this, Grandma Beth was always at the forefront of our minds. Once I was finished feeling a wee bit sorry for myself that I couldn't have another good bye with Grandma Beth, I resolved that the kids were going to have a FABULOUS vacation. It became a mission and although it was never outwardly discussed, I sensed JJ was fully on board.

Each day required that there be at least one new adventure, and that it be captured on film. This was largely achieved, except for the day when we went to a hobby farm to hand-feed bunnies, kittens, a lame ostrich (as in, had a dysfunctional leg), a lhama, a huge pot belly pig (did you know they eat marshmallows?), and an 8 day old lamb and his greedy, overzealous friends. The kids also went for a pony ride and saw a bull, 2 peacocks and a donkey. I forgot my camera on this day which was very disappointing to say the least. Some highlights include watching Maren ride a horse and tell the woman leading the horse in a light gallop to go "faster", as well as fearlessly feeding the pig while Callum and Avery balked (Callum did eventually hold the marshmallow close but always dropped it the minute the pig opened his mouth). Additional highlights include Avery mustering up the courage to pet the lambs when she was initially content to just watch, and Callum not flinching at all when the bull charged at the fence as he rode by on the horse. If I remember correctly, I believe Maren left her mark on the farm as she required a nature pee in the middle of the farm yard.

Another adventure that was not captured on film was a trip to Doug's feed store to get some seeds (for those who are unsure, Doug is mom and dad's neighbour). I believe Callum left his mark on that property with a nature pee, but for sure the highlight of that trip would be the car ride to and from the store. Feeling somewhat musical, Grandpa challenged the kids to sing "The Mountain Song" from Grandaddy and "Now" from Mates of State at the top of their lungs, over and over (and over) again. I believe in the end they were probably just trying to drown out Grandpa's voice. I really hope my kids get their singing chops from the Holt side, if you know what I mean.

In the early days of the vacation, before I became fully committed to my camera, we also found a great park at a public school in Westdale. It had some neat equipment that was laid out as a fitness course for kids, so of course the challenge was on. Callum beat mommy (but only slightly) and Avery came first in her heats of one, just the way she liked it. Grandpa and Finley were pretty content to watch the action and Maren usually gravitated to the equipment that was on the opposite end of the playing field, regardless of where we were. Of course, no park session is complete without a trip to the ice cream store (or a nature pee from one of the Holt kids - I think it was Maren this time again) so we went into town and sat at a picnic table while the kids spent a solid 30 minutes licking their adult-size ice cream cones. It was particularly fun to watch them marvel at the people who went into the ice cream store and left "WITHOUT any ice cream!!!!......They're crazy!!!"

And now for some of the adventures that were documented on film. This batch of pictures is a small sampling from our day at Greg and Marianne's. It was a great day, filled with sunshine, splashing in puddles (poor Avery got a big soaker - not the last one she would have on this holiday), ATV rides, collecting sap from trees and making taffee with what was gathered. Bravo Marianne!
The ATV rides were clearly a hit with the girls, who each returned down the lane with big, *bleep!*-eating grins. In hindsight, I think helmets would have been a good idea. No offense, JJ. When we were leaving Greg and Marianne's we also thought of the fun game of "playing a trick on Grandpa". As we all know, JJ isn't blessed with the longest attention span, so it's not surprising that he wasn't quite able to maintain his focus during the drawn out process of herding 4 small children into the van (one in her underwear due to said soaker, another who had a blow-out poop once he was fastened into his car seat). We were all fastened in and the van was starting to pull out of the driveway when grandpa had to be summoned from his perch on the back patio. As he approached the vehicle it continued down the driveway, almost as slow as he was walking, but not quite. It was the strangest thing....if grandpa sped up his walking, the van sped up it's driving. This continued for a little bit down the driveway and was a much requested game during the remainder of the holiday.

Stay tuned, more to follow.........

In March we had our first McGuire ski weekend at Blue Mountain with the little kids. Unfortunately, Craig missed it but don't feel too sorry for him as he ended up skiing in Calgary for a couple of days. I want to say a special thanks to Lisa Adkins who outfitted Avery in ski gear for the weekend - she loved the helmet and googles. It was a great weekend - the kids loved skiing and it was so much fun to watch them pick a new skill and take off with it. There were a few tears at the beginning when she fell but by the end of the second day she was skiing from the top to the bottom (with a tether on to slow her down during the steeper parts) completely fearless and loving every minute of it. She could have skied all night. Brianna and I talked about how much fun it is going to be in the future going on big family ski trips.

The only blemish for the weekend was that McKinley was jumping on the couch and just before Grandma McGuire could put Finley down and tell Muddy to cool it he managed to fall and hit his mouth on the edge of the coffee table. Although his front 4 top teeth were obviously pushed back and displaced they weren't actually loose until a couple of days later when McKinley somehow managed to hit his mouth again on a car at daycare and knock one of them loose. So the next day we had to visit the dentist and get 2 teeth pulled. He is still at risk for losing another 2 but we have to go back for x-rays in the middle of May. So now he looks even more goofy than usual.