Category: Heather

We have just returned home from a visit to Karen’s cottage up north…and what a visit it was. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to a warm, sunny day perfect for swimming. After a refreshing dip in the lake and dinner, the skies began to darken. We thought that we were in for a little rain storm and settled into the cottage to wait for it to blow over. What began as a wee storm became quite the storm. The winds were strong enough to uproot trees and move docks down the water. Needless to say, we also lost power.

The next morning dawned bright and cheerful while the sound of chainsaws filled the air. It was really amazing to see how all of the cottagers checked on each other and their damage and then helped out where needed. Luckily no one was hurt and our car’s tail-light was the only casuality (it got hit by a branch) at the cottage proper. Unfortunately, the power remained out as a clump of trees were lying across the hydro wires. It did add to the overall excitement of the visit.

78 This is the tree that took out our tail-light.

81 Clump of roots.

84You can just see the trees on the power lines.

Katrine loved spending time with her aunt and cousin. She was in awe of the tall trees that were “in the sky”. She also was very excited when she saw “tree frogs” (well, actually just plain old frogs but all frogs are tree frogs to her because of Deigo). She was not so sold on the concept of swimming in the lake. She liked to wear her life jacket and sit on the dock. That was as far as she would volunteerily go. After much coaxing we managed to get her onto a little dingy she called “Katrine’s boat”, but she would only stay there for short periods of time before demanding to be returned to dry land.

Overall, it was very relaxing.

71 Katrine voices her displeasure about this whole lake concept.

75 Her personal boat.

We just got home from Ottawa and Katrine is finally asleep so I thought that I should take a moment and update our blog and bring everyone up to date.

We drove to Ottawa yesterday and Katrine slept part of the way so it wasn’t too bad. After checking into our hotel, we headed out for a walk. We took Katrine to the Parliment buildings and then to the canal. Our timing was perfect as we got to see a bunch of boats going through the locks. Katrine was fascinated by it all, especially the ducks swimming inbetween the boats. It was an entertaining walk as we were walking infront of a wedding party which was being piped from the church to the canal for their photos.

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Then we met one of the families from Katrine’s travel group for dinner. At first the girls were shy with eachother and then they spent about half an hour playing “chase me” around the tables giggling and laughing. After dinner Katrine did some crafts at the hotel’s Kiddie Playroom and we headed out once again to see the light show a the Parliment builidings. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulities and a bug bite we had to leave shortly after the start of the show. Katrine however, was extremely impressed by the portion which we did manage to see.

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This morning we were awoken by a bubbly toddler asking about the picnic and going home. Doesn’t sound odd except that it was 5:30 in the morning. Thank goodness for fruit loops. After breakfast we drove to the picnic site to begin a morning of bubbles, face painting, sliding, bouncing and much more. We were able to visit with the Terzis once more and Julia and Katrine enjoyed playing in the bubble soap while Julia’s dad blew bubbles for them. We also had the opportunity to meet the Zernentsch family who are part of Group 268. That was very exciting. Their daughter Rachel and Katrine had fun playing with some balloons and sharing snacks.

We had originally planned on staying until Monday so that we could get together with another family from Group 204 but it was not to be. Katrine has been battling ‘lower intestinal symptoms’ since Wednesday and it was getting to be a bit too much so we packed up and headed home.

54 Bubbles with Baba.

66 Bubble Girl!
57 Getting her nails done.

60 She had to get a butterfly on her face.

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23Here we are right before they began to light up the lanterns. I think that the lantern pandas, bugs and dinosaurs were Katrine’s favourites. She kept saying “Wow! Pretty!” as she marvelled at the magic that was unfolding before her eyes.27 We were equally entranced by the array of colours and shapes. 3025

All of the lanterns were built on site at Ontario Place by craftsmen/women who traveled from China specifically to create these works of art. I have often seen what I thought were lovely lanterns in store windows or in movies. When we were in China during the New Year festivities we also saw bright red lanterns decorating the streets. However, these were truly extrodinary. The artists have created tableaus out of wire, lightbulbs and silk. We would highly recommend that you go to see this display sometime this summer.

The evening out also provided us with the opportunity to hook up with some friends who had adopted their daughters from Katrine’s orphanage. The girls had a wonderful time rediscovering eachother while we adults had a chance to get caught up.

Well we just got back from the Toronto Chinese Lantern Festival. We had a blast, so did Katrine. We also got to meet up with our friends Dave and his daughter Adeline, and Alison and her daughter Sarah. Boy was it packed though! I sure in a few weeks it’ll be a lot better. We’ll try to post a longer update tomorrow morning.