Shutting it Down 2012

Well, it had to happen a little earlier than I would have liked due to Teresa's birthday party, an early Thanksgiving and Cara's allergies.  This is the first time I can recall not being out at the cottage for a single day in October due to the early long weekend, but in a way I feel fortunate that I did not wait until this weekend to shut the cottage down as we are presently having a mini-blizzard here in Winnipeg.

Shutting the cottage down is my least favourite day of the year and likely is Cara's too, albeit for substantially different reasons.  This year though Cara didn't want to come up as the cottage has been setting her allergies off horribly and with so many other things were going on during the September weekends I only got to go out for a day but I got to bring out the two older girls and Rowdy.  Everything went off without a hitch, and I even did a bit of plumbing without too much swearing!  The four hours I got to spend on the front beach with the girls and Rowdy was wonderful, but as always a certain melancholy remained...

Regardless, here are some of the highlights of the day...

Frances is channelling her inner Auntie Pearl me think...

Teresa drawing a wonderful picture of a lady made of shapes...

Teresa had to suddenly go to the washroom, and the closest one was already shut down for the season. Thusly, we meandered to the new washroom all the while Frances insisted on butt scootching her way down the "sand hills" of the boardwalk.

Teresa discovered a bone from the Lake Winnipeg Monster!!!

Cara and I listened to the girls when they insisted that they would not swim.  Ooops.

And Frances follows suit

Playing on an island.  Rowdy had a heck of a day, as he got swim and chase a ball for over four hours.

One last sunset.  No bugs for this one!

A last view of the cottage with the moon overhead.  This is likely the last time I will need to poly the front door come fall...  Sigh...

Dog Park Woes

The girls and Rowdy love going to the dog park.  Both girls are very good with dogs around, although the girls are a little trepidatious when dogs are overly aggressive in their desire to say hello.  Generally to make things go smoother I bring the girls in the wagon and let them play at particular locations they want to stop at, the 'hill', the tree, the other hill...

Of late though the dog park is a mucky sloppy and disgusting mess of muck, puddles, and more muck.  Of course this suits our girls just fine, expect for when the inevitable fall in the puddle happens. This can happen moments into the visit (and has) or it can not happen at all (actually I am not sure if this has ever happened).  Last month I had the girls playing at one tree, away from the thick muck and eventually the mud puddle beckoned.  Teresa decided to go to the mud puddle first and I warned her not to get her feet stuck, as she has lost boots in the very same puddle before.  Frances eventually wandered over too...  I was of course taking pictures, and got the end of our visit in picture form.  Of course, Teresa in her helpfulness did not want to leave.

Ah, the halcyon days before the advent of the MUCKENING!

Moments after the MUCKENING. Yes, I did take a picture before I came to the aid of Frances...

One boot down, and a heavy layer of mud of the hands.

Spring Break

Well, for all you Luddites out there, you should be happy to hear that Cara's phone is not working, as such you are getting a large dose of the pictures taken by yours truly.  It is Spring Break and Ray is helping us out in the basement with wiring, and I will be doing some plumbing...  Keeping busy, especially considering the girls keep wanting to help and spend time with me.  There are worse problems obviously :)

So here is some of the stuff over the last few days.

Apparently Frances enjoys watching Sesame Street from the comfort of a drawer...

Cara & her new toy

 

Another Frances looking cute in a chair moment...

Frances loves the Coke...

 

She is darned cute...

Playing on the floor of Future Shop

Yes this is my BlackBerry, why do you ask?

We went shopping for a birthday gift for Cara and someone ended up tuckered out (actually both gierls fell asleep in the van on the way home.

Teresa in her hole that 'needs' help to get out of...  Save me daddy!

Were you aware we had a dog?  I almost forgot.  Sorry Rowdy buddy :-)

 

I am king of the hill!  Or make that PRINCESS!!!

Anna came over for brunch and Teresa 'read' the girls her baptism story,

 

Frances decided a nap was unnecessary, but Cara disagreed.

And here is some video... I can't get enough of Frances saying "No, Daddy" It warms the heart.

Olderish Pictures From November

So Cara has promised she would post about Teresa's letter to Santa (she wrote it all herself and it is awesome to behold), but in the absence of her choosing to not blog about knitting and food, I present to you: PICTURES!

She may be blurry, but man is she cute...

What is this ice for mommy?

Dog park shenanigans...

Look at the muddy paws, and the girls complete lack of fear...

Now that's some good tree climbing!

Yes, the park is now covered in snow...

'Driving'

de more

Now this is just too damn cute not to post!

The headlock of love...

Trick or Treat

So we went out and got to about 25 houses before Teresa decided she would much rather stuff her face...  Here are a few pictures.

The Bombers' next starting quarterback

The pumpkin lineup...  

Pink rabbits are quite cute...

So are ballerinas...

Kris & Anika

Out & about.

Teresa sprinting ahead for candy

The wait...

and the gorge...

All Dogs Go to Heaven?

Well, while I am well aware the I am not on solid doctrinal ground here, I am pretty sure that every day I see Rowdy I am seeing the first dog destined towards sainthood.  Rowdy came to us just under 5 years ago now, where he was for a very short period in time #1 in the house, getting all of our attention...  Of course we all know why he slipped down the ranks, but it is wonderful to see how well he plays with the girls, and how he just leaves when he doesn't like what is being done.

This has been a tough summer on Rowdy, as we left him for the first time in a kennel.  Although he was playing with dogs constantly there, when we got back you could tell how happy he was.  We then retired to one of his favorite places, Grand Beach where he got more pets than ever from my dad, but he was restricted from swimming in the lake for too long due to the algae slick.  He continues to prove his mettle on a daily basis.  Today I saw some things that I had to take pictures of and share.  As the years have gone by we spend less time taking pictures of Rowdy, but he keeps showing up in the background.  Here is our gracious dog back in the foreground.

In the background, but happy likely due to consumption of dropped food.  We have to check his total food intake daily...  And at least one person/thing is looking good in this picture.

Rowdy in his element.  If you look closely there a bajillion dragon flies.

Princess Rowdy.  Please note the fearlessness of Frances.

And let's grab the princess' tail.  I am sure Rowdy is thinking here "Why don't you help me?"

Paging Dr. Dog...

I was told that these were all of Rowdy's babies.  Teresa has also told us how he has babies in his tummy before, this is their first adventure outside.  Rowdy initially moved away because Teresa was sticking them under his belly.

A wet dog is a happy dog.