June in review

Before getting started with June's pictures, I have a quote from last night to pass along. Max was running around, throwing himself on the couch at high speed, and we had told him a number of times to stop because it was dangerous and somebody was going to get hurt. Sure enough, about three launches later, he tripped on the rug and bonked something. I said I had no sympathy for him and that we'd told him to stop. He said, in a highly questioning tone, "Daddy, you're happy that I got hurt?". Yikes.

Anyway, here are the things that happened in June that we haven't already covered.


Early on in June, the boys and I did an "Ottawa tourism" day. We started at the Royal Canadian Mint's headquarters, where they had this Mountie Moose. The kids loved this guy! I loved the $600K gold brick I got to hold.

Here's this month's horrible picture. Wow. It's possible Max took this one.


Leo's gymnastics classes wrapped up in June. He had a blast and even finally warmed up to his instructor by the end of the session. This is Leo singing on the balance beam and snaking his way down a plank to get his hands stamped. Odd how the only adult visible in each picture is the same person. Seriously, there were other parents.

Here are the boys with their friend Grace, right after she turned 2. We had an awesome park party involving great food and a little splash pad time.

Yes, that's me. On Father's Day. Soaking wet from being pelted with water balloons. I repeat: on Father's Day. Thanks, kids.

Another photo from Father's Day when we took the kids to the super old-school wooden splash pad at Andrew Haydon Park. It's Leo, but man! it really looks like Max, back in the day. Such a weird picture.






The above six pictures are from our adventure on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield steam train. We drove across to Quebec and hopped aboard in the morning. After a slow, scenic ride, we grabbed a box lunch for our stopover at Wakefield, picked up some ice cream and chased some bubbles. We also got to see the locomotive get turned around on the manual roundtable AND check out the sweltering engine from the inside (it was 30-35ish outside and even hotter inside). Finally, a quartet of French-Canadian musicians performed some acoustic travellin' music. The musicians also serenaded the train cars throughout the round trip. I should also mention that at the end of June, the track was flooded out and service is still suspended, so our timing was pretty awesome.

Max has spent the summer learning some soccer skills with the Westboro Popsicles. It's a little bit of soccer and a lot of herding cats. The kids do a bunch of drills like soccer ball "red light - green light" (and - purple light, where they do a silly dance), dribble around the cones, punt the ball at the coach (if you hit them enough times, you can demand that they act like an animal of your choice) and even chase-the-coach (pictured above). Max is pretty engaged with the whole thing but, as with all of the other kids, thinks that the popsicle at the end is the best part.


Ahh, Ribfest. The Stardoms and Reids hooked up for a whole truckload of chicken, ribs, pulled pork, beans and corn. YO!!!! Oh yeah, I think Max liked the apres-ice cream too.


Auntie Jan came to town for a visit and went with Mommy and the kids to the Agriculture Museum. Summertime is definitely a great time to take in the barns full of animals and some of the special goings-on at the farm.

Auntie Laramie took the family strawberry picking in June. Lots of berries. Lots of jam. So delicious. Thanks Lambsy!


At the end of the month, Iona Park (right near where we used to live on Kirkwood) was supposed to be hosting a big party to celebrate the opening of the park's wading pool for the summer. I literally didn't get the message that the party was postponed due to inclement weather and so the boys and I trotted off into the rain to hang out at the park. As you can see, it wasn't all bad.

I think this is a cute picture of Max. It was taken at the national Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind training facility, which we visited with Auntie Jan. The boys got to see a whole bunch of dogs, meet a few blind people (a really neat experience for Max) and devour some cheeseburgers. The facility was located in a beautiful rural setting south of the city so the kids got to roar around outside for a while after the demonstration. Super fun and informative!

Max has this Leapfrog (R) toy that is supposed to teach you how to write letters and draw pictures. He has used it a lot, but produces mostly shaky pictures. Until the last day of June, when he busted out this impressive sailboat while doing a connect-the-dots type game where you follow a blinking light and only see the picture once the light stops moving. It really blew me away.