The weather in Ruthven, ON today was fantastic, less humidity, temps around 23C and sunny skies.
Caroline had a chance to visit with her old friend from our old Amherstburg neighbourhood - Annie Hammond. Annie has since moved to Guelph with her family but was back in Amherstburg for a visit. Caroline was very happy to have had a chance to visit with Annie (and her friend Brooke and Renee too). She was sad to leave though. It's hard to leave friends behind - but we know we'll be happy on Bowen. We'll be headed to Alvinston on Saturday for my nephew Kyle's 8th birthday party. Caroline's really looking forward to that.
Michael is happy just driving grandpa's lawn tractor all day long. He's getting to be quite the good driver for only 3 years old!
I'm impatiently awaiting our departure for BC - I expect that Leslie can't wait to get to her new office in Horseshoe Bay.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Happy 6th Birthday Caroline !!
My little Princess Caroline turned 6 years old yesterday - she had a wonderful day and received many Facebook birthday wishes. We had a nice family birthday party and she was very surprised with all of her gifts (especially the Wii).
12 days to go before we're bound for Bowen and from what I can see on the news, BC (including the lower mainland) is locked in a heat wave. Hopefully it eases up before we get there - we're heading to BC in the hopes of leaving hot and humid Ontario behind us. From what I understand though, the last heat wave like this was in apprx 2003 and before that the last one was in 1928!! Will this type of weather be happening more frequently to the northwest due to climate change? We'll see.
12 days to go before we're bound for Bowen and from what I can see on the news, BC (including the lower mainland) is locked in a heat wave. Hopefully it eases up before we get there - we're heading to BC in the hopes of leaving hot and humid Ontario behind us. From what I understand though, the last heat wave like this was in apprx 2003 and before that the last one was in 1928!! Will this type of weather be happening more frequently to the northwest due to climate change? We'll see.
Monday, July 27, 2009
14 Days and counting. ..
The gang had a great time at Soak City yesterday. After checking multiple weather reports for Sandusky Ohio, we opted not to go to Cedar Point on Saturday. We did drive up in the afternoon on Saturday to hang out at the campground where we booked a cabin (Camp Sandusky). It turns out we should've gone to Cedar Point since we didn't get a drop of rain the entire time we were in the USA from after lunch on Saturday until Sunday night. Oh well, the kids had a great time in the pool at the camprgound and playing at their playstructure. After some not so scary stories around the campfire, we hit the pillows and awoke to a wonderful day for Soak City on Sunday. The weather was nice (my sunburn is proof) but the strong wind from Lake Erie could be a bit chilly at times. The park was not too busy and everyone had fun playing in Soak City's waterslides, wavepool and many other attractions. After a great dinner at my favourite restaurant (Cracker Barrel) we headed back to Canada with a van full of exhausted kids (and grown-ups too!).
Well it looks like the Via Rail strike is over already. After 48 hours, they came to their senses quickly and decided that a lengthy strike could make it difficult to win customers back to an already slow and expensive form of travel (as discussed in my previous post). The globe and mail has reported that Via is going to offer 60% discounted fares as a way of apologizing to it's customers. My parents have decided to stick with air travel since there would be no discount to them (they already bought their tickets at full pop). Even with the $200 penalty we'll have to pay to cancel them, air travel will still be cheaper and they'll be home in just over 4 hours (instead of 4 days). I'm sure the train trip through the rockies would have been incredible, but come on, if they can't bring these fares down and compete with the airlines, how are they ever going to get ridership up?
With 14 days before we're Bound for Bowen, I guess I should get going on sending out change of address notifications (because there's no way I'm going to trust Canada Post with it this time).
Well it looks like the Via Rail strike is over already. After 48 hours, they came to their senses quickly and decided that a lengthy strike could make it difficult to win customers back to an already slow and expensive form of travel (as discussed in my previous post). The globe and mail has reported that Via is going to offer 60% discounted fares as a way of apologizing to it's customers. My parents have decided to stick with air travel since there would be no discount to them (they already bought their tickets at full pop). Even with the $200 penalty we'll have to pay to cancel them, air travel will still be cheaper and they'll be home in just over 4 hours (instead of 4 days). I'm sure the train trip through the rockies would have been incredible, but come on, if they can't bring these fares down and compete with the airlines, how are they ever going to get ridership up?
With 14 days before we're Bound for Bowen, I guess I should get going on sending out change of address notifications (because there's no way I'm going to trust Canada Post with it this time).
Saturday, July 25, 2009
16 Days to go!
I'll be loading up the van with Michael, Caroline and my nephews Richard and Kyle for our trip to Cedar Point this weekend. Today's weather looks like it will be lousy - rain showers all day with thunderstorms. Booooo. Oh well, we have a cabin rented in Sandusky, OH for tonight and tomorrow we'll head to Cedar Point's Soak City - it looks like the weather for tomorrow should be much better (Sunny, about 80 deg F and only a 20% risk of a thunderstorm).
Caroline & Michael have really enjoyed having Richard and Kyle around, after this weekend it'll be hard for them to say goodbye. We've been having lots of trouble with Michael and bedtime lately. I know that most of it is caused by our crazy lack of stable home life in the last few weeks, but hopefully we can get him into a bedtime routine soon. You can only drive him around the block to get him to sleep so many times in the week!
With only 16 days to go, we're really getting anxious to head for Bowen - we're almost done with the repacking and it looks like we'll be able to get the 17ft truck but we'll have to load it extremely tight. All of the arrangements have been made for utility accounts for the new place. Next week it will be change of addresses. Speaking of addresses we finally (after 22 days of no mail) received our redirected mail from Ottawa. It took a few phone calls to Canada Post but we finally got the mail.
My parents were originally supposed to drive up with us and take the train back, but since VIA Rail went on strike yesterday we booked them flights with WestJet direct from Vancouver to London,ON which is only about 1.5 hours from their home here in Ruthven. No wonder people don't use the train - I purchased 2 one way tickets from WestJet (4 hour flight) for $640 including seat selection and fees/taxes. I paid $840 for 2 one way tickets on the train (4 DAY trip). Even if VIA won't let me cancel their train trip without penalty ($200 penalty) we still won't lose anything by switching to air travel. That's unbelievable.
Caroline & Michael have really enjoyed having Richard and Kyle around, after this weekend it'll be hard for them to say goodbye. We've been having lots of trouble with Michael and bedtime lately. I know that most of it is caused by our crazy lack of stable home life in the last few weeks, but hopefully we can get him into a bedtime routine soon. You can only drive him around the block to get him to sleep so many times in the week!
With only 16 days to go, we're really getting anxious to head for Bowen - we're almost done with the repacking and it looks like we'll be able to get the 17ft truck but we'll have to load it extremely tight. All of the arrangements have been made for utility accounts for the new place. Next week it will be change of addresses. Speaking of addresses we finally (after 22 days of no mail) received our redirected mail from Ottawa. It took a few phone calls to Canada Post but we finally got the mail.
My parents were originally supposed to drive up with us and take the train back, but since VIA Rail went on strike yesterday we booked them flights with WestJet direct from Vancouver to London,ON which is only about 1.5 hours from their home here in Ruthven. No wonder people don't use the train - I purchased 2 one way tickets from WestJet (4 hour flight) for $640 including seat selection and fees/taxes. I paid $840 for 2 one way tickets on the train (4 DAY trip). Even if VIA won't let me cancel their train trip without penalty ($200 penalty) we still won't lose anything by switching to air travel. That's unbelievable.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
19 Days and counting.
19 Days left to go before we head out to BC.
We had a great time visiting with Candace and Mike in Michigan on the weekend even though Mike had to cut it short due to a last minute business trip to Ireland. Hopefully we can visit with them again before we head out to BC.
On our way back from their home in Utica, we stopped off at the Detroit zoo and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect, upper 70's and partly cloudy - many of the animals were out and active. After the day at the zoo, everyone was exhausted and not thrilled at the "you're name came up for random inspection" on our way home at the Canadian border crossing. They were quick and courteous though and we were out in no time.
I had a chance to have lunch with my old buddy Pete yesterday at Gilligan's restaurant in Leamington. Gilligan's definitely has the worlds best burgers (in my opinion anyway) it's nice to have a chance to visit with friends before we leave, we'll miss everyone, but better still, we hope they'll all come out to visit us on Bowen at some point. We discussed lots of topics including the bad press that Windsor has gotten in the National media. From it's economic problems including historic job losses in the auto sector, the city workers strike and garbage piling up - to the west end kids fed up with hookers hanging out in their neighbourhood, Windsor hasn't exactly been getting much good publicity lately. With the highest unemployment rate and one of the highest vacancy rates in the entire country, many people who were making an extremely good living are now looking for work and only finding low paying jobs available, if any at all. Some of the restaurants in the area have disappeared in a short period of time (Outback steakhouse, Hooters, Applebee's in Leamington, Montanas in the east end and many more) are a sign of the times here. Well, at least the housing prices are some of the lowest in the country. Affordability is fantastic here.
Since we had to cancel Caroline's birthday party at Cosmic Adventures in Ottawa, we're taking her, Michael and my nephews Richard and Kyle to Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio on the weekend. We'll do the 2 day amusement park and soak city ticket. I'm sure everyone will have a fantastic time. I just hope that storms predicted for the weekend hold off.
Repacking is almost done now and I think that we may be able to pull off the 17 ft truck and even eliminate the need for Krista's trailer. That would be great. We'll see once we're done with all the boxes.
We had a great time visiting with Candace and Mike in Michigan on the weekend even though Mike had to cut it short due to a last minute business trip to Ireland. Hopefully we can visit with them again before we head out to BC.
On our way back from their home in Utica, we stopped off at the Detroit zoo and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect, upper 70's and partly cloudy - many of the animals were out and active. After the day at the zoo, everyone was exhausted and not thrilled at the "you're name came up for random inspection" on our way home at the Canadian border crossing. They were quick and courteous though and we were out in no time.
I had a chance to have lunch with my old buddy Pete yesterday at Gilligan's restaurant in Leamington. Gilligan's definitely has the worlds best burgers (in my opinion anyway) it's nice to have a chance to visit with friends before we leave, we'll miss everyone, but better still, we hope they'll all come out to visit us on Bowen at some point. We discussed lots of topics including the bad press that Windsor has gotten in the National media. From it's economic problems including historic job losses in the auto sector, the city workers strike and garbage piling up - to the west end kids fed up with hookers hanging out in their neighbourhood, Windsor hasn't exactly been getting much good publicity lately. With the highest unemployment rate and one of the highest vacancy rates in the entire country, many people who were making an extremely good living are now looking for work and only finding low paying jobs available, if any at all. Some of the restaurants in the area have disappeared in a short period of time (Outback steakhouse, Hooters, Applebee's in Leamington, Montanas in the east end and many more) are a sign of the times here. Well, at least the housing prices are some of the lowest in the country. Affordability is fantastic here.
Since we had to cancel Caroline's birthday party at Cosmic Adventures in Ottawa, we're taking her, Michael and my nephews Richard and Kyle to Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio on the weekend. We'll do the 2 day amusement park and soak city ticket. I'm sure everyone will have a fantastic time. I just hope that storms predicted for the weekend hold off.
Repacking is almost done now and I think that we may be able to pull off the 17 ft truck and even eliminate the need for Krista's trailer. That would be great. We'll see once we're done with all the boxes.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Life's a beach!
Yesterday I took the kids over to Cedar Beach in Kingsville ON for a swim. As expected we found the beach (like most beaches around Essex County) closed due to high levels of bacteria. In other words the "poop" content was too high. We decided to make the best of it and brought out the sand toys and took to sandcastle building near the water. After about an hour of playing in the sand we started shell collecting and to my surprise, found some hypodermic needles in the sand. I wish I could take my kids to the beach without worrying about them getting injured from some idiot's careless needle disposal practices. If you're going to shoot up - please, at least put the needle in the trash so some poor kid doesn't get injured!Today I spent a couple of hours enjoying a nice bicycle ride with my father. He really seems to enjoy biking the Chrysler trail (old railway tracks turned walking/cycling trail). The exercise is good for them. Afterwords my father treated us to a great dinner at Filis eatery - the side door grill on Division rd in Kingsville. The service was great and so was the food. It was nice that they took care of the kids with crayons and doodle placemats and also brought their food out well before ours so that we could take care of them and still enjoy our meals. Surprisingly not that many restaurants we've been to have done a fantastic job catering to family's.
Caroline is getting pretty good at the Wii games. Her tennis is hard to beat!
Michael's been a bit difficult lately, he seems to really be trying hard for attention. As with many nights, tonight I had to take him for a drive to get him to sleep (just got back 5 minutes ago). I know all of this moving around must be tough on them, but hopefully we can get them back to normal bedtimes soon and a consistent routine.
Tomorrow we'll spend some time working on the repacking and then head over to the USA and visit Caroline's godparents Candace and Mike in Michigan. Mike unfortunately had a last minute business trip come up in Ireland, but doesn't have to leave until after dinner, so we'll head over early and spend some time with them before he leaves.
24 days and counting. Can't wait to hit the road to Bowen.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
25 days and counting
Weather is pretty good today in southwestern Ontario. Yesterday was hot and very humid, today should be hot (84F) but the humidity should ease up a bit. We're slowly finishing up the repacking of our stuff, still not sure if we'll end up with the 17ft or 26ft truck though.
I'll take the kids to the beach later today to cool off. We plan on going to visit Candace and Mike on Saturday - looks like we'll have a detour on I75 north because of the tanker fire at 9 mile yesterday.
We can't wait to hit the road to Bowen - hopefully the 25 days will go by quickly.
I'll take the kids to the beach later today to cool off. We plan on going to visit Candace and Mike on Saturday - looks like we'll have a detour on I75 north because of the tanker fire at 9 mile yesterday.
We can't wait to hit the road to Bowen - hopefully the 25 days will go by quickly.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Pack and Re-Pack
Yesterday we spent the day sorting through all of our belongings that were hastily thrown into boxes from our quick move from Ottawa. We moved everything outside and then reorganized the shop into sorted and unsorted. We created a "not coming to BC" pile which grew substantially as the day went on, but still did not eliminate enough stuff. By the looks of things, we'll have to opt for another 26 ft truck instead of the planned 17ft. Financially, the big truck really isn't much more than the smaller, but fuel will probably be more - not to mention the hastle of driving the big truck across the country and through the mountains.
The biggest problem I see here is that we will be moving into a home half the size of what we had in Ottawa. I don't want to be living ontop of boxes that we don't even end up opening! We still have alot to sort through, and hopefully we get the load down to a smaller size, but if nobody is willing to part with anything, we'll end up using the big truck and filling up another house with our junk.
After a long day of sorting, we visited the Muscat family at their campground, Leisure Lake. The campground certainly has improved since I camped there as a kid. Mark and Gina are doing well and we had a great time sitting around the campfire with them. The kids enjoyed the playground & some Smore's and we enjoyed a few drinks. Hope to see them again before we head out.
The biggest problem I see here is that we will be moving into a home half the size of what we had in Ottawa. I don't want to be living ontop of boxes that we don't even end up opening! We still have alot to sort through, and hopefully we get the load down to a smaller size, but if nobody is willing to part with anything, we'll end up using the big truck and filling up another house with our junk.
After a long day of sorting, we visited the Muscat family at their campground, Leisure Lake. The campground certainly has improved since I camped there as a kid. Mark and Gina are doing well and we had a great time sitting around the campfire with them. The kids enjoyed the playground & some Smore's and we enjoyed a few drinks. Hope to see them again before we head out.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
The new canoe/kayak trailer
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Enjoying time with old friends
We're taking advantage of the time that we have here in the Windsor, ON area to visit with some old friends. Yesterday we headed over to Amherstburg to visit with our old neighbours Keith and Sue Gagnon. The kids didn't recognize them at first, but soon remembered them, and our old house next door. The new owner has really taken good care of it and we're happy to see that all of the work we put into that house has really made someone very happy.
We had a great BBQ on the Grillmaster 10,000 with the Gagnon's - Thanks for the hospitality. We also got to visit with the Stevensons next door to them. Caroline and Michael went for a dip in their pool (although a bit frigid) and they had a great time.
We got home a bit late, but the kids were still awake. After the usual bedtime routine and stories, I put Caroline to bed, but that's when the tears started to roll. Why do we have to move away from Ottawa? We just moved there!! It's tough to explain to a 5 year old why we feel it's so important and how much she will love Bowen. Right now, she's upset to leave her new friends in Ottawa. They didn't seem too upset about seeing their old house in Amherstburg though and most of her old friends in the subdivision we lived have also moved away, so right now, there aren't many kids her and Michael's age nearby anyway. I know that she'll adjust quickly on Bowen and make tons of friends. She always had a knack for making friends quickly and she's well liked by everyone. It'll take some time and a bunch of tears, but I know she'll be happy. It'll just be tough on mom & dad helping her through it.
Today is a beautiful day in Ruthven, clear skies, lots of sun and should be about 80F. I'll try and spend as much time as I can playing with the kids today. They need one of those days.
We had a great BBQ on the Grillmaster 10,000 with the Gagnon's - Thanks for the hospitality. We also got to visit with the Stevensons next door to them. Caroline and Michael went for a dip in their pool (although a bit frigid) and they had a great time.
We got home a bit late, but the kids were still awake. After the usual bedtime routine and stories, I put Caroline to bed, but that's when the tears started to roll. Why do we have to move away from Ottawa? We just moved there!! It's tough to explain to a 5 year old why we feel it's so important and how much she will love Bowen. Right now, she's upset to leave her new friends in Ottawa. They didn't seem too upset about seeing their old house in Amherstburg though and most of her old friends in the subdivision we lived have also moved away, so right now, there aren't many kids her and Michael's age nearby anyway. I know that she'll adjust quickly on Bowen and make tons of friends. She always had a knack for making friends quickly and she's well liked by everyone. It'll take some time and a bunch of tears, but I know she'll be happy. It'll just be tough on mom & dad helping her through it.
Today is a beautiful day in Ruthven, clear skies, lots of sun and should be about 80F. I'll try and spend as much time as I can playing with the kids today. They need one of those days.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
How fast things change!
It's been a crazy few days ..
On Monday we received word we could close on our home in Ottawa early and save thousands of dollars - one catch - you have 1 day to pack, move out and clean the house. Can you do it?
Oh yeah! - since we were in Windsor visiting my family at the time, my father and I headed back to Ottawa at about 5pm. We arrived at around 1:30am. My mother in law Krista arrived from her Toronto visit shortly before us. Leslie stayed with the kids and my mom in Windsor, that way Leslie could continue working.
The next morning we picked up a 26ft U-Haul truck (a piece of junk, but hey we gave them about 2 minutes notice, so we were lucky to have a truck at all) and headed back to the house to pack up, load up and clean.
Even after 2 huge yard sales, we still had way way way more stuff than I could have ever expected and the going was very slow. Thank goodness for our neighbour Steve Kirk who helped us well into the night and in the rain, without him, we'd still be there.
By Midnight, we had emptied the house and only had items left in the garage. Since the new tenants (mosquitos) had taken control of the house, we stayed at the Days Inn in Bell's Corners for the night and finished up the loading in the AM. By lunch time the truck was full (and I mean REALLY full) and we were headed back to Windsor. We'll be staying with my family for the 4 weeks until our reload and caravan to BC.
Thanks again to our wonderful neighbours the Kirk family. We hadn't known them very long, but were amazed at how generous and helpful they were. You guys always have a place to stay in BC. Come by anytime.
Now that we have a better perspective on just how much stuff we still have (and how much we aren't willing to part with) we've changed our game plan for the move. Krista will still tow her 4x8 ft trailer up, Leslie will drive our minivan with our 4x8 utility trailer (with kayak mods completed) and I will rent a 17ft U-Haul truck for the rest of the stuff. My parents will ride with us and after a nice vacation in BC, they'll take the train back to Windsor. I have to say I'm jealous, I hear the train ride through the Rockies is absolutely fantastic.
Well, it's time to unload the truck (and then sort, eliminate and repack our stuff into a reasonable amount).
Thanks to my father Yvon and Krista for nearly killing themselves doing the banzai move. They shouldn't have to do that at their age, but we really appreciate the help.
On Monday we received word we could close on our home in Ottawa early and save thousands of dollars - one catch - you have 1 day to pack, move out and clean the house. Can you do it?
Oh yeah! - since we were in Windsor visiting my family at the time, my father and I headed back to Ottawa at about 5pm. We arrived at around 1:30am. My mother in law Krista arrived from her Toronto visit shortly before us. Leslie stayed with the kids and my mom in Windsor, that way Leslie could continue working.
The next morning we picked up a 26ft U-Haul truck (a piece of junk, but hey we gave them about 2 minutes notice, so we were lucky to have a truck at all) and headed back to the house to pack up, load up and clean.
Even after 2 huge yard sales, we still had way way way more stuff than I could have ever expected and the going was very slow. Thank goodness for our neighbour Steve Kirk who helped us well into the night and in the rain, without him, we'd still be there.
By Midnight, we had emptied the house and only had items left in the garage. Since the new tenants (mosquitos) had taken control of the house, we stayed at the Days Inn in Bell's Corners for the night and finished up the loading in the AM. By lunch time the truck was full (and I mean REALLY full) and we were headed back to Windsor. We'll be staying with my family for the 4 weeks until our reload and caravan to BC.
Thanks again to our wonderful neighbours the Kirk family. We hadn't known them very long, but were amazed at how generous and helpful they were. You guys always have a place to stay in BC. Come by anytime.
Now that we have a better perspective on just how much stuff we still have (and how much we aren't willing to part with) we've changed our game plan for the move. Krista will still tow her 4x8 ft trailer up, Leslie will drive our minivan with our 4x8 utility trailer (with kayak mods completed) and I will rent a 17ft U-Haul truck for the rest of the stuff. My parents will ride with us and after a nice vacation in BC, they'll take the train back to Windsor. I have to say I'm jealous, I hear the train ride through the Rockies is absolutely fantastic.
Well, it's time to unload the truck (and then sort, eliminate and repack our stuff into a reasonable amount).
Thanks to my father Yvon and Krista for nearly killing themselves doing the banzai move. They shouldn't have to do that at their age, but we really appreciate the help.
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