Ottawa in May

Ottawa is rather cold and brown for most of the year. Nonetheless, for a few months of the year, it gets warm and green and almost tricks one into believing that it is a wonderful place full of secrets and awe. Starting in May, these are the kinds of things you see if you look around in the area:

First off, pines and such near Ryan's apartment.

Baby pine tree:

Woodpecker:

Pink Trees:

View of the Ottawa Valley as seen from the Gatineau Hills:

View of Ryan as seen from the same lookout point:

Pink Lake:

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we enjoyed the company of family. Jason's mom was in town and on Saturday we took them on a hike to Doughnut Falls, which Sydney thinks is a hilarious name! It was a nice little hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon. On Monday we took mom and dad up the same canyon looking for a different hike, a nice jaunt to Hidden Falls, but the river was high and we missed the trail so we started up a different one, much different difficulty level than Hidden Falls, but Sydney did great and mom only nearly fell off the cliff once. It was fun! Sydney found the largest lady bug I've ever seen, picked it up and was ready to bring it home. When I told her that it would be better to leave it there where she'd have food and where it was her home, Sydney got very sad. She loves all those little bugs and wants them all to live with her as her pet. I told her we'd get a jar and collect bugs when we got home. I'll have to post pictures later since they are still on Jason's camera and he has it in San Fransico right now.


A fun thing that happened to us over the weekend as well, was bird hatchlings! We have some chickadees in the birdhouses that replaced their tree we had to remove so that was exciting. And then we had a visit from some robin twins. One of them knocked on the door so we could come look. They sat in the rose bushes on the front porch and their dad came and fed them worms. It was so cute! I ran out and took a bunch of pictures and at one point the one baby got nervous and tried to fly. He flew right onto Jason behind! It was hilarious! Here are a few of the pictures I took of the robins, and one of one of the bird houses we have with a pretty clematis.

It's time to put on make-up...

Fun in the Sun!

Well, the weather is getting warmer and warmer and every day Sydney asks if she can play in the water. In the back of my mind I here my mom saying "when the temperature is 88 degrees then you can play in the water" which always makes me laugh. What was with the number 88? 88 jigawatts made the delorian time travel, 88 degrees allowed me to play in the water....it must be a magical number! Just wanted to share a few fun photos of playing outside.


These are the tulips and purple balls in the front of my house.



Sydney throwing a stick for Mya in the back yard.




Sydney loves "rolly pollies" or "potato bugs" or "pill bugs", whatever you want to call them, the first one being her preference. She carried that little bug with us for quite a while and wanted to bring it home with us, but I wouldn't let her bring it in the car and made her find a great place to let him go. She was very sad, she wanted it as a pet.




Sydney playing on a new playground. We have to play on every one we find!

Hey, Steph! No clouds!

Peyton wishing he was able to run around with his sister. Peyton also got his first tooth on Saturday! It's big and really sharp! He's such a cutie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I LOVE YOU

At the corner of Harbor Drive and Gate Five Road

Serenity now.

Please.

Sydney's Bike!

Okay, so we love to spoil our kids! It's awful! We were going to get Sydney a bike for her birthday, but felt that if we waited until the end of July, she wouldn't be able to get much use out of it this year, so we bought her one over the weekend. Of course it's a Trek because I love Trek bikes and we wanted it to last. Our original idea was to get one in maybe a more nuetral color so that Peyton could use it when he got old enough. BUT, when my adorable girl is asking please and has the largest cutest smile as she's test driving the bike, we caved and got her the pink one. We are getting her a basket and tassles too. She wanted the bike at the store that had them and I told her we could get them as an after-market upgrade on any bike that we decided to get. So, that will be the next trip to the store.

Sydney is amazing at riding this bike! She did fall over a couple times because she was turning too sharply, but she climbed right back on and kept going! Her biggest concern was that she fell in a puddle and got her pants wet. I decided to drawn a line on the driveway of a large circle to help her follow to make a bigger turn-around. She followed that line exactly! It was amazing how accurate she was!

I'm so excited to see her want to ride her bike and have so much fun! It will be fun to ride over to the park and places!