At the cottage one day...

 I was really excited to take my Mom and Grandma out to the lake and show them the new work we had done on the cottage, especially the downstairs which we had improved by leaps and bounds.  We went up on the Sunday of Daddy's Birthday weekend and it was super special because it was my Grandma's first trip there ever.  Mom was so impressed by our progress, as we are!  It is hard to believe that this cottage is the same place we bought just over a year ago (when Mommy was nine months pregnant).

This is the basement so far:

 Daddy laid the flooring (with a little help from Steven) in one day last weekend.  Go Daddy!

 Our day was going swimmingly and then our palette of stone arrived by truck from Windsor Plywood.  Well, the truck got stuck in the backyard and then started a debacle.  The driver, Rick, started using ropes and the crane on the truck as a winch to haul himself up the drive.  He gained foot after painstaking foot this way using our trees for about an hour.  Eventually the rope snapped and his truck went careening back down the driveway, smashed into stairs and then almost landed in the lake.

Thank goodness everyone was ok and the kids were in the house.  It took hours for a tow truck to get the truck out of our yard.  Daddy is going to meet with the owner of the store tomorrow to discuss where to go from here.  One thing is for certain, he won't mention that the stairs were our very next project ;).

Spending time with Great-Grandma

I just loved this photo so I put it in!

Charlie's Bday Celebrations

 On the evening of your first birthday we decided it was time to disassemble your diaper cake.  You made short work of that!

A fun, and practical gift at that!  Thanks Grandma!

 We had a lovely dinner and then CAKE!  You enjoyed that quite a bit.

The presents you lucky boy!  You got a new monitor (yea!), some clothes from Mexx from Jenny, some $ and stuffies.  But the real fun was in unwrapping of course.

 Even Will got a cool new dinosaur toy that moves on clapping.  Awesome!

 ONE!

On the day you turned one...

On the morning of your first birthday Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Jenny snuck into your nursery with cameras and video camera to capture your first waking moments on this special day.

You were so sweet sitting up drowsily in your crib and wondering what all the attention was about!

You sat for a little while surverying the room (and us!) and reached up to be lifted out.  We sang happy birthday to you and changed you and held you for a little while and we also talked about how we had just arrived at the hospital this time last year on this day.  On a day a year ago when Charlie was unbelievably not even in our lives yet.
  It is hard to imagine that just a year ago we didn't even know you yet.  We are so blessed to have you baby boy.  You have been such a sweet gift to our family.  There never was a happier, sweeter babe than you.

Mommy and Daddy headed off to work looking forward to the evening of birthday celebrating that lay ahead!

Charlie heart olives

 Your latest party trick involves sticking your finger into an olive and then gobbling it up!  You do it for effect now because we've made such a big deal of it and it is adorable.  You very determinedly place your finger in the sliced olive and then hold up your finger for all to see saying "AH".  As in, see?

We all clap and shout and you get very, very excited flinging your hands to and fro and sometimes sending the olive itself flying.

 

Such glee from an olive!

Daddy's Birthday Cake and Presents

 When we got home from our weekend away there were lots of surprises waiting for Daddy.  There were presents and cake and $ and more.  Love it!

The boys were very proficient at helping unwrap gifts.

 The Black Forest cake was deelish!

Will was such a good boy and ate his dairy-free pie with very little protest.  Sweet boy.

 Charlie really enjoyed the Black Forest cake also....

Daddy's Birthday Weekend in Vic

 For Daddy's birthday weekend this year (the big 3-6), we headed to Victoria to have a little adult time alone.  Grandma, Great-Grandma and Jenny held down the fort while we were gone.  We stayed at the scenic Brentwood Bay Resort and Spa and it was gorgeous.  We had a delicious dinner when we arrived on the Thursday evening out on the patio, complete with dessert and port.  Yum!

The next day we started out at Butchart Gardens, our first trip there.  Then we headed downtown for some shopping and then to Il Terrazzo, a favourite sentimental spot for us, for dinner.  A perfect day :)

 Just goofing around at the gardens:

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Charlie's Oakville Birthday

 When we got back to Oakville from the Bahamas Grandma had prepared a special surprise for you to celebrate your first birthday.  It is only a week away and she wanted Papa and Grandpa to be a part of it too.  There was a beautiful diaper cake for you with lovely books and a stuffy monkey of course!

 There were balloons too!

And gifts, including a beautiful engraved cup with your name on it just like Will's.

Thank you everyone!

Last vacation pics

 You were ok to sit by the pool in a lounger for only a short time.  But if we got you french fries...let's just say we could bide our time a lot longer.  Parents of the year!!

By the flying fish fountain.  We saw a documentary on the making of Atlantis while there and the amount of work that went into this fountain is staggering.  It really made us appreciate the works of art around the resort, and this carving made into copper in particular.

 Smiley water boy!

 

Funny boy!

 

 On our way back to airport.  One last look at the marina.

I'm sure we'll be back Bahamas!

Even more Atlantis

 Every night we would get dressed up and go out for a nice dinner.  There were a la carte restaurants and buffets to choose from and more often than not we ended up at the buffet.  Yum!

This is a grouper and it was massive!

 Fun in the sun!

More Vacation

 A Cooper selfie :)

This is Daddy in the shark tank water slide.  And Mommy and Charlie looking at the marina.

 Charlie is such a big eater we actually started buying you your own kid's meals.  You can put a good dent in them too.  Sheesh, you are going to eat us out of house and home when you're a tenn aren't you?!

 My sweet, sweet baby boy.

More of Atlantis

In the mornings we would go out for breakfast, either at a local restaurant like Murray's diner or to Starbucks for a taste of home.  We would often walk out to the marina and have a look at the yachts there that day.  I had never seen anything like it.  The sheer size of them!  What a life.

Some of the yachts had American flags but most were flying flags from the Cayman Islands.  Something good is going on in the Caymans I guess....

Beautiful boy!

This is one of the many areas where you could find marine life on the resort.  This outdorr aquarium was full of hammerhead sharks.  We could have walked around and looked at things all day.  In fact, there were many tourists going through the resort in groups with day passes just to get a look.