Tag Archives: fun

addition…

30 Friday Sep 2016

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last night I was sitting in the hot tub remembering when my beloved and I would sit out and watch the stars…

for a few years we would rent a hot tub on our anniversary… I was always the one who did this as I liked hot tubs way more than George did, lol… one of my all time favourite pictures is of my oldest grandson in one of the rented tubs… adorable, isn’t it…


brought to mind the fact that we’ve had it for just over seven years… when I was dismissed from my previous employment I received a settlement and used some of that money to buy it…

I think we bought it in March but didn’t get it home and going until Mother’s Day that Spring, partly because we had to fill in a pond and build a deck for it to sit on… 

first time in our hot tub…

I have loved every minute… and often think about what it took to get it…

George grew to enjoy it over time and the kids have all had great fun in it, on their own, or with friends…

it has certainly been a wonderful addition to our garden…

fun…

10 Saturday Sep 2016

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picked up by the kids and went to Pokemon Day at the Zoo... there were lures set up at all the PokéStops…

great fun to see people of all ages playing throughout the area… got my picture taken with two of the Pokemon trainers…

they didn’t mind taking a photo with me and the kids thought it was hysterical…

from there we went to Grant Park Soccer Fields where the middle guy played his two final games of the year…

that’s our guy on the left…

this shot even has the ball in the air, pretty cool…

to top off the day we went downtown to Manyfest… way too many people for me… the food truck lines were crazy… eventually, after spending a long time in food lines, we ended at the shaved ice truck….

there were a lot of flavours to choose from…

sure looked pretty… and I think that every drop was eaten up…

going to bed now, that was a busy day…

Ottawa day 6…

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

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last night we had a fun time doing a chocolate tasting…

we had gone to the liquor store to get an appropriate bottle of wine and picked up Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Reserve… two different staff members recommended it…

while I was doing the dishes before our dinner arrived my daughter was preparing the plate of chocolate…

she chose six different chocolates, most of which were around 70% cacao and made a list on a sheet that we would review at the end of our tasting…

then we tasted them one by one with and without the wine…

after each piece we both made notes… she wrote on paper and I entered comments into the Notes app on my iPhone…

we took our time and toasted each piece of chocolate that we tried…

it was great fun…

they were different shapes but about the same size…we took a short break after the third piece to give our mouths a chance to rest…

the wine was very good and we found that it certainly did enhance the taste of the chocolate…

once we were done, we reviewed and compared our notes and picked our favourites… 

as it happened we both chose the same bar…

afterwards we went over ways to make the tasting experience even better…

don’t think it will be too long before she has a group of friends over for an official chocolate tasting…

nice flower bed down the street…


today she worked and I went out and picked up steak for our supper, read, napped and prepared the ingredients for the meal… 

glads opening…


lovely, restful day…

Pokémon…

03 Wednesday Aug 2016

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today my kids met me at the Millennium Library Park over the lunch hour…

my daughter has given in and downloaded Pokémon Go on her phone so both little boys can help search for Pokémons, PokéStops and gyms… daddy had downloaded the game before we left on our vacation, so they would either take turns or share the phone…

the boys wandered all around the Park and found a PokéStop and two gyms… apparently they fight in the gyms, but the boys tell me they aren’t fighting others… they know how I feel about fighting, so I’m not sure about that…

while we were camping they would go for walks to hatch eggs and searched wherever we were to see if there were any Pokémons in the vicinity… then there would be great excitement as they described what they had caught…

it has been interesting to see how many people are playing and how there seems to be lots of cooperation where one person will suggest to other hunters where to search…

we chatted with many people we wouldn’t normally have spoken to, as it was clear they were also playing the game… appears to be a bit of a family game for our family and it is nice to see them playing it together…

since the first day my oldest grandson showed me the game, with great excitement in his eyes, I have been interested in how it has entertained them… 

they are often sharing what they have accomplished with their walking around and about…

such fun…

screenshot of my daughter’s game…

camping, day 6…

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

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what a lovely day… heard a couple of loons as we were having our breakfast and packing our lunch…

sun shone and we spent the whole day on the water…

started with a number of rides on the big tube…

the two little guys practically fly when their daddy tries to dump them off, and there are huge grins on all their faces throughout the process…

the oldest grandson and I had a blast, when I wasn’t screaming, lol… 

picnic on board and we toured around half the lake, admiring the cottages… then we swam off the boat… 

after that, there was wakeboarding action… my daughter, son-in-law, and middle grandson are all naturals… my oldest was very close to getting up but the water was getting a bit choppy…

then it was my turn… they had to lower me into the water once the boots were on my feet…

my daughter got right in with me and helped me get positioned…

tried and tried but couldn’t get up… laughed the whole time though… they moved on to kneeboarding and the three oldest boys in the group had a great time, lol… and were very good at it… 

 travelled home after a fun time…

got the boat docked and headed back to the campsite…

my daughter and I went on little tubes (from our visit to Courtenay, many years ago) at the water by our site… bit breezy so we ended up with rock burns, lol…

made and had supper, which was cooked over the fire once again… and a couple of us are trying to save the fire, while the others went out for supplies, but it isn’t looking good, lol…

hoping you had a special day too…

plants…

25 Saturday Jun 2016

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another lovely day…

up early, had a smoothie for breakfast, and made potato salad – at my son-in-law’s request, for a birthday party tomorrow… 

took a few shots of the first bloom on the hibiscus… very nice…


then I was picked up and went plant shopping at three different garden centres… amazingly I was able to find something at each place, lol…


one of the most exciting purchases was a purply-blue water fountain for the front step… been watching it for awhile and today it was on sale, yay…


found a few plants to add to the garden and a couple of hanging baskets…  one is going to go into a planter at the front… really enjoyed the time with my friend…

topped it off with fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes, dill and tomatoes from the J & H Garden Centre… 

such fun to shell the peas once I got home…


after a nap and a few chores, ended the day with a fabulous dinner of smoked goldeye, with tiny new potatoes, peas and dill… yum…


ahhhhh… 

lots of work to do tomorrow…

Atlanta Day 3…

18 Saturday Jun 2016

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another lovely day… cooler but with a nice breeze…


got a quick picture beside one of the water features at the W…


we started our day at the Green Farmers Market where we found a few things to eat and buy… then it was on to the Atlanta Botanical Garden… we found a shortcut to get there;-)…

it was the purple things that jumped out at me today…


this purple hibiscus was beautiful…

we finally spotted the bullfrog we’d heard yesterday… big one…

the water lilies looked great against the multi-coloured lily pads…

this purple fountain at dinner was nice too…

birthday…

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

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yesterday I turned 65… 

was very special to be in New York with my girls…

went for a walk after midnight… because we were in NYC and you can… wandered by the 9/11 memorial and found the Charging Bull… went to bed around two… 

we headed down to the cold-pressed juice bar in the hotel once we woke up and before starting out on our last day in the Big Apple… was able to have an all vegetable juice which was a great way to start the day… I’d been eyeing the bar since we’d arrived… later came across a creperie and had a portobello, Gruyere, thyme and truffle oil one for the second part of my breakfast… yum… at lunch had freshly made motzarella, prosciutto, radishes, a fried asparagus with cheese pizza and half of a pear Bellini… snacked on a piece of coconut chocolate cake… and our final meal of the day was steak with mashed potatoes, and a tasty salad topped off with pecan pie…  

 

was pleased with the options and able to eat small portions of each so felt treated and good at the same time, lol…here is a collection of our fun day…

  
our feet, hand and bags as we were cramming our stuff into as little space as possible, ready to go through customs with all of our goodies… including treasures from Carlo’s Bakery… a wall covered in purple purses in Brookfield Place… dinner at Prime in La Guardia… cheers at Eataly… and more cheer with our dinner…

received this great phone case from the 100,000 step girls… we’d seen this as we were riding the Big Bus Hop-on Hop-off… they searched everywhere to find one with the subway map on it but when they weren’t successful they found this one…

  
had texts and phone calls from my boys… also received this handmade card…

  
all in all a pretty wonderful way to celebrate;-)…

sweet…

24 Thursday Mar 2016

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last night I made soup for today’s Souper Thursday… stopped on our way home and picked up sweet potatoes, carrots and coconut milk… this sweet potato and carrot soup is really easy…

  
it turned out very well… veggies, salad, crackers and fruit appeared and we had a great lunch… and everyone enjoyed it… every last drop was eaten…

a while ago I ordered a number of chocolate bunnies for a fundraiser, so this morning the Easter Bunny dropped them off at each person’s desk…

  
made some cute little notes to go with them…

such fun…

  
spent a few minutes admiring my beautiful new orchid this morning… the older one still has four or five blossoms on it…

although I’ve been struggling with a headache it was a pretty sweet day…

return…

02 Saturday Jan 2016

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decided that today was the day to put away all the Christmas decorations…

for the last few days I’ve taken pictures of many of the ornaments as I knew they’d be coming down soon… used one of my apps to make a nice collage…

  
got my exercise as I brought up boxes, put away ornaments, and took them back downstairs… 

always a bit sad to take everything down… and it took a good portion of the day… maybe because I took a few breaks for reading and napping, lol… did spend some of the time thinking about the fun I had with my friend when we put all the decorations up…

the living room has returned to normal… my plants are happy because they’d been relegated to a back room for the duration…

was happy to get a few pictures of the orchid… it really is amazing…

  
enjoyed seeing the sunshine again…

  
the paths continue to be used constantly… recently the bunny spent a good portion of a day sitting in the garden so I saw it a number of times… it is really big…

tomorrow is my last day before going back to work… gonna try a lentil recipe and get in a bit more reading…