Grandma and Papa come to visit

Grandma and Papa came to visit this past weekend. With their help and logistical support, we were able to do many things around the house that needed our attention: vegetables went in the garden and flowers went in the pots, shrubs trimmed, closets organized, and so much more. And of course we were able to have some fun too! We went to the pool and splash park at Camp Arrowhead on Saturday:

We bought a sandbox for Brian, which he loves (and I do too because it heeps him from digging in my garden where I planted seeds):

We played outside and went for walks:

Brian went to a real hairdresser for his first professional haircut, which you can sort of see in this picture. Both Brian and Sasha love when Papa comes to visit because they get to go on walks every day!

Last day of school and graduation

On the last day of school, Brian was one of many kiddos wearing a Big Brother shirt... it was pretty funny.

Graduation was at Camp Arrowhead, a sort of suburban little park that the YMCA has. The 2 year olds didn't have a graduation per se, but we did get a picture with all his teachers.

They had set up some inflatables that Brian wanted to go on so, so badly ("I very want to!") that he was mad at me when I told him he couldn't just climb on (there was a line). He actually waited in a long line twice to go on this one.

He ate lunch with Miss Julieann, his favorite teacher. They ate lunch together after preschool fairly often. After lunch I had to put away the camera because we went to the sprayground, where Brian had a blast and I took Eli to get his feet wet. Needless to say, I had to drag Brian away when it was time to go!

Monday

On Monday, we started our trek up to Montreal. We stopped about halfway in Thousand Island Park, a little town full of summer homes. We had lunch on the waterfront...

Then played in their park, which had a sandbox full of toys!

Eli was happy to be out of the car. Heck, we all were.

Then we went on to Montreal, checked into our place, and went for a walk. We ended up eating dinner at this little restaurant, where Calvin had poutine, one of his goals for the trip. :)

Tuesday

Tuesday it was rainy, so we went to visit the Biodome. It used to be the Olympic velodrome, but was converted into this neat walk-though zoo that had 4 different climate zones: the tropics, boreal forests, sub-artic, and artic. The tropical zone was muggy and made my camera foggy:

Calvin and Brian in the sub-artic zone:

Me and Eli

After the Biodome, we went to the Jean-Talon Market, and got our first crepe of the trip. I held Brian up to see them making it (he was tired from just waking up from his short car-nap).

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we went to the botanical gardens, which includes an insectarium. They had a lot of live bugs too, which I mostly tried to ignore. Brian watched the bees for a long time before we went out to the bug-themed playground. I thought there was a butterfly exhibit, so I was a little sad to find the museum was mostly icky things like tarantulas and scorpions.

Papa, you would be so proud, Brian wanted to know the names of EACH and EVERY little tree in the bonsai exhibit.

Calvin and Eli with the aquatic plants.

After the botanical gardens we drove around for the afternoon nap time and visited this historic mill, called the Fleming Mill. Apparently it has great historical significance, but all the signs were in French so I didn't figure out what it was all about.

Thursday

Eli on Thursday morning, all dressed up and ready to go!

We went to a world-famous bagel shop, St. Viateur, to see how they stack up against New York bagels. Personally, I would take a NY bagel any day, but they weren't bad. The baker gave Brian some dough to play with, and we got to see them baking the bagels in a huge, open oven, using an enormous paddle-like thing to take them in and out probably a dozen at a time. For some reason, we didn't take a picture of that. From there we went to Mount Royal Park and hiked to one overlook, and drove to another.

This is the one we walked to. Eli is so good about looking at the camera!

It was kind of rainy that day so we went to the underground mall complex downtown, where there were some great toy shops that provided a lot of free entertainment. This one had a nice Thomas set out!

We had lunch at the mall too, and after exploring for a while, both kids were tired so we drove to Ikea while they napped. Unfortunately, Brian missed the drive over the enormous bridge downtown!

Friday morning

On Friday we headed out of the city to Parc National du Mont Tremblant. There were two short hikes recommended in our guide book that we thought we could manage. The forest was beautiful, and a nice change of pace from the city. Brian and Eli both enjoyed seeing the mossy rocks.

Brian and Calvin at the Chute du Diable (Brian with his "walking stick").

After that hike we went to another trailhead and had lunch, then hiked on to les Chutes-Croches. Both kids got excited about all the waterfalls!

All in all, it was a great way to spend a day.