The Johnsons, a Beach Visit, and Television Obsessions

Dear blog,

Another day gone by, and I must admit that I am deeply appreciating the summer. Spare time (read: time not lesson planning/marking) is a beautiful thing, and there are so many great ways to fill it.

BEACH DAY at THE BAY

We had some great moments at Mooney's Bay today, which has quickly become our adopted beach. Here are some shots of the kiddies getting ready to take the beach by storm.

Jesse is single-handedly bringing back the muscle shirt. Clearly, he has his dad's pipes. Janna "The Diva" Vance is sporting some shades to capture all the little toddler hearts our there.


Janna went right to work creating some Kodak moments. Every ten seconds she would do something cute, look at us, and smile.

(On the other hand, her parents were much less photogenic, and even the incredibly beautiful Chrissy Vance provided no appropriate pics.)

My main goal for the visit was just to teach Jesse how to dig a respectable hole. Unfortunately, he had other goals in mind, namely filling his buck with sand.

In a great "daddy moment," I thought I'd show him how to properly pack sand into his bucket, but I must have packed it too hard because when I flipped it upside down, it cracked in half. Jesse was not impressed.

Ah, snack time. If I didn't teach him how to make a good sand castle, at least I taught him how to relax after a snack.


Although it might seem like Chrissy and I are pretty family-oriented people, we do make an effort to take some downtime away from the kids. Here are some things we've been experiencing lately....

1) Awesome family concerts:

The Johnsons are, simply put, the most talented group of family musicians I’ve ever heard. No hyperbole here: from the very first, eerily dark and brooding, opening notes to the rap/piano rock hit you might hear on any radio station; to the dramatic re-enactment of a key moment in The Little Mermaid; to the closing, acapella rendition of “Amazing Grace;” this may be the most energizing and eclectic show in Ottawa.

The questions that beg to be asked are:
Why have they not released a family album? 
and 
Why are they not playing in Bluesfest?

2) Obsessive following of hit TV series:


Chrissy and I always like to have a TV show on the go that we can watch together. So far, since we first started dating, we've watched all the seasons of Friends, 24, and we're working on Friday Night Lights. 

We actually missed the last season of 24, so we're catching up on it now... It's epic.

Alright, so maybe I should be embarrassed about this, but in the spare time I've suddenly discovered, I've begun to watch a show that everyone else apparently watched 10 years ago: Smallville!


This has suddenly become affordable due to a killer deal at Jumbo video: $9.99/month for unlimited 7-night rentals. Basically, this is a video store's last stand against Netflix and internet videos, and I think it's worth keeping the video store industry alive.

Is there even any place else in Ottawa that still rents DVDs????