Parliament Hill
Jesse is four and Janna is two; both are Canadian citizens; both will be able to vote in Canadian elections in less than sixteen years: basically, it was time to expose them to the glories of Parliament Hill to see where our elected representatives meet to decide important things in our country.
The children are pumped. Jesse is nearly exploding with civic excitement; Janna is enthused as well (do not be fooled into thinking that that is a cynical smile on her face - she takes politics very seriously).
All excitement was unfortunately lost by the time we reached Sparks Street.
The glories of Sparks Street. The children maintained this expression of reverent awe as I expounded on the historical significance of various landmarks.
Note Janna's glee as she spies a horse the Peace Tower.
Trying to get the classic awesome Peace Tower shot. Unfortunately, the effect was somewhat lost during a minor controversy over whether or not Janna should hold Jesse's hand.
Soon Janna found something she was REALLY interested in... leaves!
Jesse was mesmerized by the water and kept trying to persuade me to "touch it!"
Checking out the changing of the guards. Jesse thought that this was cool enough, but Janna wasn't a big fan of the bagpipes.
Sitting down for a snack after a busy morning. I literally pleaded for Janna to smile in this picture. Here, you can see a faint sign of her amusement at refusing my request.
Jesse always likes taking a few photos, so I turned the camera over to him for this one.
Here's what kills me: I beg Janna to smile and get nothing. Jesse says, "Hi, Janna!" and this is what he gets!
On our way to find a washroom before we headed home. The kids actually insisted on stopping to sit down and have a photograph in EVERY WINDOW WE PASSED.
Much to our surprise (and Janna's general terror), the changing of the guards procession followed us down the street!
There's a bit more controversy that we could talk about - trying to find a washroom that didn't have loud noises, finally locating one fifteen minutes later to find out that Jesse didn't actually have to go, Janna's being terrorized by the noises of buses and construction all around us... etc.! But all in all, it was a fun and deeply educational trip that we will certainly try again in ten years!
Toronto and Back!
A second cool experience was our trip to Toronto to see Josh (Chrissy's brother) and Kari-Leigh, who have recently welcomed their first child into the world, a baby girl named Parker. They are not posting photos of the baby yet, which means that this post won't actually include any photos of them at all, but the trip down and back - in the same day - was still pretty awesome.
8:30am: Here's how we now start road trips.
(Did you know that Timmy's sells gluten-free macaroons?)
Chrissy: Pumped, confident, hopeful.
Me: Looking slightly less confident, but still pretty pumped for a road trip to Toronto.
Pit-stop at McDonald's. Janna is seriously torn between her chicken-nugget, her yogurt, and the French fries she spies in front of Momma.
Robyn wasn't torn at all. "I want that Gerber Banana-Blueberry Fruit Purée in my mouth right now!!!" Good ol' Gerber always comes through for us.
This photo isn't in focus, but I thought it pretty perfectly captures how much of a gift Robyn has been to us. At any given time we can look back and find this expression on her face. (Also, we occasionally find radically different/opposite expressions, but this one's still pretty common.)
Yes, I get really excited when I see big buildings. It must be my PEI background catching up to me.
There she is! Queen of all skyscrapers, and the tallest structure in the world for THIRTY-FOUR YEARS until her title was shamelessly swiped by towers in China, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates.
It could just be me, but I felt that Chrissy didn't experience the same sense of personal pride and indignation over the fate and destiny of the tower.
And this must be where this particular story ends. We did see Josh, Kari-Leigh, and little Parker; we held the baby (and she was really cute), and we all played at a park with some sweet Toronto play-ground equipment which seemed somehow more sophisticated than our Ottawa equipment, even though a tree had crashed down in the middle from the big storm. We left at 8:30 to go home, and the kids slept most of the way, which was really nice.... good times!
Kiting
So Jesse has never flown a kite before. We figured, having bought a kite from the dollar store, that it was time to take him a-kiting!
Here we are, travelling to the park, dollar-store kite in hand.
I think we all had different expectations of what this might be like. Jesse was pretty wistful and reflective as we approached the park, pondering on the existential significance of flying his first kite.
Momma was mildly excited. :)
Janna was hard to read.
Robyn was stoked, mostly, I think, because the kite looked delicious in its plastic package.
I was very, very excited. I mean, this is a big moment for a dad! I could barely contain myself.
Testing out the wind... seems strong enough...
Showing Jesse the perfect technique to get a kite into the air. I had to run really fast in several circles before we got the kite off the ground.
LIFT OFF!!!
Passing the torch. Jesse flew that kite like a champ!!!
Looking down the hill at Janna and Robyn, who showed little interest in following us up.
Soon after, Janna became restless and decided that it was time for our next activity. I can't really blame her - the bugs were super bad that day.
Frustrated over the bugs, we decided to head home.
... It was an awesome day, though. Jesse's first time kiting... it'll go down in the books!
That's it for today. We're heading off to the Maritimes tomorrow to visit family for a couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll have some good stories to share when we get back.
...Until next time!
Love it :)
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