November

Okay, friends, I'm going to try to re-enter the world of blogging. November was quite a whirlwind month with 2 birthdays and 3 weeks of visitors, so this will be mostly an update in pictures.

We had a great but busy time with Auntie Tanya, Uncle Bernie and cousins Etienne and Philippe. I am so thankful the cold weather didn't come until after they left because we all would have been stir crazy stuck inside with the current weather! The boys did a lot of bike riding and playing in the backyard. Our days were also filled with trips to the zoo, the park, the zoo train, and the botanical gardens. Overall, our guys did great with such a crowded house, but Reef did have a few moments when he had "too much family in my family" and needed some alone time. Jonas was a little crankier than usual, and I feared that the terrible two's were upon us. He's back to his old self now, so I'll chalk that crankiness up to being a little overwhelmed by all the fun he was having. The end of the visit came much too fast, as we knew it would, and we were all sad to say goodbye at the airport. Reef is already planning his plane trip to Australia to go to the beach with Etienne and Philippe!

Here are a few of our favorite shots from the month:

Best group shot of the zoo day.

A more realistic shot of what our day was like....Chasing 4 boys and never having them all listen at the same time!

Our 1 dinner out all together. Great food but a little too much chaos for me. We ate at home or ordered in the rest of the month.

My big bike rider. He always wears those gloves, by the way. He really got a lot stronger chasing his cousins on their 2 wheelers and didn't get nearly as frustrated as he was before.

The 4 bike riders. This picture kind of reminds me of the movie "Wild Hogs". They just each have their own personality going on, just like in the movie.

The next several pics are from our day at the Botanical Gardens. I'd never been there before, and it was really nice. They're doing that "Big Bugs" exhibit right now, which was pretty cool.

Tanya and I took Jonas, Lachlan, Etienne, and Philippe to ride the zoo train while Reef was at preschool. The conductor even let them ring the bell! Don't worry, we went again the next week with Reef, so he didn't miss out.

At Sea World. This was a really fun day for all of us. We fed the dolphins, checked out the aquarium, played at Shamu's Happy Harbor, and saw the Shamu show. We did learn that my boys are NOT a fan of the splash zone! They were both close to tears after the show and kept talking about how Shamu splashed them! Reef was also finally tall enough to ride the Shamu Express roller coaster. We snuck (is that how you spell that? looks very weird!) to ride it while Jonas played on the slides with Dad. I expected a major freak out when the bar came down and the ride started, but Reef LOVED it, so much that we had to ride it again right away!

There are so many other things I wanted to write about our visit but can't remember them all! Stay tuned for Lachlan's 4 month update.