Weekend Visitors - Part 1

This past weekend we had some special visitors, my brother and sister-in-law and their kids - we had three full days together, and we had a great time together and did lots of fun stuff while they were here!

They arrived on Thursday afternoon while Curt and I were still at work, so, they went to the mall the pass some time; when Curt and I were done work, we each made our way to the mall to meet them and go out for dinner.  What a great start to the weekend - I was walking down the corridor in the mall, and when Nolan spotted me, he came running towards me to give me a big hug...and, Abby was right behind him with a hug for 'Auntie Boo' as well...AWESOME!

Friday morning was pretty low key - the kids didn't have a great sleep because it was their first night away from home, so we decided to stay close to home and make sure they had good naps.  Aside from an hour or so at the park across the street, we spent most of the morning inside.

Thankfully, the kids both had great naps!  Actually, they were a little too long :)  The original plan was to take them to a reptile zoo in Peterborough after their nap - the zoo has a special dinosaur exhibit for the summer and we thought Nolan would enjoy it - but, by the time they got up, there wasn't enough time to make it all the way to Peterborough.  So, we went with our back up plan and went to nearby Batawa to the 'Dino Dig'.  (my Mom, Nolan and I went to the Dino Dig last year when they visited and it was a hit then)

Cheesy smiles!  (notice the 'tools' in their hands - you have to bring your own tools to dig)

This picture makes me laugh out loud - the looks on their faces, priceless!  You'd think they were looking at a real live dinosaur - but no, they're watching some other kids playing a game.

 

Tom, Krystle and Nolan diggin' for Walter the T-Rex

Unfortunately while we were there, Abby took a fall and hurt her nose.  The poor thing, she tripped over the root of a tree and went straight down on her face...she didn't put her hands out to stop herself either, so her nose definitely took the brunt of the fall.

Look at her sad eyes :(  

Thankfully, this little guy cheered her right up :)

Saturday morning, we decided to hit up some local garage sales and then go to the local Farmer's Market.  The garage sales were a fail, but the Farmer's Market was OK - we didn't buy a lot in the way of fruits and vegetables, but we did buy some pretty good baked goods!  These activities were enough to tire the kids out, so from the market, it was straight home for lunch and naps.  The kids had good long naps, so by the time they woke up, we were ready to head to the water...we were able to borrow a boat, so Saturday afternoon we went out on the Bay of Quinte - probably the most exciting 'event' of the weekend! 

I think everyone enjoyed the boat ride, despite some rough water!  Originally, we had hoped to take the kids tubing, but the tube we borrowed had a leak so that didn't happen (the water was probably a little too rough anyway).  So, we toured along the shore from Belleville from Trenton instead, and that seemed to be good enough for everyone :)

Nolan absolutely LOVED when Uncle Curt drove REALLY fast!  Abby seemed to enjoy it too, at first...the wind eventually seemed to be too much for her, but sitting in behind the windshield helped keep it enjoyable for her.

Nolan and Krystle...notice the smiles, and the wind blown hair!

Tom and Abby; this is Abby's preferred spot - behind the windshield!

I didn't get a lot of pictures during our boat ride - the rough water made it hard to keep the camera steady!

So, that was our first two days...as always, this post has gotten really long (and there are a lot of pictures!), so I'll do a separate post to cover our last day together.