The Story of The Pool

For the first time since we moved here we have actually had an extended amount of summer. This is probably why we were unable to find a hard plastic kiddie pool anywhere in the city (trust me we looked everywhere that might remotely sell one). So we opted for the inflatable variety (which wasn't much in the way of variety either - but at least obtainable). Of course they were abundant in May when I first saw them, but that's what you get when you live in a small northern town. As one of my friends from up here put it ... she's already shopping for winter coats for her kids :)

Anyway ... Cole seems to like the new pool. The water was still a bit on the chilly side. He looks brave in all these pictures, but the odd time he slipped and ended on his back side he got quite the thrill ... or rather chill. He spent the whole time standing and chasing his toys around the pool - literally. That's right he'd grab one and throw in behind him and he walked around the edge only to come full circle back to the same toys and repeat the vicious cycle all over again.

Here are a few pictures of our munchkin and his new pool:

A Rainy Afternoon ...

Love this picture!

Snuggles

Paint, Trim & Carpet

Over the past year we've continued to work on finishing the basement to our 2 bedroom, 889 sq. ft. home. It was only last June that my dad was here helping us get started on the mudding and taping.

In the past 12 months we've managed to finish the mudding and sanding, had the ceilings spackled, primed and painted the walls, painted and mounted trim and doors, finished the electrical work and now had the carpet installed.

We're by no means finished yet. There are a few more pieces of trim to mount, some more caulking to do, another coat of paint to put on the trim, all the ledges need to be done and shelves put in the closets. Oh and the bathroom ... let's not even go there! Another project ... another time!!

But after a lot of elbow grease, money and help from wonderful friends, we finally have usuable space to house our guest room, office and rec/play room. What a feeling of accomplishment!!

Family

As you can see, its been quite some time since I've updated the blog. The past month and a half have gone by like a whirl wind.

Back in May we travelled to Niagara to visit my (Erin's) family for just over 2 weeks. Unfortunately, after only being back for a week, my Grampa suffered a stroke and passed away a few days later. So we once again packed and boarded a plane back to Ontario.

My Grampa's funeral was the first time my cousins and I had all been together in many years. It had also been a while since my brother and I spent any time together. So here are a few pictures as evidence of our reuniting for years to come.

When we got home from our second trip out east, it was time to work frantically on our basement. This time in preparation for the carpet to be installed just days later. I'll put up pictures of this in another post.

Of course the carpet was purposely timed just before Dave's sister Grace, husband Shawn, and our nephews Spencer and Timothy were to arrive and stay with us for the weekend. It was the first time Cole had ever met his only 2 cousins. We had a great visit and the newly (almost) finished basement got its first visitors.