Owen Saying Prayer at Chapel

Last week Owen was asked by his teacher to say a prayer at chapel (their weekly assembly). Owen eagerly accepted the task. After practicing for a few days he was ready to get up in front of the nursery to grade 2 classes, and read off the prayer.

Logan's 2nd Birthday

Our baby boy turned 2 today! He is getting so big and has a great little personality. We invited a few friends over to the house for a "Mickey Mouse" party.
Guess how old I am??
I love my new Harold the Helicopter!!
The answer to one of the games we played.
Mommy raised the bar again with this cake!! 3D Mickey Mouse, yummy!! The birthday boy needed to do a taste test to make sure it was good enough for his guests.

Owen's 5th Birthday Party

August 25th, I can't believe that Owen is already 5 years old! We had a nice little party at our house with some of Owen's friends from school and the neighbourhood.
Car decorating was a hit and a nice quiet activity.....at least for a few minutes.
Can I have more cake please???
Wow, look at that cake. Mom is getting creative!! The movie "Cars" was the theme for the party.
It tasted as good as it looks!!

The Bentley's Cottage

We spent a couple of days catching up with our friends the Bentley's. Dan, Kim, Gavin, and Zoe have a beautiful cottage on the water with fantastic views and lots to keep the kids entertained. We had hours of fun in the sun with swimming, tubing, kayaking, paddle boating, and more.
Captain Canada was all geared up.
Look at those pearly whites! Tubing behind the motor boat was a hit.....but don't go too fast!
Gavin, Zoe, and Owen on the swing.
Logan and Daddy kayaking.

Sauble Beach with Nana and Papa

Our annual Martin camping trip took us Sauble Falls Provincial Park in July for 4 fun filled days. We had a great time playing at the beach, swimming in the river, jumping off the falls, hiking, and relaxing at our site. Owen and Logan can spend all day playing in the sand!

Gotta love it when they play together nicely! Here they are working hard on their sand castle.

Chillin out with Papa! We found the perfect spot for our hammock and put it to good use.

Logan needed a break on our hike, luckily we had the backpack. Won't be long now before he doesn't fit anymore.

Owen loves to paddle in the canoe. We will soon be ready for a canoe trip! We haven't found Owen's upper limit, but Logan is good for about half an hour before he tries to jump overboard. Paddling gets a little tippy with Logan running back and forth in the canoe!

Emily Park with Grandma and Grandpa

The annual summer camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa was a big success. Emily Park was a beautiful location to spend some quality family vacation time. We swam a ton, went canoeing around the river, and enjoyed the nature around us.

Cool green caterpillar that Mommy found! It was Owen's best friend for the day.

Nothing beats roasting marshmallows when your camping. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a heat wave and the campfire just about melted us along with the marshmallows.

Bubbles!!

Fun at the beach!

More Fun at Carriage Hills

Who is that Bubble Man?? Gotta love the jacuzzi tub!

Zoe and Gavin came to visit for the day.

Canada Day!! The resort had face painting and lots of other fun activities for the kids.

Ice cream!! "Don't mess with me when I'm eating Aunt Kelly"!!

"I see you looking at my ice cream Marky Mark, hands off!!"

Special Time with Family

We had loads of friends and family visiting over the 2 weeks that we stayed at Carriage Hills Resort in June. This is Grandma and Grandpa coming back from the pool.

Oh Grandpa, your sooooo funny!!

The Boyz. Cousins hanging out at the trailer.

Higher Grandma, higher!!

Too cute. Owen would love to have a sister! I think the cousins will have to do.

Nana and Papa

Logan spent a wonderful morning with Nana and Papa at the beach.

Back in Canada

After a busy week in Hong Kong and Beijing, and the long flight back to Toronto, it was nice to just relax and hang around. Nothing like some good old fashioned tree climbing.
Logan, as always, did his best to keep up to big brother.

The Great Wall

On our last full day in Beijing we made the trip out to "The Great Wall". What a stunning view we had. We could only begin to comprehend the vastness of the wall when standing on it and seeing it snake out endlessly across the peak of the mountain. It was very impressive!

This area of the wall tends to be less visited by tourists which made it all the more special for us.

Someone decided that building a sled ride down the mountain was a good idea. It turns out it was. We had a blast twisting and turning down the mile long slide to get back to where we started.

The boys were troopers on our trip and had fun running around the wall and playing on the look out points.

You can tell from the picture that it wasn't easy hiking. There were some very steep sections that made all the more difficult while carrying the boys.

The Temple of Heaven

Owen is becoming very photogenic and doesn't often miss a chance for a good shot.

I think there are many Chinese families with this same picture of our boys. They were quite the rock stars there. Most of the time they didn't mind the attention but they let people know when they had enough (Mom and Dad had to also!).

The 100 rose garden was very pretty. Needless to say there were many more then 100 roses in this garden.

More dancing in traditional wear. This location seemed to be a popular spot for locals to hang out on the weekends.

Water paintings on the sidewalk. I'm sure the Chinese characters spelled out something very nice. I will need to get some help translating this.