And of course .... March 23rd Spring WAS a tease

For a couple of marvellous days we were able to pretend Spring was here and we could just slide gently into that season .... Winter would just gently retreat and the fine weather and sunny days would be here. Not to be ..... last Tuesday night we got dumped on. Weather folk said worst in 4 years and certainly the worst this winter. Wednesday Scholars Hall was closed and the girls got to stay home with Chris ...my office being about 4 blocks away meant I got to go to work. When I got home , Chris was able to go out and plow the rental properties... we were very lucky with our neighbours - Tim and Bob did our property for us ... awesome guys !!! We owe ya !!! Did I mention , we have terrific neighbours ?? We have terrific neighbours !!

2nd Surgery March 24th ..

This Thursday past ( March 24th ) was the 2nd surgery for Chris's bladder cancer. It was scheduled for earlier in the day than last time and then they moved it back another 1/2 hour ,from 12:15 to 11:45, which was great as far as we were concerned...... I was able to get Chris home and settled before getting to the pharmacy for his meds and then to school to pick up the girls... a much more normal experience for them and easier all round. Less pain and discomfort from Chris's point of view .... but we still need to hear from surgeon about next steps .. hopefully these will be just checking in from time time .... will call him next week to get the news !!! Same as last time, Chris was able to get the catheter removed the very next day by the home nurse, which made for a huge improvement in comfort.

We have the usual 4 week recovery process ahead of us which is fine .... 2 weeks of Chris taking it fairly easy and then gradually getting back into the swing of things for the 2nd two week period. FINGERS CROSSED !!!

Spring ! Is it really here or is it a tease ?

Is it really really here ???



I am not sure .....weather promised for the upcoming week suggests snow, freezing rain and other nasties ..... I am hopeful the weather men have it wrong !!!

March 10 ..... Forever Family Day !

Dim Sum at the King Tin .... our favourite way to celebrate Forever Family Day.... well right up there with dinner at Kings Buffet ... they are kind of neck in neck !!! We went out to the Kings Buffet on Forever Family day itself and decided we love Dim Sum toooooo much to not include it as part of our celebration. YUM YUM

Rebook ....

Things were looking sooo good... Chris was getting better though his energy level is still pretty low...BUT the 26th getaway to Niagara Falls has been cancelled. Chris and I went to talk to his surgeon today about the test results. The very good news is that all results show that there is no cancer anywhere else in his body. The not so great news is that , although the cancer appears to be low grade ( not aggresive ) it has not been totally removed from his bladder in the first surgery. He is scheduled for a second surgery March 24th with another 4 week recovery period and hopefully this time an all clear. Today has been more than a bit emotional ... we were broadsided by this news, Chris especially, for some reason we'd been expecting , hoping, for a clean bill of health

Guess what, guess what ..... I won, I won !!!

Once a month Keller Williams has Power Day ....all agents all over North America out and about on the phones, door knocking ... doing lead generating activities !!! At Keller Williams in Kitchener Waterloo we did cold calling ( phone calls ) in the morning and then door knocking in the afternoon ......... and then for everyone who participated, their name was entered into a draw.... for a $1,000 getaway - an overnight stay at the Fallsview in Niagara Falls !!!! Guess who won.................

ME !!!

So Chris and I are booked in for Saturday March 26th with the girls staying at Erik and Lisa's

AWESOME !!!!

The Great Wolf Lodge Vacation ...

Well at last ...our first vacation of 2011 ... we were off Monday February 21 st Family day to Niagara Falls for 4 days of water fun at Great Wolf Lodge. We got the room with the little cabin in the larger room for the kids - comes with bunk beds and their own tv !!! Of course with all that , the adults part of the room looks immensely more interesting at times from the kids perspective, but for the most part it worked out very well.

It did make for less mess in the larger room ...as we were able to keep toys, wet bathing suits and all sorts of other stuff in the 'cabin'.

The girls couldn't decide which was their favourite thing to do..... there were the 'shoots' or slides which I personally hated .. to roller coaster ish for me ... but the girls thought they were terrific... There was the river, which you could swim through or tube through ( Carolina's personal favourite as it turned out ). There was the wave pool which we all thought was awesome and then a smaller pool area with smaller slides for the younger ones which the girls also enjoyed. The whole water park was one big play area , impossible to stay dry in, but fairly warm ( apparently heated to 83 degrees )

The Great Lobby was just that - it was in fact -huge. At 8pm the lobby became a huge mass of jamied kids as they all got together for story time !!! In fact at any time of day or night you would see kids either in their jamies or swimsuits ... At breakfast time Wiley and /or Violet would come by to meet and greet the kids and hi-five the parents.

Roz was especially impressed with the kids sleep quarters, I guess, because she got the top bunk !!!

The waterpark itself was large and rather well organized ... lots to do in a well contained space including 3 hot tubs ( 1 family and 2 adult) !
There were lots of life jackets and towels and a really large number of life guard staff watching and supervising some of the activities. Roz was a 1/2 inch too short for the immense tube rides which I presume are the real roller coaster equivalent at this water park.

They have a kid spa called Scoops where for $75 your child can have a manicure and a pedicure! We resisted this urge.

They also have the Trading Post where you can buy almost anything ... we didn't resist very well and ended up with 2 more stuffies with outfits ( yah well we are a little short of stuffies ...right !!!), T shirts and a wolf mask.

There are numerous eating places at the Lodge ... a pizza place and a sandwich and salad place are both just outside the waterpark proper, Spirits is just inside the waterpark and serves the usual hot dog, fries, hamburger kind of stuff.... its main advantage being that you can eat and not leave the waterpark at all. Then theres the restaurant just off the lobby which offers buffet breakfasts and dinners and a couple of little coffee places just off the main lobby. Other than the main restaurant, seating is at a premium which can be a bit of an issue but they dont seem to care where you take your food and eat and each of the two levels in the hotel has an area where there is a bit of seating with tables....

We tried to maximize water time but broke it up a bit ... and we tried to stay off everyone elses schedule so to not have lineups for either food or water activities - seemed to work !!

A great trip and a relaxed vacation ... drive home was one day before Niagara area got a bit of a dump so weather was co-operative. If/when we go back we would probably do a 1 night as they do let you into waterpark the day you arrive and the day you leave. All in all a fun fun time !!!