Hallowe'en - October 31,2010

This was a doublely exciting day becasue not only could the kids get dressed up and go ask for free candy but Dad was coming home.  He had been in Guelph for a week for work.

During the week the sign up sheet had gone up in the lobby.  Patrick decided to go as a construction worker and Samantha was a ladybug.  Patrick even has a 5 o'clock shadow and the attitude to go with it.  You can't see them, but Samantha has some lovely red wings with black sparkly dots, to complete her outfit.

We decided to go trick or treating for an hour and then the last hour the kids wanted to hand out candy.  We were able to do our whole building in the hour and they got LOTS of loot.  I might even have to help them eat it. :D

Once candy handouts were done we were on our way to the airport to surprise Dad and pick him up.  What a busy day - will have some tired kids in the morning but worth it for the smiles they had for Wayne.

100th cache - Septmember 17, 2010

Not much to do here in the heat.  It will be another two months at least before we can get out and really do things.  The kids are already asking when we can go camping.  So it was another hot weekend and not a lot to do so we thought to do some GeoCaching in the morning close to home.  The final one of the day was our 100th and it happened to be a TB hotel.  It was very exciting.

First day of school - September 4, 2010

Today is the first day of school.  So of course they have to stand for the manditory first day photos.

Here they are getting silly, I wonder what Wayne is doing behind my back...

Of course, silly faces.  You'd think I would know that by now.

The kids and I had a wonderful first day of school.  It should be a good year for everyone.

Last Week in Canada (NOTL- August 16-24, 2010

We are in our last week of summer vacation and I can't believe how the time has flown.  Wayne was able to get in the use of some power tools since he had gone into withdrawal in Abu Dhabi.  Afterwards there was also a lot of playing going on in the lake with Grandad, Dad, and the kids.  Look out Patrick and Dad here comes Samantha and Grandad to knock you over!

We also got in a great sail.  I think Grandad was getting us wet on purpose! The kids loved it - the more waves the better.

We had a family & friends party weekend with lots of yummy food to eat (thanks to the talented Chef Patrice).  There were also lots of shinagins going on in the lake and plenty of laughs and chit chatting as well.  There may have even been a bit of  "partying" taking place as well.  Kristen are you really drinking scotch; or maybe just holding it for Jhenn?! :)

Kids of all sizes were in on the action at the raft.  I think the bigger ones had the upper hand at one time but the smaller ones were able to hold their own when they managed to knock off Andrew.

At one point we convinced the kids to go play in the field so that we could even get in a bit of "grown-up time".  I think Rob even got a few ZZZ's (as usual).

There is twinkle toes Kinnear!  Once again there was too much food but it was all sooooo good.

It was a long day so some downtime for the kids with a movie was in order.  Wait is that the buzzy bee I see - look out Grandad!  That thing just keeps on going....

For those that were able to stay overnight, there was a morning boat ride up the river.  What a nice way to end a lovely weekend with your family and friends.

Well that ends our time in Canada and it is back to Abu Dhabi to start Year 2.  We all had an awesome time with everyone in NOTL, Dacre, Ottawa, New Hamburg, Oshawa, Guelph, and Salem, and will be counting the days until we are back for more visits.

Hillibilly Colterman Reunion - (Dacreville - July 29 to August 8, 2010)

Well we arrived back at Mom and Dad C's place for the week.  We picked up Wayne and had lots of visiting, geocaching, and getting ready for the big Hillbilly Colterman Reunion!  We also celebrated Gram turning 90 this year!

Uncle Peter and Aunt Karen did a wonderful job on the welcome gateway! 

There was fun had by all big and small.  Of course Gram was supervising and kept us all in-line :)

There were games and of course the big fishing derby.  Marie, Lori and I decided not to go fishing but to head out for a canoe ride.  Marie thought to start a water fight but as you can see I had a paddle so won that round!  :)  Samantha came with us as we explored Gram's lake and did an aweful lot of zig zagging around the place.  Wayne took the kids out fishing in a paddle boat but they had to come back in when Patrick actually caught something and they didn't have anything to put it in.

There were a lot of cheers going around!!  *hiccup*

As with all Colterman get togethers there has to be food and tonnes of it!  We had to borrow an army mess hall tent to hold it all!  ...and there is Gram in the thick of things. 

It has been a very long time since all the "kids" were home at the same time, so of course we had to get lots of family group shots. :)  The third picture is of Gram with almost all of the great-grandkids.  I think the great-grandkids out number the grandkids now.

Some more random shots of the hillbillies!

This year it was Aunt Diana and Uncle Stan's 25th anniversery so we celebrated that as well.  See the common theme here.... Anything for a party!!  :D  What is a wedding without the kissing shot during supper?

And this concluded our lovely visit in Dacreville for the summer.  It was great seeing everyone for the reunion to catch up, play games, enjoy each other's company and to do lots and lots of laughing.  The campfires and songs were awesome.  Samantha still wants to sing the "unicorn song" whenever we have fires during our camping trips.

This was not the last time we got to see Mom and Dad though.  We meet up with them again at Aunt Dot and Uncle Doug's while Wayne was gayming with his buddies.  Here we got to enjoy their relaxing island, pool and company.  As par for the course at Uncle Doug's pool there has to be some kind of water fight going down!  Patrick was the smart one and took cover in the pool house!

We had a wonderful time this summer up in Dacreville.  Until next year when we can do it all over again! :)

Summer Vacation at Nana and Grandad's - July 12 to July 29, 2010

For the next couple of weeks we are in NOTL at Nana and Grandad's.  In this blog entry there are photos of our stay there.  The kids got to visit their cousins (aka "The Green Boyz"), play some golf, swim and play at the beach.

Dinghy rides with Grandad.

Lots of fun with Meghan and Nolan coming over.  Grandad was very brave taking the 6 of them out for a dinghy ride! :)

Attempted a geocache, we were able to find all the clues and where the final spot was supposed to be but out of luck when it came to finding the actual cache. :(  The boys found some feathers and thought it would be neat to try to write with them.

We were able to get in a couple of sailing days.  We even did a day of anchoring in the lake and jumping off and swimming.  What fun.

Grandad put us to work bottling some wine.  :)  The kids and I had fun helping out.  Put your back into it Patrick! :)

Auntie took the kids for a snark ride with the new pink sail.  Boy o Boy did that sail glowwwww.  :)

So we had an awesome couple of weeks of relaxing, playing, swimming at Nana and Grandad's.  Off to Dacre for a final visit and to pick up Wayne.

Summer Vacation at Oma and Poppa's - June 27 to July 12, 2010

We had a busy summer visiting everyone.   Here are a few snapshots of some of our activities.  Below are pictures of Poppa taking us to the top of Calabogie Peaks.  What a view!!

We also did a bunch of geocaching with Oma and Poppa.  Poppa is very good at finding the caches.  :)

We decided to go to the top of the Peaks again to watch the July 1st fireworks.  What a sight!  We could see them going off on the horizon from Ottawa to Pembroke.  We also caught a beautiful sunset and man was it freezing.

Another day of geocaching with Oma and Poppa.

On our way to visit Uncle Mike and Tanta Dean at their campsite - we stopped to geocache *grin* and have a picnic.

At Uncle Mike and Tanta Dean's campsite.  What a wonderful afternoon visiting and had dogs over the campfire.  YUMMY!!!

Spent the afternoon with Marie in her pool! :)  A wonderful time visiting, swimming, sliding in and water fights.

An afternoon at Uncle Mike and Tanta Dean's place.  The girls went for a pedicure.  Samantha's first.  We had a lot of fun.

The kids on the mini quad bikes having fun at Oma and Poppa's.  The bikes got their workout during the weeks we were there.  :)  Check out Samantha's girlie (pink) helmet!!

Near the end of our first stay in Dacreville we had the Kuiken reunion campout.  It was awesome seeing everyone (We really missed you, Em and Seth - maybe next year).  It started out that we had to setup in the rain, again (3 years in a row :( ) but the weekend ended up being beautiful.  We had fun exploring the beach and campground, playing with Luke, chatting with everyone and having some bonfires.

We had an awesome and action packed two weeks at Oma and Poppa's.  Now we are off to catch the train down to NOTL for a couple of weeks with Nana and Grandad.