Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Summer Fun Part 3 - Time With Family

We always make sure to spend at least a week up at my grandma's house.  She and both of my cousins (and their families) all live in the same townhouse co-op so the family is all nice and close.  My aunt and her fiance / common-law / boyfriend live about half an hour away from all of them.  As in the last post, we had planned that we were going to head to Wonderland on the Thursday but that was part way through our trip.  At the time we didn't realize it, but this was our summer vacation as the news we got when we returned home made it clear that no other traveling would be happening.  For simplicity I will name the 'nicknames' for the family.  Nan is nan obviously and she is my mom's mother (my only grandparent left actually and we make sure to see her multiple times a year), My aunt is my mothers younger sister and we will call her AD (we will call her partner UK).  My cousin J is the oldest and CK is the youngest. D1 and D2 are CK's two children.  Both cousin's are married but we barely saw them this trip so I don't need to give them labels.

On monday night, I took S back to the train station then did a few small errands around town before heading home.  I was planning on packing on Tuesday morning but kept thinking of things to add to my 'to-pack' list so I just gave up and got out of bed and packed up my suitcase and just left my 'catch-all / carry-on' back for the morning.  I got up early on Tuesday and helped mom pack all the last minute items and made sure that K had all the stuff that he would need for the car ride (which was around 4 hours in length).  We stopped at the Tim Horton's about 20 minutes into the trip to get Iced Cap's (Lemonade for K) and a bunch of donuts for the ride.  We decided against our normal lunch stop at the half-way mark and instead made out lunch stop about half an hour later.  We just got out to walk around a bit and got some McD's to eat in the car (the restaurant was packed and the van was air-conditioned).  Finally about half an hour before our destination we stopped at "Hi-Berry Market" and got some fresh strawberries, mini potatoes and a bunch of fresh corn on the cob.  We got there slightly before supper time and since Nan didn't know when  we would be there (we didn't either) we just went over to Zehrs and got a breaded chicken special and a few items that we needed to get for that night.  Nothing else was really done that night, K went off and played with his cousins and we just sat around talking.  Had a pretty early night as we were all quite tired from the drive up (why does traveling take so much energy?)

I had planned on doing absolutely nothing on Wednesday so that I could rest up and 'prepare' for Wonderland the next day.  Instead we quickly realized that I had forgotten to pack a tank top and over shirt and K had forgotten his old running shoes to wear in the water park area.  So somehow a trip that was just supposed to be me, mom, nan and K turned out to include all of us four plus both cousins and the two boys so we had 8 people total who all had to get different things.  We ended up splitting up with K and me going to find me some shirts and K some shoes, my CK taking her two boys to get hair cuts, mom and nan to do some grocery shopping for nan and J headed off to find some things she needed as well.  It didn't go to bad surprisingly and I was able to get everything I needed.  We got home and J and I (as well as CK) started discussing everything we needed to take (she didn't even think of taking the boys health cards just in case!).  We made lots of lists, got a cooler, froze water bottles and packed snack foods for the next day and all tried to get an early night.  Of course I have already posted what happened on the Thursday when we went to Wonderland.

Obviously Friday was always going to be a write-off as I was in so much pain and so tired.  It was today that mom and I learned that CK is most likely on quite a deal more 'medication' than she actually is on.  She came in mid-day and was very obviously stoned.  A few other times this week mom and I just looked at each other like 'they are all delusional to think this is normal'.  I actually didn't even get dressed until just before supper and that was only because I found out that my great aunt and uncle were coming over for a visit to see mom and I so I figured the least I could do was put on some normal clothes lol.  It had been about a year and a half since we had seen them so we had a good catch up and conversation.  They talked about how my mom's cousin was really sick with brain and lung cancer and how horrible it was (she later did pass away soon after we got home from nan's place).  CK came over that evening and told me it was her husband's company picnic the next day at Storybook Gardens and wanted to know if K and I wanted to go (of course we won't mention that she had no way to get there if I said no).  I wasn't too sure as I didn't really want to be alone with her all day but when mom asked if she could go as well as I might not be good for driving (had dislocated it that day) it sounded great.

The picnic was to start around 11 on Saturday so I got to sleep in a little bit at least.We had a pretty good day.  There was a treasure hunt type of game and the whole day was based on super heroes.  They had a pile of food - hamburgers, sausage, hot dog and chicken; every salad you could think of; lots of cookies and bars and any type of drink you could want.  We all played a game of mini golf (which I won :D), walked around and saw all of the animals in the small zoo (donkeys, monkeys, llamas and a bunch more, nothing exotic but still exciting enough for the kids) and then the boys went on a few different amusement park rides (K went on a scrambler type and a Ferris wheel).  We then headed back to the front so we could get the water stuff and it started to rain.  Thankfully it did not last long and during that time we ended up getting some fries for the kids to share.  Once the rain past we got all the stuff and headed to the back of the park where they had three different slides.  They were all too big for the smallest slide but were able to go on the other and did so for about an hour or so before we headed back to Nans.  We had plans the next day to go to the beach so just spent another low-key night sitting out front and talking while watching the kids play badminton in the parking lot area.

Mom let me sleep in for a while on Sunday as well and then woke me up when nan was ready to go!  I got up very quickly and jumped in the shower and very quickly packed up my zebra bag with stuff I would need for the day.  The beach is about half an hour away without traffic, and being a Sunday there was traffic.  We passed by a McD's on the way so mom went through and got all the boys something to eat and drink which thankfully kept them quiet most of the way (we were packed in, four adults and three kids, all the boys had to sit in the back bench together).  We got there shortly after lunch and everyone was there (except for J and CK's husbands who were working) and we just sat around talking for a while and then got organized as to who was going to go to the beach.  CK tried to get out of it but AD said no, they are your kids blah blah blah.  So it ended up being mom, me, AD, CK and the three boys.  We stayed at the beach for a few hours then headed back to AD's house for a BBQ supper and then left around 7:30ish.  The ride home was trying as the three boys would not behave went from extremes of asking them nicely to stop all the way to yelling at them and CK threatening hers with telling their dad.  Finished the day same as the others with sitting outside talking and watching the kids.

Nothing happened on Monday.  Mom wanted to do some cleaning things for nan as no one up there will help out with it, mom even got CK's husband to come over and re-do her dining room table as it was getting quite wobbly and nan depended on it to get up and down so needed that fixed.  She also got him to look at the dryer as it was getting so hot and they were worried it was a fire hazard.  Turns out the tube from the back of the dryer to vent outside had come undone and was just venting in to the apartment.  We finished the day off with mom, nan, me and the three boys watched "Johnny English" on DVD.  Tuesday was the day we left and was as uneventful as the way up.  Stopped at "Hi-Berry Farms" again to get strawberries, pickling cucumbers, corn, dill, garlic and some tomatoes.  Talked most of the way home about things that had gone on and our opinions on other things, got home mid-afternoon but K said he was too tired to go to karate that night.  Slept for a few days afterwards but all in all it was a pretty good trip.  The news we got after made things get tricky.

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