I just want to post really quickly on the last two weekends in August, because they were jam packed, I was super stressed, and a lot of fun was had. And then I'll get to the start of our school year.
So we went camping. Lily, who we took camping when she was about 11 months old, tried telling her sisters all about it, and filling them in on what to expect. Which was highly entertaining and not at all accurate, but whatever. We have tried to encourage the girls to try new things, and remind them often that they can't know they don't like something until they've tried it. While we typically are discussing foods I serve at dinner, Emma has caught onto it and started using it as her motto when she's nervous about new things, and will tell us she's nervous, "but I just have to try it because 'you don't know if you like it until you've tried it!'" Love when they repeat the good things.
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| our super awesome tent. |
Anyway, we met up with our friends and their kiddos at the camp site on Friday night, down near Summersville, WV at a place called Ace Adventures. We participated in the giant water park/pond, but they also have all kinds of outdoorsy activities. The same weekend we intended to go, Ginny discovered that there was a 8 mile trail run. AND we got a free night of camping and a free burrito bar out of the race, so of course we signed up. Holy trail run. They were serious and I about died. It was the hardest race I have ever done, I hated every step of it and probably whined to Ginny too much, which is the real reason she was ahead of me the whole race and finished first (just kidding, but she did finish before I did!). It was hilly. The rocks hurt my feet. I rolled my ankles all the time. I fell. BUT I got a free burrito at the end and a tshirt that says, "this was a lot of work for a free burrito," so all in all, a great race.
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| TADA, still alive. |
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| this picture is just hilarious. this was after we finished, and the photographer asked us to cross the finish line again so she could get a better picture. |
We had a blast at the water park pond. So. Much. Fun. We played all day and watched the storm clouds roll in and we decided that we had had enough fun and we'd rather bail a night early than pack up in the rain or pack up wet tents, so we left Saturday evening for home. Which worked in our favor, because there was a torrential downpour and I had no regrets about sleeping in my own bed for that.
So then we were home for a few days to unpack, laundry everything, and repack before we took off for Canada. Jesse and I dropped the kids off at Mom and Dad H's on Wednesday evening and took off for upper New York to overnight with my aunt and uncle before heading into the neighboring country. It was a short and fast visit, but I'm so glad it worked out we could see them and cousin Beth!
We got up Friday morning and headed to Niagara Falls. We had both been to the falls previously, but not together and we had all day to get to our hotel, so why not? And since Jesse despises driving in big cities and hates stressful driving, I got to drive us into Canada and through downtown Toronto when we got there. Jesse was very twitchy and nervous about the whole border crossing bit, but I made the guard laugh so I felt I got bonus points. So at the falls. It was ridiculously hot, Jesse saw his first selfie stick in the wild (which may have been the highlight of his trip?), and he kept getting feisty that I was giving my phone to random people to take our picture. I told him he should have bought me a selfie stick and we could have solved this problem. He wasn't amused.
After our pit stop at the falls, we headed to Toronto.
Several months ago, Jesse told me that the North American finals for a computer game he plays/follows would be up in Toronto. I suggested that because it was so close, he should go. What followed in the next 10 minutes was a very hectic conversation of him telling me some of his college friends would be going, me saying maybe the kids and I would tag along and go explore the city and then finally both of us settling on the fact that we'd ask grandparents to watch the kids for us so we could go together to the finals. Done and done, don't have to ask me twice. In addition to a group of college friends going, one of my cousins basically runs the whole lighting aspect of it (or something...but this is my blog and you don't know, so I'm gonna say the whole production would fall apart without him), and he would also be going to do his thing, so yay!
So anyway. We got to our hotel, checked in, and Jesse spent a few minutes changing our cell phone plan to include Canada so we could actually use our phones, and then headed out to try and intercept our friends coming in from the train station. I was navigating us there and just as Jesse was getting antsy that I'd taken a side street and we'd certainly miss our friends- as they'd be on the main street- we just about literally ran into them on the corner. Since we walked everywhere, we got close to 30 miles of walking in a 3 day (ish) period, and Heather and I were glad we had decided not to go for early morning jogs.
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| I have no idea why there was a boat there...but there was and we were on it! |
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greatest picture ever.
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Jesse and I were also able to meet up with another friend from college who lives in Toronto, which was very spontaneous and awesome that we got to, and do some sight seeing in between League of Legands events. We made it out to the Toronto Island Park with Heather and Teddy, which was very pretty and cool, and definitely worth the trip.
After the finals, Geoff invited us to go hang out with some of his production people, and I'm not sure how it the connection was made but we also ended up with some of the production people for Kanye West's tour? AND I got to go on my first Uber ride and felt super VIP.
So the tournament. I've watched Jesse play, I've watched the professionals play, I just never really followed what was going on until that weekend. And now Heather and I actually get what's going on. I don't think the guys were too impressed by all the names we were coming up with for the champions, but it made it much more entertaining for me, at least. The third place game was crazy and loud, mostly because of the high school girls behind us, but the finals was just on a completely different level of intense.
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| packed house for the finals |
A very fun and different experience. The first time I've ever been in an jam packed hockey stadium/arena/field (what is it?) where there was never a single line for the women's bathroom, but the guy's was out the door. I took a picture because I was so amused.
And that is that!
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