Mr and Mrs Fudley Dudley

On Saturday October 29 James and I spent the day in Niagara celebrating the marriage of our friends Ryan and Kate.  

The beautiful bride and her dad walking down the aisle

Not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Ryan is sobbing.  As Kate walked past, we heard her say, "Jesus, he's crying already".  Hilarious.  Poor Fuds will never live this down.

We had quite a long time in between the ceremony and the reception, so we headed back to Erin's parent's place for some snacks and to spend some time with Erin and Luc's son, Tyler.

The Hodgsons

The reception was held at Amici's and was decorated beautifully.  The dinner was yummy and James and I had a good time catching up with some old friends from our Brock days.

Congrats, Ryan and Kate!  Thanks for letting us share in your special day.  Here's to a lifetime of happiness!!

Great Wolf Lodge!

Wednesday morning Drew came bounding into our bedroom at 6 am asking if it was time to go to Great Wolf Lodge yet.  We went downstairs and he was literally bouncing off of the walls.....I cannot begin to describe the level of excitement that was found in his small body.  The poor little man had to go to school for the morning first too!  Can only imagine how his teacher's morning went with him in her class that day!  

Once Drew got on the bus, Hunter and I headed for his class at the early years centre.

He had a great time as always.

We met James at Subway (where else?) and then we all headed home to pack the van and go pick Drew up from school (We picked him up at 1:20, right after 2nd nutrition break).

A quick stop at the grocery store and the bulk barn for the necessary junk that usually accompanies our mini-vacations and we were off.

The drive was quick and easy, Hunter napped and Drew only asked if we were there yet a few million times.

James left us in the van while he went to check in.  It didn't take too long (although, it felt like FOREVER as Drew really wanted to go inside) and we were on our way to find our room.  James didn't tell us, but once we found our room, we found out that we were upgraded - big time.

The boys on the stairs, in our room!  There was a whole upstairs, with a bed, closet and separate bathroom!  The boys claimed that level for themselves quickly.

The main level.

Fire place on main level

I meant to take a photo of the upstairs before we left, but didn't get a chance.  It was a fun-tastic room.  We will definitely be wanting that room the next time we come, and will definitely be wanting to stay for more than just one night!

We spent all afternoon in the water-park and then dragged the boys out in time for some dinner and some trick or treating.  The lodge had various stations set up around the facility for kids to get candy and walk through some "haunted" houses.  It was pretty fun.

The arcade was our next stop, always a head-ache inducing good time!

This was a very exciting moment in my young son's life....1000 tickets!!!  WOOHOO!!!!!

giant balloon spider in lobby.

Story time was next on our agenda.  The boys had a great time, and James and I had fun eating the ice cream that James had bought us (which Hunter spied from god knows how far away and came to steal from us - he's got ice cream radar!)

Yup, that's my kid who crawled up to the targets.

The night went smoothly, the boys went to sleep easily and I fell asleep right along with them.  It was an early morning where breakfast was spent at the delicious buffet in the lodge.

Hunter is crying because Drew is trying to push him off the chair...you'd never know by his smile he was bugging his brother!

This giant wolf freaked the crap out of Hunter!

Hunter trying fruit loops for the first time.

Drew and his pancakes.

After breakfast, it was straight to the water-park.  We had put our name in for the draw for family of the day, but did not win.....we had fun anyways.

Drew took me on a bunch of the water-slides that he is now big enough for.  It was really fun, as I had never been on any of them before (James had taken him the night before).

Once Drew grew tired of me and my safety rules, James and him took off and H and I hung out.

We finished in the water-park around lunch time and then had lunch, packed up and headed to the cub club room and back to the arcade.  

The boys cashed in their tickets to get two airplanes and a car, which they were thrilled about and we were on our way home again.  It was one of the best times we've had at the lodge.  Drew is already asking to go back and we're trying to figure out when we can get there (I think James and I like it more than the kids do!)

Photos from the week.

Wednesday

H and I went to his class and then had our weekly date at Subway.  

Thursday

I worked at Silver Creek all day, so Grandma and Grandpa watched the boys.  I came home with an awful headache and a sore throat.  Dinner was on the couch that night and I cuddled up in the corner and tried not to cry.  It is HARD to be sick and have the boys by myself.

James came home that night with a bit of a white face.  His first words to me were, "we are buying a new car tomorrow"

It seems the brakes went soft on his way to work and he had to rely on the parking brake to get him the rest of the way there and back home.

My man can change brakes, and we had quite the discussion as to whether he should spend Friday changing the brakes on the car or whether we should just bite the bullet and say goodbye to the echo (we've been talking about it for over a year).

A bit of a background on our beloved echo.  We bought it used right after our wedding in 2003 (it was a 2000).  We needed a new car to replace our "Shadow" so that James could drive safely to Rigaud, Quebec for Customs College.  Since buying it, the car has driven back and forth to Quebec about a dozen times, back and forth to Niagara Falls too many times to count (James stayed working at Rainbow bridge for about a year after we first moved to the farm), to Florida twice and many other long trips.  It has over 300000km on it and was starting to fall apart at the seams.

There was a period of a few months where it would just stall randomly.  Mostly it would happen in very inappropriate places (like the middle of an intersection when a large truck was coming towards you).  James finally figured out what that problem was and fixed that...but it still needed a new windshield, new muffler, new brakes, etc, etc....

So, we did it.  We said goodbye and bought a new Corolla.  It's shiny and red and smells like a new car (like the one we get when we go to Disney world, according to Drew).

That was Friday.  James went to the dealership, bought the car and drove it to work that afternoon.

That's so typical us, wait until the very last possible moment to replace a car and then it turns into this big emergency (when we replaced the Neon, it took it catching on fire for us to make the decision to replace it).

The boys were oblivious to this though.  They were at Nana's (I was at work) for the whole day/evening.

I found the Winnie the Pooh quote/photo below on Pinterest (I am ADDICTED to Pinterest).  Anyways, I love it and am going to frame it and hang it somewhere.

Saturday

Saturday found us picking up our friends Kelly, Cody and Kyla, piling in our van and heading to the grand opening of Mastermind in Burlington.  It was JAMMED there.  I lined up to get Drew and H a playmobil toy for a long time without moving forward at all.  We all decided to abandon ship and head to the park.  Mastermind gave the kids a few free toys on our way out, so the kids didn't leave empty handed...made the meltdowns far less severe (had we stayed in the store any longer, I would have started melting down...I do not do well in crowded shopping situations).

The park was fantastic.  Kelly took us to one of their usual haunts.  It's right on the lake, in Burlington.  The kids had a great time.

Sunday

Sunday was our usual swimming lesson day.  We all had fun (the boys are improving in leaps and bounds) and then headed to Timmy's with Nana and Papa (James left for work).

A few of our friends came over that afternoon to play and carve some pumpkins.

Sunday night we headed to Nana and Papa's.  Our newest activity there is raking up a giant pile of leaves and driving our vehicles on top of the leaves until they get stuck.

It is SOOO fun! (Must be a boy thing...lol)

Nana taking all of her frustrations out....lol

And that's that....Monday and Tuesday found me at work and James with the boys.  More fun stuff is in store for us this week, can't wait to post about it!