Aug 10 (Sun):  Busy weekend just flew by.  Were trying to get all the final little things done for the wedding like write the instructions for the Best People, pick-up the ring pillow and flower girl's basket, get hair cuts, etc.  We also were trying to finish getting the house in order for guests.....like making sure they have closet and drawer space, bedding &towels,  plus all the usual stuff like house and garden work. 

Last night, we also went to Vickie's monthly jam, which doubled as a housewarming party at Marnie's new townhouse.  It was a nice break and we had a really good time, staying too late.

We also battered weather all weekend again.  It's been such a strange summer.  Yesterday we had thunder, lightning and rain in all ranges of velocity and size from about 2:30 till 8.  I was on the highway for part of it not able to do over 50 kph.  Today, it was quite cool, only getting up to about 21^o.  We also had rain and thunderstorms almost every day all week.  We've had so much rain that instead of having the typically brown August lawns, we are having to cut the grass twice a week!  But the really odd thing with the weather is it's often quite localized.  Yesterday there was a definite edge between the black cloud and the blue sky in the distance.  This picture also doesn't aptly show just how dark this cloud was.

But, weather like this makes for great rainbows!

Aug 8 (Fri):  It has been a week of extreme frustration as we haven't been able to upload again - and I did not hear back from tech support.  Today, miraculously I can finally upload again.  I would like to kick some tech support ass!

On the way home from the cottage last week we drove past Canada's Wonderland, so I proposed to Andy that maybe we go Sunday.  She liked that idea then Saturday in Costco we noticed discount tickets for sale.  We ended up saving a decent chunk of change.  Got there Sunday morning just after the 10 o'clock opening and stayed till about 8:30.  Rode lots of roller coasters with the Vortex being our favourite.  I also liked Skyrider alot and the Backlot Stunt Coaster.  Andy tried one of the old wooden coasters, The Wild Beast, and came off understanding why I don't like that kind - and she'll never go on another one of those again.  Every bone in her body was shaken out of place.

The park greeter was Scooby-Doo.

Looking across the row of fountains at Wonder Mountain.

I didn't much care for this one where you ended up laying on your front (and if your a woman you ended up squishing what Mother Nature gave you!!!).  I think it's called Time Warp.

Flight Deck (formerly Top Gun) wasn't bad - you sit with your feet hanging free.

I much prefer Skyrider.

We had a look early in the day at Behemoth, but that drop is something else.

White Water Canyon was a bit more tame, though quite wet.

And just in case we had any dry spots left, as well as to cool off on a hot day, we went down TimberWolf Falls.

You can't go to Wonderland without having a Funnelcake.  That would be sacrilege.

We watched the Cirque du Soleil style trampoline and diving show.

Andy loved the metal dragon sculpture out front of Dragon Fire, the original smooth metal roller coaster and still one of my favourites.

We didn't know much about this one - hadn't heard of it before and couldn't really see what it did.   What it did was go damn fast.  I loved it.

We gave Behemoth a second look later in the day.....and passed on it again.

We got back to Burlington to see fireworks going off down at the waterfront.  So we drove down and parked and watched the last 10 minutes.  Talk about lucky timing.

Aug 2 (Sat):  Got home last night from a fabulous week at the cottage in Bala and we even had the best room.  Andy & I slept on our air mattress in the sun porch, but we had the view of the stars at night, of the beach to wake up to, and it was much cooler than inside.  The sun porch is all windows on 3 sides.  The weather cooperated for the most part, though we had a fair amount of clouds and one rainy day, and the bugs weren't nearly as bad as expected.  We all did so many things and had a great deal of fun and relaxation and I have a ton of pictures of the good times.

 

I got the best tiddler!

Scot helped dad reel in this lunker.  We were going to eat it but it was full of worms.

Grace was the master builder of the week, followed closely by Andy.

Scot pushed Grace out to the raft on her giant butterfly so they could do some cannonballs...

...only for the butterfly to fly to coop, so to speak.  Scot went after it but Grace didn't want to wait and dove in after him.  Andy ran down the island to try to grab it from shore, but Scot and Grace managed to get there first and recapture it.

This was our drain-pipe resident for the week.

Andy did not have very much luck with her fishing.  The more she tried, the worse it got until "The Great Tangle of 2008", which I have pictures of down a little further.

She did manage to catch a little, underwater tree.

That's our cottage behind us.  The fire pit started out the week right in the middle of the beach, so Scot and dad moved it back over to the side, which made for a much nicer space.

Sunday was Scot's birthday.

Andy & I had bought a few fireworks for the celebration.

The kids started doing a dance show for us, but soon most of us had joined in.

I snuck this picture of the two builders working quietly in tandem.

Benny also caught a "lunker" (huge fish).  This time it was clean and we ate it.

Monica couldn't resist.

Grace likes doing her fancy dives.

Dad always go for one swim.

We went to the waterskiing show on Tuesday night.

We had a singalong one night and we all played an instrument.  I have now mastered the shaker and Andy's tweaked her bell ringing ability.

Here we have it, "The Great Tangle of 2008".

Saying goodnight to the lake.

Looking across our beach toward the island where a great deal of fishing took place.

And looking back from the island toward the beach.

We had lots of laughs playing this version of tetherball.

Andy built her version of Giza.

And to finish the week we got a family shot.

Scot, Monica, Ben, Grace, Mom and Dad gave us a fabulous early wedding present.  It's a hand-carved case to keep momentos in, shaped like a book.  They also managed to incorporate our maple leaves, compass, and a reworked version of our poem.

We also watched a few movies through the week, did lots of reading, game playing, ate way too much, and did many trips to the bakery.  Andy and I have set the record for the most lemon meringue pies consumed in one week.  We even brought one home.

I will add in explanations for some of the other pictures when I get more time.  Right now it's late and we are off to Canada's Wonderland in the morning.

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