Cayman Islands - Day Three

On Sunday we played on the beach in the morning, and then decided to do something productive with our afternoon. We went to Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park, which is located in the middle of the island. It was really nice, lots of beautiful plants and flowers. The best part, I thought, was that it is also a habitat for Blue Iguanas. There are not too many left in the world and most of them live there. They walk around where ever they want, so we ran across a couple of them walking down the trail. They are big - 25 pounds is what the website tells me - and are pretty cool looking. It was a great walk around the park, although very HOT! We finished at the park and headed back to the pool for a swim. Cameron loved swimming in the kiddie pool, he loved that he could walk around on his own. He splashed, ran around, swam in his "boat" and did not want to get out of the water. It was very cute. We don't have any water-related pictures yet because we used Jeff's underwater camera for all of those... hopefully soon though!

The first Blue Iguana that we saw - very cool!
Bridgette being cuteClose up of Bluey
Very cool picture of a dragonflyYet another Blue Iguana - they were so cool!!
Cayman water lily
Sweet Abby
Cameron and his friend the Blue Iguana. He had no fear whatsoever - in fact, he wanted to go closer than this but we didn't want him to!
Cam and Mama
Trying to get all three kids to ride the iguana didn't work so well!
Cameron, with his hair slicked down with sweat!

Cayman Islands - Day One and Two

We are back from our vacation in the Cayman Islands. It was the three of us, plus our friends Jeff and Jaime and their two kids Bridgette and Abby. We had a fantastic time - the weather was PERFECT every day. High of 85, low of 75 every day. It was a humid and sunny every day. You get the picture - it was awesome weather all the time. We stayed in a two-bedroom townhouse timeshare on the East End of the island. It had three pools and was right on the beach. It worked out really well for meals because there was a full kitchen. We only went out a couple times, which saved money and probably our sanity because three kids out at a restaurant doesn't always work out!

We arrived on a Friday afternoon around 4pm. We checked in, unpacked and walked around the resort. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed fairly early, after a long day of travel.

On Saturday we spent the morning at the beach and the pool. We headed in to Georgetown (the capital) around lunch time, to both have lunch and pick up groceries. The drive was around 45 minutes or so, even though the island isn't all that large. On the way into town we stopped at Caybrew, which is the brewery for the local island beer. It was a very light lager - a refreshing taste for the warm weather. The best part was the free sample that we got at the brewery was a whole 16 ounce pint each! Needless to say, that was not the last time we stopped at the brewery!

Cameron and Bridgette playing in their own personal sandbox, right outside the townhouse.

Time to Travel

The Traveling Walkers will be doing exactly that... traveling! We will be in the Cayman Islands for a week, starting on Friday. I don't expect to have a good internet connection down there, so there will probably be no updates until we get back. In the meantime, here are two cute pictures of Jack and Cameron playing at Jack's birthday.

Cam and Jack Playing.

Here is a quick post with a couple of videos of Cameron and Jack playing after Jack's Birthday Party last weekend.

Skunkdate #3 and Ottawa Video

Skunkdate: As of this morning, there have been SEVEN skunks caught at our house. SEVEN. Yes, that is insane. We are getting closer to "Albert the Skunk Guy" (animal control person who is trapping the skunks at our house) record of 13 skunks caught at one house. He said we have quite the den of skunks living under our porch. Apparently females live in the den, and males come to mate with them. So some of the skunks that have been caught are females from under the house, and others are males from somewhere else in the neighborhood who came looking for the ladies. Apparently we have a super romantic skunk hotel under our house. Lucky us. We are still staying at Mom and Dad's (well, actually just Tim and Cam right now - I am in San Francisco for work). Our house doesn't smell as bad as it did at first, but it still isn't pleasant. We are waiting until the skunks are caught before we really try to clean the place up.

Video: Here is a video of us skating on the Canal in Ottawa. Tim is pulling Cam's sled, and Cameron is trying to hold my hand while we skate. You can see he is bundled into the sled quite nicely!

Winterlude Part 2

After skating on the canal, we went back to the hotel for lunch and a nap. After lunch we all went swimming and in the hot tub. Cam loved having four people to swim between! We went to dinner, then walked over to the Ice Sculpture Garden to check out this year's work. Someone told us that the first weekend in February was really warm, so when most of the ice sculptures were carved, they melted a few hours later! How sad! There were still some really nice sculptures left though.

Close up view of a dragon

Cinderella's pumpkin coach
This one didn't come out very good in the pictures, but it was really pretty. It is a hummingbird and flower
This was a ice person, set up in such a way that it looked like he breathed fire. It was really neat!
Kristin and Tim in a heart
In front of a totem pole, we made a totem pole of Matt, Kristin, Gina and Cameron.
Mom K asked us to eat a Beavertail for her, so here is the photo of us doing just that! Yum, yum, yum!

Sixth annual Winterlude trip

Before all of the "fun" with the skunk started, we were in Ottawa for our yearly trip to Winterlude. I have been meaning to write about it but this week has been a little bit crazy.

We went up on Friday afternoon, the three of us plus Matt and Gina. We stayed at Les Suites in the Byward Market and it was really nice. It was the same place we stayed last year. We stayed there so that we could get a two bedroom suite. It worked out really nicely, each of us getting our own bedroom and then there was a living room, dining room, bathroom and full kitchen. The hotel also had a pool and hot tub, which we went in.

Cam's little hiding spot under the TV

Cam was king of the hill on the table all weekend
We let Cameron play in the sled in the hotel room so that he would get used to it.
On Saturday morning, we went down to the Rideau Canal to skate. We brought a little sled (seen above) that he rode in the whole way. He really did well in it, only freaking out for the last couple minutes. We went to about the 5 km mark (the whole way is 7 km - Matt and Gina did that) and turned around. Cameron enjoyed it, had lots to look at, and drew lots of attention for being such a cutie!!

On the walk down to the canal, Cameron fell asleep in Uncle Matt's arms. We put him into the sled and he kept sleeping. The Kinsella Sleeping Gene is strong in this boy!!

We started pulling him and he just kept sleeping. It was so cute!
Sometimes it looked like he might be a bit uncomfortable.

After about ten minutes, Cam woke up. He enjoyed looking around and being pulled by Mama.
Then Daddy took a turn.
Cameron in his sled - he loved it!!
One of the stops along the way was free milk. Cameron had his first sips of chocolate milk and got his first milk mustache!
Another stop along the way was a WestJet booth (a Canadian airline). You could put on the gear of a ground controller and take a picture in front of an airplane picture. Turned out so cute!
A close up of the cutest ground controller ever!
Cameron the bow-legged baby stands on an ice block.

I have a few more pictures of the ice sculptures, plus some great videos that Gina took. I will post that tomorrow (hopefully)!

Skunked Part 2

Just a quick update, today is our third night staying at the Kinsella's while our skunk family is relocated to "better" accommodations. Tuesday night one skunk was caught and removed and last night another two were captured.

The smell was starting to get better today. When I woke up this morning it was almost 40 out so I was able to open all of the windows and leave them open all day and that helped quite a bit. We also ordered a product online called "Room Shocker" which is supposed to be great for removing skunk smell so hopefully by the end of the weekend we will be able to return home. We are going to Swansea for the weekend to celebrate Jack's 4th birthday and spend time with everyone.

Cameron has been enjoying staying with Papa (Nana is in Florida) - playing with him in the evenings, helping out with chores like dishes, collecting trash and putting beer in the fridge (what a helpful boy!). He wakes up in the morning and asks for Papa and they play together for a bit. It has been great having somewhere to stay like this so we don't have to be the Stinky Skunk Family at work/daycare!

Skunked!!!

Our house got skunked on Sunday night. At 3am, I woke up from a sound sleep by the awful smell of skunk spray. When we woke up again at our usual times, the whole house was permeated with it. Best we can tell, a skunk sprayed outside the house and the smell drifted into the house. Of course, no windows were open, so the smell must have come in through air intakes, the dryer vent, or somewhere else. However it got in, it did, and it is AWFUL. The entire house reeks.

Since it was a work day, we got ready and went about our normal routine, figuring we would go home over lunch to take care of it. Well, soon after i got into work, I realized that I smelled a bit skunky. Not my clothes, or my skin, or my hair... it was more an aura of skunk that followed me around. A bit of Oust and Febreeze temporarily took care of that.

Soon after, we got a call from Cameron's daycare telling us that he was the Stinky Kid. What an awful call, no parent wants to hear that everyone thinks their kid smells! They did put it much nicer than that, and did say that it wasn't actually Cameron that smelled, but his sheets/blanket for nap time. The changed him, double bagged everything that came from home, and he was just fine. A funny story for everyone at work, and everyone at the daycare, I'm sure.

We went home at lunch and cracked all the windows to get air in the house (yesterday was a super warm high of 20), and sprayed Febreeze on all fabrics, and Oust in all of the rooms. We called the sheriff's office, who will be bringing over traps today to try and catch the skunk so this can't happen again. Last night, Tim went over to close the windows so it wouldn't get too cold for a pipe to burst, and did another round of spraying the rooms. We spent last night at Mom and Dad's house so that we wouldn't have to sleep with the cold and the smell.

This is certainly not something I would wish on anyone - it is so awful! From what I read online, it is going to take a month for the smell to truly go away, and I will need to wash pretty much every scrap of fabric and every surface in my house. I can think of so many better ways to spend my free time - UGH!!

Book baby

Cameron loves reading books. He takes it very seriously - especially his job of turning the the pages. He snuggled up with Mama the other day to read one of his books.
Studying the page - is it "mo" (mouse - Hickory Dickory Dock) or "Rawck" (Rock-a-Bye Baby)?
Dada, leave me alone, I am trying to read!!

Baby in a basket

For the last 20 minutes, Cameron has been playing happily in a laundry basket. I think he thinks it is his club house or something!

We have been trying to get a good video of all of Cameron's animal noises. He has quite a wide array of noises he can make... very cute!

Cam Cutes - Photo Edition

Ticklish baby!
SMILE!
Our serious baby
Playing in the toy box
Spaghetti face mask - good for the complexion
Playing on the fireplace mantle
I love ravioli!
Another serious picture
Zebra and a smile

Quick Cam Cute

At daycare yesterday, Cameron's class went outside to play in the snow (it was over 50 here yesterday, so not too cold). His teachers told us that Cameron was the most well-behaved of all of the kids because he just sat there in the snow. All of the other kids cried and screamed, and apparently no one actually played in the snow!

15 month doctor's appointment

Cam had his 15 month checkup today. He had to get one shot and this time he didn't cry at all. He just looked at the nurse, looked at this shot go into his leg, and looked back at the nurse with a "What the heck?" look on his face. We were proud of him.

Here are his 15 month stats:
Height - 33 inches, 90th percentile
Weight - 22 lbs, 10th percentile
Head - 48 cm, 75th percentile

So we have a tall, skinny, big-headed baby! :-)

Here is a picture of him at the doctor's office.

Cam's workout

In order to keep his svelte figure, Cameron spends lots of time working out. Here is a clip of him on the treadmill.

Playing in the snow

Last weekend I was in California for work and Tim had to go into work here in Syracuse. Cameron spent the day at Nana and Papa's and one of the things that they did was play in the snow. Cameron was not a huge fan of it, especially when he was bundled up in his snowsuit and boots! It made for some cute pictures though. :)

Ready to go outside!
It sure is bright out here...
Yikes, it is hard to walk in the snow.
After difficulties with the snowsuit, Cameron changed into his jacket and shoes. After that he liked playing outside much better. Here is a picture of Cameron and Papa.
Cameron with his little snowman.

Cam Cutes from Florida

Two cute stories from Florida:

1) Cameron ate like a champ in Florida. His biggest motivator was the little fork and spoon that Omi had for him. He would eat anything that we put in front of him, as long as he had a fork to stab it with or a spoon to scoop it with. We were constantly amazed at how much he ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. His usual breakfast included at least two or three kinds of fruit, a waffle or two, and some cheerios! For lunch, he would eat four or five slices of gelbwurst and a couple slices of cheese, some veggies and more fruit. During the day he also had snacks like fruit, cheerios and dried fruit. For dinner, whatever we had, he had - schnitzel, pork, egg rolls, potatoes, chicken, etc. For dessert he always had one of Omi's lebkuchen cookies. We were so proud of how well he ate the whole trip!!

2) At the spot where the walkway meets the beach, there are upsidedown brushes (with bristles facing up) to brush the sand off your shoes. Once used them once, Cameron quickly figured out what he had to do. After every walk on the beach, Cameron would spend several minutes very carefully brushing the sand off his shoes with the brushes. There are two brushes, so he would always wipe one foot with one brush, then walk over to the other brush to brush off the other foot. This method would continue four or five times, until he felt his shoes were adequately clean. It was pretty cute!