Cayman Islands - Day Four

On Monday morning we decided to go check out another part of the island. We drove all the way around to the West side, which is much more populated and is where most of the tourists are. We saw a lot of really pretty beaches on Seven Mile Beach, but we didn't stop at any. We did stop really quickly at the Turtle Farm, but decided the price tag was a bit steep for what we would get. We kept driving around to the northern part of the island and found a dirt road that we decided to check out. We drove down the dirt road and found a bunch of little turn offs that led to the beach. We picked one and parked, and walked out to our own private beach. It was covered in beach debris, but it was all our own, for as far as we could see in both directions. Awesome!

Looking both ways down "our" beach.

First, Tim, Cam, Jeff and Bridgette went for a swim.

Then we ate lunch in the great little tent that Jeff and Jaime brought.

After lunch Kristin and Jaime went for a wade in the bathtub temperature water.
Meanwhile, the kids played in the sand.

After we were sufficiently sweaty, sandy and salty, we packed up and got back in the car. We stopped along the way at a major tourist trap, a town called Hell.

This is what Hell looks like.
Of course we had to take these goofy pictures. Tim the devil:
Kristin the devil:
We felt like bad parents for doing this, but it is so funny! Cam the devil:
On our way back to the car, we saw this guy (a green iguana) up in the trees above us. So cool!

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)!