Pumpkin Carving – Round One

On October 30th, we set about carving our pumpkins. Last year, we got Luke to at least touch the pumpkin seeds/guts – this year he was having none of it!

Here’s Luke keeping a watchful eye over Tim as he draws the face onto our pumpkins:

This is the face I get if I ever ask him to “smile” for the camera:

He’s not impressed at all!

Here’s a picture of Luke and his Nanny (Tom and Sylvia are staying with us!)

Luke inspecting the results:

The finished product:

It’s a ….

baby!

Yep – we stayed with our decision to keep the baby’s gender a surprise. The ultrasound technician told us that the baby was just perfect. The little mover wouldn’t stay still and the ultrasound took ages!

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

Luke being silly

The other day, when Luke was fully dressed in the football kit of the best team in the world, Tim took a bunch of photos of him being goofy:

“Who are you looking at?”

“I’m tough”

About to make a move:

And we’re off:

Our time in Washington, DC

On the way home from Virginia Beach, we stopped in Washington, DC. We arrived in on Sep 12 – which was a bit of a zoo of a day. We were staying at the JW Marriot – we got a GREAT deal online!

Luke was quite puzzled by all the people:

We went on the Trolley Tour; here are some photos:

Luke insisted to having a sit-down on this step … even though it made us miss our trolley!

Typical. There’s a beautiful cathedral and Luke would rather play with leaves

Just a few minutes walk from our hotel:

More travels around Virginia

One of the other places we visited was Battleship Wisconsin at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. We had tried to go to the Portsmouth Children’s Museum, only to be told that it had closed for 18 months a couple days before and “wow, it was such a great day, you really missed out!” and “well you’ll have to come back in October when we re-open our temporary location” (thanks, yes, I fancy jumping in the car and driving 12 hours to come back for a day to the Children’s Museum) – despite our telling her we lived in Canada, she either thought the museum was that good, or that Canada was closer to Virginia than it is.

I digress.

So we went to visit the battleship. Here’s a picture of Luke and I by the guns:

It’s a little bigger than a Wii wheel – but it’s still a “wee”

Here’s Luke trying some of Tim’s root beer at Beach Bully. I’d never had pulled porked before – this place is yummy – and easy on the wallet!

Here are a couple pictures of Luke saddle riding at the Beach Bully – a little unsure at first:

Then have a great time (here he’s telling me what horses say):

We also went to Colonial Williamsburg

It’s a really gorgeous place – quite liked the Governor’s Palace:

But Luke was tired out:

From Virginia Beach we went up to Washington, DC – arriving on September 12th – let’s just say, the city was full. But I’ll post those pictures soon

Our visit to the Aquarium!

We arrived to have a few days with Melissa and Mac and discovered that Virginia Beach has the same weather as Ontario did all summer – but it’s a “tropical depression” here – which means it’s warm with torrential downpours. Never fear – there’s an aquarium here! As soon as we told Luke there was an aquarium with fish he was thrilled and imitating fish until we left the house.

It was quite funny as it seemed like Luke thought we were only there for one exhibit (the hallway of fish – who all looked quite depressed). (Please excuse the dreadfully annoying adult voices in the background – particularly mine, at the end!)

But he was thrilled to discover the sting ray exhibit next door! It had an open top and everyone was allowed to stick their hands in to touch the skates:

He LOVED the exhibit!

Afterwards we went to go look at some sharks – Tim tried feeding Luke to a shark:

And then we went to look at the venomous snakes:

He was first afraid of the fake snake:

But then he realized it wasn’t going to get him:

All told we had a great morning – Luke had a WONDERFUL afternoon nap and we’re back on to a regular schedule with him.

Some news …

Trip to the U.K. – last post!

While we were in Belfast, we went to the zoo. Luke really enjoyed it – and so did we, aside from the short downpour we had!

Here’s Luke and Tim looking at a cow:

And here’s Luke getting a close up of a tortoise in the rain forest exhibit:

Here’s a bird that got out (from under the fence):

The other boy in the exhibit, who was about 3, was terrified of the bird, but Luke was fascinated:

The next day we went to Junction One for some more shopping. I missed Luke’s original reaction to the Thomas the Tank Engine ride – apparently he screamed at the top of his lungs! Here he is:

And here is is pushing the buttons to make the music go:

Luke is one boy who LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine! When the theme music comes on he gets so excited and starts clapping and dancing! And lately he’s taken to sleeping holding on to one of his “ch-ch” shirts like a stuffed animal!

Another new word Luke learned while he was away was “i-o-lee” (=ice lolly = popsicle). And Grandad was the soft touch who always let him have one

Derek and Katie Brown came over to Belfast. We had a great time! We did a tour around Belfast and went to see Harry Potter!! We also took Luke to the park down by the sea. Personally, I was shocked to see kids running around in t-shirts and shorts (it wasn’t that warm! and it was very windy!). Here are a few photos of Derek and Katie’s trip:

Here’s Tim and Derek at the Glentoran football grounds:

Luke was chasing after two guys playing football in the park wondering why they wouldn’t play with him Poor boy was so sad

Our flight home was long but surprisingly uneventful. Luke was such a star. The trip home included a drive of just under 2 hours to Dublin, a 2 hour wait at the airport (we like to get there early), 30 minutes to Shannon, another hour waiting at the airport, a 7 hour flight home, followed by an hour and a half drive back home. And other than a few minutes on the descent and the last 10 minutes of the final drive, Luke was a happy little guy.

Here’s one final picture of Luke the morning after we arrived back that I thought was too cute to share. Please know he was wearing a shirt, but decided he didn’t want to wear one anymore, but did want to wear the hat!

Trip to the U.K. pt. 3

On the 13th of July we watched the 12th of July parade on tv and then went down to watch the parade on their march home at the end of the day.

Luke was very proud of his Ulster flag:

We moved the car to a place a few feet from where the parade would march by. Luke wanted to give the car a go. He’d never driven on the “wrong” side of the road in the “wrong” side of the car!

When the parade was approaching, we got out to watch … in the beautiful Belfast summer weather:

Here are some pictures of the marchers:

The next day we went round to see Luke’s great-grandparents (Cairns). Here’s a photo of four generations of Cairns:

Luke, Tim, Sylvia (Nanny) and I went down into town where I got to do some shopping and the other three did a couple touristy things. They went up the observation tower at the Victoria Centre:

And then Luke went running around at Belfast City Hall:

Hope you’re enjoying  these photos – we’ve still got lots to come! Including a visit from Derek and Katie Brown (friends of ours from Regent, who are now living in Edinburgh).

Trip to the U.K. pt. 2

So on Wednesday afternoon we flew to England to visit some friends.

First stop, Eastbourne (well technically, first stop land @ Heathrow, then pick up the car, then drive to Eastbourne and narrowly avoid getting run off the road by a complete and total lunatic driver from Germany in a huge caravan/bus – not sure which to be honest – I was fuming at the fact that the moron almost caused a serious collision … but I digress). It was great to see Emma and Glenn!

Luke was thrilled to find lots of ‘tones at the beach to play with:

It was a gorgeous view:

But Luke wasn’t interested … back to the ‘tones:

After spending some time at the beach, we drove into London.

On the way into the city, we stopped at a McDonald’s. Aside from his general miserableness, Luke preference for milk over french fries and chicken mcnuggets alerted us to the fact that something was wrong:

Before our friends were home from London, we went into the city to take some pictures of Luke at a couple of notable landmarks. Here’s Luke and I in Trafalgar Square (in front of living art)

And Luke and Tim in front of Buckingham Palace:

And here’s Luke being pushed round the garden by Cordelia:

Poor little guy was sick the whole time we were in London. But eventually he got healthier (when we got back to Belfast). After being sick, he’s discovered a real appetite for bananas (“bo-bos”) – he absolutely LOVES them!!

Tomorrow we”ve got pictures from the 12th of July parades!