Canadian War Museum

From a trip to the Canadian War Museum this past summer. These were from the same trip that we got this picture of Psycho Lucas.

FYI, we visited Santa at the mall last night so we have our "official" Christmas pictures. I'm planning to do a year-in-review post over the holidays so I'll probably include a Santa photo in that post.

Like Mother, Like Son

These photos are proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. (FYI, these were taken with an iPhone in low light so the graininess is the picture, not your computer.)

Portable North Pole 2013

For the 3rd or 4th year running, we've decided to make use of the Portable North Pole website to create a personalized video from Santa for Lucas. If there are any new(er) parents out there, I would highly recommend using this site for your kid. It's free, and it really makes their day. I've included a link to this year's version below. We picked the naughty/nice option since we want to put a little bit of the fear of god (or Santa, as the case may be) into Lucas since he's been a handful lately, especially when it comes to his homework.

Click here to see the video. He hasn't seen it yet, but I'll try and remember to video his reaction like I have in past years.

NFL in Toronto

I'm going to take a detour from posts that are nearly a year old and deliver you some much fresher stuff. Rather than let it get old and moldy, here are the photos from our trip to see the Falcons play the Bills in Toronto last weekend.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, which is actually attached to the Rogers Centre, where the game was being played. It was extremely convenient as we didn't have to worry about driving or even much walking for that matter. We were so close we didn't put on jackets for our walk from the front door of the hotel to the stadium gate.

We took full advantage of the indoor pool while we were there. It was particularly convenient because Lucas could touch bottom throughout the entire pool.

This is a view of the field from the hotel's restaurant, taken the night before as they get everything ready. Many of the rooms, including my mom's, also looked out over the field. Unfortunately, her view was blocked by banners during the actual game itself. Not that it mattered since we had great club level seats on the 50 yard line.

The morning of the game, they set up an NFL Fan Experience area on a nearby street. It was wet and rainy and generally pretty miserable, but we still braved it for a while. Here, Lucas tries out his field goal kicking skills.

Prior to the game, we went to lunch at the Amsterdam Brewhouse, which was located on the water and was within a 10 minute walk from the hotel. I would highly recommend this place to anyone going to Toronto that enjoys good beer and tasty food. Check out the cool design made entirely of their bottle caps.

At the table, we had to do some mugging for the camera.

Here are some pictures we took at Rogers Centre.

Lucas might have gone a little overboard with the stickers.

For what it's worth, it was a fantastic back-and-forth game, and it was made even better by the fact that our Atlanta Falcons won in overtime. They may suck this year, but they definitely made our Toronto trip a memorable time.

Here's a couple of pictures from after the game, showing them tearing down the field. These were taken from my mom's room--the banners had been removed--and they show you how really cool the view is from selected rooms. I might be able to stomach a future baseball game there if I could watch from the comfort of my room.

Nothing special about this one from the lobby. I just thought it was funny.

Hope you enjoyed! We'll probably be heading back to spring in the next update.

Random Photos from June 2013

Today's our Christmas preparation day. Marilu and my mom are setting up the tree as I type this, and we'll be decorating it shortly. After that, we'll be bringing Lucas to see Santa at the nearby mall, and time permitting, we may and go see the movie Frozen.

Play cap guns with the neighbor's kids while wearing nothing but boxer shorts and sandals? Sure, why not?

Getting the world's best birthday present for a 6 year old, courtesy of Marilu's family. I think I got a Tonka truck or maybe a Slip n' Slide for my 6th birthday.

Getting another of his presents ready. Unfortunately, our backyard isn't very level so the pool probably won't make a return appearance next year.

Asleep on the way home from somewhere. Note that his iPad is close at hand.

Funatorium Explorium 2013

Whoops, I missed my update yesterday. I honestly thought I had postdated it one more day so I didn't realize until just now that nothing showed up yesterday. Or today, for that matter, but I'm about to rectify that problem.

Kind of funny thing about this entry. In it, I'll be posting some pictures from the 2013 Funatorium Explorium event in Ottawa, which took place back in February. The amusing bit is that when I looked for the post related to the 2012 version, I discovered it was posted on December 15, 2012. So I may be late in my updating, but at least I'm consistent. Heck, I'm over 10 days ahead of my pace from last year. Just give me 30 more years, and I'll be right as rain!

If you don't recall, the Funatorium Explorium is an event held in several ginormous rooms at the conference center that encourages family fun. There are games to play, shows to watch, and bouncy castles to be bounced in. It's been fun both years we've gone, and I expect we'll be back in 2014.

Here's a link to last year's Funatorium post, if you're feeling nostalgic.

Montreal with Steven and Jen

Here's another bunch of photos from the way, way back machine. We return, once again, to January of this year. Marilu's brother Steven and his fiancee Jen were in Montreal on vacation so we drove over to see them. Here we are at Reuben's Deli, with Lucas flashing the devil horns with Steven.

You may wonder why I took this next photo since it's fairly unassuming. That's before you realize that Lucas had just finished an entire $40 8 oz. filet mignon. I think I was 10 before I had my first filet. Lucky little bugger.

I'm not exactly sure where we were when this picture was taken, but I thought it was cute. (edit: Marilu informed me that I wasn't there at the time of this picture so that explains my confusion about its origin)

The next day we went to the Biodome. We'd been there when Lucas was much younger so we decided to make a return trip. Lucas had fun, and it's an impressive looking place, but in my opinion, for the amount of money it costs, there are better alternatives out there. I doubt we'll be back again soon.

In case you're wondering, our camera lens isn't smudged in the first few photos. We happened to be in the jungle section of the biodome, and the humidity wreaked havoc on photos.

One last pose with his uncle and soon-to-be aunt before we headed back to Ottawa.