Family fun??

Winterlude 2012

This weekend was supposed to see us relaxing up at the MacNab family cottage, nestled on the edge of beautiful Algonquin Park.  Instead, we had 3 out of 4 Macnab's struck down with a lovely cold virus where one coughs until they barf.  Also, we've had unseasonably warm and dry weather so instead of the great outdoors being coated in  mountains of fluffy snow, the great outdoors in coated in an ice shield comparable to Serbia.  All of this to say, that this long weekend we chose to do a "staycation".  Owen was only mildly disappointed we weren't going once he found out that our staycation would comprise restaurant visits, an elusive experience for the poor lad as Lovely Husband and I are loath to inflict our little family on a room full of diners seeking to have a quiet night.  In fact, my father once went to a restaurant with us where a minor meltdown occured over a milkshake.  Notice I said "once" went to dinner with us, once was enough for him.
This morning we headed of to Jacques-Cartier Park to enjoy a little Winterlude family fun.  I would like to be able to say a lovely time was had by all and we all pranced about serenely in a lovely winter wonderland.
But that would be a bold face lie. 
What did in fact happen, was upon arrival Lovely Husband was confronted with having to pay $8 to pay for parking.  This irks him, it irks him real bad.  But he calmly paid and off we went where the first attraction Owen saw, and began begging to try was a rock climbing wall.  This was a $5 activity.  We'd only been out of the van 5 minutes and Lovely husband was already down $13.  In resignation he handed me some cash (because I never have any on me, a little quirk of mine he knows too well) and took the littlest boy off to enjoy toddler fun while I stayed with bigger boy.



Owen rock climbing

  The next hour and a half was funish, if you consider crowds and cold and sliding down an ice covered surface at a hundred miles an hour in your jeans "fun". 
A fuuny thing about ice slides, the heavier you are the faster you fly down the hill.  I left Owen in my fat ass dust!  The people at the bottom of the hill had a decidedly concerned look as a giant red ball skidded uncontrollably in their direction. 
Nevertheless,  what matters is the kids had fun, the whole point of this excercise.  John and I both agree that left to our own devices we'd have been sitting on the couch watching a movie but that hasn't happened in
4 1/2 years so we'll just keep to our daydreaming. 

Ian-"I have to pee!"

So now it's time to leave and littlest boy, who has been most resistent to toilet training and has peed in his pull-up all week says "Mommy, I weelly have to go bafroom!"  To which I replied "Pee in your pants kimosabe"  The thought of removing all outerwear and layers of clothing in a frozen portable toilet stall was in no way enticing.
The plan was to go to a local diner for lunch on the way home.  I had a club sandwhich and chocolate milkshake on the brain.  However, bigger boy begins to have a huge display of tantrum in the van which prompts Lovely husband to have a hissy fit of his own as we are all tired and hungry and listening to the tantrum while trying to find parking was too much for Mr. Infinite Patience. 
After parking (finally), unloading boys and walking to diner we discover it is a half hour wait for lunch.  No dice, so off we go again, back to van, load everyone in, more tears ensue.  We make our way to a
Pizza Pizza location for some cheap and fast but mediocer food where we share a small space with a family with 8 kids who were so badly behaved that Lovely husband actually looks relaxed, smiles and says: "I'm glad we did this, for once our kids aren't the worst behaved in the room."  We all need to get our joy somewhere I guess.
Another adventure accomplished, I hold out hope for a smoother day tomorrow but in the meantime I'm just glad we survived all the "fun" of our staycation today.