Bingeman's Park...

Or the vacation that wasn't, as I like to call it!

We booked our package with the Holiday Inn in Kitchener, which included hotel room, park tickets, free kids meals & welcome gift. What a great deal!

We left for our mini vacation to Bingeman's on Wednesday, stopping in London to exchange my camera bag. Aili coughed the ENTIRE way. Well, she fell asleep for about 20 minutes but woke herself up by coughing. After several puffs of her medicine and some cough suppressant to no effect, we decided to get out of the car in London and walk around a bit. A co-worker of mine wanted one of these (Caution: R rated!) so we headed to the mall to pick it up. Aili didn't cough once!

Back in the van and no sooner are we on the highway, she starts again! By the time we arrived in Kitchener, my nerves are shot! The kids are starving and overtired, as it's almost 6:30 at this point. We get settled into our hotel, ate dinner and then headed to the pool. We were in the pool for at least 1.5 hours! I used the hot tub (ahhhh on my back!) and Connor braved the heat for a few minutes. We finally drag them out, Aili screaming bloody murder because she didn't want to leave. By this time, it's 9:30pm and EVERYONE is fit to be tied! :D

I finally get Aili to sleep around 10:30pm and Connor wakes up, burning with fever! It had to be at least 104 degrees! Thank goodness I had the foresight to pack the acetominaphen! He was up a few times in the night, as was Aili with her cough.

We wake the next morning to cloudy skies. :( Not exactly perfect water park weather. Connor is complaining that he's not feeling well so instead of the water park, we had a lovely tour of the Kitchener walk-in clinic! :( Turned out that Connor had strept throat and Aili's cough was just a by-product of her viral asthma... {sigh} So we headed to Gary's parents to drop off Connor, as he was going to be staying with them for the week.

I had a couple of friends, Angie & Amy, over on Saturday for some scrapbooking. I finally got a chance to dig into the Just Cre8 August '07 kit to try to product some layouts for the reveal on the 15th.

I have a few on the go, but these are the completed ones (or near completed!):

There is, of course, a story that goes with funny photo - I just didn't have the courage to try to handwrite it on the textured cardstock! I will add it in later and share it then...

We passed an uneventful (albeit quiet! ;)) week without Connor around and then headed back up on Friday. My cousin, Carla, was getting married on Saturday, so Gary and I had booked a hotel for both Friday and Saturday, hoping to have a date night on Friday and spend some quality time together.

Well, you know the saying... the best laid plans.....

Thursday night, Gary developed a terrible cough and since he had just gotten over bronchitis a few months ago, he decided to hit the clinic before we left, just in case. It was only a bad cold but the doctor prescribed some antibiotics, in case it turned while we were gone.

We met up with Gary's parents in Guelph on Friday afternoon so they could take Aili as well for the weekend - I'm so grateful for them for the time they spent with our kids so that we can have some time to ourselves! Gary and I headed into Stoney Creek to check into our hotel - did I mention it was an executive suite?!? At this point, he's starting to really feel sick. We check in (only to find that there was no pool, like I first thought! :( ) But there was free internet so while Gary had a nap, I surfed.

I know, how romantic, eh?

We headed out to dinner at Jack Astor's and stopped at the Shoppers' to pick up some Buckleys' on the way. Wow - does that stuff clear your sinuses up quickly!! We had originally planned to catch the premiere of the new Harry Potter movie, but Gary wanted to make sure that he was feeling fine for the wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful, as was my cousin. She has a smile that can light up a room! It was so nice to see all my cousins - we get along so great with all of them! They're such good people! And the wedding was a lot of fun! The food! Oh my goodness! There were six courses and then a huge seafood and sweets table at midnight!

The only blight on the evening was a call from Gary's dad. His mum had to head into emerg. Luckily, she was fine but had to head back to see a specialist in the morning, so after the wedding, we headed back to the hotel to pack and check out, and then drove back to their house so that they could head out early and not have to worry about the kids. I'm glad to say that all is well.

And so here I am, caught up on our lives and boring the heck out of you all, I'm sure! ;) I'll share photos from the wedding in a few days as I go through them... and I only took 135 photos!

One last note from a proud momma... Connor hit a grand slam AND a home run in baseball tonight - woohoo, my little buddy!!