Hoping you all had a wonderful Mother's Day

After our recent family fishing trip we decided we wanted to get a boat. We searched all over craigslist. Ian wanted a fishing boat and I wanted something that would be comfortable for me and the kids. Ian has always liked Bayliner Trophy's and it was family friendly enough to please me too so we concentrated on searching for Trophys.

We were happy to find one in Pennsylvania which was only about a 9 hour drive for us each way. So we headed out on Friday and returned on Saturday with our new boat.

Ian posing with our new boat before we headed back into Canada

So on Sunday which was Mother's Day we headed out on the lake to have a beautiful day together on our new boat.

The girls of course had a blast! I can see we will have lots of fun this summer :)

Sierra loving piloting the boat

Aayla....."go fast"!!!!

Sierra laughing and having a great time

Captain Ian

Daddy and Aayla enjoying some quiet time together on the seat at the front of the boat

Aayla's turn to pilot the boat

Aayla chilling out with daddy

Me and my littlest girls enjoying a wonderful mothersday on the lake

Here's hoping you all enjoyed your Mothers day as much as I enjoyed mine :)

Just singin' in the rain...

"I'm singing in the rain 

Just singing in the rain 

What a glorious feelin' 

I'm happy again 

I'm laughing at clouds 

So dark up above 

The sun's in my heart 

And I'm ready for love 

Let the storm clouds chase 

Everyone from the place 

Come on with the rain 

I've a smile on my face 

I walk down the lane 

With a happy refrain 

Just singin', 

Just singin' in the rain"

-Gene Kelly

Fishing with family

We chose to make Ontario home for many reasons. This past weekends fishing trip took care of three of them...family, lakes and fishing!

Sierra with her first catch of the day

We heard there was a Perch festival in Orillia until May 12th so we headed there Friday night. We stayed at the Orillia Walmart parking lot so we could be up early to go rent the boats. We had to rent 2 boats as the only other boat that could accommodate all of us was way more money then we wanted to spend. The Blue Beacon Marina for boat rentals was great. They are fast, friendly and their service was amazing. The boats were loaded in and out of the water in a speedy manor and the staff were all like a hive a bees busily preparing the boats (and cleaning them upon return).

Time to head out and try our luck at Perch fishing.

Sierra and Charlie ready to cast off and get the fishing trip started

 Aayla was so excited to be going fishing. So much so that even though we woke them at 5:15am to go fishing and she was so tired still her first word was "fishing"!!!

Aayla hoping daddy will let her drive the boat. 

Daddy happy to be fishing :)

Mark, Lucas and Cameron

Mark and the boys...Charlie came with us :)

Sierra with her first cast

Aayla with her first cast

Charlie with her first cast

Everyone having fun fishing

Mark with the first catch of the day

Cameron with his first catch of the day...I missed Lucas's :(

Sierra became quite a good little fishermen and was reeling them in like crazy!

Sierra even trying to put a worm on the hook

Daddy caught some too

 Even though Aayla was so excited...her excitement only lasted about 1 1/2 hours and then we headed back to shore. Aayla and me went to Value Village of course while everyone else continued their wonderful day of fishing!

All in all...everyone had a great day. Fun being out with family and having cousins for the girls to be with. One thing today proved though...we want a boat...one with a little bit of a cabin for Aayla to snuggle up in when she's had enough! Time to keep our eyes open for a deal before summer arrives. Looking forward to sunny summer days where we can go out in the boat, jump in to swim and cool off. In BC our lakes are all glacier fed and way to cold for me. Here I am told they are much warmer and swim-able...looking forward to that!

Butterflies galore

We have moved to an RV park near Alliston where we will stay until the end of May. It's very quiet here as the season is just beginning so we basically have the park to ourselves.

Today we awoke to a wonderful surprise... Butterflies galore!

My mom told me a week or so ago she heard on the news in BC that there were high numbers of these little flutterbys in High Park in Toronto. When I googled it all the info I could find was a week old so I didn't want to go chasing them in case they weren't there anymore. I am glad we didn't as they came to us! I wouldn't say there were hundreds of them but there were many, many, butterflies fluttering all around.

Resting on dandelions and posing for pictures.

It didn't take Sierra long to grab a net and try and try and try to catch the butterflies.

And then of course Aayla wants to try too :)

Sierra did manage to catch a bee.

She didn't give up on catching a butterfly but was getting disappointed that she hadn't caught one yet. She was about to give up when she finally caught one!

She was so excited and studied it for quite awhile.

She got out the butterfly book I got at Value Village just before we left BC (it's a great book).

and flipped through the pages trying to find what she caught. She discovered they were Red Admirals. Then ran out trying to catch more. No more luck but she certainly had fun trying.

 Aayla had fun walking around studying the book as well.

All in all we had a great day in our own private butterfly garden.