Olympic Trials with the Passmore Girls

Another week, another trip to the city for sporting events. Pat had tickets to the Jays home opener series, and I had tickets to take my nieces Hailey and Regan to watch the Olympic Swimming Trials at the new PanAm pool in Scarborough/

Checking out the wedding album

The PanAm pool is right near the Toronto Zoo, so in between heats and finals on Friday we went to visit the animals. It was a really chilly day, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.

Regan and Jasper with the polar bear

We managed to see the polar bear cub Juno and the two Giant Panda cubs without even waiting in line. There were signs that said "2 hour wait from here", so I was glad to be there on a cold Friday afternoon!

Jasper and his cousins in the pavillion

Regan's favourite part was seeing the giraffes. We got to the giraffe enclosure as the zookeeper was feeding them and giving a talk.

Regan and the giraffes

We had weekend passes for the Olympic Trials, so we went to watch heats and finals on Friday and Saturday. There were some exciting swims and some disappointments, as with any trials event.

Regan and Jasper in matching stripes.

Jasper doesn't like to sit still for long anymore, so Regan entertained him by letting him crawl around the stands.

Regan and Jasper at the pool

We stayed with Andrew and Katie in Markham and they were great hosts for the weekend, letting us stay in their AirBnb rooms and cooking us great food. Sorry for the early morning wake ups on a weekend! Mom and Dad came to visit on Saturday afternoon and we all had a Costco dinner feast before going to the pool for finals.

Pita Pit stop on the way home

Sunday, the girls had to head home to North Bay, so Jasper and I met up with Pat downtown. We met some friends for brunch and then caught the Sunday afternoon Jays game with Dudar and Britt. Didn't get any pictures from that one, but it was a fun time and the Jays won!

Around the bay

The week was a pretty regular one, with Grandma and Grandpa coming over for dinner and to help with bed time stories. Jasper is able to follow along with books (usually) now and help turn the pages.

He is also becoming a bit of a daredevil in his little bath tub. He likes to stand up and take all of his rubber duckies off the ledge, then put them back up, over and over and over.

Trying to escape the bath

On the weekend, I ran my first race since Jasper was born, the Around the Bay two person relay with my Aunt Colleen. It was a chilly morning, but I was really happy with my 15 km time. Colleen ran really well too and we ended up 7th place in our category.

Visiting Great Grandma Beaton

While I was running, Pat took Jasper to visit his Grandparents in Toronto and Whitby. First stop was with Grandma Beaton in North York.

Lunch at Amica

Then it was lunch in the Amica dining room with Great Grandma Love and Great Aunt Cheryl.

Visiting Great Grandpa Love

After lunch, they went to visit Great Grandpa Love at his new place nearby. Jasper loves to explore new places and to see his Great Grandparents. He always gets lots of smiles and waves from the residents and staff at Amica and Donway Place.

With Great Grandma Love

Chicago Easter

This Easter, we took a family fun trip to Chicago with the Hoyles and Beatons. We left Thursday evening and drove to a motel in Battle Creek, Michigan, then drove the rest of the way Friday morning. Pat was happy to be back in the land of Jimmy John's sandwiches. 

The whole family stayed at a hostel in the Wicker Park neighbourhood, just a few stops on the subway from downtown. The hostel had a common room that Jasper could roam around in and plenty of stairs for him to climb. 

Reunited with Aunt Kate and Uncle Andrew

After a BYOB Mexican seafood feast, I took Jasper home to bed and the rest of the family headed to the Willis (Sears) tower. The wait to go up the elevator was more than 2 hours, but it was worth it as Mike and Charlotte got engaged at the Skydeck on top. Back at the hostel, we had celebratory champagne in plastic hostel cups.

Skydeck proposal

Saturday was a day to explore the Chicago waterfront and downtown. We took the El to Grant park and then split up to the Field Museum and Planetarium.

 

The Field Museum is like the ROM, with dinosaurs and lots of historical artifacts.  Jasper really enjoyed playing in the kids section of the museum. His favourite spot was the book shelf, so really we should just take him to the library.

Napping by the Chicago skyline

After the museums, we rode the Hop on Hop off tour for an overview of downtown Chicago. I'd never done a bus tour like that before, and I think next time I'd just walk or ride transit. It was nice to have the whole family together, and I'm sure Charlotte appreciated not having to walk with her broken foot.

Family selfie at the "bean"

We finished the bus tour near Millennium Park and went to check out the famous Cloud Gate sculpture. There were hundreds of people all taking the same photo in front of the "bean". 

With Uncle Scott at the Cloud Gate

Uncle Scott carried Jasper to our restaurant reservation for deep dish pizza at Giordano's. We lost some family members on the walk over, but we were reunited at dinner.

Everyone loved the super cheesy deep dish pizza, especially Jasper. After dinner a group went straight to Howl at the Moon to get a seat for the dueling piano show. I took Jasper home to bed and then met up with the group later. It was an impressive show at Howl at the Moon.

Astronaut Jasper

On Sunday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Again, Jasper loved the kids section, especially the stream that carried balls around the room. He was too young for most of it, but enjoyed watching the older kids play.

Sunday evening we went to the Chicago Diner, a vegetarian restaurant that serves comfort foods like chicken wings, shepherd's pie, burgers and shakes- all meat-free. Pat and I have been there twice before and I even have their cook book. We went early enough to get a table for 14 and the food did not disappoint.

It was a successful family fun weekend and great that we were able to meet up with Kate while she is unable to leave the US. 

11 months old

This week, Jasper turned 11 months old. He is definitely bigger than Fred now! He also spent his fist whole day with Grannie and Grandad in Milton this week.

St Patrick's Day at Gilley's

We went for a very early St. Patrick's day celebration at Gilley's on Thursday night. Jasper wore his green diapers all day to show his Irish heritage.

I've been trying out some new recipes lately, and I'm amazed how much spice Jasper will eat. The shepherd's pie wasn't spicy, but Jasper sure enjoyed it.

Jasper had a great time with Grannie and Grandad while I went to an underwater hockey tournament on Saturday. He played the piano, climbed the stairs, played with all the stray socks and ate lots and lots of chicken. Great Grandma and Grandpa Parr and Uncle Andrew and Aunt Katie came to visit too.

SOCKS!

I had a good day at the College Royal underwater hockey tournament. It was a long exhausting day, with 9 games played over the course of 8 hours. It was strange to be away from Jasper, but I'll have to get used to it, since I go back to work in just over 1 month.

Exploring Grannie and Grandad's house

Swinging with his ping pong ball

It's light later into the evening now, so we took Jasper over to the park at the baseball diamonds. He wasn't too sure about the swings, but he really liked the slide.

Sharing toys with Fred

11 month old baby boy

Raptors game in Toronto

Friday night we had an impromptu Mexican food dinner party with the Aunt Heather, Uncle Matt and the Acharyas. Jasper had to go to bed right after dinner, but Shree had fun playing with his toys. Hopefully the boys will be able to play together soon.

The Acharya family over for dinner

On Saturday we went down to Toronto with Nathan. On the way down, Pat and Nathan stopped to play Laser Quest in Brampton, while Jasper and I hung out at a Portuguese bakery.

Come on guys, let's go!

We met Shelly and her friend Alanna for dinner before the Raptors game, then Jasper and I went back to the hotel for bed time. Nathan, Pat, Shelly and Alanna got to watch an exciting overtime Raptors win.

Reading with Uncle Nathan

The next morning, we went for a swim in the hotel pool and played in the hotel's kids area. It was March break, so you had to sign up to swim in the pool in 15 minute time slots.

Stop taking my picture!

The kids area was great for Jasper to explore. As usual, he enjoyed pulling all the books off the shelves.

Watching the St. Patrick's Day parade

After some free Pizza Pizza pizza slices, we caught the St. Patrick's Day parade and then went back to the ACC for the Toronto Rock Lacrosse game with our friend Dudar. It was a long tiring weekend, so it was nice to get home on Sunday night!

It was a long weekend for Jasper and I

Week at home

Last week was a pretty normal week. I keep forgetting to bring the camera with us when we're out to take pictures.

We had a big snowstorm on Wednesday, but no snow day for Pat. He got up early and shoveled the driveway for an hour so that Steve could get out. Our car was still very much snowed in, so I tried to dig it out while Jasper took his morning nap. I had the baby monitor in my pocket, and just as Jasper started to cry, the snowplow came around the corner and filled the end of the driveway back in. I gave up on driving to baby fit class, so we just walked. Luckily, the jogging stroller is great in the snow, but I still cursed every house that didn't clear their sidewalk all the way to the Davidson Centre.

My friend Laura from work came up on Thursday to go cross country skiing at MacGregor Point Provincial Park. We did the whole 5km loop, then met Pat at Saffron's in Port Elgin for dinner.

Jasper has his cold back. Pat stayed home on Friday because Jasper was up all night Thursday.

I had girls night with my TNDC friends on Saturday. We had sushi and wine and good conversation. It's hard to all get together (this night was planned in December), but it's great when it works out.

Here are some Jasper pictures from the week:

On a walk with Dad

Showing off his teeth

Hi there!

Working out

Winter week

Last week, Steve cooked us some yummy Serbian "peasant food" for dinner, while Jasper practiced walking around the kitchen with a stool.

Helping Steve with dinner

Jasper really liked the food Steve made. He has been eating more and more lately, I think he must be going through a growth spurt. He also slept from 7pm to 6am one night and only woke up once the rest of the nights.

On Thursday, Jasper and I drove to Toronto to take Erynn out for lunch for her 30th birthday. I forgot to bring my camera so no pictures from that lunch. Erynn's off travelling in Hong Kong and the Philippines now.

Helping Great Grandma and Dorcas to bake cookies

We decided to stay in Toronto to go visit all the Grandparents on the weekend. We stayed in Milton with my parents and went to see Grandma Beaton and the Loves on Saturday.

Hanging out at Great Grandma's house

At Amica with Great Grandpa Love

I think Great Grandma told a joke

Saturday evening, we went to Barrie to visit with the Great Gran and Great Grandpa Parr who had just returned from India. We tried to stick to our sleep routine, and it seemed to work, even through Jasper was sleeping in different places. I really hope that the sleeping continues to go well.