This weekend the Garside family had loads of fun. There was some shopping, loads of playing, an anniversary, and some hijinks at the beach. All of the ingredients for a perfect summer weekend of sun, sand, and happy times.
Saturday Kaylin and I hopped in the car and headed out to give Char some “cake time”. We went shopping (to Staples for a laserjet printer cartridge), and then over to Angelos for a snack. I was going to take Kaylin to a park nearby, but on the way out of Angelos I asked her “Hey Kaylin, do you want to go to the Library?” “Pay trains read books?” She asked excitedly! “Sure, want to go to the library?” “Yup!” was her enthusiastic response. We went across the parking lot to the Westmount Library, where she engaged in some hardcore train action, tearing apart the track, and racing the train along the rubble. I read her a couple of stories, and then she said “Come on daddy, wets go.”, she wanted to walk around the library, and see what else there was, babbling in her little toddler way the whole time.
we left the library, and got outside the door where she pointed across the park at Adventures on Wonderland, which is kind of an indoor playground. “This one?” She asked, pointing at the door. “You want to go in there?” “Yup!” she again enthusiastically replied. We went and paid the admission, and she ran around playing in the ball pit and sliding down the slides. I lost track of time, and suddenly realized it was 1:00, well past nap time.
we headed back home, and after nap we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for my sister Annette and brother-in-law Chris' anniversary dinner. Kaylin had a blast running around, playing with everyone, and playing in Grandma's inflatable pool in the back yard (my mom brought out some blankets and Kaylin, Char and I played fort in the pool for a while).
On Sunday we decided to go for a drive out to Grand Bend. The 40 minute drive took about an hour and a half due to some wrong turning on my part (and perhaps a little misdirection on my lovely wife's part?). Still, Kaylin was such a good sport about the trip, singing in the back seat and generally having a good time. We eventually made it to Grand Bend, but the traffic was really heavy, so we got off a block or so before the main drag, and parked on a side street near the beach.
We went down and played on the beach for a little while, and then headed off for something to eat. A little perch and chips was on the menu at a local chip shop, so we ate, and then got in the car so Kaylin could have a nap.
We drove down the main strip of Grand Bend, and I realized that Grand Bend is now just an all day/all night keg party. Not really our scene. We left “the Bend” and headed down to Bayfield which I remember going to with Ryan and Rich once upon a time (where we rented rollerblades for our first time). Now Bayfield was what I was hoping for. A sleepy little town with tons of great cute shops, and a really sweet looking downtown.
Kaylin woke up from her nap, and the three of us cruised the shops, popping in to some, and sadly not buying anything, even though there was one store that Char said she wanted “everything” in.
After a couple hours of strolling and sightseeing, we piled back in the car and headed back to London. Again on the trip back, Kaylin was good as gold, being incredibly cute in her car seat, and reading her books, singing her songs, and just generally being a good kid.
It's weekends like that which make it so hard to go into work on Monday morning.