Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Visitors from the north...

What a terrific day it was this morning... warm, sunny, just perfect. What a lousy evening it is this evening... cold, wet, not nice.... just saying it the way it was!

Judy's Brother Garry and Shelly drove down from Orillia this morning for a visit, and to bring some more toys they recently donated to Gwenny. We brought some back on the weekend, but could not fit them all in.

We enjoyed time kicking back at the RV this afternoon before the rain started...

We decided to take a walk along the Standard Tube Trail this afternoon. That is their little dog Maggie that is taking Garry for a walk. We have had so much rain this summer, everything in the bush is green, green, green!

They brought this big doll house with them, and we headed into Kristina and Chris' place to deliver it. I was helping set it up for Gwenny above... maybe I got into it a little too much... not sure.....

Sure did not take Gwenny long to take over from me once I got all the little pieces set up in the house... she was having a ball with it! Many thanks to Garry and Shelly for bringing all the toys down from Orillia with them. Great to see them again!

So, now I sit out here at the RV and post in a bunch of rain, trying to figure out how to send it out west to Rick who has been crying for some rain for his lawn...

Till tomorrow...

 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Time to clean up...

We have had so much going on lately, a lot of our regular RV duties and cleaning kind of got put on the back burner...

So, Judy was off and running this morning after breakfast and went into cleaning mode... The interior of the RV is just a sparkling tonight!

Meanwhile, I took on the job of cleaning up the Jeep this morning, after a wild weekend trip up to Orillia.

It got the full treatment inside and out, with a nice fresh coat of McGuires Auto Wax to keep that black paint just a shining... it was a beautiful morning here to be working outside...kind of felt sorry for Judy doing the inside cleaning!

Tonight Kristina and Chris came out to the RV and brought one off the biggest pots of chili you have ever seen, so supper was real good tonight!

Gwenny sat outside with me this afternoon enjoying some apple juice.

 

 

Gwenny was making sure that Charlie had some company with him will hanging out this afternoon...

Good old Charlie just decided to hang out around the RV on his blankets taking life easy! He was in a real good mood today.

I did get a chance to take my motorcycle out for a ride around town today taking care of a couple erands and it was simply georgeous for doing that!

So, not a whole lot of stuff going on here today, but we all had a blast anyways!

Till tomorrow...

Monday, July 29, 2013

"Back in the Saddle Again..."

Don't you just hate problems with computers and the internet!

 

Sometimes, the computers just drive me nuts when they don't work the way I want them to... and that has certainly been the case for the past few days as I struggled trying to post my blog.

First problem I had was that the photo sharing program that I use with my Smart Phone, Flikr has crashed and I was unable to upload pics to this site, and then share them with Blogsy, the App on which I do my Blog. It is still messed up and not working properly in certain areas across the Country.

The second problem I had was that I was unable to upload my pictures to Google+ Photos, (aka Picasa...). At this point with both these programs not working, I am unable to post pictures any longer.

This morning I was able to get the Blog posted finally, after I was able to sign on to Judy's Google+ Profile through Blogsy, hence the world can spin again! Maybe I should just follow the advice above.

That is not the end though, as Rick, (aka Blog World Computer Guru...) sent me an email explaining what my problem with Google+Pictures actually was! Seems that I had loaded 1,000 pictures over the past while in the "Blogsy Pics" folder in Blogsy, and Google+ Pictures simply did not open another folder for the pictures to be stored in. This appears to be a Blogsy Problem, so watch your photo count if you are using Blogsy. Seems there is always something with computers! Thanks a million Rick! Your help again was appreciated!

Today I downloaded an app onto my Smart Phone called "Photocasa", which allows me to view Picasa accounts on the phone, as well as upload pictures from my phone direct to our Google+ Pictures account. Could not do this before, therefore, that is why I was using FlickR. This app cost $1. 49 cents and works well.

Some random pictures and thoughts about our past weekend up in Orillia...

 

Yamaha held it's National Motorcycle Convention at the Orillia Highway Man Inn while we were there, and we had a blast watching all the motorcycles come and go, along with their games.

These are His and Her's bikes above... they were very well done with matching paint jobs...

Judy and I walked around the grounds and checked out all the Vendors...

 

You have to check out this Mustang Motorcycle Trailer... what a machine... very well done!

You might wonder what the lady is doing above in the picture. This is a game. They hang a hot dog on a string at the same height as the rear passenger on the bike, and then they have to drive under it, with the passenger taking a bite out of the hot dog as they pass by. Just before they drive by though, the organizer dips the hotdog in mustard! It was hard to do, with a lot of passengers walking around with mustard on their face.

The Highway Man Inn also has a real nice indoor swimming pool and hot tub which our family enjoyed... here Shawn, Jenn, and the kids are having an early morning swim on Sunday with Judy...

Before the big party, Paige and Emmie got to play for quite a while with Gwenny... don't ask me why they are all sitting on the pavement out in the parking lot!

Garry and Shelly, (Judy's Brother up in Orillia...) gave Gwenny a whole bunch of toys and bikes from when Laura was a kid, who has now outgrown them. Check out Gwenny in her new "Lambo"! Only took a minute for her to find the cell phone down on the dash! We could not get her out of the drivers seat yesterday! What a blast.

Sure was a fantastic weekend, and great to see all of our Family. It is hard to do these days with everyone living so far apart! That seems to be the trend these days.

 

It sure was a "Happy Birthday"...

Whew, what a whirl wind of a weekend... as I post tonight, I am sitting back at the RV in Woodstock, resting! We are whipped!

The big Party for my Mom's 90th Birthday turned out just great with everyone having a heck off a time!

Mom was all primed up and ready to party!

All the kids had their own table for the big dinner...

Paul Spears from the City of Orillia, on the left, and Bruce Stanton, MPP, brought best wishes from all over, including one from our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

 

My Mom finally gets to meet Charlie for the first time!

Judy did most of the organizing for the party and it turned out great... A total of 27 people enjoyed, plus a bunch of good family time.

This morning, a bunch of our Family joined Mom for the Service at St. James Church. She is very well known here and we arranged for a full slab carrot cake for the Congregation...here she is posing with Paige and Emmy with the cake.

 

There was way over 50 people on hand to help eat the cake and sing!

Got a great picture of Shawn and Jenn and Family down at the Church.

Must say hello tonight to good Family friends above, Pat and Ron who came out to greet Mom today. Faithful Blog readers as well!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Till tomorrow...

 

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Blog Problems persist...

Sorry folks, but I am having more problems posting my Blog. It is not a problem of posting the Blog actually, I just cannot post any pictures lately.

I have been using the iPad for the blog through Blogsy, and it will not post my pictures through Picasa, or through Flickr for the past few days... don't know what the problem is.

Will work away, and see if I can get it fixed.

For now, we are back in Woodstock tonight after celebrating Mom's 90th Birthday in Orillia. Great time was had by all! I have a ton of pictures... but...

Anyways, Happy Birthday Mom!

till.....

Friday, July 26, 2013

Woodstock Fire Dept.

Technical problems appear to be resolved. It seems yesterday, Flikr crashed so I could not upload pics I had.

Judy and I are in Orillia tonight for my Mom's big 90th Birthday Party tomorrow. Not much to blog about today except a bunch of weekend traffic on the 401 and 400!

Below is the blog I was going to post last night!

 

Deb and Gerard were on the road by 10:30 this morning, back up to Waterloo. We had a great visit, good to see them, and will run into them soon at the cottage!

Not much happened on this front today... Judy and I did some shopping, and house cleaning duties, and Jeep cleaning duties...but did fit in a visit with the kids this morning...

Early in the morning, Kristina took the kids over on a tots tour of the Firehall here in Woodstock.

So, she is my guest photographer and eyes today.

 

This is how big the trucks look to the little ones...

They had a great day of sunshine to make the visit, and Kristina said about 30 little ones showed up!

The Firemen put on a presentation for the crowd...

One of the men put on all the fire fighting gear... it took a while!

Gwenny got to play with the real fire hose no less... got the grass watered!

Right at the end of the presentation the fire alarm went off... the truck had to leave fast with the Fireman waving out the window... end of presentation...

 

This afternoon, Judy helped Gwenny a wee bit, and she did this 24 piece puzzle on her own! Smart girl!

Till tomorrow...

 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Technical Problems...

Sorry, no blog tonight... problems loading all my pictures again...

Till tomorrow....

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Red Dip Dip...

So I never did get to blog last night as we were just having too much fun! Seems to be a trend this summer for some reason... don't think I have ever missed this many nights on the blog. Anyways, the blog name tonight of "Red Dip Dip" just reflects the thoughts of my Granddaughter Gwenny. Her favourite phrase is "red dip dip please", or ketchup please! So, as you have now figured out, this is a ketchup blog.

All the trouble started when Deb and Gerard showed up in their Windjammer 2809 W by Forest River yesterday... Check out the kayaks on the top of the Tundra! Good to see them! They flew in from Waterloo for a couple days.

However, Tom and Cheryl ended up having to leave today... so it goes full circle...

 

So, we had to make the most of last night, with all of us here... so what is better than a great game of Corn Hole... Guys against Girls, and yes, the guys won!

 

After the big game we did enjoy a great dinner... it was a beautiful night...

In fact, it was so nice, we enjoyed fire outside... John and Sheila joined us, so we were 8, and there might have been the odd long, story told around the fire last night...hard to believe, I know!

This morning Tom and Cheryl had to leave, so we ended up loading the kayaks into the 5th wheel. It worked out well, and they were soon off. It was great having them here for week and look forward to more travels with them soon... stay tuned!

 

After Tom and Cheryl left, Gerard and Deb wanted to use the kayaks, so we headed back up to St. Mary's to do the Upper Thames River. We scouted this location out before hand. There goes Gerard....

Check out Deb above in her Pelican Kayak... looking pretty cool...

Not to be outdone was Judy, just a flying in her Pelican...

By far, my favourite pic of the day is this pic above of Deb and Judy flying up the crystal clear Thames River... check out the bottom... love it!

That is Judy and Deb going under this big bridge. It is the old railway bridge, which has now been converted to hiking bridge, that I blogged about last year... been there, done that.

Here is the price you pay for kayaking all day... you have to load them back up on that Tundra! Need a ladder for this one!

Over all, just another great day, with a group of best friends you could ever imagine!

Till tomorrow...