Niagara Rapids Run

We got to spend 2 days at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls this week. Liam loved every minute of the water park. He has never been down a water slide so he was more interested in things like the lazy river, the wave pool and the splashing area.

He eventually tried 2 of the smaller water slides and than  he was feeling brave enough to give a big one a go.  I climbed part way up with him and left him in line (I don't like slides and I don't like getting my face wet, so water slides are not something I'm willing to try!)  I thought he was aiming for the small one as a first go round. But somehow that is not where he ended up.

Niagara Rapids Run - This family water roller coaster travels 727-ft (some of it is even uphill!) and features a 52-ft. vertical drop.

I should mention now that he's never been on a roller coaster before!!

We were able to get the picture that they snap as each raft goes by. I think he looks like an old pro.  Turns out that once was enough and he was quite happy to stay much closer to the ground for the rest of the time we were there!

At least it's not squirrel....

Potato chip flavours are getting stranger and stranger. Remember the Walker's contest from 2009?  Hilary tried most of those, but I couldn't get past the smell.  

Today she brought home Lobster flavoured chips.  Locally made even!  I gave them a suspicious sniff and than bravely tried one.  While they smell like lobster paté, they don't really taste like lobster.  Which is probably a good thing for a potato chip!  I'll take parsnip chips any day!!

Slice of Life

To help me come up with ideas for photography I am going to try and participate in Darrah Parker's Slice of Life Tuesday events.

This week's prompt was: SKY.  Since we've only had 1 or 2 days in the last 2 months where it hasn't rained, I wasn't sure that I would be able to get a picture of the sky that wasn't just a solid square of gray.  But yesterday it cleared up for a few minutes, long enough for Liam to get out on the trampoline.  And I captured this shot of him jumping as high as the sky.

He's only 8!

You know you're old when you find yourself saying "Kids these days!"  I thought it today and it made me feel old!  My kid did something today at the not so wise age of 8 that I didn't do till I was in my 20s!


He played Truth or Dare at school.


With girls.


There was kissing.


He loved it.



Luckily he's young enough and we have a great relationship that he told me all about it. His dare had been to kiss Grace on the cheek and then she got dared to kiss him on his cheek.  Liam was all for this since he's had a crush on Grace all year.  When I asked him how the kiss was, he pretend to swoon and told me it was wonderful.  Too cute.

It opened up a great discussion on our walk home about respecting people and making good choices and how things like kissing and dating are best reserved for much later in life.  I knew these talks were coming, I just didn't expect them yet!!

Daring Kitchen Challenge - Potato Salad

Blog-checking lines: Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

For this months challenge, I actually came up with 4 different potato salad recipes. We then invited our friends Sandy and Jason over for dinner and asked them to vote on their favorite.  We were all unanimous in our choice for the best tasting.  Petit Pois Pesto Potato Salad.  Not only was it the tastiest, everyone felt that it was the most creative and the healthiest.


Pesto:

Ingredients

1 cup Green Peas
1/2 cup Fresh Basil
1/3 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
2 Cloves Garlic
Salt
Pepper
4 Tbsp Olive Oil*

Add all ingredients except olive oil to food processor and blend.  Slowly drizzle in oil while food processor is running, till a smooth paste is formed.

*additional olive oil may be required if Pesto is too thick.

Salad:
New Gold Potatoes
Diced Red Pepper
Grape Tomatoes
Snap Peas cut in half
Stalks Asparagus
*quantities will depend on how big of a salad you want.

Boil potatoes in skins until tender; cool and cut into bite size chunks.

Cut Asparagus into 1 inch lengths, blanch and cool.
Mix potatoes, tomatoes, snap peas and asparagus together.  Add in pesto - I only used 1/3 of the pesto for the amount of potatoes that I cooked.
Toss and serve.

Meeting his heros

Chad Tingler - Drives Grave Digger

Liam and Connor, in awe of being so close to Grave Digger (mwah, ha ha)

Ryan Anderson - Drives Son uva Digger

Jon Zimmer - Drives Shock Therapy

An Early Birthday Present

Granny bought Liam a T.R.A.M.P.O.L.I.N.E. for his birthday! She wanted him to have as much bouncing time as possible for the summer so he got it a month before his actual birthday.

Hilary and I picked it up and put it together yesterday morning while he was at school. It turned out to be a lot easier to put together than I thought it would be, especially since Hilary is so strong!!

Liam was so very excited when he got home, and it was all we could do to get him to bounce in moderation so that he could still walk today. He did wake up during the night crying that his legs hurt!

He did a few flips that caused my heart to stop, and once flipped to close to the edge and fell off. Luckily he wasn't going very fast or high so he wasn't hurt. It did come with a safety enclosure, which we may still put up.

This term of Circus school was cancelled due to lack of participants, so hopefully the trampoline will fill his need to jump and flip and be on the move.