Family Photos in the Vineyard

The beginning of fall is also family photo time. Thank you to my cousin Kristi Lee for taking our photos last week. She took the pics and I did the editing. Even got our Christmas cards made up, just need to send the files to the printer! Here are some of our favourites.

A Photo Scavenger Hunt

On Sunday I took Sarah out for a couple of hours to do a little exploring of the Niagara parks. I am in total need of family photographs to use on my 2010 Christmas cards and it seems like the best way to get photos that I can use (and have the rights to) is by taking them myself. Most photographers don't like to share. Therefore I'll be taking family photos for some friends of ours this coming week. It's a win win, since they get a set of updated family photos (no cost) and I get photo sets that I can use for my cards. If only we knew more families around here. I'm in no way a photographer, but I have a good camera that I enjoy using and am not too bad with post process editing (my opinion, ha ha). What's the worst they could be.

Anyways, I figured I should look around for some good locations since I really don't know many good "spots" in the area, other than the typical ones that you see in all the St. Catharines literature. Sarah and I had a great time exploring and enjoying the beautiful fall day together.

What's that? She loved listening for birds.

Checked out a couple of great conservation parks! This one is so secret garden!

This photo was Sarah's idea. Cheeeese!

Come on!

The Grape and Wine Parade

Today was the grape and wine parade in St. Catharines. The kids loved it!

David's in the News!

Yesterday David was in the newspaper!

http://eedition.thoroldedition.ca/doc/thorold-niagara-news/thoroldniagaranews/2010092101/

And just because I'm proud of my man, here's an email forward we received today from a customer at the winery.

Good Morning
This week was my second visit to your Winery in Beamsville. The first last summer with a group of ladies was made all the more pleasent due to the efforts of your young coop student David
This week I found David still hard at work but he stopped and proceeded to give us an exceptional tour and tasting at the winery . What an asset that young man is to the establishment, he told us he is finished his program in Dec and I just wanted you and David to know how much I appreciated the time, the passion, and the knowledge he shared with myself and my guests from Timmins.
Good luck to you on a fine winery and a great wine.
Regards
D

David received a few similar emails last summer when he was working at Reif Winery. I think he's found his "passion."

Concentration

Caught in the act!

All done!

Calvin is 11 Months!

Here's some pics of Calvin after he just woke up from his afternoon nap. He continues to be a joy and wonderful part of our family. I love his big grin and infectious giggles. He's walking almost all the time now, which is wonderful for the most part but also pretty busy. Calvin loves to go up the stairs as fast as possible, making my heart race everytime.

Calvin weighs 9.29kg or 20.7 pounds. Is 76 cm long and has a head circumfrence of 45 cm.

The Hat

Some girls wear tiaras and tutu's. Sarah prefers Calvin's knit cap, worn to the side and no clothes. What can you do. I took these photos a few days ago in our living room. Sarah was trying to put on the hat but Calvin kept taking it off. This has become a fun game for him if he sits in the back of the stroller as well.

Fun at Howels

Yesterday after church we went home for a quick lunch and then headed out to Howels Pumpkin farm. Admission and attractions were free this past weekend so we thought we should take advantage since it's normally a little steep. We had a great time!

Some kids were having duck races. Sarah thought this looked pretty fun. We didn't get her a duck, as she seemed happy enough just using the pump.
We went through the corn maze. After the first 5 minutes Sarah bolted down the path. When IU caught up to her and got turned around we couldn't find David and Calvin. So we ended up doing the maze seperatley. At least we got out of there in the end.

There were a couple of slides in the maze that Sarah took full advantage of.

Grape and Wine

Today I had to drop David off at work since I needed the car to take Sarah to her speech appointment. All is as expected (speech difficulties), so there will be a series of appointments, some for me and some for her, in the months ahead. I'm just happy to get the ball rolling. I'm a big supporter of early intervention, so I think the appointments should be a good thing. Can't hurt anyways.

When we went to pick David up from work the lighting was so pretty over the vineyard. I let Sarah out and snapped a few pics, just couldn't resist. She quickly discovered the grapes and had to have a bite. The winery is just starting harvest, so it's becoming a busy place. This weekend is the first of the 2 week grape and wine festival in Niagara. David will be volunteerings for the next two Saturday afternoons at the festival. Hard to believe that it will be his third year doing so. Time just goes by. I suppose these kinds of photos will become a yearly thing for me as well. I love the harvest!

Bumper Cars

Both kids have been loving the little Coupe cars. Our neighbours gave us their old one, so now Sarah and Calvin each have their own little car. This has also been very handy when people come over since there seems to always be a fight over who gets to play in the car.

Since the weather hasn't been as great this past week the cars have made their way into the basement. It's been great since the kids are getting so much more use out of them in the house. Calvin is walking pretty much everywhere at this point, which is amazing. He can easily walk to a car, get in and close the door all by himself. Sarah likes to push him in his car or just bump him with hers. So far no accidents.

I love this picture of Calvin. He's got such a big beautiful smile, so easy to love!