Muskoka

After a long week for me, and a summer of very long hours at work for Jeff, we went to Clevelands House in Muskoka for the long weekend. The drive was much shorter than expected, the kids were very well behaved and despite some mishaps we really enjoyed ourselves.
The drive only took us 2 and a half hours. Everyone was warning us to wake up at 5am and drive then, because the traffic would be apocalyptic, but it wasn't. In fact, we wanted Reid to continue his afternoon nap so we drove past our resort and took the kids to Santa's Village in Bracebridge. What a cute place! So perfect for little kids, there were no line ups and the rides were just the right amount of scary and fun. Reid was so brave and rode the Rudolph Rollercoaster with me. He even lifted his hands off of the lap bar! He said that he was "all done now" after the first fast bend, but once I put my arm around him he didn't complain again. Once we stopped however, he pushed my butt so I would get out faster.
Reid and Laila were so happy at the amusement park. No one cried at all. Every time we wanted to continue to the next ride, Reid followed us. There was no way we were going to make him sit on Santa's lap, that would have broken our no crying streak! Laila enjoyed watching all the kids have fun and petting the donkeys. She stuck her hand in through the fence to pet it's hair. I thought that was brave.
Clevelands House is an amazing kids resort. They had a kids zone that was a kids nirvana! Little wading pools, huge play structures with a big ball pit, tons of babysitters to make crafts with. We got to leave both kids there and drive into town for a coffee and some shopping. Sunday afternoon our fun started to dwindle. Poor Reid was smelling a flower and got stung by a wasp in the eyebrow! His eye blew up and he cried forever. Then the temperature plummeted to 10 degrees and Jeff started to feel really sick. Since we couldn't swim or play tennis, we decided to come home. Despite, a sad ending to our weekend, I wouldn't have traded in the fun for anything. Reid's smile on that Merry-go-Round is worth all the hassle in the world!