Monday, August 25, 2008

Vacances recap

We're back in Milton, after a few days in Canada last week. It was the annual fair in our town there, and as usual, it was a busy and mostly fun time.

Timmy had a nice birthday on Thursday, complete with sparklers in the back yard and on his cake, thanks to Daddy. He enjoyed his gifts -- particularly the Wall-E and Eve robot models we got him. All three kids were saying "Wall-E! Eva!" a lot, and having fun putting them together, taking them apart, and at times creating interesting play schemes. It was fun to watch them.

We went to the fair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For a small town, it really puts on a big production. The motto is "Where the city meets the country" and I'd say it's mostly country, with all kinds of animals and horticulture being judged; vendors for tractors, farm feed, and custom horse stalls; the requisite arts and crafts; all kinds of yummy fried food and other artery-clogging treats, and of course, the rides.

This was Abby's golden year of the fair. She was small enough to go on most of the kiddie rides, and big enough to go most of the big kid rides. So she enjoyed the carousel, the scrambler (with a queasy Mommy beside her), the kiddie car ride and a milder version of the tilt-a-whirl. She and Earl also went on this one called the Cliff Hanger, which was a contained version of hang gliding. She loved them all.

The boys had fun, too, and loved the Jumping Frog, which brought them up a tower and then gently dropped/bounced them down a little at a time. Of course, Timmy wanted to go on all the big kid rides. Brian got a little upset when a French-speaking carnival worker told him he couldn't go on the ride yet. Le carnie wasn't mean about it, but Brian didn't understand a word and burst into tears. It had been a long day by that point.

We rode our bikes to and from the fair all three times. The Fay family on bikes is quite a sight. First, there's Earl, with Timmy in a bike seat and Brian in a trailer, pulled behind. Then there's me, with Abby on her trail-a-bike in a quasi-tandem arrangement. It was a short ride, and a lot of fun, which also helped us feel virtuous and green at the same time.

The only spot on the weekend came just as we were about to leave last night. I took out the trash, and discovered that our license plate was gone from the back of the van. Who steals license plates? I mean, really. It's not like it was even a vanity plate or anything; just a standard-issue letter and number mix. Maybe it was the Massachusetts slogan, "The spirit of America" that proved irresistible to some Quebecois, who simply had to have it for his salle de famille or garage. Je ne sais pas.

We put the front plate on the back, and took off. Tomorrow I need to call the Hotel de Ville and figure out how to report a stolen license plate in Canada. An international incident. Maybe I should call the CIA, too.

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