The weather has not exactly been what we'd expected for July but we have not let the never ending "risk of thunder showers" dampen our Summertime fun. We've managed to do all sorts of fun activities close to home, swimming, however has been the staple of the Summer of 2009. We've made multiple trips to Piscine Laurier and Levesque and we've visited Piscine Schubert, Jean Drapeau and the Beach on isle Jean Drapeau one time each. The kids seem to spend more and more of their time underwater, either diving for treasures (Clara) or doing flips and corkscrews (Leo). We've spent time with Chloé and Zaco, Ruby, Max and John. We haven't seen any of Clara's school friends but she has not requested that I set things up so I guess spending the Summer with her family and her old friends suits her just fine :)

On Sunday Marc suggested we do an experiment à la Mythbusters. We showed the kids a Youtube video of the infamous diet coke and mentos eruption. Leo seemed pretty sure that the myth would be "busted" but Clara though it was possible. They headed off to the pharmacy to buy the necessary items and were home again in no time ready to test what they'd seen. As you can hear in Leo's voice, he was pretty impressed that it worked, Marc and I were kinda disappointed, we though the fountain of coke would be higher. It was fun and I think we'll have to pick another experiment to test soon, any suggestions?

On Saturday I finally convinced the kids to join Marc and I on a mountain walk. There was quite a bit of whining at the outset but it did dissipate with the help of trail mix and secret paths. In the end we walked for over two hours and Leo only fell twice and managed to either get stung or pricked by a trail-side plant once (I still don't know exactly what happened, I do know it hurt and caused his hand to swell briefly) . Considering how stumbly he was, his final stats are actually quite good!

Rambling on Mount Royal