The Travels of the Agnew Family

Ed, Sonya (Ed's sister) have been thinking about going to the zoo for the past year. The birth of eight babies at the zoo increased our desire to go to the zoo. As Ed and I will be away most of April and May we decided that if want to see the babies while they are still babies it was now or never. Unfortunately, the four lion cubs are only on display on weekends (they aren't partial to our cold weather) so we were unable to see them.


Unfortunately, we arrived at the pandas during nap time. The zoo keeper that was controlling the crowds that visit the pandas told us that "nap time" takes up most of the day so unless you are lucky and arrive when lunch is being served you'll see the panda bears sleeping. Mom is on the left, dad is on the right and the two panda cubs are in the middle.


Juno was moving around his outside compound when we arrived. We were able to watch him for at least five minutes.




I think the door to his inside room opened and Juno rushed in. He played with a blanket for a few minutes before he decided it was nap time.




Food had been put out for the adult polar bears so they were pretty active.


We were really lucky when we went to see the Indian Rhino Calf. Dad was sleeping in the Rhino area when we arrived. Shortly after we arrived a zoo keeper woke up "dad" and he left the viewing area. A few minutes later a 2nd door opened and in walked "mom" followed by her calf. Unfortunately, the wires surrounding the Rhino area interfered with photos of the calf.

After we visited the babies we wandered around more of the zoo.






Mom kept resting her head on the calf.

March 5
Ed and I did a tour to Burlington today and arranged to meet our friends Doug and Donna for dinner. Donna and I don't see each other often but as we've known each other since grade 9 (that's just a few years) we have a great time when we do get together. And tonight was not an exception. Donna and Doug are both sweeties..... Donna treated us to dinner for my birthday (and it's still a ways off) and Doug surprised me with a bouquet of flowers.


Aren't they beautiful .... they lasted over two weeks so I had them for my birthday.

March 10
It's been just over a week since the big snow fall and it's almost gone.


At least we're beginning to see grass again.

March 13
We had a "loaner" today. Friends Bob and Sue had arranged for us to take care of their dog Maggie (a friend of Zaph) today. Turned out their plans changed and they didn't really need a dog sitter but as they knew we were really looking forward to it, they loaned us Maggie for the day.






I'm not sure who had more fun today .... Ed or Maggie. Ed took Maggie for a walk in the morning and then we both took her for a walk in the afternoon. Poor Mags was pretty tired when we took her home. On top of loaning us their dog, Bob and Sue made us dinner for my birthday. I'm being spoiled and it's not even my birthday yet.

March 15
Anne, Victor, Rob and Ellen all agreed to come for dinner and watch my slideshow from our trip to Provo. To get everyone in the mood we broke open the Coconut Rum we had purchased in Provo and made rum punch. Rob and Ellen both said the punch was almost as good as the rum punch we consumed at Da Conch Shack.


Ed did a great job mixing the punch up --- even had the colour correct. Thanks for the recipe Martha Stewart.

March 16
I was off gallivanting (playing bridge) when Ed noticed that there was a "driving lesson" happening in front of our driveway. Ed donated the cones for a slalom course.


Kids seem to be learning to drive at a really young age these days.


When Dustin got bored with driving he got out his stick for a little road hockey.

March 17
Another pre-birthday treat --- Rob and Ellen had us over for a drink. Dustin provided the entertainment. Three and a half year olds are fun to watch.

March 18
Happy Birthday to me and to my sister Carol. She's been around 6 years longer than me so she's really old. Ed and I drove to Burlington today as Ed had offered to do a plumbing job and a woodwork job. The plumber wanted a lot of money to do a simple job so Ed decided that he would do it. I think it took him less than 1 hour to do both jobs. As it was my birthday my mother took us out for dinner. Early in the day my mother told me to pick the restaurant I wanted to go to. When I announced by choices, my mother responded with "Oh, I wanted you to choose the Greek Restaurant", so we went to the Greek Restaurant (one that mom and I go to for lunch on a semi-regular basis). We ended up with our usual waitress and hand a very nice dinner.

March 20

Snows gone again.

Today is Rob's birthday so we took a little gift across the road to him.


Lucky for Rob, Dustin was there to help with the unwrapping of the gift.

March 21

More snow, but it was gone by the evening. The tulips and daffodils think it's spring.

March 22
Today we drove down to Waterloo. When we purchased the RAV it came with a couple free oil changes. Now it's only worth the drive for the free oil change if we have something to do in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Jack and Lori were able to arrange their schedules so we could visit. They took us out for dim sum (Chinese lunch) to celebrate my birthday. I've really been spoiled this year.

March 24
There was a huge weather warning for today ... rain, freezing rain and snow. Some areas had a lot of freezing rain resulting in downed trees and power outages. We were lucky to get a bit of snow, then a lot of rain followed by just a bit of freezing rain. Minor tree damage and no power outages for us.





March 25
Luckily it didn't take long for the temperatures to rise and the ice to melt off the trees.




By the end of the day most of the snow was gone.

March 26

The back shed is mostly in the shade so it took longer for the ice to come off the roof. The ice slide partly off the roof and stayed like that for over a day.

A walk along the river showed us how high the river is getting this year. We were a bit surprised to see it so high but I guess areas down river had more rain and snow.

I was a little surprised this morning when I woke up and look out the window to see a winter wonderland (I knew there would be snow to shovel I just did expect 16 inches in the driveway). There had been a strong wind from the north resulting in some abnormal drifting. I didn't make it to aquafit today but I think I got enough exercise to make up for it.


The north side of the vehicles didn't have much snow on the them, the south side was a different story.


Why you lift your wiper blades when you park your vehicle. Ed really appreciated getting to use Rob's snowblower.

It snowed overnight and continued snowing during the day but the accumulation didn't really start to the evening.


Hard to believe we cleaned the driveway in the late morning.


Interesting snow pattern on the picnic table.