meet tony, otherwise known as my pops and the other have of the "europeans". he lives to be in or near the ocean LITERALLY, it's his happy place. it's his getaway from any and all stress and has been since we were little. so not surprising, i was raised near the water, every weekend rain or shine. i'm drawn to the sea and with that every trip to my hometown (victoria bc) seams to bring my children and me to the beach, weird! In the summer my dad looks forward to taking the offspring out on the double eagle for a good old fashion fishing GONG show!

four kids under the age of ten, three adults (one of which is a germaphobic, paranoid of children getting injured disaster...here's a hint, starts with the letter M and rimes with brother).

we all have our our "special" talents on the boat and here's the run down..

Ty :expert in catching soul fish (17 as a matter a fact on this day)!

Che': expert in being competitive (i caught a lot too, right mom)

Jaydee: expert in eating all day long (and i thought amara was a good eater!)

Amara: expert in the art of bossy, talking loud and being plain old crazy!

pops: expert in patience. period. (oh and an expert in DOGFISH today...lol)

mom: expert in disguises (she looked like she was hiding from the media) and what to do and not to do on land and on water...known to most as the fun police!

me: expert in losing my s***, while still having a great time!

it was an amazing day out on my dad's little piece of heaven...sun, fish, laughter and bonding...i think, i caught him (my dad that is) wiping a tear from his eye!

mission accomplished. love you dad.

ok i'll say it...i hate driving for longer than 45 minutes, so when i had to drive to the cabin by myself i wasn't to impressed! so a good old dose of abba was in order to make it through this colossal four hour waste of my time. it's been a while since i sat and listened to abba. me and abba were tight back in the day when i was 19 and they were starting to replay "them" in the clubs. i discovered someting about abba that i didn't realize, how useful the lyrics were in dayly practice! as i was belting out each songs chorus and my children were insisting i needed to "rest my mouth" so they could here there DVD playing on their headsets...i decided I should start applying abba's wise song wisdom in my everyday language.

some examples would be;

greg, you are such a SUPER TROUPER to take the kids away for a week so i can rest!

why you are quite right, i was a DANCING QUEEN on that speaker in Vegas!

no really SAVE YOUR EMOTION, LAY YOUR LOVE ON ME said no woman ever!

MAMMA MIA, that's a big diamond ring you bought me for no reason other than i'm the best wife ever!

i was a very normal person, THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME!

GIMME, GIMME, GIMME a chippy!

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU means were tying one on tonight!

if you go see that stripper movie DON'T LOOK INTO HIS ANGEL EYE'S, ONE LOOK AND YOU'LL BE HYPNOTIZED!!

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, katie homes is a man eater!

gotta love abba!