Summer Holidays 2012: Exhaustion

Remember when summer vacation meant a lot of sleeping, reading, relaxing, swimming, more relaxing...

Ahhhh, those were the days. Summer holidays with small children (at least with MY children) is not exactly a rejuvenating, relaxing get away. We've been home now for 4 days, and we are still in recovery mode. Our time away involved numerous lost hours of sleep for everyone, there's just too much fun to be had, and the kids are really not good at sleeping in unfamiliar beds - bad combination!

Levi had it right, catch those ZZZZZZ's wherever you can. Like at the park.

Summer Holidays 2012: All Seasons Cafe

The hubby and I got a much needed, well deserved kid-less night out courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa during our holidays. It was sooooo nice.
We left the monkeys with the grandparents for a beach bonfire and took off to Nelson for dinner. And what a dinner it was!!!! Seriously, almost the best meal we've ever had. We went to this small, very out-of-the-way restaurant, in an old converted house, called "All Seasons Cafe". I can't rave enough about this place! If you are ever in Nelson, BC you MUST go to All Seasons. We were seated outside, on a cute little patio which gives off an atmosphere of laid-back fine-dining. And the food... my mouth is watering thinking about it again.
There was of course pre-dinner drinks: We had martinis, mine was mango, his was pomegranate

Next were appetizers: I had scallops, he had mussels

Main Course: I had halibut, he had duck

Dessert: I had chocolate torte, he had cheese
(didn't get a picture of the cheese plate, you'll just have to take my word for it)

And of course a glass of port and a latte to finish things off. Boy do we ever need to do that kind of evening more often!

Summer Holidays 2012: The Ferry Boat

Our annual summer trip out to Grandma and Grandpa's takes us on the Kootenay Lake Ferry. The kids (especially the boys) love the "ferryboat". Lucky for them the ferry drives past Grandma and Grandpa's house (where we are staying) every half hour or so. Funny enough, without fail, someone has to point out when it goes by..."Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, the ferryboat, the ferryboat" or "Look, look, ferryboat" -but it's not always the children- "There goes the ferry".
Gavin got a toy ferryboat for his birthday last month, and he brought it with us just so he could be like the big ferryboat.

Happy {9th} Anniversary

Okay it's a couple days late, but we've been on holidays and my computer time has been severely limited. Jan and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this week!! 9 years, no kidding.
It was a PERFECT anniversary night, we were camping, the weather was near perfect, the fire was crackling we listened to our wedding "first dance" song on the iPhone just before heading off to sleep.  A little sappy, but sure brought us back to that day 9 years earlier...

August 2nd 2003, Calgary, AB. Ask anyone who attended our wedding what they remember most and 90% of them will say the weather. It was frickin' HOT. I think it topped out at 32C that day, and our reception venue didn't have AC!!!!

Here are 10 random memories from that day:

1. I was NOT late for the ceremony, but for some reason the boys stood up at the alter for a long time waiting for us girls.
2. My dad walked me down the aisle to Jan, and Jan leans in sweetly to me and says "nice rack!"
3. My cheeks hurt from smiling too much.
4. There was a breakdown in communication about who was supposed to unlock the reception hall and at what time, everyone waited outside in the heat
5. I wrote my speech last minute (the night before), I'm sure it was amazing - but I can't remember.
6. It was a great party. Lots of dancing, despite the heat.
7. We ran out of beer half way through and had to go get more.
8. Our hotel room was upgraded and we actually stayed in a suite the Queen had once stayed in. We ordered pizza from room service.
9. I felt (and still do) so blessed to have my grandfather marry us, I had dreamt of that since I was a little girl.
10. I felt beautiful. And happy ecstatic.

Happy Anniversary my love. I love you.

Summer Holidays 2012: Radium

We are on holidays!!!! 3 whole weeks, Hip-hip-hooray!
It began with a 3 night camping trip in Radium, which was some of our best camping ever!!!! Our site was great, we overlooked a little valley, and it felt like we practically didn't have neighbours (except of course the "tarp adviser", who took his own life into his hands when he wandered over to offer tarp hanging advice to the boys!).
The weather was damn near perfect, we had great friends to share it with, and cheap fire wood to burn to all hours of the night.
The biggest challenge we have with camping this year is the kids' sleeping. Doesn't matter how much we try to wear them out during the day (bike rides, hot springs, parks), it still takes them FOREVER to get to sleep. Too much excitement I suppose, too bright at bedtime, too many noises, too many things to be missing out on. We've resigned ourselves to the ole car-ride trick for Levi numerous times, and just crossing our fingers that next year will be better.
As usual camping brings bike riding, our two older ones zip along like hell on two wheels, and Levi has finally found a love for his Strider bike. It took him a bit to warm up to it, I think it's because he could run faster than he could ride when chasing his siblings. He's still slower on the bike than on two feet, but he doesn't care about chasing the big kids anymore, he IS a big kid. You should see how many bruises and scrapes badges of honour they came away with, I nearly ran out of band-aids.
Good times were had by all.

Amusement

A couple weekends ago the unthinkable happened, we opted out of a camping weekend. This was because things were just too hectic! We were getting ready to leave on holidays for 3 weeks, and there was so much to do around the house and the yard before we left. So instead of camping we had a little mini "stay"cation. We took the kids to Calaway Park with friends of ours and their 3 kids. For those of you not "in the know", Calaway Park is a little amusement park just outside Calgary. It has rides and games and food, all the things an amusement park needs. The kids had a really good time, luckily there are rides for all ages and even Levi got to take in some of them. He did his first rides this year without mommy or daddy, *sigh* my baby is all grown up. I'm getting old too, I really can't stomach those really fast/spinney rides anymore, I get so dizzy! So Jan took the older two on one of the bigger and faster rides. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the good camera, so all the pics come from our phones :(

Look how fast they grow

Gavin drives a boat

WHEE!!!! Kids roller coaster. M&G are in third car.

Honk! The boys drive a big rig

Swings

Dad and kids ride the big ride

Mom and Levi ride the carousel