Tag Archives: vacation

March 1, 2015

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DSC_0274Here are the chronicles from our trip to Ottawa! It was quick trip, up on Friday and back on Monday but we packed a lot of fun in that short time! We stayed at a hotel right in downtown Ottawa with the Bethune’s. It was a convenient location to walk and drive anywhere we wanted to go. Our first morning we ventured out and walked to Parliament Hill. It was a cold morning but the sun certainly made it better! After arriving we decided to go inside for the official tour. It was a fabulous 40 minute tour that included the House of Commons and the Senate rooms as well as many other areas inside the building. Here we are kicking off our trip with a silly selfie in the car. IMG_20150227_172633125_HDR DSC_0060 DSC_0068 DSC_0074 DSC_0076 DSC_0077 DSC_0078 DSC_0080 DSC_0084 DSC_0089 DSC_0092 DSC_0096 DSC_0101 DSC_0107 DSC_0103 DSC_0102 DSC_0112 DSC_0113 DSC_0117 20150228_105202-2 20150228_110605-2 DSC_0158 DSC_0159 DSC_0160 DSC_0162 20150228_110703-2 20150228_110808-2 20150228_111044-2DSC_0168DSC_0169 20150228_110818-2 20150228_111028-2 DSC_0128 20150228_112124-2DSC_0176DSC_0177DSC_0179 DSC_0132 DSC_0133 DSC_0134 DSC_0138 DSC_0136 DSC_0137 DSC_0140 DSC_0142 DSC_0145 DSC_0146 DSC_0148 DSC_0152 DSC_0154 DSC_0156 DSC_0163DSC_0187DSC_0122

We also spent some time visiting with Don and Di at their home which was a convenient 10 minutes from our hotel. The kids had a lovely time playing with some new toys given to them by Don and Di. Finn certainly loves his caterpillar scooper truck. We had a nice dinner at a Bistro – and each of the kids were given two mini-canisters of play-dough to have fun with during our visit! How fun, I haven’t ever experienced a restaurant giving anything other than crayons and paper! It certainly did the trick and the kiddos had a fun time with it. We were also fortunate to celebrate Don’s birthday with pizza and cake on our last night there! IMG_20150228_171403152_HDR IMG_20150228_171435735_HDR IMG_20150228_171609345 IMG_20150228_171947115_HDR IMG_20150228_172559750 IMG_20150228_172724263 DSC_0195 DSC_0196 DSC_0198 IMG_20150301_195429933_HDRAnother exciting adventure was skating on the Rideau Canal! The canal was a quick walk from our hotel, less than 10 minutes. Kevin and I were able to borrow Amy and Andy’s skates and we rented a fun sleigh for Finn to ride in. It was a chilly day, in the mid-twenties with not much sunlight. The canal is about 4 miles long, though we didn’t venture nearly that far!  We skated around for awhile and decided to make it down to the 1 km mark. We skated for about an hour and fifteen minutes with a mini-break toward the end to enjoy our first ever beaver tail (think elephant ear). We went with the traditional cinnamon sugar and it was delish! Finn certainly loved it.  I must say I was pretty proud of myself as it was my first time on skates and I was able to carry on taking photos while skating with my hot chocolate! Neither Kevin or myself fell, which was quite nice, and we both were able to skate at a pretty fast pace, especially when pushing the sleight. By the end Finn was super tired and took an hour nap in the car on our way to MEC, a large Canadian sporting store similar to REI in the US. We enjoyed a nice lunch and our first experience of Poutine, which are french fries, topped with gravy and cheese curds.  It was quite delish!DSC_0200 DSC_0204 DSC_0207 DSC_0209 DSC_0221 DSC_0232 DSC_0234 DSC_0241 DSC_0247 DSC_0263 DSC_0264 DSC_0277 DSC_0279 DSC_0257 DSC_0284 DSC_0287 DSC_0292 DSC_0295 DSC_0298

 

IMG_20150301_142422151 IMG_20150301_142456885 IMG_20150301_143856573 IMG_20150301_151254959 IMG_20150301_151557469 IMG_20150301_151604275We enjoyed a tasty caramel-apple crepe at the mall near our hotel too 🙂IMG_20150301_170600120IMG_20150301_171313423_HDROn our return trip we decided to make a stop at Niagara Falls. We had heard they were frozen so we figured we weren’t going to be much closer than we already were so why not check it out! The sun came out during our visit so we were able to catch a couple of cool photos of a rainbow! It was quite chilly and windy and the closer we got to the falls there was a mist in the air too. Captured a couple of faces that depict how we were feeling at times. 20150302_150357-2 20150302_150420-2 IMG_20150302_152514533_HDR 20150302_152449-2 IMG_20150302_154039858_HDR DSC_0367 DSC_0389 DSC_0302 DSC_0307 DSC_0310 DSC_0315 DSC_0321 DSC_0331 DSC_0334 DSC_0342 DSC_0347 DSC_0353 DSC_0358 DSC_0362 DSC_0365 DSC_0393 DSC_0395

November 23, 2014

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We returned from vacation late Monday night and I had the remainder of the week off work so Finn and I enjoyed a relaxing start to the day with lots of play time in his room on Tuesday morning. His room is so warm and cozy and he was loving running around in his diaper. Lately he’s been really in to feeding his dragon. Typical fare includes tractors and balls. Sometimes if he’s having trouble getting the treat to stick in the mouth of the dragon he says “mama, help”. It’s pretty cute. Kevin was up really early that morning as well, as he returned to work that day. He has been home and has gotten to see Griffin grow so much throughout the day for the past several months, and to be honest I was kind of nervous about how he would react to Kevin being gone as our regular routine is for me to get Finn out of bed and then we go find daddy together. So we lingered for awhile and had some fun, though he did miss his daddy!IMG_20141118_091026418_HDR IMG_20141118_091237188 IMG_20141118_091257119 IMG_20141118_091520931 IMG_20141118_091745353Griffin has been taking really long naps this past week, anywhere from 2 1/2 hours to 4 1/2 hours! When he woke up on Wednesday around 5, I packed Finn in the car and we headed to Mansfield to help mom and dad prepare for our annual hosta seed planting adventure. We got on the road rather late and we started our visit with a nice dinner while mom ventured to choir practice. The night kind of moved along quickly, so we ended up spending the night and having a nice breakfast the next morning. Finn loved playing football with Papa and running around, dancing, and showing off for Grandma. He was smitten with a balloon that mom and dad had for a recent party at their house, so much that they gave it to him to take home – and he still carries it around each day. IMG_20141120_092640922_HDRIMG_20141120_092657712 IMG_20141120_092740884_HDR IMG_20141120_103051499_HDRIMG_20141120_110815435The rest of our week was pretty low-key. Finn had his follow up booster shot on Friday. He was such a big boy, he didn’t even whimper or cry, just a quick jitter at first. We celebrated with a trip to Tim Horton’s and a nice large pack of timbits aka “doe doe’s”. He was super hungry by this time, and ate a whopping 6 timbits. Yikes!  Brings a smile to his face to have a doe doe. IMG_20141121_103508492 IMG_20141122_101534867 Here Finn put two of his pillows into his car for a more plush ride, lol. He was pretty excited about it. IMG_20141120_141006242 IMG_20141122_114654386Lily enjoyed a nice lazy nap in her bed one morning too. IMG_20141122_112228065_HDR

 

And here is a video of Finn and his new ability to climb in to his bouncer and go wild.  He has a pretty good time.

August 2, 2014

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DSC_0759We have arrived on vacation in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina!

Finn did pretty well in the car on the way down. He had a few cry fits and only slept 45 minutes each day (and the first day we had over 8 1/2 hours of driving) but overall he was a happy camper. He was certainly happy when we arrived at the house and we gave him free reign in the car.  He helped daddy steer and turned up the radio, of course. IMG_20140802_132348574 IMG_20140802_151223547_HDR IMG_20140802_151408453

We stopped at Sharkey’s on Ocean Isle when we first arrived – it has become our tradition. We enjoyed sweet potato fries (with cinnamon sugar butter, yum!) and pizza before we carried on to our house. 20140802_135551Finn absolutely loves the sand and water. The first evening we arrived we headed to the beach toward dusk and we had him in his street clothes – but he didn’t mind getting soaked! The weather has been less than ideal since we’ve arrived and actually for good portions of our drive.  We have been having crazy amounts of rain and thunderstorms which is great napping weather, however, Finn would far rather play with his cousins than sleep! He’s struggled with taking naps and going to bed at night – just screaming and crying which is completely atypical.  He sleeps much better once he knows everyone else (as in his cousins) have gone to bed.  Otherwise, he doesn’t want any part of it.  We’ve read a lot of books and Grandpa has helped Graham and Roro make some cool magnetic objects, featured below is the helicopter.  Finn likes building, but probably enjoys destroying everything even more! We were able to make a brief trip to the beach on Sunday in between rain showers. The kids all fit in a nice large wagon for the ride to the beach. IMG_20140802_180919714

DSC_0667 DSC_0665 DSC_0675 DSC_0677 DSC_0680 DSC_0685 DSC_0688 DSC_0689 DSC_0691 DSC_0694 DSC_0695 DSC_0700 DSC_0701 DSC_0708 DSC_0711 DSC_0713 DSC_0719 DSC_0720 DSC_0722 DSC_0723 DSC_0726 DSC_0728 DSC_0729 DSC_0735 DSC_0736 DSC_0738 DSC_0740 DSC_0742 DSC_0745 DSC_0746 DSC_0747 DSC_0751 DSC_0754 DSC_0756 DSC_0757 DSC_0762 DSC_0764 DSC_0769 DSC_0770 DSC_0772I was out of town for a work conference from Sunday through Wednesday at midnight. That was my first time being away from both Finn and Kevin, believe it or not, and I survived as did they. And quite well actually. They even had a fun dinner out with the Howard’s and Ackerman’s and all the kiddos 🙂  I returned home to our beautiful kitchen! The cabinet installation began while I was gone and is looking fabulous. Everything is really taking shape and the island is in place so we now have a good perspective on the final layout. There are still a few changes to make and cabinets to install but below you can see what everything is looking like. We are excited! The flooring is near completion too, with part of the office, dining room, and front foyer that remain. DSC_0659 DSC_0656 DSC_0661 DSC_0658 DSC_0657 DSC_0649 DSC_0648Until next week!