First Family Vacation

We’re home. We had a blast. I want to be on vacation with my family forever. Except, in that forever, I’d like my baby to sleep at night while we are away. Because, honestly, aside from the fact that she did NOT sleep at night while we were away, it was perfect. We walked miles and miles, seeing sights, shopping, picnicking in the parks – and just all together having a good time. A good, good time. Just the three of us.

Now that we’re home, I feel like Evalyn and I are going through a Daddy withdrawal. We got so used to having him with us all day for 5 days straight that life is kind of boring now that it’s just the two of us again.

I’m normally not a huge fan of vacation recap posts but for the sake of memories, I’m about to do just that. As I mentioned last week, we made a quick change of plans – very last minute – and headed to our capital city, Ottawa, instead of going camping. And lemmetellyou, we are glad that we did. Thanks to Jen, we found an amazing deal on travel zoo for a suite with a full kitchen and living/dining area. This meant that we could still keep our vacation relatively cheap by eating most of our food at the hotel and also, we could sleep more comfortably by putting up the playpen in the corner of the living room area instead of right beside our bed. Although, in the end, that part of the arrangement was kind of pointless since she ended up in our bed a good portion of the time anyway.

We left around 9 on Wednesday morning, stopping for a quick McD’s breakfast and iced coffee on the way out of town. We stopped for about an hour for lunch and to stretch our legs (okay, and to buy some new shirts at Old Navy for Evan) and then continued on. The trip took much less time than I expected and we were pulling into the hotel parking lot just before 3.

We settled in, had a quick snack and then headed out for the evening. We wandered around the By-ward market for a few hours. I stopped at Lush to pick up a few bath fizzies (yum) and we stopped at a nice little Pub to have some dinner.  After dinner, we walked a little more and then headed back to the hotel around 7. Eva went to bed and Evan and I ate junk food and watched a movie in the room.

Let me tell you, traveling sure is different with a baby in tow. Normally, when seeing a new city, I would leave my hotel at 8 am and not return until well after dark, in an attempt to see every single thing there was to see in two days. That’s just not possible anymore. But, that’s okay. We just decided to relax. Take in a few things and not over do it. We stuck to places we could go that were within walking distance from the hotel and quite honestly, those were the most important places to see anyway. Neither Evan or I had been to Ottawa since middle school so it was all new to us again.

On Friday morning, we all slept in until past 8 (although, sleeping in takes on a different meaning when you were up all.freaking.night) and woke up to find that tooth #7 had decided to join us for our vacation. We made a big breakfast in the room and then headed to the pool for a swim. I put the babe down, and we got ready for the day, packed a picnic lunch and relaxed a bit.

Once she was up, we were off to Parliament Hill. We wandered around there, seeing all the statues and buildings and had a picnic lunch with Sir John A MacDonald. In the collage below, my very favourite picture is the one of Eva and I in front of the “Women are Persons” monument. This monument honours the famous 5 – five women who worked hard (and were successful) in securing a place for women in the senate. Many freedoms my daughter will enjoy are a result of the work of these ladies.

After seeing Parliament, we walked through the mall a bit and headed back for nap #2. After the nap, we decided to stay inside for a while since it was balls hot so we went swimming again and cooked an early dinner in the room. The evening was spent wandering more of the market and eating ice cream. Eva was more than happy to share her first ice cream cone with her Daddy. We also walked along the river and Eva had a chance to dip her toes in the canal.

On Friday morning, we got up early, made breakfast and went for a walk in Major’s Hill Park. It was a beautiful, cool morning – just perfect.

We packed up while Eva napped, checked out and were ready to go. Except we had one more stop to make. Because they only took cash and we didn’t have any the night before, I hadn’t had a chance to get my beloved Beaver Tail yet. So, yes, I had to stop for one on the way out of the city (you can see me stuffing my face in one of the photos above). I also stopped at one of the shops I’d been in earlier to grab a few souvenirs and off we went. We went to Dow’s Lake for a picnic lunch and a walk and then headed off to Cornwall for the next step on our journey.

Evan’s sister, Amy, got married on Saturday so the last portion of our trip was full of wedding fun. We got to the hotel in Cornwall in time for a swim and a nap before the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. And on Saturday, we enjoyed celebrating as Amy and Stuart committed their lives to each other in an extremely beautiful wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many photos from the wedding. With a husband in the wedding party and a crazy 10 month old scooting around, I didn’t have an extra hand to snap photos. But here are a few of my wee family from throughout the day.

The wedding reception was so much fun and thanks to Auntie Marcia and Auntie Linda, I was able to put the baby to bed and enjoy some time partying it up on the dance floor sans baby.

Sunday came quickly and after enjoying a delicious brunch (waffles, yum), we packed up and hit the road. Again, we stopped for lunch and a leg stretch and made it home just before 3.

We were all amazingly tired when we got home. Five busy days with not a lot of sleep will do that to you. Evalyn went to bed around 6:40 and, to be honest, we followed shortly after. Ev fell asleep on the couch at 7 and finally managed to make his way to bed to go to sleep for good at 8:30 and I crashed then, too. And at last, we slept for longer than 2 hours at a time.

Although this vacation was short – it was so special. We’ll always look back and remember it as our first family vacation. My heart is so full.

All Dolled Up

Oops...this post was meant for this morning but apparently I accidentally posted it on my kitchen blog. Ah well, what can ya do? Here it is now.

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This weekend Eva got all dolled up to go to her very first wedding ... She was so excited to get her photo taken with the beautiful bride (can't you tell?) Congrats, Carrie Faye! We all love you so much.
Eva loved getting dressed up and wearing her precious headband that was made especially for her, especially for this occasion by Katie. (Be sure to check out her etsy store, like NOW).

My Little Bean Bag and I kind of even matched ...

Eva did SO well at the wedding. She handled getting passed around like a champ and didn't even get fussy. She slept through the entire ceremony but my girl likes to party, so she stayed awake and visited with everyone through the entire reception and dance.

Daddy and his crazy friends dressed her up like a pirate. She thought it was funny.

Daddy-o and his girl

The girls took her on the dance floor and she loved dancing. Girls just wanna have fun!

She also got to meet so many family members including her Great Grandma Shirley.

I have more pictures to share from the rest of our weekend to prove that we survived (and thrived) on our first family trip but Eva and I are visiting Nana and Papa for a few days so those pictures will have to wait!

Congrats Carrie and Brendan on a beautiful day. We wish you only the best in all the years to come!

A Wedding and Bloggy Roadtrip 2010!

This past weekend was filled with buckets of excitement. On Thursday, we made the trek down to Ohio where our good friends, Glen and Rachel were getting married. We spent Thursday night and Friday with them, helping with the last minute wedding preparations. On Friday night, we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and then the guys and the gals parted ways. It was so fun to have a good old fashioned girly sleep over on Friday night. On Saturday, it was up bright and early to head the hairdresser to get all dolled up for the wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding that celebrated the love and commitment between two people who have shared the past five years together and are excited to share the rest of their years with each other. It was a darn good thing that the wedding was not any later because I had some trouble zipping it up as it was. My baby bump is starting to make it's presence known ... sort of. Not really. Perhaps I was just bloated?

Here are some pictures from the day...

It was so great to celebrate with friends and to wish this couple well as they begin their journey together.

On Sunday morning, the fabulous dude and I got up early and headed over to Indy for a real good time! I got to meet Shaina! Can you believe it? This girl has become nothing short of my BFF over the past months, and it was a blast to finally get to hug her face. We had brunch at the Cheesecake Factory, took a trip to target and then wandered around Crate and Barrel (where I had never been before! I heart Crate and Barrel). We had such a blast together, it was like being reunited with my long lost soul mate! We've already started to plan our next meet up.

After a few hours, we said our goodbyes and it was back on the road for us as we traveled up to Cleveland for the next stop on the Bloggy Roadtrip 2010. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, we spent Sunday night and Monday in Cleveland with Jenny. Another bloggy BFF! We got there around dinner time, so Jenny, Matt, Evan and I headed out to dinner at Houlihan's. Yum, yum! And of course, we had to make a stop at the cheesecake factory on our way home for a special treat.

We spent the night there and in the morning watched an episode of Lost (Jenny is currently working her way through the series - it was fun to see an old episode from season 3 and remember what went on), and played Super Mario Bros on the Wii. Clearly, the FD and I are not huge gamers, as was evidenced by the multiple continues we had to use when we ran out of lives! Jenny definitely taught us a thing or two about Mario. Around noon, we headed out to grab some lunch and dear sweet Jenny introduced us to the beauty that is Chik-Fil-A. I had never even heard of this place until I started blogging and since then, I have heard so many people tell me how wonderful it is. And wonderful, indeed. It was, hands down, the best chicken burger I have ever eaten. The McChicken ain't got nothing on that baby! And the waffle fries, oh golly, the waffle fries! Something tells me I will be making many more trips to the great US of A in the future to find me some more chik-fil-a!

We arrived home Monday evening after such a wonderful weekend filled with friends! The wedding was so great and I am so so so so happy to say that I have finally met some of my closest blog friends in real life! Bloggy Roadtrip 2010 Part 2: Canadian Edition is currently being planned! I'll see you girls in the great white north!

The Giant Revealed

A few months ago, I wrote a series that many of you seemed to enjoy. The series was called the Real Life Romance series and through it, I told the story of us in seven installments.

Well, if you recall, in Part 5 of the series, I told every single one of you in blog land that my-now-husband-then-kind-of-boyfriend-who-was-19-at-the-time PEED THE BED on our very "first date".

I must say that I was completely and utterly disgusted with the fact that out of 17 comments, only TWO of you made mention of the fact that a grown man wet the bed on my parents' boat and yet, I still chose to date him, become engaged to him and marry him. Are you serious?

Rachel said "Oh my gosh, you had me totally sucked in with this post!!! I still cannot believe he peed in the bed! Poor guy! But it is kinda funny!"

Brooke said "first off - he should have realized your fabulousness when you gave him the bed, the pee-sheet cleanup should have sealed the deal! and the waiting - that must have sucked!"

Where were the rest of you on that on?

So, because I was so appalled that the rest of you didn't come through for me and mock and ridicule my hubby's bed wetting, I thought I would dig out the speech that he gave at our wedding so you can all witness how he broke the news to my parents (after 2 years of secrets). This will be fun, it will be like you were all at my wedding with me -- which I wish you were.

**Disclaimer: I do have my hubby's permission to share this story. I would not reveal his giant without permission. Although, after making this confession in front of 200 people at our wedding, does he really have much say?

To the [Lucy's maiden name] family; I thank you for all that you have done in preparation for this day. Thank you for all the laughs, love and hard work that went into it. We appreciate it so much. But beyond that, I thank you for giving me another family to call my own. You've given me the woman of my dreams who, from the start, I knew was the one for me. So now, since the knot is tied and I'm officially a part of your family, I can honestly share the story of how I knew your daughter was the one because it's too late for you to do anything about it. On my very first visit to [Lucy's hometown] in the summer of 2004, Lucy brought me to the boat for the weekend. A long day of fun in the sun makes for a little dehydration. I wasn't feeling so good, and being a lifeguard I knew the symptoms of dehydration so from about 3:00 pm onward, I drank as much water as I could. After an evening of drinks, ice cream and puppy love, I went to bed dreaming of my perfect girl. Unfortunately, my dreams were rudely interrupted by a warm sensation I knew so well. As a child, I grew up with a little problem which was somewhat hidden until today. I had difficulties with nocturnal bladder control. From the time I was a small boy, sadly to say, until grade 9, I struggled with this issue. I thought I had overcome this giant in my life. I was moving on to as many sleepovers and slumber parties as I could. I could now go to GL not having to worry about putting plastic garbage bags on my mattress before I put the sheets on. I was becoming a man. But, after years of silence, this giant unveiled his ugly face again. Needless to say, not at the most convenient time. A young man trying to flaunt his stuff around the woman of his dreams needs to be bringing his A game. By this point, I was doing pretty good, I had already held her hand and it was only Friday night. I had all my plans set out for the next day, but the giant and I were not on the same page. I could blame this on genetics because my Grandfather wet the bed on his honeymoon. But, despite any excuse I could have made and all the paper towel in the world, I was not going to be able to cover up the yellow mess I had just created. All my plans to snag this beautiful girl were now laying in a puddle on my bed. After what seemed like an eternity, I decided there was no other choice: I had to tell Lucy what I had done. I had gone to the outhouse to try to clean myself up with a little water, but most of it just ended up on the floor. With my head hanging in shame and a new pair of shorts, I went to wake the sleeping beauty. It was around 5 am so I told her I couldn't sleep and wanted to go for a walk. The sleeping beauty was not so beautiful. She agreed to go, but first we had to stop at the outhouse. When she came out she had a disgusted look on her face and said, "I think someone peed all over the floor in there". All I did was smile and say, "You have no idea". We walked along the pier and when small talk started to run short I decided to take the plunge. Lucy is not exactly a morning person so I knew I needed to lighten the mood. I said, "I'll bet you $20 I can make you smile" (Lucy here: I am sure he bet me $100). She agreed to this bet and I knew it was time to reveal the giant. I explained to her the issues I had as a child and how it had kind of, sort of, reappeared. She was confused, so I cleared the air. I turned to her, looked into those deep green eyes and said softly, "I peed the bed". Apparently the confession did not exactly clear the air. She looked at me blankly and said, "YOU DID WHAT?" Again, I said, "I peed the bed". How many times was she going to make me voice my shame? Immediately, I won the bet because she broke into laughter. Somehow, we managed to clean up inside the boat without Lucy's parents knowing what was going on. Lucy graciously kept this secret hidden from them and snuck the sheets home to wash them without anyone knowing a thing. It was then that I knew she was the one. Now the hardest thing was trying to keep it a secret from everyone else. I knew in my heart of hearts she was a woman I could trust, but let's be honest, can you trust anyone with that secret? The news spread quickly that a 19 year old man had just wet the bed. Somehow, over the past two years we have managed to keep this a secret from the entire [Lucy's maiden name] family but today, as your new son, you have no choice to accept me for who I am, bed wetter or not.

Where I've Been...

Last Friday, we headed up north to attend the wedding of two of our good friends. The wedding was held on her Grandma's farm, overlooking the fields. It was a beautiful location. And, across the field, you could see the farm that my mom grew up on, where I spent many childhood days visiting my grandma and grandpa. The bride and groom were blessed with no rain that day (the first day without rain in many days there). It was cool and overcast, but it made for a comfortable day. I was a bad girl and completely forgot to take any pictures. Seriously, I have about 8 and none of them have the bride and groom in them. I get so caught up in enjoying the wedding that I forget to get my camera out. Oh well, you'll just have to believe me when I say that the couple looked fabulous.

While at the wedding, we got to spend some time with our friends from Ohio. They just got engaged and so it was great fun talking to them about all of their wedding plans for next summer. It's a bummer living so far away from them, but we always have a blast when we're together.

The fabulous dude and my brother held the MCing responsibilities for the evening. They did an amazing job. They had funny pieces of advice to go along with pictures from the bride and grooms childhood, trivia for guests to answer, and an archery station where guests could attempt to pop balloons to get the couple to kiss (the bride and groom are both avid hunters and love archery so it was fitting). They also re-wrote the words to "I'm Still a Guy" by Brad Paisley to tell "The Story of Cassie and Ry". It was hilarious and the crowd absolutely loved it. I might try to get the video of them singing it up here sometime next week.

On Sunday after the wedding, I headed home with my sister, her hubby and my nephew to spend a few days with them. I was there until Tuesday and we had loads of fun. We went for walks, played games and spent some time at the beach. I did manage to take a few photos there.

On Tuesday after supper, we loaded ourselves up in the car and drove three hours back to my place. They stayed here with us until last night. We did some shopping (thanks for the birthday gifts, sister!) ate lots of food and had a play date with some friends. Unfortunately, the end of H's vacation at Aunt Lucy's was ruined by a trip to the hospital to get treatment for an infection. Poor baby boy was not impressed with the waiting time (nor were Auntie and Mommy).

After the trip to the ER was done, we ate some dinner, played for a few more minutes and sent them on their way. It was a busy week but it was great. I am really just trying to soak up the last few days of "summer vacation" before I really get back into the swing of things at school.

I hope you all had a great week ... I've missed you all!

The Reception and Honeymoon

This week, Kelly's Show Us Your Life theme is the reception and honeymoon.

Our reception was held in a tent on the same property as our ceremony. The guests were able to enjoy the afternoon in the gardens while we did pictures but were close enough to town to run in for a coffee if they wanted.

The florist also took care of the decorations in the tent. The tables decorations were simple and the flower arrangements from the church were transported to either end of the head table. For favours, we gave each couple a small box of lindor chocolates with a "Thank You" note attached.

The reception was catered by BBQ Feast and they did a fantastic job. We both wanted something simple yet classy to reflect a combination of our own personal styles. Despite the fact that neither FD or I hardly got a chance to eat a single bite, we heard our guests raving about the food. The dinner including BBQ pulled pork (we even had the whole pig with an apple in it's mouth thing) and BBQ chicken breasts served with a variety of dipping sauces, vegetable kabobs, cold salads, buns and pies for dessert. Also, we served heart shaped shortbread cookies with our initials on it that my BFF and I made (my one and only bridezilla moment - we spent two days making the cookies as wedding favours and then I changed my mind about what I wanted). The caterers brought everything, did all the set up and clean up and made the night unforgettable.

Following dinner, we had speeches and an absolutely hilarious rap written and performed by our very talented MCs. Then for the rest of the night, we enjoyed a good old fashioned hoe down. The FD and I danced to "Bring it on Home" by Little Big Town and my dad and I danced to "My Wish" by Rascall Flatts. The FD, my brother and my brother-in-law performed a lovely dance in honour of my Dad's slick moves on the dance floor.

I had a giveaway bouquet donated to me by the florist which was a miniature replica of my own bouquet. I can't even remember who caught it. Does anyone else remember? Was it Ran?

We left the reception and headed half way to our honeymoon destination, where we stayed at a somewhat sketchy old fashioned inn. Then, early the next morning we drove the rest of the way to my grandma's cottage, stopping for our first breakfast as a married couple along the way. We stayed at the beach for 4 days but the weather wasn't great, so we ended up coming home and spending the rest of the week that he had off work unpacking, painting and organizing our apartment.

The Wedding Party and Flowers

Oops. Here I am again with two posts in one day. I forgot about Show Us Your Life. This week Kelly's Show Us Your Life theme is Wedding Party and Flowers.

We got married on August 12, 2006 at a little farm close to my parent's home. We both really wanted an outdoor wedding but were having trouble securing a location. In October 2005, one of my dad's employees told him about this place. My mom and dad went down there to check it out (I lived 2 hours away at the time) and found out that there was only one opening left for the summer of 06... August 12th. My parents went out on a limb and booked the venue without me even seeing it. They knew we'd love it and they were right. The first time I saw it, there was 3 feet of snow on the ground but it was just as beautiful.

The day was just perfect. We were married on the front porch of a 100+ year old church, with our friend's and family sitting on the front lawn. My cousin, who is a minister, did us the great honour of officiating the ceremony.

We both had five attendants and two flower girls and one ring bearer (again I'm limited with the pics I can show because I can't show professional ones).

Our flower girls were our two nieces and the ring bearer was the best man's oldest son

My girls were (from left to right):

My Sister-in-law, FD's cousin, my BFF (MOH), FD's sister and my sister (Matron of Honour)

The guys were:

FD's brother-in-law, FD's friend (my childhood friend who I thought I was going to marry at age 8, remember?), FD's Best friend and mentor (best man - standing behind him), my brother and another close friend.

We carried orange calla lilies and they were perfect. I was slightly nervous about my flowers because the florist couldn't show me them ahead of time. They were coming in on special order and so I just had to trust that they would be beautiful, and beautiful they were. I carried a large bouquet, the girls carried a miniature bouquet and the guys wore one on their lapels. Our mother's carried small bouquets of white calla lilies and our grandparents wore white rose boutonnieres and corsages.

The florist also arranged the Urns that were positioned at the front of the church, in front the rail fences that FD and his dad built.

My BFF arranged the aisle decor by removing the citronella from mosquito lanterns and placing a tall glass vase filled with river rocks in them. They were strung together with tulle and bows tied out of the same ribbon that was used on our invitations. The lanterns were then disassembled and arranged around the tent where we had our reception with the citronella back in them to ward off the bugs for the evening.


The existing flowers and greenery on the property added wonderfully to the atmosphere of our wedding.

I'll see you all back here next week with the reception and the honeymoon!