Wordless Wednesday - first sleepover at my parents trailer edition

I'm home!

Last week we took a 5 day trip to visit my family in a neighboring province. During that time we...


... discovered that Levi is an AMAZING traveller. He slept literally the entire drive (it's 5 hours one way, without stopping). He, unfortunately, did not sleep so great at night.

... were thankful for borrowing a friends portable DVD player to entertain Asher in the car.

... had a great couple talk time during our drive.

... enjoyed time with my dad especially, whom Asher calls "pops". They have a very special little relationship that was awesome to watch.

... had great visits with my grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was lovely to catch up and have my boys meet and interact with the people who are my roots, my history.

... did a Christmas gift exchange and Asher has been loving his new front loader tractor ever since.

... laid off potty training Asher - it's bad enough having him pee on our floors, let alone someone else's.

... realized that Asher is a homebody. Around day 3 he started saying "I want to go to my house now".

... ate way too much junk food.

... drank Tim Horton's coffee everyday (I was very glad to come home to my fair trade organic yummy goodness).

... took lots of pictures, but have yet to upload any of them (sorry about that!)

... enjoyed the break from the everyday routine of life here.

... got along better with my husband than I have in months.

... was reminded that I am blessed to have my family, and am grateful for where I come from.

Lesson: Asher seems to sleep awesome at someone else's house and not so awesome in the car

Last week we took a 4-day road trip to visit my family in another province. Here's a little recap of our trip!

Greg and I took turns driving down. Turns out this was much better for my back than having to lean over and read and play with Asher in the car for the whole 6 hours.


Asher has never been a great long distance traveller, but he did make out okay in the car this time around. He DOES NOT sleep well in the car though. We got a 45-minute nap on the way down and a 35-minute nap on the way home. Look at this though, can you blame the boy?


We haven't let Asher watch too much TV thus far in his life, perhaps only as much as 30 minutes every week or two, and only for the past 5-6 months. We did borrow a portable DVD player from a friend for the trip though, and boy did that come in handy! Asher watched some of the Cars movie and a lot of a Thomas DVD we had rented, and he loved it!

Our visit was pretty low key. We got to spend time with family... (that's my dad, aka "Pops"!):

...play...

... and visit (both of my grandmother's, or "Great Nanny" as Asher calls them)

We also attended a little family gathering...

... in part to celebrate...

... my cousin who is getting married in Mexico in December!

Congratulations Paul and Aslida! Awww my favorite cousin Paul... I so wish I could be there for the real deal big day! Good luck, guys!

All in all, we ate too much junk food, and did a lot of nothing. It was nice to do that together and be with family though. I was really glad that Asher got to connect with my relatives and everyone seemed to love him to pieces (who wouldn't, really?) Crazy to think that the next trip down will be with 2 in tow. Wow!

Our "vacation"

This past weekend Greg, Asher, and I rented a cottage from a friend of ours for just 1 night. We really wanted time away, to reconnect and just be our lovely little family together. I especially felt this was important since our family is going to change so much. I want to remember us now, and enjoy each moment that we have together. It rained the whole time we were gone, but enjoy it nonetheless we did!

We had a great little view of some water and lots of trees and wildlife at each meal;

We all did a lot of lounging on sofa's;

And eating and snacking;

And of course we played with Asher tons, and just soaked him all in;

We did lots of reading, too;

And very close to where you see Asher sitting in this picture, we had a little incident;

Which involved a truck and a face plant on the tile floor, and resulted in many tears, a bit of blood, and this;

Asher had a serious fat lip. Poor guy! I'm happy to report that he is recovering well and the swelling is almost gone.

Our whole family slept amazingly, and Asher only woke up at 8:00 AM. What a dream!

Asher loved our "vacation" and looking at the "big boat" - a canoe - which we had to do just about every hour. It was such a blessing to reconnect and relax in this way, and we can't wait to do it again in August. Whoo hoo!

Have I mentioned that I love my family?

Cruise day 7 - Princess Cays, Bahamas & our return home

Our final day of our cruise started with a special surprise for Greg!


Since part of our reason for going on the cruise was to celebrate Greg turning 30, the cruise line had balloons outside of our bedroom door for the day. It was a fun way to come back to our room throughout the day to see these.

Day 7 found us in Princess Cays, Bahamas, which is the cruise lines private beach on the Island of Eleuthera. It was a total beach day, and it rocked!


We also had a scheduled shore excursion - a glass bottom boat ride - which was great. We got to boat over coral reefs and observe the life within.

The pictures don't do it justice. The water was so crystal clear, and it was cool to see all the neat stuff living under there. The Bahamas have the clearest salt waters in the world! Amazing. We saw lots of neat fish, a sting ray and a sea turtle.

We swam in that beautiful water on the beach and hung out in our beach clam shell that we had rented for the day.

The beach was beautiful and I could have spent all day there!

That night we had to have our luggage out before we went to dinner as the cruise staff took care of getting it off the boat for us. We enjoyed dinner at the buffet and caught the evening "Farewell Variety Show" with some of our favorite entertainers from the week. We watched half of a movie under the stars - "Love Happens" - but it wasn't that great so we didn't finish it.

Pulling into port the next day was a highlight for Greg, and he was up before the sun taking pictures again.

Disembarking the boat was very well organized by the cruise and we had no troubles getting our transfer to the airport, or flying home. It was a long day though, as we only pulled into our driveway at 10PM that night, and had been up since about 6:00.

My overall impressions of the cruise:

- It was fun and there was LOTS to do! Never a dull moment on that boat, and we didn't even do 1/4 of the things you could have done.

- I really enjoyed the chance to visit several countries on one trip and not having to do any of the planning.

- The trip was maybe not as relaxing as I could have used, or expected it to be. We didn't have to get off the boat in every port, but we just wanted to. I would have liked another "down" day.

- I'm not sure I would choose anytime dining next time. Although it's a risk of getting put with people you don't connect with at the scheduled dining, we also would have liked the opportunity to get to know some people a bit better. With anytime dining, you dine with different folks (or by yourself) every night, so you meet lots of people, but you never really get to know anyone.

- I think I always had a bit of residual fear floating around being on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Maybe it's just the pregnant worry side of me coming out, but the "what ifs" were at the back of my mind.

- The food was really great, but I could have used more vegetarian options, especially at supper. A salad bar does not qualify as a vegetarian option.

- Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day, every day.

- I wished the pool areas weren't so busy, and that it hadn't been so difficult to secure a lounge chair to lay in the sun.

- I loved the chance to have fun and connect with Greg again. I felt like I actually saw him as a real person again, and not just my husband. I think in everyday life we can forget to actually "see" what's right in front of us. It was great to "see" Greg again, for who he is, and all his little quirks that are so him.

- I loved the break from the everyday routine. It was awesome to have no worries or responsibilities for a week.

- I missed Asher like crazy, but it got easier as the cruise went on. I was reminded of how important it is for me to take the time to do things for myself and my marriage. It's hard to do that with a young family, but I know it was good for all of us. I also especially noted a change in the relationship between Asher and his grandparents - they definitely seem closer now.

Our reunion with Asher was great. He was just coming down with a flu the day we picked him up, so he wasn't feeling the greatest. We arrived at my parents place bright and early, and the little bugger was still in bed! When he saw me he let out a whine and a little cry and then he just wanted to cuddle forever on my lap and suck his thumb. That was totally great by me!

When I first saw Asher after not seeing him for more than a week, I was struck by how different he looked. We had just had his hair cut before we went on the trip, so I think that threw me off because he didn't look like I remembered him looking. He also seemed SO MUCH bigger to me, especially taller and slimmer. I remember people saying over the last couple of months that Asher seemed to have gotten taller and looked more like a toddler, but I couldn't see it myself. I definitely got it when we returned. He doesn't look like a baby anymore at all! I was also struck by how tiny his voice seemed. He sounded different; his voice seemed so innocent and little. It was awesome to hear him laugh again. So while it was sad for our dream vacation to be over, it was so great to return home to life with Asher again. I'm so thankful for my family, and I was definitely reminded of that during this trip!

Cruise Day 5 - 6 - Cozumel, Mexico and a Sea Day

Wednesday March 31 we spent the day in Cozumel, Mexico. Our ship actually docked in the port this day, so it was nice to not have to take the tender boats.


We had planned a full-day excursion to see the Mayan Ruins of Tulum and had to take a 45-minute boat ride to the mainland of Mexico - the Yucatan Peninsula - and then an hour long bus drive to get to the ruins. After that boat ride, I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up and passing out, so this is what I looked like for most of the bus ride.

Thankfully that feeling passed! We finally arrived to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. It was CRAZY hot this day, and there was literally no shade during our 3-4 hours at the Ruins. Thankfully the Ruins were right on the edge of the ocean so the breeze felt great.

I can't tell you too much about the Ruins because our tour guide was a little difficult to understand and went off on a lot of tangents. What I can tell you is that the Ruins are really old, and really big, and really precisely built around the sun and moon. In fact one particular building is situated just so that on the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) the sun lines up in a certain way and lights up the building. Pretty cool stuff. It was really interesting to walk around this place that was so old, and had so much history; to think of how these people lived and built such magnificent temples is a wonder.

In addition to lots of old buildings, we saw a lot of these guys walking freely around.

We also ate lunch at an authentic Mexican Restaurant - so good! The salsa was amazing!

We made it back to our ship just in time to leave Cozumel.

That night we just ate supper at the buffet since there was a bunch of evening entertainment that we wanted to catch. Supper in the dining room is always 2 hours long with all those courses to eat, so we thought the buffet would be a better choice.

That night we saw a Hypnotist, Joshua Seth, perform. It was pretty cool, and hysterical. A guy sitting in the same row as us got hypnotized and his kids were sitting next to us; he was pretty funny! I was so close to convincing Greg to go for it since we knew no one on the boat. It was a no deal though. We also watched a "Movie Under the Stars" this night on the big screen theatre outside by the pool. It was pretty cool to sit on lounge chairs with warm blankets and fresh popcorn underneath the stars! We saw Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and it was a really good movie!

Our sea day on Thursday April 1 was such a nice break from the last 3 long and busy days at port. Greg routinely woke up in the middle of the night just to look outside and watch the water and the sky. He got some pretty cool pictures, too!

It was so black at night, being in the middle of the ocean. It made the moon and the stars that much more amazing to see.

We also saw lots of this:

Since I love being surrounded by the "bigness" of the ocean, it was a comforting sight and sound for me.

We spent some time in the pool, lounging in the sun (after waiting for a chair to free up), walking the boat (super cool wrap around deck), hanging on our patio, eating and reading on this day. It was a great break!

We also had an afternoon nap, and this is when I thought I was going to die. We were passing between Cuba and USA during the afternoon, and as Greg and I were both napping, we were woken to these huge booms and vibrations. It sounded like our ship had been hit with a missile and we were all going down. Greg, of course, had his bedside binoculars out in 10 seconds flat and discovered that there were 2 fighter jets practicing in the sky above us. The sounds and vibrations we were experiencing was the sound barrier being broken by the jets. It was crazy and I've never experienced anything like it. Greg was in heaven.

Thursday night was our second formal night, and we opted to take our own pictures instead of having to pay the $25 for the professional shots. Here we are on our balcony:

A little windy, but still warm. And here's me and that baby boy growing in my belly! I'm 18 weeks along here.

We had a super fancy supper and saw another Comedian, Troy Thirdgill, for entertainment this night; that was a great laugh. I really felt like Greg and I got to connect and enjoy each other's company on this day. I certainly could have used more sea days!

One more post about our trip to come on our day in the Bahamas and our reunion with Asher.