Back at It

We've been home over a week now and I haven't had the inclination to post. We're finally back in the groove of things, unpacked, laundered and in a clean house. My girlfriends back home have inspired me to start cooking new dishes and we've been making an effort to eat as a family every night. It's really been helping with Ella's eating habits. She's eating everything we eat, or at least trying it and we've stopped the cheese and crackers or baby food and cheerio nonsense.

Being home, in Canada, made me miss seasons so I have decided to celebrate summer, or at least distinguish these months from the rest of the year by buying tons of fruit, including a giant watermelon, and making our own ice cream cones. If the weather can't be seasonal here, at least my cooking and activities can be.

Ella went to a birthday party on Saturday. They has a giant water slide set up and Ella exhausted herself. This kid fears nothing. Even though most kids were twice her age or twice her size, she climbed up with them and took her turns going down the water shoot.

We're Home

We're home. The flight was pretty uneventful... on time and we had all our luggage when we arrived last night (Air Canada, you just never know!). Ella was great. She drank so much juice she wet through her diaper and onto the seat but nothing a few hundred paper towels stolen from the bathroom didn't solve. She slept a bit, watched her movies and was in bed for the night when we got home at 10:30pm.
Pictures to follow, just catching up on unpacking...

Thank you everyone for making time for us, BBQing, cooking, and sightseeing with us. We are so happy to have the chance to hang out with you.

The weddings were beautiful, we had so much fun and really enjoyed catching up after such a long time!

Erin, Suzanne & Jason - Thank you for letting us crash and making our vacation affordable and hotel free. xoxo

Steph & Matt - As always, we loved hanging out with you guys. Thank you for inviting us "camping" though I use that term loosely. xoxo

Here are some pics I've been meaning to post....

Grouse Mountain

Before.....After....We headed to Grouse Mountain with Suzanne, Jason and the kids. The guys headed up the mountain on foot via the Grouse Grind. Suzanne and I met them up at the top but we took the kids up on the gondola. Such a different and highly relaxing way to see the mountain... unlike the last time I was there and hiked the grind. The top of the mountain has a grizzly bear sanctuary and we were able to see a grizzly playing in the lake.
My dad hiked the Grind and we met him up at the top as well. After walking around and having lunch he headed home to head back to Toronto. Ella had so much fun with her Papa this visit.
While Suzanne and I looked the the gift shop, the guys took the kids out to run around. Ella fell and bumped her head on a rock wall. The goose egg is so huge and ugly, we had the first aid medic come check her out. We think she's okay, but we're keeping a close eye on her just in case. Tonight, Jason is BBQing and we're having margaritas. The boys are having a few much deserved beers....

Harrison Hot Springs

We headed up to harrison Hot Springs with my dad today and walked the lake beach before deciding to rent a speed boat for an hour and tour the lake. What a fabulous idea! It was a highligh of the trip as my dad and Ron drove us around while Ella and I bounced around up front. Ella got to drive for a while with her Papa, but when she came up with me at the front, she fell asleep. We had lunch at a nice patio restaurant and then ice cream. The beach has a sand castle tournament and we saw some of the entries while walking around the bay. The Harrison Hot Springs are about 140*F so they pump the mineral water into the town pool and the hotels after it's been cooled a bit. It's the cutest little resort town with lots of beach and lakefront. It was another great day with Papa.

Auntie Christin's House

After a nice relaxing day at Suzanne and Jason's with the kids, we all headed out to Christin's house for a BBQ. It's a cute place with a large patio and Christin, good as she is, even had stuff for the kids to play with so we were able to have a nice visit. We finally got to meet Trevor too and like all grown men, he and Ron bonded over beer and sports. It was a great evening and as usual, too short lived. See you in Hawaii Auntie!

Vancouver

Yesterday we picked up Erin after she caught the ferry over to Vancouver for the day. We headed to Granville Island for lunch and then to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a wonderful day and the aquaium recently welcomed a baby beluga whale so we of course had to get Ella her own little plush beluga which has replaced Snoopy (temporarily I'm sure). We had dinner at a beach downtown and walked for ice cream before taking Erin back to the ferry. A GREAT day!!

Today, Ella and I went for lunch with Christin while Ron was on a ride-along with Jason, who is Vancouver PD. He had so much fun and Jason was a great guide. When the guys got home we headed out to dinner with the kids. How cute are these two dressing up for dinner...

Day With Papa

We picked up Papa and headed into White Rock. We had lunch at a greek restaurant and walked the board walk. After a couple of hours we headed back to get dinner started. We had a nice roast dinner at Doug's house, a good friend of my Dad's, and Ella got to run around the backyard with her Papa.

Doug let Ella help him fill the bird feeders, she was so happy and proud and everytime he got up Ella would follow him around hoping to do some more "helping" - too cute!

Beautiful BC

We left Golden and headed back to Vancouver via Kamloops and the Coquihalla Highway. Again, I can't stress enough how beautiful the weather has been and how stunning the landscape...

On the way we stopped at the Enchanted Forest and spent an hour wandering the trails and visiting with all the fairy tale characters. Ella love it! We arrived back in Vancouver in time to order pizza and have dinner with Suzanne and Jason.

Banff National Park

We had a late start today because we ran into Indu and Yawo in the elevator and we all had breakfast together. In all the busy wedding festivities, it was a nice chance to relax and catch up with the newly weds.
We headed out of Red Deer at noon and made our way to Banff National Park after getting somewhat lost on some Alberta country roads (dirt and all). Luckily, the Rockies are so big we had the general direction down, even though we missed a turn onto a main road. We were in the middle of cattle ranches and logging sites for about a half hour longer than we intended but got onto the highway to the Rockies only a little further down than we planned.

Once indide the park, we took the scenic route from Banff to Lake Louise. We missed Banff, but took lots of photos on the way, and stopped for a quick look at Lake Louise. On our way to Golden we saw a couple of black bears, one on the railway tracks up the hill and the other on the side of the road happily eating out of the ditch. We also saw a group of Rocky Mountain goats on the side of the road. We finally made it to Golden and are spending the night. We will head to Vancouver in the morning and should be there by dinner.

Congratulations Indu & Yawo

We attended our second wedding after driving 6 hours to Red Deer. Actually, we made it to the church just in time but Ella had fallen asleep in her carseat. So we headed back to the hotel where we are staying for the reception. We rested a couple of hours and headed to see Indu and Yawo. Friends from Korea are visiting as well so we got to catch up with Kelly, Katie, Sandra and Jackie. So much fun.

Congratulations Jodi & Bart

My cousin, Jodi, got married today in Cranbrook. We've been bribing Ella with bedtime and napping by telling her she was going to see a princess today. Jodi looked stunning and the wedding and reception were beautiful. I am very glad we got the chance to see my mom's family again and Ella was able to meet everyone. Ella had to be taken out of the church part way through the ceremony, and missed all of the reception speeches and such. She's too active and there is too much going on. But the girl can dance. Once she got on the dance floor, we couldn't get her off. She danced with any and everybody, even cutting in on couples to dance with them. It was a great day and we get to do it all over again tomorrow, after a 7 hour drive....