Saturday, August 28, 2010

I Really Heart My Home!!!

We're Back!

It was an ... shall we say interesting holiday this year - and unfortunately it ended with a very wet tent trailer and 5 fed up people who just wanted to go home - but couldn't because of all the places we could have chosen to go - we had picked one place in the US you cannot drive home from when you've had enough!

Matha's Vineyard - so so pretty and when we stod on the ferry looking forward to our time there it couldn't have been more perfect



... however, had we known that we'd only get two good days there we'd have run around like headless chickens from beach to beach to take it all in - instead we took our time and only made it to two beaches



Obviously the weather was absolutely gorgeous the two first days ...



We never looked at the weather forecast and got quite surprised when we woke up to pounding rain and gushing winds up to 40 miles per hour ... not quite the best way to spend your holiday in a tent trailer - and there really is only so much you can do on Martha's Vineyard when the rain is pouring! We managed to buy a fun game and spent time around our "dinner table" and whenever the rain let up - even for a few minutes the kids were on the playground having tons of fun with their new-found friends!


After three days of this we were rather fed up (read VERY fed up!) but knew that so were many other people and the chance of getting on a ferry with no reservation was going to be very hard. When we woke on the day before our reservation to yet more heavy rain we'd had it though and had a family pow wow and decided that we'd take our chance and try for the ferry on stand-by ... it took 7 (!) hours to wait for a spot - 7 hours of sitting in the car waiting, praying and hoping for a spot - and we were back on the main land at 5 pm ...

This is the last thing we saw as we were sailling from Matha's Vineyard - so lovely ...


we then had a nice meal, did some Target shopping (those fishy pretzels that you just cannot get in Canada :) and then we were on the road home to Ottawa at 7.30 pm ... Bob stepped on it and had us all in our beds by 4 in the morning ... a long - LONG day!


But the holiday was not all bad. My absolute favorite - unplanned, totally fluke and so interesting was when we were driving towards our camp-site outside of Boston. By chance we saw a sign saying "Shaker Museum". We spent maybe 2 hours there (children's attention span running very low by then!) but it was facinating and I do so love my new Shaker tray :) http://www.shakermuseum.org/



And Boston was also lovely - we ended up spending only one day in Boston and I'm sure we missed a lot - but it was a nice day and we had a lot of laughs there.


We went to the hotel were I had initially planned to have my birthday party and all I can say is that I'm very happy we went to Quebec instead. The hotel looked rather run down and not at all as shiny in real life as online!


 The kids were fed up walking by the end of the day and we were happy to go back to the campsite to do a few smores :)


And that really was it - the holiday was a bit too long, probably because we were wet and didn't have a lot of fun during the last three day - but the absolute biggest experience (for Maia and Anna!) and one they will probably always remember as the best bit about the holiday was without a doubt seeing Michelle Obama!!!

We went to Edgartown to have lunch and at the cafe the girls serving were all aflutter because they had heard the Obama's were eating just around the corner from where we were. We finished our lunch and true enough the whole area was full of secret service and police but we managed a great spot literally two meters from the entrance to the restaurant. Maia was not going to let this chance pass her by and she was happily waiting on Bob's shoulders for 90 minutes.


Jack needed the washroom and I had to take him so the two of us were unfortunately not there when the First Lady finally emerged. She stepped out - looked to her right and waved right at Anna and Maia ... Jack and I saw her in her car when she went around the corner and got a little wave too :)

I had of course let Bob in charge of the camera - and he didn't get a single good shot - but I managed to find this link online which must have been taken by someone standing right next to Maia and Anna ... enjoy : http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100824/NEWS11/100829863

And that is all from us ... Bob leaves Monday morning - the kids start school on Wednesday and then it's all back to normal! Tell me again ... where did the summer go???

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Visitor No 11 ...

Isabella the Brave has Arrived :-)



Isabella travelled all the way from San Francisco, through Washington to Ottawa this week and I am beyond proud of her - just 9 years old and not a worry in her little head about travelling great distances - so long as there is a price at the end, and what bigger price than three cousins who absolutely adore her - as do Bob and I!

As I'm writing lound crashes and bangs can be heard - they are on their 3rd fort ... Jack's bunk bed is the "frame" and it is getting bigger ... and bigger ... and bigger ... it is so much fun for them and I'm enjoying so much just listening to 4 little people playing so well together. They really do have a ton of fun, between the pool, forts, crafts, movies (Ramona & Beezus is just fab btw!) and just hanging out ... it makes it easy being a mummy :)




We had 4 days of just being us, me and the kids, before Isabella got here, and it was fantastic ... I thoroughly enjoyed it - we did NOTHING ... except for playing Wii and finally finishing all the levels on Mario - it was so intense that Maia became the chef one evening and served us all salami sandwiches, brownies and milk - you have no idea how much fun we had - screaming, shouting and cheering each other on. And when it all became too too much we'd jump in the pool, have some food and move on - Hillarious!!!




Before the 4 day break in visitors, we had Mathilde here for 3 weeks. It was good fun having a teenager in the house, and we learned a lot about what life is like in Denmark these days - good golly it is weird when you say "well when I went to boarding school ... 27 years ago!!!!" ... she's off this year and I envy her - best school year ever :) ... it was a lot of shopping and we are happy to know she went home with lots of new jeans, books and All Stars :)




Now we'll enjoy our wonderful cousin and then we're finally off on our own holiday - we'll be leaving next Saturday for 4 days in Boston, then a few days on Cape Cod and then a week on Martha's Vineyard - I'm secretly hoping for a day-trip to Nantucket - we'll see how Maia feels about the ferry to Martha's Vineyard first :)


No Casper didn't have a haircut - this was one of the guys we met in Park Omega :)


Hope the Summer is treating you well where ever you are - we haven't had many days under 28 degrees this summer and often it has been even hotter and a lot more humid than the other two summers here ... but I am happy to say I have dealt with it much much better than I thought I would and I have finally learned to love the aircon!