Vancouver, British Columbia

What would a trip to Vancouver be without a couple of Mountie Sightings?

















While on our 15th Anniversary Reunion Tour to Seattle. We took one day and a night and drove to Vancouver, BC. Home of the upcoming Winter Olympics, The Inukshuk Mascot, Stanley Park, Gorgeous Scenery and Rogers Chocolates (who knew we're so famous!?)!

A photo Journey:

The view outside our hotel window harborview, and the same harbor from the other side of the pond.

Stanley Park Gardens! Is that straight out of a magazine or what? And the famous Gastown Steam powered clock. (The first ever it turns out.. I thought, WOW it must be REALLY REALLY old.. guess how old? 1970s.. huh??) Oh well.. it's such a fabulous part of the city, walking streets and shopping and cobblestone sidewalks...











I'm completing my collection of flags. I couldn't resist and have about 100 shots just like this one!
And Ohmygosh... the money! I'm such a geek I know but I love playing with the Canadian money, the 20 with the Queen on it is funny to me for some reason. And don't even get me started on the whole Looney and Twooney business!













Next up....to complete the big anniversary tour... That Gigantic Surprise... I was going to stick it in this post... but I have a LOT of photos...!

Momming It Forward in Portland

What a perfect little weekend getaway!

My husband was traveling last week, he landed in Portland one day before we drove in. It was a 5 hour drive for me, but quite possibly some of the most gorgeous country on EARTH! I'm serious. When you think of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. THAT's where I was! From 5 feet of snow on the top to crabapple trees in bloom down the other side!

Eating lasagna at Cheri's house. THANKS so much for letting us stop over and eat your YUMMY food!! {And play with your dog!} How's this for sweet of her, it was HER birthday and she made dinner for US!!?

The next morning we rocked the Portland Saturday Market, with all the little artisan shops. My husband got a little bored though.. He was all? How many spices, and blown glass can you look at? But my 11yrold was soo in love with these twirling whirly gigs with a large round glass orb in the center. "Only $20 mom! I'll pay for it, I will!"

She and her sister ended up with cute matching hats instead...



~~~
Later that night I ditched the family and went to The Fat Straw Cafe down in the 'OH.MY.HECK awesome neighborhood of the Hawthorne District'.

I met up with:
Michelle (@DapperSnappers)
Cheri (@nottoosticky)
CC (of If Only I Had Superpowers blog fame!)

And others... We had a great time, talking and getting to know each other.

{And trying out Bubble Tea, very cool, very weird,
who knew tapioca balls would be a phrase I'd say out loud??}

We all tried out the Yummy products from Basa Body. And we all agreed the Lotion smelled divine, and the mint chocolate soaps from the Kiss Me Kit were VERY hard not to outright lick! And... we agreed the best thing in the kit is the Basa Body Stick. It has a subtle smell, BUT OH!...you will be smitten the first time you rub this on your elbows! 100% coconut oil, what's not to love?

I rubbed the stick on my 8yrold's atrociously dry hands AFTER she fell asleep and I swear her hands were soooo much better in the morning! Imagine what this will do for your feet!!

We raised over $200 for Yehu.org and the mom entrepreneurs in Kenya that night! And a lot of why we were able to do that was thanks to our sponsors. Will you do me a favor and click over to each of these sponsors and say thanks with your mouse?

• DapperSnappers.com Have you seen these Toddler belt clips? I promise if you have a toddler you need to SEE these! These are the kinds of thing you will be seeing on Oprah soon, so if you hurry you will be able to say: "I knew about Dapper Snappers waaay before!"
  
  
• JumpStart.com.. I've already been singing my 4yrold's praises of this site.. go see for yourself... or wait til tomorrow when I'll be giving away a 6month subscription!
  
  
• GiftTree.com You absolutely must see the Mother's Day gift ideas.. I picked this chocolate explosion of a gift! What would you pick out for YOURself!?
  

ThanksGivings Past

Once upon a time, we had this really great idea. We thought we would try to take advantage of the Thanksgiving Vacation days and travel somewhere warmer...

And it was a good idea and all.

But.

The condo we wanted was booked for the actual week of Thanksgiving, so we opted for the week starting the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Which didn't really maximize the days off school. But whatever.

Another but.

If you need to be somewhere the day AFTER Thanksgiving and it's an 11 hour drive and you aren't sure your 3yrold can hold up that long and you think you may be stopping over in VEGAS for the half way hotel stay....then...how do you do the ACTUAL Thanksgiving day?

These were our options:

• Get up early to cook and eat turkey at 10AM and on the road by 2PM? NO. That sucks for obvious reasons (the get up early part mainly--but leftovers? cleaning up after the mess in order to LEAVE, indigestion in the car for 6 hours..)
• Get up early and drive to In-Laws for Turkey dinner there, bringing only the rolls? No. Similar reasons (the get up early part, the convince them to eat earlier part, the part where it's 2 hours the other direction from where we were headed??)
• Get up kinda early and eat early lunch/dinner at local restaurant? No. First of all SERIOUSLY expensive unless you want Turkey ala Dennys, second...you need reservations 3 weeks in advance? IN ADVANCE? Who are all these people eating Turkey dinner OUT?? Good grief.
• Cook Turkey dinner at the condo in warmer clime only do it a day or so AFTER Turkey day? Now that was sounding good.

And it worked pretty well too. The um.. kitchen utensils and supplies were quite lacking...hard to mash potatoes without a masher ya know?


This is us at the Condo, last year. With swim hair. And a little boy who fell asleep and missed the dinner altogether.

The funniest part, was on Thanksgiving day while driving through Las Vegas (stayed in a hotel overnight...)we needed to eat dinner after being on the road a long time. Just ANY dinner would do, right?

Um? McDonald's? Closed. IHOP? Closed. In-N-Out? Olive Garden? Burger King? Closed, Closed and Closed. 7-eleven was open and we were considering our options there. For our real/fake Thanksgiving dinner! Hot dogs and Big Gulps!? And then...we saw it. A parking lot full of cars...surrounding...

a Black Angus restaurant! WhoHoo!
Never been to one before, but who cares...at least it wasn't a hot dog eh? (They barely squeezed us in-- a late cancellation, whew!) They were so confused when we opted to order off the menu and not eat their Turkey meal! Oh well.



Now this next picture is more like it. Turkey Day 2006. Always pull out my fancy Williams Sonoma tablecloth. First year I got to use my mother's china. And the first course.

Roasted Corn and Red Pepper Soup.

My absolute mostest favoritest. It's what I can't live without on Thanksgiving Day. Well that.. and my family of coursers!


That soup btw? I first found it in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook....Seriously worth the effort of clicking this recipe and stashing it in your online recipe folder...I know you have one...

I promise...those other recipes are coming. I almost have enough really terrific recipes submitted to even hand out the Hot Chocolate Recipe...I could use a few more though?

Flying with Big Kids

The last time we took a trip, ON an airplane, WITH our kids….I would have titled it:

'Traveling with young kids, while mom is 8 months pregnant, on the Jet Blue-Light Special'.

Also known as ‘Traveling with Cankles’.

But now....

My youngest is four. And he’s a boy. Which means he LOVES everything about flying. And is easily entertained. And takes a random nap here and there (God bless him). On Take-off he said, "The bumps are my favorite".

My middle child is 7. And except for the part where it took more than two hours for her left ear to pop after landing, she was thrilled to be on the first flight she can remember. She is inquisitive about the flight attendants, happy to watch the inflight ‘kid’s channel’, can color for hours on end (not in a coloring book mind you, her OWN creations), and especially enjoys the minuscule snacks and ‘free’ drink so gratuitously afforded by the airline. (read my sarcasm). She said, "If I draw a car on the road, you won't be able to see the lines and grass". (She would also be grumpy with me if she knew I posted this unfinished work).

My oldest is 10. She has her own iPod. ‘Nuff said.

(But she is also a fabulous help with the boy 4ryold when she feels like it—which is about 50% of the time, and that's 50% less time I'm forced to play Ben 10 with him on his 'Omnitrix' --Go Google that.) While we were there, she said: "When we're on vacation I don't want to go on long drives, I just want to play in the pool".

And my husband (my oldest-oldest child), just said to me, “You look hot”.

How’s that for a terrific flight plan?

Can you guess where we went?

(Angie doesn't get to play, she already knows.) And I finished Fablehaven on the trip. I think Brandon Mull's writing got much better as the book progressed. I'll read the second one for sure.

Daylight Savings Woes

This is an email I received early Sunday morning from my traveling spouse. It's sent from a blackberry, hence the quick sentences.

I'm at airport and flight is on time. Didn't get much sleep--the people in the room next door were engaged in a lengthy discussion that sounded like a Jewish mother disciplining her adult son over something. Over many things. Plus I shouldn't have napped. Plus I was worried about daylight savings time. The clock in the hotel, I figured out, could not be adjusted but there was a switch underneath it to adjust automatically for daylight savings. It did. In fact, I watched it turn over from 1:59 to 3;00 am. That was a first. I out-thought the Blackberry-- I manually adjusted it ahead and promptly at 2 am it automatically advanced an hour. So now it was 2 hours ahead. Had to manually undo it. Meanwhile someone at Verizon was asleep at the switch - if I'd relied only on my phone alarm I'd have been screwed. After the clock alarm went off, I checked the phone and it had NOT automaticallt adjusted. It was the only device I thought would be fine. Think again. How the heck the hotel alarm clock knows today is DST I'll never know. At some point on the drive to EWR the phone did however switch over. Proabably needed a new cell tower because while in the hotel I turned it off and then on again a few minutes later but it was still stick on standard time. All interesting, I know. Uneventful cab ride. Guy drove fast and it took 25 minutes. Lots of wind here this morning. Flights to Atlanta are delayed 3 hrs but the others are still on time. Having an untoasted plain bagel with hard butter for breakfast. And a diet Pepsi out of a fountain, my FAVE. Waiting for the newsstand to open so I can pick up a Sunday Times. Will email again before departure.

Xoxoxoxx
Boyd