Where has the time gone? Since we got back from our holiday to the States, the weeks have flown by, and all of a sudden we are saying farewells and clearing out the house. We only have 3 more nights in our house before we move to temporary accommodation while we get packed up before flying out. While there is a part of me that is sad to leave, as we've really enjoyed our time here, we are now starting to really look forward to seeing our family and friends again, as well as another holiday on the way home! The past few weeks haven't all been about packing up though...
The weekend after we arrived home was a busy one. On the Saturday morning we headed to Rideau Hall for a 2nd birthday party. It was a beautiful, sunny day so it was fun to hang out, chat, drink coffee and watch the kids play. Friends came over in the evening for a catch up - we hung out, had drinks and ate cheese and snacks while the kids played. Always fun. The following day, Miss 5 was super excited to have a birthday party to attend at Cosmic Adventure (an indoor play centre). It was her first chance to see some of her school friends since the school year finished, and of course it's a very fun day out anyway. The only problem is convincing her to leave and go home.
It was an interesting week too; we had listed our car for sale on Sunday night and it turns out that Honda Odysseys are in hot demand. The first people to come look at it (on Monday night) wanted to buy it pronto for the full asking price. (She was overdue with child number 3.) Great for us, except for the fact that we'd imagined it would take a couple of weeks to sell and weren't willing to survive that long without a car. A last minute car rental it was - we ended up with a much smaller Kia Rondo and poor Miss 5 had to perch on her booster seat in the boot! Even with the car-related running around, we managed to catch up with friends too; and the kids were thrilled when our amazing babysitter took them on the bus to the fire station for a tour.
The next few weeks passed quickly. We had BBQ dinner at a friend's house, playdates, special shopping trips with the girls, a visit from Canadian relatives and a housewarming party. The other exciting thing (especially for me!) was summer camp. Miss 5 did a full week as a local dance school and loved it. Two of her friends also went, and they did a week of movement, craft and stories on an 'under the sea' theme. Friday afternoon all the parents were invited to watch them present a little show of what they learned during the week. She absolutely loved going off to camp each day, and because the weather was so lovely they took all the kids to the local splash pad after lunch every day. I also put the twins in for just a morning at their old school for summer camp that week; then couldn't get them to leave! As they loved it so much, all 3 girls did a full day for the next 2 weeks which they loved, and gave me some time and space to sort and clean at home in preparation for the move.
The last week has been busy too. We had a picnic lunch with friends, the annual game of cricket with the Australian High Commission taking on the British High Commission (and the Aussies won the Canadian Ashes again too!), hubby's replacement arrived and we hosted farewell drinks for friends. We've squeezed in some last playdates too. Unfortunately, Ottawa has not turned on it's best weather for our last week in the house - it's been raining most days. We are hoping it improves for the weekend, as the annual lantern festival (Lumiere) is on at our local park on Saturday, and our babysitter is planning to take the kids out of our way for us on Sunday while we pack our suitcases and sort our air and sea freight. Next week we'll be trying to squeeze in as many playdates as well as a bit of sightseeing around town while the house gets packed and cleaned. Although, with 5 days for the job it's the longest we've ever had to move out of a house!
It's hard to believe that our time here is over - it still doesn't quite seem real. Hubby had his last day of work today and even he can't believe it. Maybe we'll believe it when the house is packed. Given it's the end, I have a couple of lists:
THINGS WE'LL MISS
* Seasons - I love the changing of the seasons; the city really does look and feel different at different times of year.
* Winter sports
* Our neighbourhood - awesome location, great people and sense of community, very pretty
* The kids school
* Holiday destinations - being able to drive to so many amazing places in less then a day
* Ribs (that one's from hubby and Miss 5)
* Hubby will miss his short commute
* Halloween
* Range of family restaurants
* The people we've met
* Our amazing backyard
* Reasonable priced maple syrup
THINGS WE WON'T MISS
* -35 wind chill
* 'Summer' when it's 15 and raining
* The state of the roads, especially after winter
* Roadworks in general
* Getting 3 kids dressed and out the door in winter
* Fatty bacon, sweet bread and orange cheese
I'm sure there are others for both lists, but that's all I can think of right now. It's been fun Ottawa! Au revoir!
Friday 15 August 2014
Saturday 19 July 2014
New York, Boston and places in between.....
On the 22nd of June, we took off for an epic two and a half week adventure to the States. New York and Boston were the main items on the agenda, as well as taking in some other sights around Massachusetts; with a stop off in Story Land (New Hampshire) on the way home. There are lots of tales to tell, so I'll launch right into it, and put in headings for those who wish to skim :) Sorry in advance if I waffle!
New York
I'd been excited to go to New York in the summer (as I've been twice now, but both times in winter) although it would be quite a different experience tackling such a big city with 3 kids. We planned to stop just short of the city on day one (in Poughkeepsie) as we didn't fancy driving through Manhattan at the end of the day with tired kids trying to find our accommodation. The kids were all fantastic on the journey, but with pit stops and a playground stop at the end of the afternoon it was late before we got to our hotel. We quickly went to dinner at the closest place (a little Italian restaurant) and were very chuffed when an older couple who were leaving as we were eating came over to tell us how delightful and well behaved our children were. It was a good start! The next morning it was just up, breakfast and off to the outlet malls (for as long as the kids could handle) before the drive to Brooklyn. We'd booked an apartment near Prospect Park for the week, and although driving through Manhattan to get there was painfully slow, we made it in one piece, found the apartment and most importantly, got a prized street park.
After so much travel and shopping, we thought we'd better head to the park with the kids the next morning. Prospect Park had an awesome playground which was gated; we also found excellent coffee at a little cafe close by. It was great for the kids to run around and burn off some steam. After a painfully long wait for a burger lunch, we headed off on the subway to the Staten Island Ferry. It's free, you get out on the water with good views of the city and the Statue of Liberty, and the twins in particular loved pointing out all the different coloured boats they saw. Miss 5 has also declared the Statue of Liberty to be her favourite statue.
The next day we hit Times Square. (I should note that we got off to a slow start most days to avoid peak subway crowds - the plan seemed to work well as we just about always got seats. We also find that with 3 kids it's best not to plan too much in a day!) The twins looked quite awed by the mass of people and even Miss 5 looked a little overwhelmed. After the obligatory photos with various characters (including Minnie Mouse) we split up. Hubby took the twins to Central Park, then the New York library (with lunch in there somewhere) so they got to play, read books, and also had some snooze time in the stroller. (It had been a bad nights sleep.) I took Miss 5 to her first Broadway musical - Cinderella. It was a great choice for her as she knew the story, she loved the singing and dancing and the look on her face during the transformation scene was priceless. We had to queue for ages (around 50 minutes I think) for the cheap tickets, but it was well worth it. Before the show we also managed a trip to the M&M store which was also a big hit. We all met up after the matinee to travel home together.
On Thursday we went to the Museum of Natural History. It's somewhere I've wanted to go, but have never quite made it on previous trips. It was good, but it wasn't the greatest with our kids. It's almost too big, a little difficult to navigate with a stroller and there is no logical path to take through all the exhibits. Having said that, there were loads of good displays and all 3 kids loved the dinosaur section. (Dinosaur - rawwwww!) I just think we all would have got more out of it had the kids been a few years older. Still an amazing museum that easily fills a day out.
After getting on the subway a few days in a row, we decided to have a day close to home. Friday ended up being one of the most fun days for the kids, so good for us too. We started at the Prospect Park Zoo, which is small, but awesome for young kids - lots of things for them to climb on and interact with (including perspex domes to pop your head up in the prairie dog exhibit). They also have a sea lion show and a farm area where you can feed sheep and goats. Just outside the zoo gates is an old carousel (merry-go-round) which they loved; it was also the perfect activity while waiting for our hot dog lunch. After finishing with the zoo, we headed south in the park; an area which is an ice skating rink in winter is a splash pad in summer. It was basically a giant puddle with fountains of water streaming into it. The kids had a ball and we got some delicious gelato for afternoon tea. A great day.
Saturday was hot and humid. We went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park - it runs along the river, with the northern end being right under Brooklyn Bridge and each jetty has different activities (basketball, kayaking, mini golf) as well parklands and playgrounds. It was mostly a day of wandering around, checking out the view, people watching and giving the kids some play time. Later in the afternoon, hubby just took the kids back to the Prospect Park playground while I sat in a laundromat - a necessary evil with a family of 5, especially after nearly a week away.
Sunday was our last day in New York. We hit some more major tourist attractions. We started at the Top of the Rock, where for the first time we found an advantage to travelling with twins in a stroller. (They let us use the group desk to buy tickets instead of trekking down stairs to queue with the masses.) On the lift ride up there is a display in the ceiling of the elevator, T1 was mesmerised! The kids quite liked looking down at the 'tiny' cars and pointing out helicopters and buildings. I enjoyed looking at the views in bright, blue sky sunshine. (I'd visited before in winter.) We went to Central Park for a look around and play (as Miss 5 and I had missed it the other day) but being a weekend the playgrounds were all much more crowded. FAO Schwartz was next on the list; yes Miss 5 got to play the big piano (famous from the movie "Big") and meet a Lego Statue of Liberty, while the twins were thrilled to come away with a new Peppa Pig book. Our day finished with a visit to Grand Central Station to admire the building, have afternoon tea and watch the world go by.
So..."New York, New York, it's a helluva town!" Trickier with kids, but it can be done!
Plymouth
On Monday we waved goodbye to our home of a week and headed north towards Plymouth, where the Pilgrims first landed in America. We did stop off on the way in Connecticut to see the USS Nautilus. It was the first nuclear powered submarine in the US Navy and is now open to the public, along with a small museum. It was an interesting stop. Although it was hard to get too involved in the museum (thanks kids!) there were plenty of displays that did interest them like control panels and periscopes to look through. The submarine itself had also been modified to make it pretty easy to move through. Hubby (the submariner) particularly enjoyed it, although he would have love to have been allowed in the back half to see it all. Alas, the tour only lets you in the front half.
We arrived in Plymouth mid-afternoon and the kids were excited to use the hotel pool after travelling. After a swim we headed to the foreshore for a look around. It was a lovely sunny evening and there is a reproduction of the Mayflower at the dock. We also saw the famous Plymouth Rock - famous as it's allegedly where the first Pilgrims set foot on disembarking the Mayflower. It has been moved to it's current location on the beach to allow tourists to see it, it is also smaller these days as parts have been chipped off for other museums. There is this great columned structure around it...but to be honest it's a pretty underwhelming tourist attractions. It is just a rock with 1620 carved on it. Hmmmm. The day ended with fish and chips for dinner; it was nice to be next to the ocean.
The next day we visited the Plimouth Plantation. This is a recreation of the original Pilgrims village from the 1600s, as well as displays depicting the life of the native Wampanoag people. To be honest, the kids weren't having a great day so it was hard to really appreciate it. It was interesting, and also quite amusing, as they employ a group of actors who take on the role of real pilgrims. They are all just hanging out in the houses, gardening, cooking etc and only answer questions in character. So I guess when people ask them what they do for a living, they reply with "I'm a pilgrim." We though Miss 5 might ask some questions, but a rare attack of shyness meant it was up to us, although she did offend a lady by asking how old she was!
Springfield
After leaving Plimouth Plantation it was back on the road, for more shopping. There is an outlet mall just west of Boston where we stopped for a few hours, and which we found to be more shaded and manageable (with kids) then the shops north of New York. Late afternoon we made it to our hotel and checked into a suite in Holyoake (just north of Springfield) where we were excited to find that not only was buffet breakfast included, but dinner was too - and they provided wine and beer! Win!
It was time for another day designed to entertain the kids. We started at the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, where we were happy to find the air thick with butterflies. The kids had fun watching them all, and a nice staffer who heard our accents even brought a couple of Australian lizards out of their cages for us to pat. They also had some cool, little frogs in amazing shades of blue, green and yellow. Next stop was the Yankee Candle Factory; which is essentially just a massive shop, but it had a Christmas Village and cool toy shop inside so the kids loved it; they also loved smelling all the candles. They had every smell you could imagine - even beer and bacon. Yes, you too can bring the smell of a brewery to your home by burning a beer scented candle! (I suspect that some scents are usually bought for gag gifts - at least I hope so!)
After picking up some sandwiches for lunch we headed to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. It has picture book art displayed in gallery space, as well as a library for kids and an art studio with activities for kids. Our 3 weren't too keen on looking through the gallery spaces, but loved the library and the art activities. They also had fun finding all the things that the Very Hungry Caterpillar had eaten (the pictures were scattered about) to win a prize. We split up for the end of the day, the kids and I dropped hubby at the Basketball Hall of Fame while we went to the Dr Suess Sculpture Park. It's a giant sculpture of a number of beloved Dr Suess characters that the kids can climb all over, so they had a ball. It was hot and humid work though, so we were all happy to have swim at the hotel before dinner. Dinner ended up being slightly delayed though, as they ran out of chicken - apparently a family went in early and ate it all!!
Boston
Another day, more shopping on the agenda. We probably did the most this day, as we were a little more prepared with entertainment to keep the kids occupied, and we also let them chose clothes for themselves, as well as a treat each from the Disney store. From there, it was on to Boston, where we were excited to be staying with friends. They had visited us last summer and it was great to return the visit. They have 2 kids similar ages so everyone was excited; it was also nice to be staying in a home instead of a hotel.
The 4th of July - we'd anticipated that there would be loads of activities to celebrate, and there usually are, but due to a very poor weather forecast most things were cancelled. So we started the day at their awesome local park (it even had a zip line) before our friends very generously offered to take our kids so we could see something. We went to the JFK Musuem, which is not something I would have thought of doing, but I'm so glad we did because it was great. It really gave you a good snapshot of America at the time, as well as his personal history (without the Marilyn stories of course!) There was also a fantastic display on the Cuban Missile Crisis - it turns out that JFK had recorded all his meetings when they were discussing what to do, and hearing the audio all these years later is pretty amazing. We went home to happy kids, and a very American dinner of hot dogs, burgers and apple pie.
The weather thankfully improved for the next day, and our incredible friends took our kids off our hands all day to enable good sightseeing for us and good fun for them. Grown ups and kids all caught the train into the city before we divided. Hubby and I started with the Tea Party ships which was great, with actors in character and loads of history about the climate in Boston at the time and how events unfolded. You even get the chance to throw tea overboard. (The crates are on a rope, so you can throw it over as often as you like!) After that, we walked the Freedom Trail, which is a red brick path marked through the city that takes in significant sights and buildings, such as Paul Revere's house and the North Church (where the lanterns signalling the British approach were displayed). The kids had even more fun then us I think - they spent the morning at the Children's Museum (the photos looked amazing) before heading to Boston Common and Boston Public Gardens. There was lots for them there - Swan Boat rides, a carousel, the Make Way for Duckling statues and splashing around in the Frog Pond (which hosts ice skating in winter). We all met back at the house tired and happy in the afternoon. That night hubby and his mate headed to a baseball game at Fenway park to see the Red Sox, which he enjoyed. (I must confess that baseball is not really my thing...)
Sunday was a lovely day weather-wise, and we thought it was time we actually took our own kids out, so we went to Harvard. It was only 10 minutes from where our friends live and nice to wander around. We opted not to do an actual tour, but just wandered around the picturesque grounds. The kids were very excited afterwards when we went to the Curious George store in Harvard Square. In the afternoon, hubby and his mate took the eldest 2 kids fishing at the local lake (yes they caught some small fish) while the youngest kids and mums played back at the house. The day ended with drinks while watching kids playing in the backyard and a BBQ dinner.
It was a fantastic few days, and we are forever grateful to our friends for being such good hosts and for taking our kids on such fun adventures. We loved Boston, and found it a very walkable city with a lot of history - well worth a visit.
Story Land
Onward it was on Monday, to the last leg of our holiday. We headed north out of Boston and first stopped briefly in Salem, home of the famous witch trials. There is a lot of witch-themed tourism, which is quite scary (too scary for our kids) but we found good coffee, had a bit of a wander and visited the memorial to those tried and put to death in the witch hunt. We stopped off in Salisbury next, for a quick lunch, as well as something hubby had really wanted to do - batting cages. Just like in the movies, we put our tokens in and stood while an automated machine hurled balls at us. Kinda fun. They also had mini golf, so we took the kids for their first round; the twins were too young really, and it was quite hot in the sun, but they all had fun and it was a good leg stretch. The very indulgent staff also showered them with prizes which they loved. From there it took longer then we thought to get to our resort, but we made it eventually. (Although no time for a swim before dinner, much to the disappointment of Miss 5.) It was a very picturesque spot (it's a ski resort in winter, so it's funny to see the lifts still, and runs covered in grass) and the hotel restaurant downstairs hit the spot for dinner.
Tuesday we did Story Land. It is a theme park aimed at younger kids then Disneyland; it has lots of nursery rhyme themed activities, as well as rides that mostly cater to kids. Miss 5 was tall enough to go on every ride (even the scary roller coaster - which she regretted!) and the twins were tall enough to go on nearly everything with a responsible grownup.We arrived as it opened and the kids all had a ball; and we had fun too. We did spinning rides, boats, carousels, roller coasters and flying shoes to name a few. The twins particularly loved the spinning rides - in fact they were still laughing hysterically when I was thinking I'd spun enough for one day. By mid-afternoon everyone was hot, sweaty and worn out, so we headed home for a relaxing swim before dinner. Well worth it though, and pretty good value for money - especially as the twins were still young enough to be free :)
Home
It had been an amazing holiday, but we were glad to go home. Miss 5 particularly had missed her friends; I didn't have the heart to point out that she'll miss them even more when we move! It's back to the business of getting things sorted around the house and seeing all the people and places we need to see in Ottawa over the next 5 or 6 weeks. Bye for now!
New York
I'd been excited to go to New York in the summer (as I've been twice now, but both times in winter) although it would be quite a different experience tackling such a big city with 3 kids. We planned to stop just short of the city on day one (in Poughkeepsie) as we didn't fancy driving through Manhattan at the end of the day with tired kids trying to find our accommodation. The kids were all fantastic on the journey, but with pit stops and a playground stop at the end of the afternoon it was late before we got to our hotel. We quickly went to dinner at the closest place (a little Italian restaurant) and were very chuffed when an older couple who were leaving as we were eating came over to tell us how delightful and well behaved our children were. It was a good start! The next morning it was just up, breakfast and off to the outlet malls (for as long as the kids could handle) before the drive to Brooklyn. We'd booked an apartment near Prospect Park for the week, and although driving through Manhattan to get there was painfully slow, we made it in one piece, found the apartment and most importantly, got a prized street park.
After so much travel and shopping, we thought we'd better head to the park with the kids the next morning. Prospect Park had an awesome playground which was gated; we also found excellent coffee at a little cafe close by. It was great for the kids to run around and burn off some steam. After a painfully long wait for a burger lunch, we headed off on the subway to the Staten Island Ferry. It's free, you get out on the water with good views of the city and the Statue of Liberty, and the twins in particular loved pointing out all the different coloured boats they saw. Miss 5 has also declared the Statue of Liberty to be her favourite statue.
The next day we hit Times Square. (I should note that we got off to a slow start most days to avoid peak subway crowds - the plan seemed to work well as we just about always got seats. We also find that with 3 kids it's best not to plan too much in a day!) The twins looked quite awed by the mass of people and even Miss 5 looked a little overwhelmed. After the obligatory photos with various characters (including Minnie Mouse) we split up. Hubby took the twins to Central Park, then the New York library (with lunch in there somewhere) so they got to play, read books, and also had some snooze time in the stroller. (It had been a bad nights sleep.) I took Miss 5 to her first Broadway musical - Cinderella. It was a great choice for her as she knew the story, she loved the singing and dancing and the look on her face during the transformation scene was priceless. We had to queue for ages (around 50 minutes I think) for the cheap tickets, but it was well worth it. Before the show we also managed a trip to the M&M store which was also a big hit. We all met up after the matinee to travel home together.
On Thursday we went to the Museum of Natural History. It's somewhere I've wanted to go, but have never quite made it on previous trips. It was good, but it wasn't the greatest with our kids. It's almost too big, a little difficult to navigate with a stroller and there is no logical path to take through all the exhibits. Having said that, there were loads of good displays and all 3 kids loved the dinosaur section. (Dinosaur - rawwwww!) I just think we all would have got more out of it had the kids been a few years older. Still an amazing museum that easily fills a day out.
After getting on the subway a few days in a row, we decided to have a day close to home. Friday ended up being one of the most fun days for the kids, so good for us too. We started at the Prospect Park Zoo, which is small, but awesome for young kids - lots of things for them to climb on and interact with (including perspex domes to pop your head up in the prairie dog exhibit). They also have a sea lion show and a farm area where you can feed sheep and goats. Just outside the zoo gates is an old carousel (merry-go-round) which they loved; it was also the perfect activity while waiting for our hot dog lunch. After finishing with the zoo, we headed south in the park; an area which is an ice skating rink in winter is a splash pad in summer. It was basically a giant puddle with fountains of water streaming into it. The kids had a ball and we got some delicious gelato for afternoon tea. A great day.
Saturday was hot and humid. We went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park - it runs along the river, with the northern end being right under Brooklyn Bridge and each jetty has different activities (basketball, kayaking, mini golf) as well parklands and playgrounds. It was mostly a day of wandering around, checking out the view, people watching and giving the kids some play time. Later in the afternoon, hubby just took the kids back to the Prospect Park playground while I sat in a laundromat - a necessary evil with a family of 5, especially after nearly a week away.
Sunday was our last day in New York. We hit some more major tourist attractions. We started at the Top of the Rock, where for the first time we found an advantage to travelling with twins in a stroller. (They let us use the group desk to buy tickets instead of trekking down stairs to queue with the masses.) On the lift ride up there is a display in the ceiling of the elevator, T1 was mesmerised! The kids quite liked looking down at the 'tiny' cars and pointing out helicopters and buildings. I enjoyed looking at the views in bright, blue sky sunshine. (I'd visited before in winter.) We went to Central Park for a look around and play (as Miss 5 and I had missed it the other day) but being a weekend the playgrounds were all much more crowded. FAO Schwartz was next on the list; yes Miss 5 got to play the big piano (famous from the movie "Big") and meet a Lego Statue of Liberty, while the twins were thrilled to come away with a new Peppa Pig book. Our day finished with a visit to Grand Central Station to admire the building, have afternoon tea and watch the world go by.
So..."New York, New York, it's a helluva town!" Trickier with kids, but it can be done!
Plymouth
On Monday we waved goodbye to our home of a week and headed north towards Plymouth, where the Pilgrims first landed in America. We did stop off on the way in Connecticut to see the USS Nautilus. It was the first nuclear powered submarine in the US Navy and is now open to the public, along with a small museum. It was an interesting stop. Although it was hard to get too involved in the museum (thanks kids!) there were plenty of displays that did interest them like control panels and periscopes to look through. The submarine itself had also been modified to make it pretty easy to move through. Hubby (the submariner) particularly enjoyed it, although he would have love to have been allowed in the back half to see it all. Alas, the tour only lets you in the front half.
We arrived in Plymouth mid-afternoon and the kids were excited to use the hotel pool after travelling. After a swim we headed to the foreshore for a look around. It was a lovely sunny evening and there is a reproduction of the Mayflower at the dock. We also saw the famous Plymouth Rock - famous as it's allegedly where the first Pilgrims set foot on disembarking the Mayflower. It has been moved to it's current location on the beach to allow tourists to see it, it is also smaller these days as parts have been chipped off for other museums. There is this great columned structure around it...but to be honest it's a pretty underwhelming tourist attractions. It is just a rock with 1620 carved on it. Hmmmm. The day ended with fish and chips for dinner; it was nice to be next to the ocean.
The next day we visited the Plimouth Plantation. This is a recreation of the original Pilgrims village from the 1600s, as well as displays depicting the life of the native Wampanoag people. To be honest, the kids weren't having a great day so it was hard to really appreciate it. It was interesting, and also quite amusing, as they employ a group of actors who take on the role of real pilgrims. They are all just hanging out in the houses, gardening, cooking etc and only answer questions in character. So I guess when people ask them what they do for a living, they reply with "I'm a pilgrim." We though Miss 5 might ask some questions, but a rare attack of shyness meant it was up to us, although she did offend a lady by asking how old she was!
Springfield
After leaving Plimouth Plantation it was back on the road, for more shopping. There is an outlet mall just west of Boston where we stopped for a few hours, and which we found to be more shaded and manageable (with kids) then the shops north of New York. Late afternoon we made it to our hotel and checked into a suite in Holyoake (just north of Springfield) where we were excited to find that not only was buffet breakfast included, but dinner was too - and they provided wine and beer! Win!
It was time for another day designed to entertain the kids. We started at the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, where we were happy to find the air thick with butterflies. The kids had fun watching them all, and a nice staffer who heard our accents even brought a couple of Australian lizards out of their cages for us to pat. They also had some cool, little frogs in amazing shades of blue, green and yellow. Next stop was the Yankee Candle Factory; which is essentially just a massive shop, but it had a Christmas Village and cool toy shop inside so the kids loved it; they also loved smelling all the candles. They had every smell you could imagine - even beer and bacon. Yes, you too can bring the smell of a brewery to your home by burning a beer scented candle! (I suspect that some scents are usually bought for gag gifts - at least I hope so!)
After picking up some sandwiches for lunch we headed to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. It has picture book art displayed in gallery space, as well as a library for kids and an art studio with activities for kids. Our 3 weren't too keen on looking through the gallery spaces, but loved the library and the art activities. They also had fun finding all the things that the Very Hungry Caterpillar had eaten (the pictures were scattered about) to win a prize. We split up for the end of the day, the kids and I dropped hubby at the Basketball Hall of Fame while we went to the Dr Suess Sculpture Park. It's a giant sculpture of a number of beloved Dr Suess characters that the kids can climb all over, so they had a ball. It was hot and humid work though, so we were all happy to have swim at the hotel before dinner. Dinner ended up being slightly delayed though, as they ran out of chicken - apparently a family went in early and ate it all!!
Boston
Another day, more shopping on the agenda. We probably did the most this day, as we were a little more prepared with entertainment to keep the kids occupied, and we also let them chose clothes for themselves, as well as a treat each from the Disney store. From there, it was on to Boston, where we were excited to be staying with friends. They had visited us last summer and it was great to return the visit. They have 2 kids similar ages so everyone was excited; it was also nice to be staying in a home instead of a hotel.
The 4th of July - we'd anticipated that there would be loads of activities to celebrate, and there usually are, but due to a very poor weather forecast most things were cancelled. So we started the day at their awesome local park (it even had a zip line) before our friends very generously offered to take our kids so we could see something. We went to the JFK Musuem, which is not something I would have thought of doing, but I'm so glad we did because it was great. It really gave you a good snapshot of America at the time, as well as his personal history (without the Marilyn stories of course!) There was also a fantastic display on the Cuban Missile Crisis - it turns out that JFK had recorded all his meetings when they were discussing what to do, and hearing the audio all these years later is pretty amazing. We went home to happy kids, and a very American dinner of hot dogs, burgers and apple pie.
The weather thankfully improved for the next day, and our incredible friends took our kids off our hands all day to enable good sightseeing for us and good fun for them. Grown ups and kids all caught the train into the city before we divided. Hubby and I started with the Tea Party ships which was great, with actors in character and loads of history about the climate in Boston at the time and how events unfolded. You even get the chance to throw tea overboard. (The crates are on a rope, so you can throw it over as often as you like!) After that, we walked the Freedom Trail, which is a red brick path marked through the city that takes in significant sights and buildings, such as Paul Revere's house and the North Church (where the lanterns signalling the British approach were displayed). The kids had even more fun then us I think - they spent the morning at the Children's Museum (the photos looked amazing) before heading to Boston Common and Boston Public Gardens. There was lots for them there - Swan Boat rides, a carousel, the Make Way for Duckling statues and splashing around in the Frog Pond (which hosts ice skating in winter). We all met back at the house tired and happy in the afternoon. That night hubby and his mate headed to a baseball game at Fenway park to see the Red Sox, which he enjoyed. (I must confess that baseball is not really my thing...)
Sunday was a lovely day weather-wise, and we thought it was time we actually took our own kids out, so we went to Harvard. It was only 10 minutes from where our friends live and nice to wander around. We opted not to do an actual tour, but just wandered around the picturesque grounds. The kids were very excited afterwards when we went to the Curious George store in Harvard Square. In the afternoon, hubby and his mate took the eldest 2 kids fishing at the local lake (yes they caught some small fish) while the youngest kids and mums played back at the house. The day ended with drinks while watching kids playing in the backyard and a BBQ dinner.
It was a fantastic few days, and we are forever grateful to our friends for being such good hosts and for taking our kids on such fun adventures. We loved Boston, and found it a very walkable city with a lot of history - well worth a visit.
Story Land
Onward it was on Monday, to the last leg of our holiday. We headed north out of Boston and first stopped briefly in Salem, home of the famous witch trials. There is a lot of witch-themed tourism, which is quite scary (too scary for our kids) but we found good coffee, had a bit of a wander and visited the memorial to those tried and put to death in the witch hunt. We stopped off in Salisbury next, for a quick lunch, as well as something hubby had really wanted to do - batting cages. Just like in the movies, we put our tokens in and stood while an automated machine hurled balls at us. Kinda fun. They also had mini golf, so we took the kids for their first round; the twins were too young really, and it was quite hot in the sun, but they all had fun and it was a good leg stretch. The very indulgent staff also showered them with prizes which they loved. From there it took longer then we thought to get to our resort, but we made it eventually. (Although no time for a swim before dinner, much to the disappointment of Miss 5.) It was a very picturesque spot (it's a ski resort in winter, so it's funny to see the lifts still, and runs covered in grass) and the hotel restaurant downstairs hit the spot for dinner.
Tuesday we did Story Land. It is a theme park aimed at younger kids then Disneyland; it has lots of nursery rhyme themed activities, as well as rides that mostly cater to kids. Miss 5 was tall enough to go on every ride (even the scary roller coaster - which she regretted!) and the twins were tall enough to go on nearly everything with a responsible grownup.We arrived as it opened and the kids all had a ball; and we had fun too. We did spinning rides, boats, carousels, roller coasters and flying shoes to name a few. The twins particularly loved the spinning rides - in fact they were still laughing hysterically when I was thinking I'd spun enough for one day. By mid-afternoon everyone was hot, sweaty and worn out, so we headed home for a relaxing swim before dinner. Well worth it though, and pretty good value for money - especially as the twins were still young enough to be free :)
Home
It had been an amazing holiday, but we were glad to go home. Miss 5 particularly had missed her friends; I didn't have the heart to point out that she'll miss them even more when we move! It's back to the business of getting things sorted around the house and seeing all the people and places we need to see in Ottawa over the next 5 or 6 weeks. Bye for now!
Thursday 10 July 2014
Time is ticking
Okay, time to confess. I fully intended to write this late June before we headed off on a holiday to the States. As usual though, life happened and here I am just back from holiday and miles behind in my blog. I won't subject you to a painfully long entry of everything we've been up to since late May, so I'll update you on Ottawa stuff and write about our holiday next week sometime...maybe :)
The first big event since my last entry was the Dance recital. Miss 5 was super excited (again) and with another year of dancing under her belt actually getting really good at remembering the steps, being in time and all that important stuff. She just beams on stage and did a great job. (I may be biased, but then again as the teacher I am also hard on her and expect more from her.) I had also started a boys hip hop class (with kindergarten aged boys) this year and their performance was a huge hit. It's quite sad that I won't get to teach them all again next year, as I've had loads of fun and the kids all know me really well now. They all smile and chat with me during school drop off and pick up which is really sweet, and I was still getting compliments from parents weeks after the recital.
School had a number of events in the last two weeks of the year. The first was the concert, where each class did 2 or 3 songs or musical items for the parents. The gym was crowded with mums, dads and grandparents and the kids all did a great job. The older students played a variety of instruments (ukulele anyone?) while the younger ones just sung. In English and French of course. Miss 5's class had a water theme; they sung "Listen to the Water" and "Pluie, Pluie" (rain, rain go away). With their actions and enthusiasm they were super cute and got lots of laughs and a huge round of applause. The following day was the Spring Fair. We'd gone last year and the kids had just as good a time again; playing games (and winning prizes), having their fingernails painted, going for a horse-drawn cart ride around the block and of course hot dogs for lunch. What more could you want? The final day of school finished at midday and is always followed by a picnic for students and their families. We'd missed it last year (as it clashed with the twins nap) and unfortunately this year it was forced inside due to rain. It turned out well in the end though, as the younger students all ended up playing and eating with their friends in their own classrooms while the mums and dads chatted. Hubby came so he went to the twin's room with them, while I hung out with Miss 5 in her room. The kids all had a blast, although I know that some of the mums whose kids are moving on to other schools for various reasons were feeling quite sad, myself included. It is a wonderful school that the kids have loved.
While on the subject of Miss 5, her social life has continued at a cracking pace. As well as the usual playdates and trips to the park, she has been to 3 more birthday parties. Two of them featured visits by actual princesses. Yes, that's right, she has now met Ariel (in human not mermaid form!) and also Rapunzel. (Although she tells me that Rapunzel's hair wasn't as long as in the movie.) The third party was different but just as fun; it was held at the Aviation Musuem and the birthday girl's mum sent some lovely photos of the kids all dressed up in old fashioned aviator gear.
The twins are also doing well. They are generally happy and social and love our playdates and outings as much as Miss 5. It's also very cute hearing them try to sing the songs they hear her sing around the house - including the French ones! Nursery school has ended for them too; their teachers did up lovely scrapbooks for them with pieces of their artwork and photos of them playing with their little friends. It's a lovely memento, although they are too young to remember their friends for very long. They have also improved at swimming lessons which is great. They are much happier now to follow the directions and seem to actually enjoy themselves, so I feel better about going home to a house with a swimming pool.
We've also managed to do some fun things as a family on weekends. Every year is a big Military Family Appreciation Day which is essentially a giant fair with loads of free stuff to do. Only military families can go and various companies sponsor the event. We didn't do a huge amount of stuff, as there were big queues for some activities, as well as lots of stuff aimed at older kids but it was still fun. There was also the Doors Open Ottawa weekend, where loads of organisations let the public behind the scenes, and others offer free entry and tours. We walked into town and visited the Mint and the Art Gallery. Again, the kids were a little young, but it was a nice day to be out.
There has also been some fun stuff for us grown ups too. Hubby celebrated his birthday, so we went out to dinner at one of his favourite rib restaurants (with delicious smells of smoked meat when you walk in the door) followed by a drink and cake out. I also managed to sneak in a girl's night out - cocktails and chat followed by dancing. It was great fun; although my friend and I were surprised (and shall we say a little disappointed) by how well behaved the nightclub crowd was. The youth of today, disappointing!
Well, that's about it! I'll try to write next week to tell the tales of two and a half weeks in New York, Boston and places in between....
Well, that's about it! I'll try to write next week to tell the tales of two and a half weeks in New York, Boston and places in between....
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Celebrations
And finally it feels like Spring. The weeks have flown by, with the weather teasing us a little (sunshine one day, cool and rainy the next) but it has settled down, and we're seeing some lovely sunny days and gardens of green and flowers. We've just had a long weekend, so it was nice to get outside, but lots has happened between then and since I last wrote; 2 birthdays and Easter just for a start!
Just after I wrote my last post, I celebrated my birthday. As it will be my last birthday here in Canada, I wanted to do something a little special, so I organised to go out for high tea at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier with a group of my friends. It was actually another friend's birthday the day after mine, so we ended up having a combined celebration. It was great fun. The first sunny warm day all year and we had a table right near the window. The food was delicious and (as with most high teas) you feel you can sit there all afternoon chatting, relaxing and enjoying the ambiance. In fact quite a few of us did - I only just made it home in time for dinner! It was also fabulous to catch up and really talk with my friends without being interrupted by children as so often happens when we catch up.
On my actual birthday, hubby arranged a great surprise - an afternoon at Le Nordik with a one hour massage. Le Nordik is a spa/retreat in Chelsea (across the river near Gatineau park, Quebec) where they have a number of thermal pools (cool to hot), saunas, and steam rooms all set in a beautiful location. Although it was a little chilly to follow the recommended method of hot, then cold (just getting out of a hot tub was cold enough!) it was a beautiful, relaxing afternoon. It was followed by a dinner out at a family restaurant which the kids loved too.
Easter was two weeks after my birthday and much more fun then last year (when there was still snow on the ground, which made some outdoor fun difficult). We visited some museums (becoming quite a common long weekend activity for us!) and caught up with friends for drinks while the kids all ran around like crazy. The best part though, was the Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. A whole group of families arrange to have a mass hunt in the grounds of the Governor General's every year. The parents bring 12 eggs (the plastic, fillable ones) per child, and one parent (typically the dads) go over a little early and hide them in a section of the 'woods' which is just among the trees and undergrowth near the fence. At 11am, the kids were 'released' into the woods to find the eggs. They all absolutely loved it. Miss 4 found more then her fair share and once they realised what they were doing, the twins had great fun tramping around finding eggs too. Of course getting to eat what they had found was great fun too - at least they'd earned their treats with all the running round in the fresh air.
The weekend after Easter, Miss 4 became Miss 5. Yes, someone was super excited to be celebrating her birthday. She is very friendly and sociable, so we had lots of trouble narrowing the list for her birthday party. (The old, "Well, you can just invite that friend next time" trick wasn't going to cut it as it was her last birthday in Canada.) She invited 16 friends and we thought that surely a few would be unable to attend. The end result - 15 of her friends descended on our house on Sunday afternoon to celebrate with a Spring Picnic themed party. We were crossing everything for fine weather (so we could send the kids outside) and thankfully it was. Not quite warm enough to picnic outside, but we pushed couches out of the way and set up a great picnic area inside. It was a little crazy, but on the whole the kids all seemed to have lots of fun and thankfully a few parents stayed to help with supervision. I must confess to breathing a huge sigh of relief and pouring myself a drink once they'd all gone home!
Two weeks after that, another celebration - Mother's Day. I wasn't all that fussed about making a big deal of the day, as I'd just been spoiled for my birthday. It was still a lovely day though. The girls had all brought flowers home from school for me at the end of the week (including some pansies that the twins potted themselves) and I got to sleep in and then have pancakes for breakfast. Miss 5 was very excited to give me a gift she'd chosen and bought at the Mother's Day sale at school; some beads, which aren't really my style, but, oh well. It's the thought that counts :) It was also good to be able to go into the city and buy myself some new running sneakers. As it was a lovely sunny day, we also wandered down to the park for a while in the afternoon.
As well as all our own celebrations, the kids have also had parties of their friends. A friend of Miss 5 had a party the day before hers; a pizza making party, which ended with cupcake decorating (always a big hit). And the twins had their first birthday invitation too, for little girl in their class who turned 3. It was just at their home, but they had a balloon man who was great. Once he'd made one child a ladybird, everyone wanted one! They also came home with a blue dog and a yellow cat. There wasn't much he couldn't make he even made a miniature balloon version of one of the dads at the party. Hubby and I also went to a wedding celebration dinner for some Canadian friends. It was at one of Ottawa's most highly rated restaurants and the food was delicious. A special mention to dessert - chocolate 5 ways, mmmmmm.
As I mentioned at the start, the weekend just gone was a long weekend for Victoria Day. Along with the rest of Ottawa (at least it felt that way!) we went to the Tulip Festival. I think I mentioned it last year - during WWII Canada provided a safe refuge for a Dutch princess. Since then, every year the Netherlands sends thousands of tulip bulbs to Ottawa as a thank you. It is very picturesque; huge displays of tulips all around Dow's Lake (just south of the city). We also visited the Agriculture Museum. Our membership is nearly up and we've been meaning to go for ages, they also had a special event weekend about sheep and wool. The best bits were the sheep herding demonstration and the sheepdog agility demonstration. The sheepdog display was particularly entertaining. Members of a border collie club ran their dogs around an obstacle course; what made it funny was the varying levels of enthusiasm and proficiency among the dogs. Their characters were all pretty clear to the audience! The twins are a little scared of dogs, but they seemed to enjoy it too as the dogs sped by right in front of their noses.
Apart from that, it's been same old, same old. School, playdates, book club and the busyness that comes with being a family of 5. One new thing in our schedule is swimming lessons. We realised that it's really not all that long until we are back home in a house with a swimming pool so it was time to get something done. Miss 5 is doing really well; I think her early lessons from her toddler days, as well as a summer with a pool back home have helped, even if she can't really remember them. The twins...not so great. They are very keen to practice blowing bubbles etc in the bath at home, but tend to get shy and grumpy at the lessons.Hubby and I are in with them, trying to encourage them as best we can, but ultimately, you cannot force a 2 year old to blow bubbles on cue! Fingers crossed they start to improve more rapidly.
It will be another busy few weeks ahead too - a dance recital and loads of end of year school events. Speaking of the dance recital, I have some costume accessories to create! By the time I write the next post, it will likely be summer. Bring it on!
Just after I wrote my last post, I celebrated my birthday. As it will be my last birthday here in Canada, I wanted to do something a little special, so I organised to go out for high tea at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier with a group of my friends. It was actually another friend's birthday the day after mine, so we ended up having a combined celebration. It was great fun. The first sunny warm day all year and we had a table right near the window. The food was delicious and (as with most high teas) you feel you can sit there all afternoon chatting, relaxing and enjoying the ambiance. In fact quite a few of us did - I only just made it home in time for dinner! It was also fabulous to catch up and really talk with my friends without being interrupted by children as so often happens when we catch up.
On my actual birthday, hubby arranged a great surprise - an afternoon at Le Nordik with a one hour massage. Le Nordik is a spa/retreat in Chelsea (across the river near Gatineau park, Quebec) where they have a number of thermal pools (cool to hot), saunas, and steam rooms all set in a beautiful location. Although it was a little chilly to follow the recommended method of hot, then cold (just getting out of a hot tub was cold enough!) it was a beautiful, relaxing afternoon. It was followed by a dinner out at a family restaurant which the kids loved too.
Easter was two weeks after my birthday and much more fun then last year (when there was still snow on the ground, which made some outdoor fun difficult). We visited some museums (becoming quite a common long weekend activity for us!) and caught up with friends for drinks while the kids all ran around like crazy. The best part though, was the Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. A whole group of families arrange to have a mass hunt in the grounds of the Governor General's every year. The parents bring 12 eggs (the plastic, fillable ones) per child, and one parent (typically the dads) go over a little early and hide them in a section of the 'woods' which is just among the trees and undergrowth near the fence. At 11am, the kids were 'released' into the woods to find the eggs. They all absolutely loved it. Miss 4 found more then her fair share and once they realised what they were doing, the twins had great fun tramping around finding eggs too. Of course getting to eat what they had found was great fun too - at least they'd earned their treats with all the running round in the fresh air.
The weekend after Easter, Miss 4 became Miss 5. Yes, someone was super excited to be celebrating her birthday. She is very friendly and sociable, so we had lots of trouble narrowing the list for her birthday party. (The old, "Well, you can just invite that friend next time" trick wasn't going to cut it as it was her last birthday in Canada.) She invited 16 friends and we thought that surely a few would be unable to attend. The end result - 15 of her friends descended on our house on Sunday afternoon to celebrate with a Spring Picnic themed party. We were crossing everything for fine weather (so we could send the kids outside) and thankfully it was. Not quite warm enough to picnic outside, but we pushed couches out of the way and set up a great picnic area inside. It was a little crazy, but on the whole the kids all seemed to have lots of fun and thankfully a few parents stayed to help with supervision. I must confess to breathing a huge sigh of relief and pouring myself a drink once they'd all gone home!
Two weeks after that, another celebration - Mother's Day. I wasn't all that fussed about making a big deal of the day, as I'd just been spoiled for my birthday. It was still a lovely day though. The girls had all brought flowers home from school for me at the end of the week (including some pansies that the twins potted themselves) and I got to sleep in and then have pancakes for breakfast. Miss 5 was very excited to give me a gift she'd chosen and bought at the Mother's Day sale at school; some beads, which aren't really my style, but, oh well. It's the thought that counts :) It was also good to be able to go into the city and buy myself some new running sneakers. As it was a lovely sunny day, we also wandered down to the park for a while in the afternoon.
As well as all our own celebrations, the kids have also had parties of their friends. A friend of Miss 5 had a party the day before hers; a pizza making party, which ended with cupcake decorating (always a big hit). And the twins had their first birthday invitation too, for little girl in their class who turned 3. It was just at their home, but they had a balloon man who was great. Once he'd made one child a ladybird, everyone wanted one! They also came home with a blue dog and a yellow cat. There wasn't much he couldn't make he even made a miniature balloon version of one of the dads at the party. Hubby and I also went to a wedding celebration dinner for some Canadian friends. It was at one of Ottawa's most highly rated restaurants and the food was delicious. A special mention to dessert - chocolate 5 ways, mmmmmm.
As I mentioned at the start, the weekend just gone was a long weekend for Victoria Day. Along with the rest of Ottawa (at least it felt that way!) we went to the Tulip Festival. I think I mentioned it last year - during WWII Canada provided a safe refuge for a Dutch princess. Since then, every year the Netherlands sends thousands of tulip bulbs to Ottawa as a thank you. It is very picturesque; huge displays of tulips all around Dow's Lake (just south of the city). We also visited the Agriculture Museum. Our membership is nearly up and we've been meaning to go for ages, they also had a special event weekend about sheep and wool. The best bits were the sheep herding demonstration and the sheepdog agility demonstration. The sheepdog display was particularly entertaining. Members of a border collie club ran their dogs around an obstacle course; what made it funny was the varying levels of enthusiasm and proficiency among the dogs. Their characters were all pretty clear to the audience! The twins are a little scared of dogs, but they seemed to enjoy it too as the dogs sped by right in front of their noses.
Apart from that, it's been same old, same old. School, playdates, book club and the busyness that comes with being a family of 5. One new thing in our schedule is swimming lessons. We realised that it's really not all that long until we are back home in a house with a swimming pool so it was time to get something done. Miss 5 is doing really well; I think her early lessons from her toddler days, as well as a summer with a pool back home have helped, even if she can't really remember them. The twins...not so great. They are very keen to practice blowing bubbles etc in the bath at home, but tend to get shy and grumpy at the lessons.Hubby and I are in with them, trying to encourage them as best we can, but ultimately, you cannot force a 2 year old to blow bubbles on cue! Fingers crossed they start to improve more rapidly.
It will be another busy few weeks ahead too - a dance recital and loads of end of year school events. Speaking of the dance recital, I have some costume accessories to create! By the time I write the next post, it will likely be summer. Bring it on!
Saturday 5 April 2014
Beautiful Banff
March break. Most Canadians use the opportunity to go south where it is warm and sunny. We were considering the same - winter can be long, dark and grim and one does start to crave sunshine. But for various reasons, a sunny break didn't work for us. Either countries were on the "do not visit' list, or we couldn't get travel insurance or the resorts didn't have suitable rooms for a family of 5. We decided that we wanted something more exciting then Florida, so why not embrace the winter and book another skiing holiday. Banff it was - we'd always wanted to visit the Rockies anyway :)
The day of our Banff holiday dawned.....well not really as it was still well and truly dark when the alarm went off at 4am. No - not already! We hauled ourselves out of bed, got the kids dressed and loaded in the car and headed to the airport. After checking in and eating a quick breakfast, we boarded; Miss 4 with her trusty purple roll aboard case and the twins with their new Trunkis. (They loved pulling them around the airport!) We were really dreading the travel with the twins, as they were only 9 months when we moved to Canada and they hadn't been on a plane since. Thankfully, they weren't too bad. They were quite restless for the last hour (it was over a 4 hour flight) but thought that take off and landing was great fun. No sleep unfortunately! Oh well - at least they were happy.
We landed in Calgary, and after eventually getting our hire car (they asked if we really needed the car seats we'd booked??) hit the road. Calgary is quite flat (a prairie town) so driving towards the Rockies is quite spectacular; the mountains just seem to rise up out of nowhere. The twins managed to nap a bit and we stopped for lunch in Canmore, which is just south east of Banff. It's a very pretty town in the Rockies, but we didn't linger, so we made it to Banff early afternoon. A quick trip to the tourist centre saw the kids clutching more brochures then we needed, and we wandered along the main street and up to the Banff Springs Hotel, one of the Fairmont chain. A striking building, it sits above the Bow River and has that castle look common to so many of the Fairmonts. A nice place for an afternoon coffee too. Everyone was pretty tired by now with the early start and the time difference, so it was quick trip to the supermarket before check-in (an awesome 3 bedroom apartment at Hidden Ridge Resort), an early dinner and bed. The twins were sharing a bed for the first time so it took them a little while to get used to the idea.
Our first day of skiing was overcast with a lot of fresh snow. We were headed to Sunshine, which is about 20 minutes out of Banff. The village (which houses all the facilities, including the daycare) is actually at the top of the gondola, so the kids thought it was great fun riding up. We dropped them off, checked out a trail map and headed up the nearest chairlift. Then it got interesting. None of the runs were groomed, visibility was terrible, we had no idea which direction the run we wanted was in as we couldn't see the markers and there was so much powder we couldn't see our skis and were not skiing well at all. (We are used to much harder conditions around here.) After some coffee sustenance, we went up the chair on the other side, found some groomed runs, visibility improved and I heaved a sigh of relief! Hubby is a much better skier then I so adjusted to the conditions more easily, but by the end of the day I had the hang of it,and even skied some runs with soft, natural moguls. The scenery was absolutely stunning too, which helps you finish the day with a smile. We picked up the kids who'd had a good day, rode the gondola back down, and went back to our accommodation to put up our feet and unwind with a drink (and TV for the kids!)
Day 2 of skiing was bright and sunny. We headed to Lake Louise this time - a longer drive from Banff (40 mins) but a much larger ski area with a larger variety of runs. It was an earlier start as Miss 4 was booked into a lesson program so we had to be sure to get her there on time, but we managed to get everyone there and dropped off in plenty of time, so we hit the slopes quite early. It was one of those postcard perfect days - brilliant blue skies, snow capped mountains, spruce trees with a dusting of snow and virtually empty ski runs. Any description just sounds like a cliche, but it was seriously so beautiful that I have no superlatives good enough. I wanted to bottle the feeling of being up on those beautiful mountains. We enjoyed skiing some amazing runs (and I even made it down some tough runs with moguls that we ended up on) and just had an all-round fabulous day. At the end of the day, we found Miss 4 on a green run and spied on her as she had her second lesson for the day. She was not having as much fun as us - the green runs at Lake Louise are quite a step up from our local hills and I think she felt a little intimidated. She did make it down though and all the kids were glad to see us at the end of the day.
The next day we had a break from skiing to do some sightseeing. One problem we encountered, is that most tourism in Banff happens in summer, so there are lots of activities and attractions that don't open in winter, such as the local museums. We looked at some local sights (rock formations called Hoodoos, and the Bow River) then wandered around in town, had a morning coffee and let the kids choose a souvenir from one of the many shops on the main street. From there, we headed back to Lake Louise, this time to the Fairmont on the lake. (We'd had some amazing views of it from up on the mountain the day before.) The lake was frozen, so not it's usual beautiful blue, but it is still a spectacular location. We even splurged on lunch in the lounge with lake views, which turned out to not be a splurge as the kids ate free. After lunch, we'd signed up for a horse-drawn sleigh ride around the lake. Two beautiful Belgian draft horses named Chuck and Charlie pulled us around the lake as we sat in the sleigh snuggled up under blankets. It was very relaxing - in fact when we stopped at the far side of the lake so people could get out and look around I had to stay put as I had a very tired twin sleeping on me! Amazing scenery, and good people watching too, as there were plenty of people out walking, snow shoeing and cross country skiing on the lake as we went past, as well as some ice climbers tackling a frozen waterfall at the far end from the chateau. It was a lovely afternoon, and a great one for the kids too, as they really enjoyed the day. We finished off a great day by taking the kids into Banff for dinner.
It was back to the slopes on Thursday. We headed back to Lake Louise and after dropping the kids off again we headed up the mountain. It wasn't quite as postcard perfect as it was pretty cloudy, but there was fresh snow so the skiing was actually better. It was also a good day, as we were pretty familiar with the mountain so could pick and choose our favourite runs and lifts. Hubby tackled the back bowl with some pretty intimidating black runs and thoroughly enjoyed it. Miss 4 had only wanted a morning lesson this time, so we spied on her again; her instructor (who was the same one from Tuesday, and was also from Perth - what are the odds??) couldn't convince her to go up the chairlift again. It wasn't wasted though - even though she stuck to the magic carpet he got her to ski on one ski and ski backwards so she had fun and tried some new things. In general Lake Louise is a fabulous resort - everything is really well marked, they have mountain guides around the place to help out and the staff are all friendly and accommodating. On that note, we had noticed loads of Australians amongst the staff. Obviously we heard the accents, but all staff wore badges with their name and where they are from so even when we didn't hear them speak (such as lift operators) we saw loads of Aussies. I actually asked the Aussie who made our afternoon coffee (Gill from the Gold Coast) and apparently 75% of the staff are Australian. Pretty strange to hear so many Aussie accents in one place again.
Friday was our last day in Banff. We actually headed back to Canmore in the morning as we hadn't had much chance to look around on our way in. Coffee was the first item on our list, then we wandered along Policeman's Creek, which must have some kind of hot spring, as the water was steamy (not frozen) and there were ducks paddling around. It was actually colder then we anticipated so the kids ran out of steam quite quickly (should have worn more layers - oh well). It was another sunny day though, so lots of good photos. We had lunch in Banff before a bit of quiet time back at our hotel. We'd considered the Sulphur Mountain Gondola, but as the kids had been up the gondola at Sunshine ski resort it hardly seemed worth it. We did visit the famous Banff Hot Springs late in the afternoon which was great. Not very relaxing when you're watching kids, but the water was delightfully warm, and there's something decadent about lazing around in a hot pool when the air temperature is about -10 and you have a view of snow-capped mountains all around. A good end to the week.
We were flying out from Calgary on Saturday evening, but still had basically the whole day. After packing up, we drove back to Calgary and went straight to the zoo. It was a little too cold to be pleasant wandering outside all day, but lots of the exhibits are actually indoors (or indoors for winter anyway). They had some pretty good displays. The penguin set-up was amazing as you could get an arm's length from the penguins, and glass walls meant you could watch them dive in and jump out of the water; they also went to their outside area for a walk in line. The tigers were really lively - one was prowling and playing with it's food like a kitten. (Unlike at Australian zoos where they are sleeping in the heat!) There was also a great gorilla exhibit, with a couple off gorilla lazing around and stretching right next to the glass. No bears though - hibernating season. From the zoo, we just headed to the airport to have an early dinner before heading home. The flight was okay, but none of the kids slept so were extremely tired and passed out pretty much as soon as we put them in the car! A great holiday, but it's always nice to come home - holidays aren't very relaxing at times with 3 kids!
It's been a quiet couple of weeks since then. Mostly the usual - school, playdates, playgroup, drinks with friends. Hubby did sneak in a day of skiing at Mont Tremblant last weekend, although conditions were not great thanks to rain the day before. We had planned to go to a sugar shack last Sunday (it's maple syrup season again) but there was 15cms of snow early in the morning and we decided the roads to the shack were unlikely to be in good shape. Luckily it was perfect snowman snow, so we played outside instead. We made it to the sugar shack today instead, and I've barely eaten after having a brunch of bacon, eggs, sausages and lots of pancakes! Now we are just waiting for the snow to melt - although spring officially arrived over 2 weeks ago we are still living in a world of snow. Warmer days and rain are forecast for this week so fingers crossed it will feel like spring soon!
The day of our Banff holiday dawned.....well not really as it was still well and truly dark when the alarm went off at 4am. No - not already! We hauled ourselves out of bed, got the kids dressed and loaded in the car and headed to the airport. After checking in and eating a quick breakfast, we boarded; Miss 4 with her trusty purple roll aboard case and the twins with their new Trunkis. (They loved pulling them around the airport!) We were really dreading the travel with the twins, as they were only 9 months when we moved to Canada and they hadn't been on a plane since. Thankfully, they weren't too bad. They were quite restless for the last hour (it was over a 4 hour flight) but thought that take off and landing was great fun. No sleep unfortunately! Oh well - at least they were happy.
We landed in Calgary, and after eventually getting our hire car (they asked if we really needed the car seats we'd booked??) hit the road. Calgary is quite flat (a prairie town) so driving towards the Rockies is quite spectacular; the mountains just seem to rise up out of nowhere. The twins managed to nap a bit and we stopped for lunch in Canmore, which is just south east of Banff. It's a very pretty town in the Rockies, but we didn't linger, so we made it to Banff early afternoon. A quick trip to the tourist centre saw the kids clutching more brochures then we needed, and we wandered along the main street and up to the Banff Springs Hotel, one of the Fairmont chain. A striking building, it sits above the Bow River and has that castle look common to so many of the Fairmonts. A nice place for an afternoon coffee too. Everyone was pretty tired by now with the early start and the time difference, so it was quick trip to the supermarket before check-in (an awesome 3 bedroom apartment at Hidden Ridge Resort), an early dinner and bed. The twins were sharing a bed for the first time so it took them a little while to get used to the idea.
Our first day of skiing was overcast with a lot of fresh snow. We were headed to Sunshine, which is about 20 minutes out of Banff. The village (which houses all the facilities, including the daycare) is actually at the top of the gondola, so the kids thought it was great fun riding up. We dropped them off, checked out a trail map and headed up the nearest chairlift. Then it got interesting. None of the runs were groomed, visibility was terrible, we had no idea which direction the run we wanted was in as we couldn't see the markers and there was so much powder we couldn't see our skis and were not skiing well at all. (We are used to much harder conditions around here.) After some coffee sustenance, we went up the chair on the other side, found some groomed runs, visibility improved and I heaved a sigh of relief! Hubby is a much better skier then I so adjusted to the conditions more easily, but by the end of the day I had the hang of it,and even skied some runs with soft, natural moguls. The scenery was absolutely stunning too, which helps you finish the day with a smile. We picked up the kids who'd had a good day, rode the gondola back down, and went back to our accommodation to put up our feet and unwind with a drink (and TV for the kids!)
Day 2 of skiing was bright and sunny. We headed to Lake Louise this time - a longer drive from Banff (40 mins) but a much larger ski area with a larger variety of runs. It was an earlier start as Miss 4 was booked into a lesson program so we had to be sure to get her there on time, but we managed to get everyone there and dropped off in plenty of time, so we hit the slopes quite early. It was one of those postcard perfect days - brilliant blue skies, snow capped mountains, spruce trees with a dusting of snow and virtually empty ski runs. Any description just sounds like a cliche, but it was seriously so beautiful that I have no superlatives good enough. I wanted to bottle the feeling of being up on those beautiful mountains. We enjoyed skiing some amazing runs (and I even made it down some tough runs with moguls that we ended up on) and just had an all-round fabulous day. At the end of the day, we found Miss 4 on a green run and spied on her as she had her second lesson for the day. She was not having as much fun as us - the green runs at Lake Louise are quite a step up from our local hills and I think she felt a little intimidated. She did make it down though and all the kids were glad to see us at the end of the day.
The next day we had a break from skiing to do some sightseeing. One problem we encountered, is that most tourism in Banff happens in summer, so there are lots of activities and attractions that don't open in winter, such as the local museums. We looked at some local sights (rock formations called Hoodoos, and the Bow River) then wandered around in town, had a morning coffee and let the kids choose a souvenir from one of the many shops on the main street. From there, we headed back to Lake Louise, this time to the Fairmont on the lake. (We'd had some amazing views of it from up on the mountain the day before.) The lake was frozen, so not it's usual beautiful blue, but it is still a spectacular location. We even splurged on lunch in the lounge with lake views, which turned out to not be a splurge as the kids ate free. After lunch, we'd signed up for a horse-drawn sleigh ride around the lake. Two beautiful Belgian draft horses named Chuck and Charlie pulled us around the lake as we sat in the sleigh snuggled up under blankets. It was very relaxing - in fact when we stopped at the far side of the lake so people could get out and look around I had to stay put as I had a very tired twin sleeping on me! Amazing scenery, and good people watching too, as there were plenty of people out walking, snow shoeing and cross country skiing on the lake as we went past, as well as some ice climbers tackling a frozen waterfall at the far end from the chateau. It was a lovely afternoon, and a great one for the kids too, as they really enjoyed the day. We finished off a great day by taking the kids into Banff for dinner.
It was back to the slopes on Thursday. We headed back to Lake Louise and after dropping the kids off again we headed up the mountain. It wasn't quite as postcard perfect as it was pretty cloudy, but there was fresh snow so the skiing was actually better. It was also a good day, as we were pretty familiar with the mountain so could pick and choose our favourite runs and lifts. Hubby tackled the back bowl with some pretty intimidating black runs and thoroughly enjoyed it. Miss 4 had only wanted a morning lesson this time, so we spied on her again; her instructor (who was the same one from Tuesday, and was also from Perth - what are the odds??) couldn't convince her to go up the chairlift again. It wasn't wasted though - even though she stuck to the magic carpet he got her to ski on one ski and ski backwards so she had fun and tried some new things. In general Lake Louise is a fabulous resort - everything is really well marked, they have mountain guides around the place to help out and the staff are all friendly and accommodating. On that note, we had noticed loads of Australians amongst the staff. Obviously we heard the accents, but all staff wore badges with their name and where they are from so even when we didn't hear them speak (such as lift operators) we saw loads of Aussies. I actually asked the Aussie who made our afternoon coffee (Gill from the Gold Coast) and apparently 75% of the staff are Australian. Pretty strange to hear so many Aussie accents in one place again.
Friday was our last day in Banff. We actually headed back to Canmore in the morning as we hadn't had much chance to look around on our way in. Coffee was the first item on our list, then we wandered along Policeman's Creek, which must have some kind of hot spring, as the water was steamy (not frozen) and there were ducks paddling around. It was actually colder then we anticipated so the kids ran out of steam quite quickly (should have worn more layers - oh well). It was another sunny day though, so lots of good photos. We had lunch in Banff before a bit of quiet time back at our hotel. We'd considered the Sulphur Mountain Gondola, but as the kids had been up the gondola at Sunshine ski resort it hardly seemed worth it. We did visit the famous Banff Hot Springs late in the afternoon which was great. Not very relaxing when you're watching kids, but the water was delightfully warm, and there's something decadent about lazing around in a hot pool when the air temperature is about -10 and you have a view of snow-capped mountains all around. A good end to the week.
We were flying out from Calgary on Saturday evening, but still had basically the whole day. After packing up, we drove back to Calgary and went straight to the zoo. It was a little too cold to be pleasant wandering outside all day, but lots of the exhibits are actually indoors (or indoors for winter anyway). They had some pretty good displays. The penguin set-up was amazing as you could get an arm's length from the penguins, and glass walls meant you could watch them dive in and jump out of the water; they also went to their outside area for a walk in line. The tigers were really lively - one was prowling and playing with it's food like a kitten. (Unlike at Australian zoos where they are sleeping in the heat!) There was also a great gorilla exhibit, with a couple off gorilla lazing around and stretching right next to the glass. No bears though - hibernating season. From the zoo, we just headed to the airport to have an early dinner before heading home. The flight was okay, but none of the kids slept so were extremely tired and passed out pretty much as soon as we put them in the car! A great holiday, but it's always nice to come home - holidays aren't very relaxing at times with 3 kids!
It's been a quiet couple of weeks since then. Mostly the usual - school, playdates, playgroup, drinks with friends. Hubby did sneak in a day of skiing at Mont Tremblant last weekend, although conditions were not great thanks to rain the day before. We had planned to go to a sugar shack last Sunday (it's maple syrup season again) but there was 15cms of snow early in the morning and we decided the roads to the shack were unlikely to be in good shape. Luckily it was perfect snowman snow, so we played outside instead. We made it to the sugar shack today instead, and I've barely eaten after having a brunch of bacon, eggs, sausages and lots of pancakes! Now we are just waiting for the snow to melt - although spring officially arrived over 2 weeks ago we are still living in a world of snow. Warmer days and rain are forecast for this week so fingers crossed it will feel like spring soon!
Saturday 15 March 2014
Still winter! A quick update.
Ah, Ottawa the week before the official first day of spring. Snow, cold temperatures and wind chill. Wouldn't expect anything less! Okay, it hasn't actually been that bad the last couple of weeks. There's been the odd day above zero, and some sunshine which has made it nice to play outside. Quite a relief as the official meteorologists are telling us it's been the coldest winter in 20 years. Anyway, despite the weather, we've been carrying on as usual, trying to get as much as possible out of our last Canadian winter.
The weekend after I last wrote, hubby and I spent a day skiing at Mont St-Marie. It's about an hour north of us and quite a bit bigger then our local hills. It was a nice day to be out, sunny patches and not too cold, but there hadn't been much fresh snow so the slopes were really icy. I'd had a bad cold the week before, so ran out of energy by lunch, but was prepared and had a book in the car. Worked nicely - I relaxed next to a window for an hour after lunch while hubby skied some more before he'd had enough of the icy conditions too. We finished the weekend off with a family dinner out at a pizza place - the kids love going out for dinner.
Another week of business as usual. I did break it up by going to the pub one night with some other mum friends which was great fun - it can be so hard to talk during the week without being interrupted by kids. A busy weekend followed - friends over for Saturday morning tea, my neighbours annual Ladies' 80's night on the Saturday (a real hoot once again, and even more people dressed up then last year) and a trip to the Science Museum on the Sunday. The kids even managed to sit still (kind of) through half a demonstration on cryogenics, although the big hits once again were the trains and the crazy kitchen.
The following weekend and daylight savings (aka 'summer' time - ha!) began. We did have beautiful blue skies with relatively mild temperatures and managed to make the most of it. Saturday saw us lunching with friends who live in Chelsea - it's across the river in Quebec and is like 'hills' living if you want an Aussie comparison. After eating, we walked to their local park so the kids could all romp around in the (deep) snow. Hubby even started throwing the bigger kids into the air - they left quite an impression as they thumped down into a metre of snow and thought it was hilarious. Sunday we were up bright and early for a morning of dog sledding. We went to a place only half an hour north of here, and after meeting the dogs had a 10 minute lesson on how to drive a sled. Then we were given our sled with 6 dogs each and a guide to follow and off we went! It is actually harder then it looks - corners in particular felt tricky as you lean your body the opposite way to skiing (which we've been doing a bit of) so it felt counter-intuitive. I must confess to falling off a couple of times, including when the sled hit a tree! Going up hills is pretty funny too - one dog will decide to stop and pee, so of course all the others then have to pee on the same spot! It was an amazing experience though - following trails through the snowy woods and even across a frozen lake under a bright blue sky. Just to finish off the weekend, we walked down to the Rideau River with the kids in the afternoon to see the explosions. Yep - it was the annual blowing up of the ice on the river before spring. Quite entertaining watching columns of ice shoot into the air with a bang. Because it was such a lovely sunny afternoon the kids were loving being outside and played for ages in the snow by the river bank.
This week just gone has been the first week of the March break school holiday. I've been working hard trying to keep the little monkeys entertained all week. (I must say that school holidays were much more fun when I was a teacher and not a parent!!) We've filled our week with lots of playdates, baking, drawing, a trip to the Aviation Museum and playing outside. I even managed to take Miss 4 out for a special big girl afternoon out with mum - Subway, shopping and the movies. We saw "Free Birds" about 2 turkeys who travel back in time to get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu. (Very North American, but had some good voice talent and was pretty entertaining as far as kids movies go.) So it's a quiet day at home today (Saturday) as we get ready for next week.
Tomorrow, we board a plane with the kids for the first time since we arrived here (at a stupidly early time too) to head to Banff! We are excited about seeing the Rockies and skiing, not so excited about the plane trip. This entry is a little rushed as I need to go and pack now, but will be sure to let you know how it all goes - if we still have our sanity that is! Bye for now.
The weekend after I last wrote, hubby and I spent a day skiing at Mont St-Marie. It's about an hour north of us and quite a bit bigger then our local hills. It was a nice day to be out, sunny patches and not too cold, but there hadn't been much fresh snow so the slopes were really icy. I'd had a bad cold the week before, so ran out of energy by lunch, but was prepared and had a book in the car. Worked nicely - I relaxed next to a window for an hour after lunch while hubby skied some more before he'd had enough of the icy conditions too. We finished the weekend off with a family dinner out at a pizza place - the kids love going out for dinner.
Another week of business as usual. I did break it up by going to the pub one night with some other mum friends which was great fun - it can be so hard to talk during the week without being interrupted by kids. A busy weekend followed - friends over for Saturday morning tea, my neighbours annual Ladies' 80's night on the Saturday (a real hoot once again, and even more people dressed up then last year) and a trip to the Science Museum on the Sunday. The kids even managed to sit still (kind of) through half a demonstration on cryogenics, although the big hits once again were the trains and the crazy kitchen.
The following weekend and daylight savings (aka 'summer' time - ha!) began. We did have beautiful blue skies with relatively mild temperatures and managed to make the most of it. Saturday saw us lunching with friends who live in Chelsea - it's across the river in Quebec and is like 'hills' living if you want an Aussie comparison. After eating, we walked to their local park so the kids could all romp around in the (deep) snow. Hubby even started throwing the bigger kids into the air - they left quite an impression as they thumped down into a metre of snow and thought it was hilarious. Sunday we were up bright and early for a morning of dog sledding. We went to a place only half an hour north of here, and after meeting the dogs had a 10 minute lesson on how to drive a sled. Then we were given our sled with 6 dogs each and a guide to follow and off we went! It is actually harder then it looks - corners in particular felt tricky as you lean your body the opposite way to skiing (which we've been doing a bit of) so it felt counter-intuitive. I must confess to falling off a couple of times, including when the sled hit a tree! Going up hills is pretty funny too - one dog will decide to stop and pee, so of course all the others then have to pee on the same spot! It was an amazing experience though - following trails through the snowy woods and even across a frozen lake under a bright blue sky. Just to finish off the weekend, we walked down to the Rideau River with the kids in the afternoon to see the explosions. Yep - it was the annual blowing up of the ice on the river before spring. Quite entertaining watching columns of ice shoot into the air with a bang. Because it was such a lovely sunny afternoon the kids were loving being outside and played for ages in the snow by the river bank.
This week just gone has been the first week of the March break school holiday. I've been working hard trying to keep the little monkeys entertained all week. (I must say that school holidays were much more fun when I was a teacher and not a parent!!) We've filled our week with lots of playdates, baking, drawing, a trip to the Aviation Museum and playing outside. I even managed to take Miss 4 out for a special big girl afternoon out with mum - Subway, shopping and the movies. We saw "Free Birds" about 2 turkeys who travel back in time to get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu. (Very North American, but had some good voice talent and was pretty entertaining as far as kids movies go.) So it's a quiet day at home today (Saturday) as we get ready for next week.
Tomorrow, we board a plane with the kids for the first time since we arrived here (at a stupidly early time too) to head to Banff! We are excited about seeing the Rockies and skiing, not so excited about the plane trip. This entry is a little rushed as I need to go and pack now, but will be sure to let you know how it all goes - if we still have our sanity that is! Bye for now.
Friday 21 February 2014
Lake Placid and Winterlude
Who doesn't love a ski holiday? Especially when you can drive to your destination in a few short hours! It's a huge advantage to living in the snowy north of Canada. We (well, mostly hubby really) had arranged a week in Lake Placid with another couple and a family of 4 who are friends from back home and who are all on North American postings. We were excited not only about the skiing, but about sightseeing around the old Olympic venue facilities and spending time with friends.
So, on the last Saturday in January, we loaded up the trusty Odyssey full of clothes, gear and kids, popped the skis on the roof and hit the road to Lake Placid. The kids were good in the car, and the lunch stop in Cornwall was very exciting for them, as we found that the McDonalds had an indoor playground - a real rarity, so it was great for them to run and climb and burn off some energy. Crossing the border into the US is always a hassle, as we need to get out of the car, be fingerprinted etc, but thankfully it was super quiet and the staff were all friendly and smiled indulgently as the kids ran around. The drive through the Adirondacks into Lake Placid was pretty too, and we made good time and arrived mid-afternoon to our fabulous house. It was plenty big enough for 6 adults and 5 kids, with loads of rooms for everyone to sleep, 4 bathrooms, a fireplace, a converted deck area where the kids could play and be out of the way as well as a hot tub on the back deck. What more could you want?
Sunday dawned bright, sunny....and very cold. We all wore many layers and full face masks to cope with the -25 at the base and -35 at the summit of Whiteface mountain. At least it wasn't windy :) It was a good first day finding runs we liked on the mountain and we were all ready to come home at the end of the day. The parents were all taking turns to stay home with the kids, so the friend on duty that day looked a little worn out but the kids were all happy. On the second day we put the kids into daycare (the younger ones) and a ski and play day (the older two) and hit the slopes again. I decided to sign up for a lesson to improve my skills and was pleasantly surprised to find myself alone for my 2 hour group lesson. Good value! My instructor was a local so we had some good chats on the lifts and he gave me some suggestions of runs I would like, as well as of course honing my skiing. The third day I ended up being the only one of our friends skiing (hubby was having his turn with the kids) and it was cold again, with wind this time. It worked out okay though - I just got the gondola up the mountain every time. Sure it meant taking your skis on and off each time, but it's much warmer then being on a chairlift alone (which happened often as it wasn't very crowded midweek) and also much more conducive to chatting. One of the friendly ski patrol also pointed out where some deer were grazing under the gondola so I kept my eye out for them for the rest of the holiday - they had lovely fuzzy winter coats and looked super cute. The Wednesday was my fourth day of skiing straight so I was starting to feel a little tired. We had the kids in the daycare again which worked out well - by the end of the day when I'd had enough I skied across to the Kid's area and watched Miss 4 at the end of her afternoon lesson. She looked like she was having a ball - easily getting on and off the chairlift, turning and following her instructor with ease and even keeping her skis in parallel. Hubby and I are very happy with how she's taken to it.
After 4 days if skiing, I was ready to do some sightseeing. Hubby and I spent the next day (whilst another friend kindly watched the kids) checking out the Olympic venues. We went to the ski jump which is still used for training; you can catch the lift to the top and see just how mad they are to go down and leap off. The old stadium(s) (there was one from the 1932 games which they extended and built a new rink in for the 1980 games) are open to the public; we did a tour so got to hear lots of anecdotes. (Lots of cool stories about the early bobsledders and how mad they were - google pictures of the old bobsleds and you'll see why!!)There is also an Olympic museum attached to the stadium, which is quite small but has a few interesting bits and pieces. The highlight for us though was the bobsled experience. Yep - you can pay money to sit in a bobsled (with a driver and a brakeman to push you off) and hurtle down the track. Quite an intense experience and over very quickly!! I have a whole new respect for those athletes who sprint so quickly, then cram themselves into their sleds in seconds. The track is still used often for training - in fact we were told that the Aussie Olympians (bobsled and skeleton) did some training there a few weeks before. I can definitely recommend it if you're ever in the neighbourhood....
That night, after the kids were in bed, the other adults all decided to go out for a skate on the outdoor speed skating track. I don't even own skates so was happy to stay home. On the couch with a cup of tea as they got back, the first thing I'm told by a friend is "There's a bit of blood, but it's not as bad as it looks.." What?? Yep - hubby had crashed on the ice, and despite his helmet, opened up a cut above his eye, as well as hurting his shoulder. His eye was turning interesting shades of purple and swelling up before our eyes. Thankfully, one of our friends has paramedic experience, so she dashed off to the chemist and came back with supplies to patch him up. The biggest downside was that he missed his last day of skiing the next day (while I was staying home with the kids) as he couldn't see well enough. He has now sworn off skating!
It had been a great holiday but like all good things it had to end. We stopped in Saranac Lake on the drive home to check out their ice castle (seriously, they had a castle by the lake made of enormous blocks of ice) before heading back over the border and home.....to many loads of washing. An uneventful drive, although it started to snow quite heavily by the time we made it home. It's always good to sleep in your own bed again and certainly easier to get the twins to go to bed.
Of course, this time of year is also when Ottawa/Gatineau has their winter festival - Winterlude or Bal de Neige. The day after we arrived home, we headed across the river to check out their ice slides. Great fun. They had some that could fit the whole family, as well as loads of smaller ones. The kids all loved them, but the twins were a bit little to walk up the steep snowy hills themselves so hubby and I had to carry them up - so we lost interest well before they did! They had some other activities, but it was jam packed as the weather was mild, and hard to move around with lots of fresh snow, so we settled with ice slides and a Beavertail snack before coming home.
The next weekend we headed into Ottawa to check out the ice sculptures.Again, they were very impressive and again they had stuff for kids - blocks of coloured ice to 'build' with, as well as small coloured cubes to help build art with. All three loved it. We also caught the tail end of a timed ice sculpting challenge - it's amazing what they do with quite crude tools. It was a sunny day so the canal was busy with skaters too - no one in our family though!
Apart from that it's just been the usual busy. Dinner at a friend's house, playdates (including one we went to on sled as there was too much fresh snow on the footpath to consider taking the pram) a night ski (our local hill feels very small after Whiteface) and the usual school and playgroup routine. Today was interesting in that it was the warmest day we've had virtually since winter started (ie it was above zero) and it rained all day. With the snow banks everywhere there is nowhere for the rain to go, so there are massive puddles everywhere which will freeze overnight so we're expecting an icy day tomorrow!
The year is speeding away. This weekend we're planning to head to Mont Saint Marie for a day of skiing, next weekend there is a school dance and a night out and it's also only two weeks until the March break from school. Where does the time go???
So, on the last Saturday in January, we loaded up the trusty Odyssey full of clothes, gear and kids, popped the skis on the roof and hit the road to Lake Placid. The kids were good in the car, and the lunch stop in Cornwall was very exciting for them, as we found that the McDonalds had an indoor playground - a real rarity, so it was great for them to run and climb and burn off some energy. Crossing the border into the US is always a hassle, as we need to get out of the car, be fingerprinted etc, but thankfully it was super quiet and the staff were all friendly and smiled indulgently as the kids ran around. The drive through the Adirondacks into Lake Placid was pretty too, and we made good time and arrived mid-afternoon to our fabulous house. It was plenty big enough for 6 adults and 5 kids, with loads of rooms for everyone to sleep, 4 bathrooms, a fireplace, a converted deck area where the kids could play and be out of the way as well as a hot tub on the back deck. What more could you want?
Sunday dawned bright, sunny....and very cold. We all wore many layers and full face masks to cope with the -25 at the base and -35 at the summit of Whiteface mountain. At least it wasn't windy :) It was a good first day finding runs we liked on the mountain and we were all ready to come home at the end of the day. The parents were all taking turns to stay home with the kids, so the friend on duty that day looked a little worn out but the kids were all happy. On the second day we put the kids into daycare (the younger ones) and a ski and play day (the older two) and hit the slopes again. I decided to sign up for a lesson to improve my skills and was pleasantly surprised to find myself alone for my 2 hour group lesson. Good value! My instructor was a local so we had some good chats on the lifts and he gave me some suggestions of runs I would like, as well as of course honing my skiing. The third day I ended up being the only one of our friends skiing (hubby was having his turn with the kids) and it was cold again, with wind this time. It worked out okay though - I just got the gondola up the mountain every time. Sure it meant taking your skis on and off each time, but it's much warmer then being on a chairlift alone (which happened often as it wasn't very crowded midweek) and also much more conducive to chatting. One of the friendly ski patrol also pointed out where some deer were grazing under the gondola so I kept my eye out for them for the rest of the holiday - they had lovely fuzzy winter coats and looked super cute. The Wednesday was my fourth day of skiing straight so I was starting to feel a little tired. We had the kids in the daycare again which worked out well - by the end of the day when I'd had enough I skied across to the Kid's area and watched Miss 4 at the end of her afternoon lesson. She looked like she was having a ball - easily getting on and off the chairlift, turning and following her instructor with ease and even keeping her skis in parallel. Hubby and I are very happy with how she's taken to it.
After 4 days if skiing, I was ready to do some sightseeing. Hubby and I spent the next day (whilst another friend kindly watched the kids) checking out the Olympic venues. We went to the ski jump which is still used for training; you can catch the lift to the top and see just how mad they are to go down and leap off. The old stadium(s) (there was one from the 1932 games which they extended and built a new rink in for the 1980 games) are open to the public; we did a tour so got to hear lots of anecdotes. (Lots of cool stories about the early bobsledders and how mad they were - google pictures of the old bobsleds and you'll see why!!)There is also an Olympic museum attached to the stadium, which is quite small but has a few interesting bits and pieces. The highlight for us though was the bobsled experience. Yep - you can pay money to sit in a bobsled (with a driver and a brakeman to push you off) and hurtle down the track. Quite an intense experience and over very quickly!! I have a whole new respect for those athletes who sprint so quickly, then cram themselves into their sleds in seconds. The track is still used often for training - in fact we were told that the Aussie Olympians (bobsled and skeleton) did some training there a few weeks before. I can definitely recommend it if you're ever in the neighbourhood....
That night, after the kids were in bed, the other adults all decided to go out for a skate on the outdoor speed skating track. I don't even own skates so was happy to stay home. On the couch with a cup of tea as they got back, the first thing I'm told by a friend is "There's a bit of blood, but it's not as bad as it looks.." What?? Yep - hubby had crashed on the ice, and despite his helmet, opened up a cut above his eye, as well as hurting his shoulder. His eye was turning interesting shades of purple and swelling up before our eyes. Thankfully, one of our friends has paramedic experience, so she dashed off to the chemist and came back with supplies to patch him up. The biggest downside was that he missed his last day of skiing the next day (while I was staying home with the kids) as he couldn't see well enough. He has now sworn off skating!
It had been a great holiday but like all good things it had to end. We stopped in Saranac Lake on the drive home to check out their ice castle (seriously, they had a castle by the lake made of enormous blocks of ice) before heading back over the border and home.....to many loads of washing. An uneventful drive, although it started to snow quite heavily by the time we made it home. It's always good to sleep in your own bed again and certainly easier to get the twins to go to bed.
Of course, this time of year is also when Ottawa/Gatineau has their winter festival - Winterlude or Bal de Neige. The day after we arrived home, we headed across the river to check out their ice slides. Great fun. They had some that could fit the whole family, as well as loads of smaller ones. The kids all loved them, but the twins were a bit little to walk up the steep snowy hills themselves so hubby and I had to carry them up - so we lost interest well before they did! They had some other activities, but it was jam packed as the weather was mild, and hard to move around with lots of fresh snow, so we settled with ice slides and a Beavertail snack before coming home.
The next weekend we headed into Ottawa to check out the ice sculptures.Again, they were very impressive and again they had stuff for kids - blocks of coloured ice to 'build' with, as well as small coloured cubes to help build art with. All three loved it. We also caught the tail end of a timed ice sculpting challenge - it's amazing what they do with quite crude tools. It was a sunny day so the canal was busy with skaters too - no one in our family though!
Apart from that it's just been the usual busy. Dinner at a friend's house, playdates (including one we went to on sled as there was too much fresh snow on the footpath to consider taking the pram) a night ski (our local hill feels very small after Whiteface) and the usual school and playgroup routine. Today was interesting in that it was the warmest day we've had virtually since winter started (ie it was above zero) and it rained all day. With the snow banks everywhere there is nowhere for the rain to go, so there are massive puddles everywhere which will freeze overnight so we're expecting an icy day tomorrow!
The year is speeding away. This weekend we're planning to head to Mont Saint Marie for a day of skiing, next weekend there is a school dance and a night out and it's also only two weeks until the March break from school. Where does the time go???
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