Our First Vacation as a Family of Three

I'm not sure where this last month has gone, but it's almost the middle of October and I have a backlog of drafted posts to finish and publish. While sometimes I'm tempted to just move on forward, there are certain things I wish to document in this little space, starting with a recap on our trip to Nova Scotia last month.

Jim and I go to Nova Scotia to visit his family every year, but this year was extra special because this was our first vacation as a family of three. Most of our time in Nova Scotia is spent just hanging out in the home Jim grew up in and a few beach visits. My very first trip ever to NS back in 2008, Jim played tour guide and showed me all the sights there were to see. Since then, we've been pretty content to just stay put at his parent's place. We discussed taking a few day trips this visit, but once we got there, we decided to just relax and enjoy our short time with Jim's parents. We'll sightsee when Sully is older!

I don't have a lot of photos to share, but here are some of my favourite ones from our trip, enjoy!

*****

Sully couldn't get enough of his Papa. These two were instant best buds and Sully found everything John said or did absolutely fascinating.

Sully and Nanny:

Sully meeting his great-Nanny Rankin. He's her 10th great grandchild! 

Despite missing out on true beach-going weather, we did spend one afternoon at Melmerby Beach, which is the beach Jim grew up going to:

And of course, no visit out East would be complete without a lobster dinner!

This last set of photos were taken on the front porch of the house Jim grew up in and the house that his dad built with his own two hands. There's a lot of memories in this house and I think one of the biggest reasons why I love visiting there so much is because as soon as your walk in the back door, you feel like you are home. It's pretty neat that we get to show Sully exactly where his daddy grew up.

Till next time, Nova Scotia!

Farewell, Nova Scotia

So we've been back home for a little under a week now. Vacations always fly by way too fast, and I always find myself wishing we had "just one more day". I easily could spend a month at my in-laws place, except I'd probably gain 15 lbs from all the relaxing, book reading and eating that occurs. I know this is where I'm supposed to talk about books, but I thought I'd share how we spent the rest of our trip from where I left off. Really, I'm just stalling in writing about all the books I've read lately.

We spent another evening at Melmerby Beach. We literally had the beach all to ourselves and walked the entire length of it. It was peaceful, calm and like something out of a movie.

Jim's parents. How cute are they?

We ate some more seafood - my favorite: Mussels!

We spent a day and night in Halifax with Jim's folks. It was chilly but we walked along the harbour downtown.

Then we spent the night at Casino Nova Scotia! In honour of the 100th anniversary since the sinking of the Titanic, they had a replica of the Titanic Grand Staircase, which was obviously a photo opportunity just waiting to happen:

We went to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia for the re-launching of the Bluenose II. Unfortunately, it was a dreary, rainy day which really put a damper on the festivities that had been planned, but we dressed prepared and managed to enjoy the day. Lunenburg is full of history and charm and I'd love to spend a weekend there in one of it's many B&B's and pop into all the little shops.

We met up in Lunenburg with Jim's aunt and uncle, Ethel and Keith and explored the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic with them.

Keith and Ethel have a cottage in Greenfield, Nova Scotia, which is about a 45 minute drive from Lunenburg. They live in Nova Scotia during the summers and then Florida in the winters. These two know how to retire! We spent a night at their lovely cottage on the lake, but this is the only photo I took:

This was our view from the room Jim and I slept in. Doesn't get much better than that!

Many a round of Scat and Pass the Ace were played. Luckily for me, Jim's family loves card games as much as I do! As long as I can stay in the game past John, I'm happy. Jim's cousin Jennifer had a baby last year and we got to celebrate Wyatt's first birthday with him. Here's the whole family playing cards (after Wyatt went to bed of course):

Our last few days we made our rounds, saying hello and goodbye to family and friends and just enjoying being with Jim's parents. I feel truly blessed to have in-laws that I love spending time with.

As for the reading I accomplished while on vacation, I managed to read three out of the four books I brought with me. Summer Sisters took waaaaay longer to read than I had anticipated. I just didn't have that "must devour now" feeling with it as I did with On the Island and Love Anthony. Unfortunately, I didn't get to The Thorn Birds, and while it's on the back burner while I read The Grapes of Wrath, I still hope to get to it this fall.

And as hard as it is to say good-bye to Jim's parents, it's made a bit easier knowing you are coming home to this face:

Nova Scotia, We Have Arrived!

On Friday night, Jim and I caught a red-eye from Edmonton to Nova Scotia to visit his family (my family!) and friends for 10 days. It's been two years since we were last out here. I love visiting his parents. They live in a large, beautiful house on a big piece of land, that Jim's dad built with his own hands. Even though I didn't grow up here, this house just feels like home. People always ask me "what are you going to see, what are you going to do while you're there", and while I'd love to provide them with some elaborate itinerary, to be honest, I love just coming here and being. Sometimes just hanging out with the people you love, with NO itinerary, is the best vacation there is.

With that being said, once we caught up on sleep and kicked jet-lag in the ass, we did have a rather productive day today. And by productive I mean, read, eat, stop at the beach, check out a cemetery, eat, shop, eat some more and then get ready to watch a movie in our PJ's. And in case you don't believe me, I have proof!

Even though it's too cold to swim in the ocean, it's still nice enough to walk along the beach, especially since we pretty much had the beach all to ourselves! This is the beach Jim spent his childhood at.

On our way home from the beach, we stopped at Greenwood Cemetery to see where Jim's dad's grandfather was buried. These pictures don't do this cemetery justice - it's the coolest (and oldest) cemetery I have ever seen. As soon as we spotted the first 'Fraser' tombstone, Jim and I made a game out of who could spot the most 'Fraser' graves. We lost count once we got over a dozen, at which point I jokingly exclaimed that I couldn't believe I had given up my much-less common maiden name for their dime-a-dozen one!

After the cemetery we went home to freshen up (and eat a snack), before heading out to one of the used book stores in town, The Downtown Book Exchange.  Just because I'm on vacation does not mean I stop scouting for good book deals ;)  I'm proud to report that Jim's dad bought the most books!

Book shopping built up an appetite so we headed to Murphy's for their famous fish & chips.

Clearly our eyes were bigger than our stomachs! But it was soooo yummy!

After dinner we popped into Winner's to have a look around and then over to Superstore. Somehow, the one thing I forgot to pack was pajamas. Jim didn't get why this was a bad thing - har har, but I love hanging out in pajama pants in the evenings (and Jim's mom is a just a wee bit shorter than me). Luckily, Joe clothing had some PJ's on sale and I scored these bad boys for 7 bucks! When Jim saw me come down the stairs he exclaimed: "You look like a pink nightmare!"  (Bonus points if you know the movie reference!). Then he also said they came with my own set of testicles. I married a comedian, guys.