A Little Mountain Getaway

Last week, we decided on a whim, to head to the mountains for the weekend! Meaning, we booked a hotel room Friday afternoon, packed that evening and loaded up the car Saturday morning. Who says all spontaneity dies once you have children? ;)

We didn't have too much of an agenda - the hotel we booked had a pool with a waterslide, and we knew we wanted lots of time to enjoy it with Sully. He loves swimming right now, and loves going down waterslides, so we knew it would be a big hit with him (it was!). We stayed at the Best Western in Canmore, and I would definitely stay there again. The rooms are nice and clean, there was a fridge and microwave (a definite must when traveling with kids!), and a fireplace! Plus, my other must have when staying at a hotel: hot continental breakfast. Nothing makes you feel like you're getting your monies worth than a free breakfast for you and your kids! Unlimited juice for everyone!

On Saturday, we headed out past our hotel, to Banff, where we had lunch and then walked around for about an hour. It was unfortunately raining all day, but it wasn't too cold so it wasn't miserable. Plus, Sully had a blast jumping in all the puddles and throwing snowballs on the sidewalks (snow plus light rain equals the best snowballs).

The hotel had a late check-in time of 4pm, so around then, we made our way from Banff back to the hotel. We changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool for a few hours. Emmy slept in her bassinet the entire time, which allowed me to get a few runs in down the slide and some time in the hot tub. We ordered pizza in that night for supper and when it was time for bed, Jim and I wished each other the best of luck! Haha! We chose a room with two queen beds so that Jim and Sully could sleep in one, and Emmy and I slept in the other. Sully was pretty restless all night and fell out of bed once (oops!), but thankfully Emmy slept well, other than needing to be fed and changed once in the middle of the night.

We didn't have time to go swimming again Sunday morning, but we did take advantage of the hot breakfast, and then once we were packed up, we headed back out towards Banff to drive around and explore. There's so much out that way that I've never actually seen and we made lots of notes of places we will return to once it's a) warmer out and b) the kids are older.

Then on our way back into the city, we detoured a bit towards Kananaskis and attempted to hike to Troll Falls. I did this hike on a girls weekend trip just over a year ago, and it's an easy, family friendly hike. I knew I wanted to return with Jim and Sully one day, but unfortunately, all the rain turned the trail into a sheet of ice. We managed to get about 3/4 of the way by walking on the edges of the trail where there was still some untouched snow, but it was challenging for Sully and for me since I was wearing Emmy. But my family was a great sport about it and Sully walked the entire time, so I was proud of him! I'm sad they didn't get to see the frozen waterfalls, but we will be back!

And that was about it! Our little hike ended around 5:30pm, so we hopped back in the vehicle and made the drive home. Despite the logistics of traveling with a toddler and a newborn (ohhhh the logistics!!), we had a really nice time. The weather didn't end up being as nice as we had thought it was going to be, which made everything a little bit more challenging - like stopping to nurse and change diapers - everything had to be done in the vehicle with it running. But I think we made the best of it, and a trip to the mountains, no matter how short, is always so good for the soul.

Weekending: 'Tis the Season!

Phew! What an incredibly busy weekend, but in the best possible way! I haven't felt inclined to share our weekend happenings lately because they've mostly been filled with home projects or lots of laziness. Or a combination of both. But this past weekend was crammed full of family and friends time and even though it's bitterly cold outside, it was a perfect weekend.

Friday

Originally, Friday night was supposed to be Jim's company Christmas party. I wasn't too keen on going given that I'm 37 weeks pregnant and needed to go buy a new dress that fit, but since my Aunt and her husband were more than happy to babysit we figured we might as well go and get a free dinner out of it! Then two days before the party, Jim called to tell me we weren't going to as it wasn't a semi-formal dinner, it was a casual cocktail/appy evening. Ya, not happening in my condition or in this weather. So I gladly returned that dress and instead we headed out to dinner and a movie (never happens!). The timing and location of where the movies were playing that we wanted to see just didn't work for us, so we ended up going to a cheap theatre and watching Deepwater Horizon, the film based on the true story of the BP oil spill. (Mark Wahlberg sold me). It was actually really good and really interesting to see the events of this horrific event from the people directly involved on the rig.

Anyway, afterwards we headed to Phoenix Grill for dinner because I've been wanting to take Jim there ever since the Blog Squad went after our OTF workout back in the spring. Funnily enough though, even though everything on their menu sounds delicious, I ended up ordering the exact same salad I had last time and it's still one of the best salads I've ever ordered at a restaurant.

We grabbed Turtle sundaes from McDonald's on the way home (SO good!) and then ate them while watching F is for Family on Netflix.

Sully had a blast decorating a gingerbread train while we were gone, and clearly didn't miss us at all!

Saturday

I was up early to head out the door to pick up my Baby Box and run a few errands before meeting Jim and Sully at Sully's last gymnastic class of this session. He was so proud to go up and get his certificate at the end. And I was so proud of him because most of the time he's so shy in situations like that and won't go up on his own.

Afterwards, the boys ran some more errands while I headed home to get ready for the annual Blogger Christmas party that I was hosting this year! We were missing several of the girls, but we still had a great time chatting and catching up, eating delicious food, doing our gift exchange and taking cheesy group photos! After I spend time like this with these women, I'm always overwhelmed by how lucky I am to have found such a good and honest group of friends. Our blogs may have brought us together, but it's our friendships that bond us.

{Nicole//Kris//Leigh//Jen//Me//Ange//Alison}

Leigh and I also exchanged our Blogger Christmas Swap gifts, as we were paired up this year. Leigh spoiled me with not one, but two ornaments that are totally me, plus some other goodies!

Sunday

I've been sleeping terribly lately so I opted to sleep in the basement Saturday night hoping to get a good nights sleep and not keep Jim up with my constant repositioning. I tell ya, the day I can once again sleep on my back and give my hips a much needed rest can't come soon enough! Luckily, I had a pretty good sleep and slept in till 10 a.m.! After we all ate breakfast, we got to work tackling clutter and some final home projects. Tomorrow Mad Maids is coming in to do a deep clean of my house and to say I'm so excited would be an understatement! This is the adult equivalent of a kid on Christmas morning!

Anyway, it's time for this pregnant momma to climb into bed and read a few pages of her book before going to sleep!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!


Tell me something fun you did this weekend! 

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

It was a cold and snowy Thanksgiving this year, but honestly, I feel like it added an element of warmth and coziness that I enjoy when hanging out with family all weekend.

It started snowing on Friday and we debated waiting until Saturday morning to make the drive up to Red Deer, but at the last minute we loaded up the car and headed out late in the evening. I was already packed and ready to go, and there's something I like about waking up in the morning and already being where I'm supposed to be, rather than rushing to get somewhere the next day.

We spent the weekend at my sister-in-law's place and while we had originally planned to come home on Sunday, we ended up staying until late Monday afternoon. The holiday weekends we spend at Patty's are some of my favourites. We all just hang out in our PJ's, eat lots of delicious food, watch movies, play games and drink wine (ginger ale for me this weekend!). Sully adores being around his big cousins and the two dogs, and it was just really nice to have a weekend with no agenda, no driving, no running errands and no where else to be.

I didn't take very many pictures, and there's no need for a play by play of what we did(n't) do, but here's a few snapshots to capture the memories. I'm so very thankful for my family (those near and far), our health, good food, warm beds, nature walks, and our country.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends & family! I hope you were able to enjoy some time surrounded by the people you love.

Weekending: While Daddy's Away...

I don't even want to type it out, but here it is: this was officially the last weekend of summer. How is this possible?! Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and I'm hoping we still get a few many more nice weekends to enjoy.

I'm backing things up to Thursday this time because I have photos I want to share from our day. Sully and I spent the late morning and early afternoon exploring the woods and paths with Nicole and her two kiddos. It ended up being a hot day and we both could have sworn we walked for miles that day! The hills were no joke! Sully always takes a bit to warm up to other kids, but by the end of our big walk, he was pretty smitten with Nicole's little girl, and getting those two to keep up with us was a struggle and a half (she won him over with her M&Ms!).

It was late afternoon by the time we got back home, and my mom was just arriving! Since her last visit out was a short one, she planned to come back for a longer visit and also keep me company while Jim went to Vegas for the weekend.

Friday morning I was up before 7 a.m. to drive Jim to the airport and when I got home, Sully and my mom were both still sleeping so I got to enjoy the quiet to myself. Later in the morning I headed out for my gestational diabetes screening (fun, fun!) and to run a few errands. Luckily, I'm one of those weirdos who actually thinks the glucose drink doesn't taste bad! Also, an hour to sit and read a good book by myself is like a mini-vacation, ha!

Unfortunately, Sully was too excited to have Gramma visiting and would not nap that day, and the evening was a bit of a disaster. I ended up putting him to bed at 6:45 p.m. (super early for him), praying that he would just sleep through till the morning, but as my luck would have it, he woke up about an hour later begging for "breakfast". Given he hadn't eaten much at all that day, I wasn't surprised, but once he went back to bed, he was so restless and whined and cried for more than an hour. I also finally started Gilmore Girls from season one that night and got through a few episodes. I've never watched the show in it's entirety, but I'm thinking I saw more episodes than I think I did. Doesn't matter, I'm already (re)hooked!

Saturday morning, I finished off One True Loves in bed (SO good!!) before Sully woke up. We had breakfast, got ready and then headed off to his first gymnastics class of the season! We decided to switch gymnastic clubs to one closer to home this time, and I'm worried I made a bad decision. This new club felt very chaotic, the coaches seemed pushy and not very engaging, and Sully was like a deer in headlights for the first 10 minutes. He did snap out of it eventually and seemed to enjoy the class, but I'm hoping this was just a case of first class of the season and that things quiet down as the weeks progress.

After the class, we popped into a lighting store near by and I picked up a new ceiling fan for our master bedroom and a light for our family room. Then we stopped at the Farmers' Market for a cappuccino from Analog and a late lunch. The evening was spent doing laundry, eating supper, bath time, and then my mom and I watched a really good, heartfelt movie: The Good Lie with Reese Witherspoon, which is a story about The Lost Boys of Sudan. (Check it out on Netflix!)

Sunday, my mom had plans to meet up with an old friend, so I decided to take Sully on the train to downtown as I needed to pick something up. Riding the train is seriously one of his favourite things to do, so even though driving to run my errand would have been both faster and easier, I knew taking the train instead was worth the extra time (and walking) involved. We walked around a lot and played  on the grounds of the Memorial Park Library where Sully was entertained for almost an hour playing around the fountain and throwing dirt rocks. At one point I told him we needed to go and he told me "Go read your book, mama". Oh sweet boy of mine, if only I had thought to bring my book!

I also did some impulse shopping (something I never do!) when I found out Zulily was having a big sale on TOMS. There were actually several pairs I really wanted, but in the end I went with these two:

We ended up being downtown for longer than I had planned, which meant no naps again today, but luckily we went the entire day without a tantrum. #momwin. Bedtime also went much smoother and my mom and I watched another movie (Far From the Madding Crowd) before she went to bed and I went upstairs to work on this post!


How was your weekend?

Have you watched any good movies on Netflix recently?

Weekending: InFlight Fitness, Girl Time & Painting

Good morning, friends! It's been awhile since I've done a weekend recap (probably because my weekends usually aren't very exciting), so I thought it was time for one!

Friday ended up being a beautiful day, and Sully and I spent a good portion of it walking around the neighbourhood in search of dandelions. Seriously, walks are painfully slow when you stop to pick every single dandelion, but the sheer joy he gets when he spots the next one is totally worth it. These paths are also home to many, many dragonflies and he had so much fun saying "hi, dragon!" to them, haha!

I was exhausted come Friday evening and didn't accomplish much more than reading a bit of my book before crawling into bed.

Saturday I was out the door around 10 a.m. for an InFlight Fitness class that Ange had organized for the Blog Squad. Even though there were a few things I couldn't participate in during the class since I'm pregnant, it was a ton of fun and I will definitely be back when I'm not pregnant! Come back for my full re-cap of the class on Thursday!

{Jen//Ange//Me//Leigh//Alison//Nicole//Leslie}

After the class, Ange, Nicole and I went for lunch at Ace Coffee & Diner. I ordered the Grilled Cheese with fries (delicious!) and Nicole ordered the Chicken Sandwich and we shared (also delicious!). The atmosphere at this diner is really cute (total retro vibe going on), but I found the menu a bit pricey and a lot of the dishes had mushrooms in it which is a no-go for me. Luckily, my food was tasty, even if overpriced.

After lunch, I ran a few errands on my way home and then joined my boys for another big dandelion-hunting walk. Once Sully was in bed, Jim put on a horror movie (Cabin Fever), while I half-watched. My dreams are just too vivid during pregnancy to want to watch a horror movie right now!

Sunday, we had a bit of a lazy morning while also tidying up the house, and Jim prepared our bonus room for painting. We are also in the process of taping and then painting our master bathroom and bedroom, but decided to tackle the bonus room first since it's a much easier room to paint. We aren't doing anything drastic in it, just lightening it up a bit and getting rid of the rough builder beige paint on the walls. I headed out around 2 p.m. over to Leslie's house for a Lorna Jane Trunk Show. Obviously, I just went for the girl talk and snacks!

{bonus room: the before}

Once I got home, Jim had the bonus room painted and it was time to eat diner. We then taped off another wall for painting (seriously, painting never ends!), bathed Sully, played, and now we are relaxing on the couch.

This weekend went by WAY too fast and I'm sad it's over already. Here's hoping we at least get some nice weather this week!


What did you get up to this weekend?

An Extra Long Weekend with Gramma

This weekend was extra special because we got to spend it with my mom. She arrived late on Thursday night, and then left this morning, which is why I'm just getting around to writing this post now. We hadn't seen my mom since January, so her visit was LONG overdue. And as a nice surprise, she brought along my grandma for the visit! My grandma lives out on a farm north of Edmonton, so I don't get to see her very often at all. Sully was over the moon to have Gramma and GG here, and he never let my mom out of his site for very long!

Friday, Jim had to head off to work, so we hung out at home with my mom and grandma. The weather was beautiful and in the afternoon, my aunt and her husband joined us. We ordered Chinese food for supper, and Sully thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by so much family. He even got to go on two walks with my aunt and her little dog, Oliver, who Sully calls "Aw-we", which I think were one of the big highlights of his day! Sadly, I have no photos from this day. I really need to step up my photo-taking game!

On Saturday, Jim and I took advantage of my mom being here and headed out when Sully went down for his nap so we could run a bunch of errands childfree. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to lug a toddler in to each store with you! We arrived home around dinnertime and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Sully and my mom.

Sunday at noon, we had a mini photoshoot booked, so we headed north to Confederation Park for that. It was so hot out that we didn't stick around to explore after our photos were done seeing as how I had failed to pack a hat or sunscreen for Sully. We passed Peters' Drive-In on the way home, so we stopped there for a late lunch. I honestly can't say if I've ever been there before or not! Their milkshake (we got chocolate) was amazing! And their onion rings were perfection too. Just the right amount of batter to onion ratio.

We headed home after that and I ended up having a nap while Sully napped. That evening, Jim took me out for dinner to The Italian Farmhouse in Bragg Creek. It was such a quaint little place and the food was amazing. The menu isn't overwhelmingly large, but it was still hard to decide what to order. I ended up going with the Braciola Di Maiale, and Jim got the Pollo.

{stuffed pork chop with apple & fig in an apple cider & sage sauce,
with beets, broccolini, pumpkin & garlic mashed potatoes}

{prosciutto & sage stuffed chicken breast, topped with a marsala demi-glaze, with the same sides as mine}

After dinner, we drove to two near by campsites just to check them out, and as we were about to leave the second one, I asked Jim to stop at the washroom for me. When I was walking back to the truck, Jim goes "we have a flat tire"! Not the words you ever want to hear at 930pm on a Sunday night, in the woods, where you have no cell service! Luckily, my husband is smart and handy and he had the tire changed in about 20 minutes, just as the sun was setting. Neither of us has ever had to change a flat tire before so it was actually kind of a good experience to go through. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but not tired enough to not watch one more episode of season 2 of Bloodline - we only have one episode left and I'm so sad!

Yesterday was a quiet and lazy day. My grandma has been at my aunt's since Saturday, so I just spent the day hanging out with my mom and Sully. I headed off around 630pm to my weekly Bachelorette girls night at Ange's place. And that pretty much brings us to today (Tuesday). My mom left before lunch today, and then because I was feeling sad, I hustled Sully out of the door and off to the library and then to the grocery store. It was so nice having my mom here even if the visit was much too short. I'm already looking forward to when she can come back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!