After a couple of years away, it was so nice to be able to spend Thanksgiving weekend up in the Okanagan with family this year. Sadly, our visit also involved saying goodbye to one of Brad’s uncles, but overall, it was filled with loads of visiting, gorgeous fall weather, time outdoors, and {way too much} delicious food.
Here’s a peek at our weekend in iPhone photos…
Books for the trip.
After dropping off our bags at our lovely little flat, filling our fridge with groceries, having some lunch, and a taking a family nap, we headed out to explore our home for the next week… Heidelberg. There’s no doubt that we absolutely love it here. We were here for Christmas 2013, we came back last Christmas, and this time around we figured we’d break up our long trip home to Canada’s west coast and spend some time seeing the city in the summertime. Grae spent most of our walk pushing her face into flowers and soaking in their smell, filling her pockets with rocks and leaves, watching bees work, and collecting clover. She’s just so thrilled to be surrounded by nature. It’s going to be a good week.
Here are a few iPhone snaps from our day…
Brad’s special birthday request this year? Doing nothing special. No going out, no get together, no gifts… Just the 3 of us hanging out.
Woohoo! Christmas vacation is officially here and I couldn’t be more excited. After much debate, we decided to spend this year’s holidays in Heidelberg, Germany once again {and I’m so glad we did}. While it’s always nice to see new places, Heidelberg is pretty much perfect for us when it comes to Christmas vacation spots. Besides being beautiful and very Christmassy this time of year, it’s also quite an affordable European vacation destination. The weather is cold {just the way we like Christmas to be} but not too cold, the city is friendly and walkable, and rental flats are readily available. There’s an outdoor skating rink and several small Christmas markets, and you can walk around the city sipping on a warm glühwein day or night. Need I say more?
We spent most of our day today in transit, and let me say – Miss G is a total trooper. Not only did she let both Brad and I sleep on the plane for a little bit {while watching part of Frozen, albeit, but hey – sometimes you’ve got to take what you can get}, but she also sat sardined in between bags on a very tightly packed train, transferred to train number two without an issue, and then walked for at least a half hour or so in the rain to our flat {well past her bedtime} while commenting on how walking was really good exercise for your body. We arrived to our lovely little flat, checked it out, and then promptly put our girl to bed for the night. We did run into the upstairs neighbours who {very kindly} let us know that they’re having a party tonight, but with any luck, we’ll all get a good sleep and be ready to explore Heidelberg tomorrow morning. Here’s hoping!
Was there any way I could resist buying these glasses for Miss G this summer? Nope, there certainly wasn’t.
Today was one of those days were you roll out of bed, do nothing all morning, and then when lunchtime rolls around, realize you’ve done nothing all morning and kick it into high gear for the rest of the day. Despite a very emotional couple of hours in the afternoon, it was exactly what we needed. Our morning was filled with books, cuddles, manicures, pretend play, and Miss G’s first ever taste of {dark} chocolate chip pancakes, while the afternoon took us into tear-apart-the-house-and-clean-and-reorganize-everything mode. Gracen was the best little helper and kept saying, ‘Sure! Of course I’ll do that for you, Mama. I’ll always help you.’ It pretty much melted my heart. Then there were a couple very emotional hours that were soothed by a candlelit lavender bath, followed by a comfort food dinner and bedtime. Ahhh…
manicure station // mama’s turn
surprise pancakes // chocolate chip!
organized // clean, finally
lavender bath // deconstructed lasagna
I came up with this idea on a whim the other morning, and it turned out to be a ton of fun! Miss G and I were out playing in her playhouse when I realized how little time we had left to spend surrounded by brightly coloured flowers, big old trees, green grass, and a mountain-filled backdrop before heading back to the Middle East next week. It started with a quick iPhone pic of a particularly beautiful flower, and before I knew it, I had decided I’d create a backyard photo scavenger hunt comprised of all of the pretty little details around the yard.
A fairy costume, gardening gloves, and an enthusiastic version of ‘Let It Go’…
There’s no doubt that Miss G knows how to finish the day off right.
Well, after 30 hours in transit, only 6 of which Miss G spent sleeping, we arrived home in Canada this afternoon. {WOOHOO!} So how was travelling alone with a 3 year old for over a day? It was alright, actually. We skipped bringing a stroller along and didn’t use our hotel voucher during our 9 hour layover, but we did come prepared with lots of activities and yummy healthy snacks. The first part of the journey, the part that happened during the middle of the night from Kuwait to Germany, was a little rough. Grae was tired, I was tired, and the full service that took place after we were up in the air wasn’t all that helpful. After landing in Frankfurt, however, things began looking up. We roamed the airport in pajamas, found some great play areas, pulled out a bunch of activities, and got a nice lunch. We started our next {9.5 hour} flight to Calgary with a 3 our snooze for Miss G, which meant that I got a much needed break and some time to recharge. We arrived in Calgary to a 2 hour wait in passport control, but by then, we were too excited to be home to let that get us down.
Here’s our trip in iPhone photos…
