After 15 hours of travel and arriving into Paris late last night, we spent the night at a hotel pretty much right at the airport. Though sort of accidental, it worked out well. We all got a good night’s rest before making our way into the city and therefore had {slightly} more patience while tackling the not so stroller-friendly train system. We arrived at the flat Brad and I stayed at during our very first spring break abroad just before lunchtime, got somewhat settled, and then headed out on the day’s adventures – walking down cobblestone streets, soaking in the sunshine, admiring cherry blossom trees, eating baguettes wrapped in brown paper, and stopping at parks and playgrounds along the way. This was our day…
This weekend, after nearly 3 years of rarely leaving my little lady for more than a couple of hours at a time, I spent a weekend away in Whistler with my best girlfriends from high school. While I was a teensy bit anxious about it all, the fact that she was staying home with her Papa made it much easier than if it was the both of us going away at the same time. That being said, my mama tendencies made sure the house was in order and the fridge and cupboards were well-stocked before leaving. I also knew I wanted to leave a little something special for Grae for each day I was away so that she knew I was thinking of her and would have something from her mama if she was missing me just a little bit. Each of the bags contained a little note and all of the items needed to do a fun activity of some sort – something I knew Miss G would love and would be helpful if there were any ‘lulls’ throughout the weekend.
Here’s a peek at what was inside…
The day before I was leaving for my trip, Gracen came to me and said with big eyes, “I have an idea!” She explained an elaborate ‘hockey station’ that would involve moving our living room carpet, sweeping underneath, making nets, and creating little hockey sticks. When I saw this set of miniature sticks and balls, I knew they’d be a total hit.
Knowing that Brad and Grae planned on visiting Science World, I left our membership card and a gift card that could be used for snacks during the visit in the Saturday bag. The visit would have been enough, but since one of our favourite exhibits involves launching parachutes, I included a couple of inexpensive parachute guys to experiment with afterwards.
On days when Brad gets up with Grae and lets me sleep in, the two of them sometimes enjoy some morning television together (a rarity in our house). I decided to go with a lazy Sunday theme and pack up the makings of a special movie morning – a couple of videos and some yummy treats (wild rice sticks and unsweetened dried mango for Miss G and popped chips for Brad).
Just in case, I also included a ‘bonus bag’ to be used if needed. Inside were a few thick cardboard pieces, a box of sugar cubes, some white glue, and instructions to use the items to build sugar cube structures of any sort.
After a lovely weekend filled with reminiscing, 11:30 breakfasts, and quiet afternoons reading at the beach, I returned home to a quiet house. It took all I had not to go into Gracen’s room and snuggle up with her as she napped, and when she did finally wake, after a whole lot of vibrating, leg kicking, hugging, and ‘I missed you’s’, the first thing she said was, “Mama, can we open my last bag together?! I’ve been waiting for you to come home to do it!” That right there told me that the activity bags had been a hit.
Together, we opened the final bag (the bonus one) and sat on a blanket underneath our plum tree building structures out of sugar cubes. It was the perfect finish to my first weekend away.
♥
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Today we left the lovely Okanagan eager to get home, unpack our suitcases, and get back to life as usual… This final leg of our Christmas holiday adventures made up hours 32 to 39.5 of our trek, and let me tell you, we were ready to be home. While the first half of our trip was uneventful (other than the fact that the Connector was a skating rink), not long after passing the old toll booth centre, the traffic came to a standstill. I find it easy to get impatient in these situations… Gracen had just fallen asleep moments before and it would have been incredibly lovely to gain some distance while enjoying an hour of silence, but that wasn’t in the cards for today. An hour and a half later(long after she’d awoken from her slumber), we were still sitting in the middle of nowhere, now attempting to entertain a toddler strapped into her rear-facing seat. Of course, we got through it. When we did get moving again, we eventually passed an accident scene where an SUV had been crushed between the meridian and a semi truck. And then it struck… That mixed feeling of absolute sickness and pure gratefulness all at once.
How lucky we are to have had the opportunity to wait. How lucky we’re home safely after 3 weeks of winter road tripping. We’re home safe and sound, and that’s all that matters.
♥
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Whew. It was a whirlwind, but GREAT day today. This morning, we packed up the vehicle and made the trip up to St. Paul, the teeny tiny town that my mom, dad, brother, and I were all born in. The roads were good, our little traveller was patient as ever, and the town was virtually unchanged. In fact, the street lamps were still lined with the exact shooting star decorations that hung every holiday season of my childhood {which I kind of love}.
First, we stopped off at my Gido’s place (my dad’s dad and Gracen’s ‘big Gido’) for a visit… It had been quite a while since we last saw him, and we had a lovely visit. He was absolutely amazed by all of the things Miss G can now do and together, they sang possibly the most heartwarming rendition of Rudloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I’ve ever heard.
Afterwards, we popped by my Grandma and Grandpa’s house (my mom’s parents) to see both them and my Auntie Lou. By this time, we had long passed Grae’s nap time and the crazy overtired energy had kicked in, but it was wonderful to visit anyways. Grandma and Grandpa had put together a big spread of food, Auntie Lou spoiled G with a bag full of clothes and activities (just like she did for me when I was little), and we chatted until it was time to hit the road back to Edmonton again.
Lucky for us, Gracen was sound asleep before we even turned out onto the highway and we enjoyed a big portion of our ride amidst a gorgeous sunset.
We are so, so lucky to have good weather and an awesome little traveller. Today we’re back on the road and headed to Edmonton to visit my Baba and Opa, as well as sneak in a quick trip to St. Paul to visit my other grandparents. Fingers crossed it all goes well!
Well, after a lovely week in the Okangan, it was time to head back to reality today. The good news was that the Coquihala was open this time around, but the bad news was that the roads were ROUGH. It was slow going pretty much the entire way down and they ended up shutting down the highway shortly after we had passed through. Luckily for us, Gracen did better than we ever could expect her to do on such a long trip. Being strapped into a rear-facing car seat for 8 hours is no fun, you know. As much fun as our trip was, it’ll be nice to get Grae back into her own crib and get back to our little routine.
Well, the roads didn’t want to cooperate with us today… We checked the highway reports early this morning to find out that the Coquihala had been closed due to a huge accident and they weren’t expecting to open it for a long while.
Our options included heading home in the usual direction and taking the detour route (which seemed to be the longest, busiest option), or heading home on the slow and windy Crow’s Nest highway and hoping for the best. Of course, we picked the Crow’s Nest. The roads were snowy and slippery in some parts, but all in all, they weren’t terrible. By the time we made it to Princeton, we’d gone through the worst of it and decided to stop for a little break.
Saying that Gracen was ecstatic to be out of the vehicle is an understatement. Sadly, after letting her cruise around the snowy parking lot for a good long while, we had to strap her back into her seat for the rest of the trip. She was not a happy camper to say the least.
The rest of our trip consisted of clear roads and a couple side of the highway potty breaks. It took us well over 8.5 hours to get here, but at least we have no where we need to be for the next 7 days. Yay for that.