Looking East

This week our family has been feeling a little nostalgic.

 Maybe it's the craziness of my hubby's hours (he had a few days that lasted until 2am in the studio)...

maybe it's the beautiful September weather that still feels like summer...

it could be that we were stuck in the house for a day and the boys were getting restless and I may have mentioned once or twice how nice it was to have a large house with room to run around...

perhaps it was visiting the local beach and the only sealife we found was 20 or 30 tiny crabs and they were all dead (no hermit crab racing here)...

or maybe it's the fact that Lobster season is over and we didn't have any this year (all but one of us thoroughly enjoyed lobster seasons for three years).

 But, everyone in the family has been missing the Maritimes.

All of us.

 Every day for a week.

 I can't seem to get away from it.

 I pull a random book off the shelf and it is "Above Atlantic Canada", I grab another and it is Anne of Green Gables.

I turn on the TV and Chef Michael Smith is cooking "at home" in Prince Edward Island.

I apologize for the lousy phone photo, but that is me and my daughter and chef Michael Smith in PEI.

 I walk into the kitchen and my daughter is looking at photos on the labtop, scrolling through the past few years...

sigh...

and to top it off, just for fun I pulled up the MLS listings for our current location with homes starting around 1.5 million for a fixer upper...switch to the Maritimes and a similar house will set you back less then 100 thousand. With 1.5 million you can buy your own island or hundreds of acres, or an estate. I do love Vancouver and think the next few years will be a great adventure for our family. But, I am still dreaming of my farm...

and maybe some lobster.

Vancouver...

Just a quick note to say how excited I am about taking a little road trip tomorrow (I am sooo do for a road trip)...



We are heading down to Vancouver to pick up the keys to our "new" townhouse. We are so excited and a little nervous. While we have been to Vancouver numerous times, aside from a nine month stay in Calgary we have never lived in a city. We have always lived in small towns and will be sure to have a period of adjustment.

(**warning**...going off on a tangent here...)
Especially me...I am one of the few small town people who always locks and deadbolts her doors at all times...I take after my granny who used to lock the door to mow the lawn. I am a little nervous about the freedoms my kids have enjoyed running around my parent's farm and playing up and down our little street in small town Nova Scotia...I've been trying to tell them things are a little different in the city...without scaring them. My granny always drilled into me how many people were out there waiting to snatch me and I grew up not far from Vancouver in a time when getting "snatched" was a very real possibility (terrible serial killer on the loose). I really want them to have fun...but be safe at the same time. It is hard to find the right balance.

ANYWAY...

aside from that minor detail, I am really excited about the move to the city. I have a lot of fun memories of Vancouver and there will be so many things to do. My boys are really excited about being able to take the city bus...(I think I would rather take the bus than try to find parking for my Yukon Denali in downtown Vancouver) and I am excited about the restaurants, shopping, sightseeing, beaches (my kids are also really excited about exploring the Pacific coast and making sandcastles "that are really the colour of castles instead of red"). Living so close to the beach should help my kids get over missing the Atlantic beaches (although Lobster season is here and I don't think anything will make up for us missing that!) I am also really looking forward to experiencing university life and going to some lectures that are open to the public.

But...I am getting a little ahead of myself. We are only going for the week-end to pick up keys, measure the townhouse to see what we can fit in it and explore the neighbourhood a little...and take a promised visit to the Vancouver Aquarium and Stanley park. I'm sure I will be posting more about Vancouver and all we do there much more later.

Have a great week-end!

enjoying my summer blessings...

My eyesight is getting blurry...I've been reading too much. I have read literally thousands of pages over the past few weeks. I am almost done...three weeks to go and then I get a two month break...

well, a break from books. During that time I need to pack up the house and move across country...again. Not much rest this summer. But, while I have been frantically reading and writing and desperately trying to get my courses finished, my family has been enjoying the weather...

My favourite beach and my favourite boys...

And while I have been feeling a little lonely and jealous...and I am starting to develop a little "cabin fever" all alone in my office studying...

I am thankful for an amazing husband who gladly will brave the beach with four kids on his own and who supports me in what I want to do.

Although, I was a little disappointed to miss out on the three year old's new friend...THE CRAB...who he apparently would not let go of once he was discovered.

My three year old is my Atlantic boy...we moved here before his first birthday - this is all he knows. He LOVES the beach, the ocean, all it's creatures and the wind!

So, while I haven't left my maritime home just yet, I am already missing the ocean, the beach and all the fun we have there...but my husband did bring home a little present as a belated birthday dinner for the three year old (and a little treat for me)...

I did say he was amazing didn't I?

Ahh...nothing beats summer in the maritimes!

Busy week: getting wet, the Queen, a birthday and the beach

Busy week again.

My hubby has been working on an art project this week in Halifax, so it has been just me and the kids for most of the week ~ not much homework getting done around here. I did read the Grapes of Wrath and was surprised at how much I liked it and about how so many things in it are relevant today. I didn't realize that the industrial food system was already in full swing during the thirties, I didn't think it started until after the war, so I learned something new.

Monday, the kids and I decided to head into Halifax with my hubby and go and see The Queen. (Except my hubby who went to work).

This was the closest we got to her, we were right at the barricade but they didn't let anyone get too close until the end...when she went and shook a few hands on the other side of the field.

 It was pouring rain and we got soaked right through all of our layers of clothes, but it was so fun! My five year old was especially excited about seeing the Queen. As soon as she stepped out of her car, the rain stopped. My five year old now thinks she is magic. On Canada Day he announced that his favourite thing about living in Canada is having a Queen (who is magic). The good thing about the rain was that the turn out wasn't as good as it would have been if it was sunny.

The rain will probably also help keep the day in the kid's memories.

the kids should all remember this day in the rain...all except my baby.

What a great experience. We saw the Queen with her husband Phillip (the Duke) as well as Prime Minister Harper and the governor general and the premier of Nova Scotia. I thought this might be our last chance to see Queen Elizabeth as she is getting older and she doesn't come to Canada all that often (although I hear she will be returning in 2012). Fun day!

The other news this week is my baby turned three, so not much of a baby any more.

He is getting so big and soon I will just have four big kids.

We spent the day at our favourite beach...

having a good time...

playing in the water...

and doing things that my three year old really likes to do...like throwing rocks.

I usually like to look for shells and sea glass and other cool stuff along the beach and this time I found a mermaid's purse. My seven year old was very impressed. We added it to our very large Nova Scotia beach finds jar that we will be bringing back to BC with us for memories. I am REALLY going to miss the ocean...