Mini Road Trip - Saint John

As I sit writing this it sounds like it is raining. It is making me smile. The sun is shining beautifully through my window warming my cheeks and the snow is rapidly melting tricking my ears into thinking it is raining. I'm not getting too excited yet though...there is still two feet of snow in my front yard and the snow mountain my husband made from shovelling the driveway is still over my head. But, if I squint my eyes really tightly and look outside I can imagine it is almost spring.

Last week I had spring break from school. But, since I attend school in a different province from my kids...they have spring break this week. I wanted to have at least one day off together to do something fun - so I pulled them out of school one day last week and we took a mini road trip to Saint John, New Brunswick.

It has been so long since we have had a road trip together! (We currently have two exchange students living with us, which brings our family number up to eight and we do not have a vehicle that seats eight. But, there was a day last week where one of our students was on a ski trip and so the rest of us jumped at the chance to take off for the day).

I also had a food photography assignment for school and Saint John has a really cool, old market. Also, our favourite missionary had been recently transferred to Saint John and we all missed him already and wanted to see him. So it was a win-win-win-win kind of a day. We started our day with lunch at Billy's...

Billy's was a restaurant that gave me a free lunch when I was a travel agent visiting Saint John for the first time in 1998...

I remembered it being really good and since it was still there I thought it must be okay... our family has been sampling fish and chips all over the maritimes and I find it a good way to make an equal comparison between local restaurants.

This one was pretty good...not the best...but also quite far from the worst. I think we all enjoyed our lunch.

We had a good visit with Elder D - aside from the usual crowd control we had to do with the boys. With all the good-byes my boys have had to make over the past few years it was good to see someone they had just said good-bye to - reminding them that good-byes aren't always permanent. At the end of lunch the owner asked if they wanted to hold a lobster...and really what's cooler than holding a lobster.

After lunch we headed into the market so I could work on my food photography skills...

I've heard that photography like writing takes ten years to become professional...I still have a few to go...but I like the practice.

The market is still in winter mode and is really a glorified grocery store this time of year as far as food goes...

But, everything was still really beautiful and I had fun rushing around taking pictures - yes, rushing - remember I had five kids with me!

We ended our day with a visit to the Saint John museum - we had a lot of fun looking at (and playing a little) with the exhibits. We love museums and haven't been able to visit one for awhile so it was really fun being able to spend a few hours there.

We all had a really fun day although it left us all craving a longer road trip. My daughter keeps asking when we are moving west again...

I still haven't completely finished unpacking from this move!

I know I have a few things left to accomplish here...but who knows where life will take us - it's one big adventure.

happiness...

The hubby and I have been formulating plans for our future...our Plan B future.

I've been reading old journals, looking at family photos and reading my old blog posts.

As I think about our future while looking at our past, one item stands out...

When the hubby and I were engaged, I would bring home tourism brochures from the travel agency I worked at. We would look through them and talk about all the places we could live. We were young and the whole world was available to us. The thought that we could live anywhere in the world was exciting. After looking for weeks at brochures for a reason that I do not know we settled on Prince Edward Island. It seemed perfect. We talked about it for weeks, months...but I had a mortgage and a good job and after we married, we stayed where we were.

Nine months into our marriage, I was given the opportunity to take a business trip to New Brunswick. The tourist board flew a number of us over and showed us why we should send our clients to New Brunswick. If I had been single without a mortgage, I would not have returned home. I loved it. Each place I went I fell more and more in love. I remember the last night of the trip standing outside the Algonquin hotel in St. Andrews by the Sea. It was very late at night and tears were running down my cheeks and for the first time in years, I felt like I was home. I missed my new hubby but I did not want to leave. I spent an hour on the phone with him trying to convince him to drop everything and meet me there. We could open a BandB or something, right? We could make it work. I loved the few days I spent in New Brunswick and talked of it often over the next decade.

When my hubby mentioned graduate school in Nova Scotia...I jumped at the chance!

FINALLY...I would get to live in the maritimes.

 We spent two years there and as I look back at our pictures at the smiling faces of my children playing on the beach I realize that (aside from the long commute that my hubby had) we were happiest there.

 We loved the ocean, the day trips, the museums, the galleries, the history, the architecture, the slow-paced lifestyle.

 The maritimes suit us.

The past few weeks we have spent hours discussing and more hours pondering and praying about what we should do. Looking at our photos...of the house we lived in (that is owned by my mother-in-law and rented out) and available to us...it did not take us too long to decide where we should be.

Plans are in the works for a more permanent summer move to Nova Scotia...we feel relief, peace and happiness...no more lobsterless summers for us!

Long Week-end

The family and I spent a great holiday week-end in the Kootenays visiting my hubby's family.

Friday we went to Fort Steele...

where we celebrated "Dominion Day" rather than our usual Canada Day.

There were potato sack, three legged, and egg on a spoon races for the kids, ice cream and Union Jack cake for all and a serenade by a barber shop quartet singing Moon River...

Saturday morning we went on a little hike...

and were able to enjoy a view of the valley

as well as the trailside wildflowers.

We really enjoyed our little road trip and time spent with family.

I love long week-ends!

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!

vintage kitchens

I love vintage kitchenware...I really love it. The older the better.

I especially love the pieces that were given to me by family members. My mother has passed on a few pieces that she has received from other relatives and my granny gave me some of hers before she passed away. They always help me think of those who used the pieces before I did.

One piece that I have always loved and love to use is an old colander; it reminds me of my granny. I remember it always being in her kitchen and I watched her using it many times.

It is definately well worn...but I love it.

I know that granny had it for as long as I can remember but I never knew where or when she got it.

Recently I was looking through some old photos of our first trip across Canada a few years ago.

While travelling from Regina, Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, Manitoba we decided to leave the trans-Canada Hwy. and take a detour. We travelled north to drive through a little town named Veregin...

Veregin is a very small town (if you can call it even that). I think it has a population of approximately 100 people. But, it is important to me because in 1911 my granny was born there. I have always wanted to see where she was born and so we decided this was our chance.

The town was almost deserted...there was really nothing to see until we drove up to the Doukhobor village museum site.

The prayer house and landscaping were beautiful...there was so much history to see and so much to learn...unfortunately, it was closed. Due to lack of funding, volunteers and interest the site is rarely open. I was a little disappointed (I always hate to see history being ignored because that usually leads to it being lost which I think is really sad) but the groundskeeper told us we were welcome to look in the windows and picnic on the lawn, which we did and enjoyed our afternoon very much.

The old grain elevator stood majestically watching over the site.

As I sat, I thought about my great-grandparents and what there lives must have been like. They left Russia in 1899 with their families and friends after suffering much hardship and persecution under Tsarist rule. With the help of Leo Tolstoy and Queen Victoria they came to Canda, settled in the Saskatchewan prairies and made new lives. Veregin is where those new lives began. I was sitting in the village where they lived, started their family and where my granny was born. It was a wonderful experience that I am so happy to have had.

I took many pictures as I wandered around the village and tried to take interior shots as I looked through the windows.

 I never really looked at the photos after I took them. But, just recently I sat down with my kids to teach them a little more about our family history and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before...

There on the counter was my colander...exactly the same.

I think I now love it even more.

I'm back

So much for the tomorrow!
I was hit with a nasty flu bug, which I recovered from last week, but was then a week behind in my christmas packages which needed to be shipped across the country. The last package was shipped express this morning and I AM BACK!

I thought about writing a number of times.. and it is nice to be able to finally write. There is something about writing thoughts that is very freeing.

AND... I figured out how to post photos! Now I just need to sort out which ones I want to print. I need to play more with my camera, most of my photos are of my kids and I don't really want to post them here. I'm always sending photos of them via email or facebook and I want a space that is my own... so this blog is dedicated to me. As a stay at home mom, most of my day is dedicated to my children and I find (like many mothers do) that I just don't have much ME time. So I am pushing aside all my motherly guilt and taking time for ME.

Today I thought I would write about something that I love: Road Trips.
When I was younger I thought flying was very cool (because it was something I very rarely did). I did not like road trips with my parents (which were also infrequent) as my parents are point to point people; leave very early in the morning, around 5am and drive straight through, no pee breaks. Not fun.

As I got older and could drive myself I started taking a few road trips of my own. And as I firmly believe that getting up before 6am is getting up before it is actually morning, I would leave later...this alone was an improvement. And I would stop for small breaks. Each trip I took I allowed myself more breaks, not only for bathroom breaks, or to eat, but breaks to stop and look around. Enjoy the scenery. Road trips became fun!

Now, given the choice between an airplane or a car...I choose the car. Even if it takes longer, getting there really is half the fun.

One day this past fall we decided to take a day and drive up to see the cabot trail. No plans, lets just go. I've never seen it and it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. So, we got up and left by nine (getting four kids organized for a full day takes awhile). We spent fourteen hours on the road and had a great day.