our jamaican adventure

There's nothing quite like a family vacation. Even better when you get to head to a country that you've always wanted to cross off your travel list. For me, Jamaica was a place that I had always wanted to visit, so when Cal's cousin decided to get married there we were happy to accept the invitation to head south to celebrate with them.

This trip has been planned since early this year, and with plans to go to Florida, then camp over the summer, we didn't tell the girls about it for quite some time. We figured they could enjoy the other adventures we had planned, then they could learn about the trip to Jamaica to shorten their waiting time. We told them around early September, showed them the website for the resort, and they began to count the days...

On October 22nd, we boarded the plane to Montego Bay and headed to the Grand Palladium Resort & Spa. Lady A hopped into her plane seat, buckled up and surveyed the area. She promptly looked over at Cal, eyeing her armrest and asked "Daddy - which button do I push to get a massage?"

From the moment we got to the resort, we had two little girls who settled very easily into the all-inclusive lifestyle; gladly sipping on virgin Pina Coladas (Lady M) and virgin strawberry daiquiris (Lady A) when desired.

Upon arrival we realized that we'd had a slight mishap with our luggage. I had carefully packed all of the toiletries into large freezer ziploc bags before putting them in the suitcase. In my preparation back home I had tried to distribute these items between Cal's bag and mine to ensure neither bag was overweight when we got to the airport. Well, the weight distribution was excellent, however, it seems that the sunscreen fully exploded in flight, bursting out of the ziploc and spraying all over the suitcase it was in. That suitcase was not mine. Suddenly Cal's wardrobe for the week was cut in half.

Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened all week; the rest of our days were happily filled with swimming, relaxation and fun.

Some highlights:

• Lady A mastered the fine art of swimming through the pool with her drink held high enough, to the laughter and cheers of many of the adults at the pool.
• The girls loved the variety of pools to choose from, and moved happily from the kid pool (filled with waterslides, waterfalls and fun), to the enormous main pool, to the beach. Lady A even began to swim on her own, under water about 20 feet between Cal and I. 
• We had a great day trip to Negril on a catamaran where we had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, visited a local mall and watched the cliff divers at Rick's Cafe. 

• Part of the day trip was having the opportunity to snorkel too. This was a first for all four of us, and the tour guides from the catamaran were awesome with the girls! One guide had a life preserver that both girls held on to as he pulled it through the Caribbean sea. He would dive down into the water and bring something special up for them. On various dives he brought up a sea cucumber, female sea urchin, starfish, sand dollar and assorted shells and the girls were mesmerized while happily splashing around, and peeking under the water throughout the adventure. 
• Lady M bravely took the plunge (from the lowest platform) at Rick's Cafe into Cal's arms, and was quite excited about it! I played my anxious mom card and said that Amelia would have to wait until next time. 
• Both girls got to head to the resort spa one afternoon to get some braids in their hair. Now I realize that the woman who did them was skilled in the area of braiding, but DAMN, she was FAST! I was mesmerized by her speed and efficiency. I should have taken lessons; it would make our morning routine at home much faster.  

Of course the reason we headed south was to celebrate the wedding of one super fabulous couple with Cal's family, and their special day was lovely. The ceremony was at noon, followed by pictures and pool time, then the reception was at 6:30pm. After a full and fun day, Lady A passed out in my arms during the speeches. Lady M lasted a little longer, happily playing with her older cousin until about 10pm when she hit her limit and Cal brought her back to the room for a good night sleep.

The rest of the week was really just filled with lots of swimming, eating and relaxation. I polished off a couple of books, worked on my tan and just enjoyed being disconnected for a while. Lady M certainly settled into the caribbean life, and proved that when she was out swimming one morning and asked:

"Is it 10 o'clock yet?".
Me: "I'm not sure, why?"
Lady M: "Because that's when the swim-up bar opens!"

Clearly my almost 7-year-old girl has her all-inclusive priorities straight!

It's always a treat when we can take some time away from the real world. Waking up when we wanted, not having to rush to school/work and having lots of extra hours in the day to spend time as a family was wonderful. The girls were not ready to leave when Thursday came around again, but they were rockstar travellers, even on the flight that didn't land until 2:00am. Lady A was sleeping against the airplane window before we ever left the gate in Montego Bay, but woke up four hours later in Toronto telling us she'd been awake the whole way. :)

Though we were all sad to see the vacation come to an end, we'll happily look forward to our next travel adventure, wherever that may be!

Lady A wistfully saying goodbye to the resort! 

snapshots of 2014...the year in pictures

Here in Southern Ontario we've experienced our first snow storm of the year, which means that 2014 must be drawing to a close. Judging from my obnoxiously long commute last night (a typically 30-minute round trip to pick up the girls took more than an 1 1/2 hours), the winter is undoubtedly upon us.

Though I never post on my blog as much as I intend to, I find myself taking pictures year round with stories in mind. As you've likely noticed, my kids faces never appear on here (or in any other online spot), so my phones are always filled with pictures of the backs of them! I have lots of pictures of their sweet faces too...but they're just not for internet consumption. :)

However, as I scrolled through my photos, I thought I'd share a pictorial retrospective to let you in on the little happenings that I never ended up sharing in full this year.

Here is a snapshot of 2014...with a little commentary along the way:

Winter...
Braving the cold out on family walks...

Spring
Celebrating Father's Day with my Dad and Cal - the girls were practicing their golf swing. And if memory serves, Lady M crushed me. Future LPGA'er?

 Waterfall walks and bike rides...

First independent swimming lessons and fresh haircuts...

Summer
I experienced my first week away from my girls in their lifetime. I've never been terribly good at leaving them, but thankfully Calvin is an awesome daddy, and I got to head to Lake Tahoe, California for an incredible conference with some colleagues. And the hugs when I arrived back at the Toronto airport were priceless...

 No summer is complete without a packed truck, and a trip to camp. (My little dancer is getting her camp-rope bracelet put on by my friend Trishy, and one of our awesome counsellors).

Lady A experienced her first pedicure on our mother/daughter trip to the spa. Lady M is a seasoned pro, and declared this past weekend "Mummy, I really need another pedicure". Ahhh yes, an absolute 'need' for any 6-year-old. But, let's be honest, I'll take her to get some cute Christmas toes in a few weeks. :)

Lady A's colourful tootsies

Lady M's flowery piggies

Mummy/Daughter spa date!

Fall
Lady M started Grade 1 with her snazzy new Hello Kitty backpack, which was really just a 'filler' until we could locate a Frozen backpack (which were sold out EVERYWHERE!). Hello Kitty now belongs to Lady A, because I ended up locating a coveted Elsa & Anna bag shortly into the school year. The first picture is at home, before school...the second is of her holding her teacher's gladiolus - Lady M was quite nervous about starting at her new school, but when her teacher allowed her to come to the front of the line and hold her flowers, she was good to go!

We celebrated my mister's 36th birthday in September with his favourite - carrot cake! 

Having built up a little courage to go away for a week thanks to my time in Tahoe, I took another week away to head to Florida with my mum. We were there to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Casey, and his beautiful bride Alex. Wedding, family visits, outlet shopping, sunshine and sleeping in - a wonderful week away!

Halloween this year gave us one Queen Elsa and one squishy little monkey. Cuteness abounded!

Lady M's homemade Elsa wig!

And with our first snowfall this week, we are into the thick of it again...

So, there's a little glimpse into our year - it's been a great one!

are you my mummy?

Over the summer we've had several weddings to attend, and each one has been so much fun in its own way. We started the wedding season in June with an event filled with friends from our university years. In July, Madelyn and I were in a wedding for very close friends of ours, and the guest list was filled with amazing friends from my high school era. September brought us my brother-in-laws wedding where we very much enjoyed spending time with Cal's family, and a great party. Then yesterday we had more nuptials where we celebrated the wedding of more great friends, and had a fantastic time with the group of friends Cal grew up with, and I have adopted as a close friends over the years.

Sadly, we are going to miss the final wedding of the year as one of my beautiful friends is getting married out of town and with the new munchkin its a little tougher to make the trip. Its been a busy year of weddings, but they have each been so much fun, and have provided a wonderful excuse to catch up with friends who we'd always like to see more often than life allows.

In yesterday's wedding, I was a bridesmaid, and the lovely Lady M took on her second flower girl gig of the season. It was a 2pm service, which is normally a time when she is visiting dreamland, but instead had a quick nap in the car on the way to the venue, and was carried in to the ceremony location over Cal's shoulder as she slowly woke up. By the time I arrived with the other bridesmaids, Lady M was awake and playing with the ring bearer, waiting for the magic to happen. As soon as she saw me, she came straight to me and we told each other how pretty we both looked, then she went to check out the beautiful wedding gown my friend was wearing.

Fast forward a little: we had all made our walk down the aisle, and Lady M had since gone off to find her Daddy in the crowd of guests. Then she walked back up to me at the front, looked up at me with a hint of confusion in her eye and said "are you my mummy? ... you don't look like my mummy!" Trying to contain my laughter, I quietly said, "because mummy doesn't wear a gown and all this makeup on a regular basis!", and she seemed content with my response and once again accepted me as her mum.

Content that I was, in fact, her mother, we made it through the rest of the ceremony, and she stood still for a few pictures and played in the surrounding gardens before the lack of nap kicked in, at which point Cal took the yawning little lady home while I happily continued on with my bridesmaid duties well into the night.

So, its been a great summer of weddings, and I'm actually a little sad to see it all draw to a close. What will I do with my weekends now without bachelorette parties, showers and weddings to attend?! I'm sure I'll find something; it just likely won't require a gorgeous gown and beautiful makeup, so hopefully my daughter will recognize me.

wedding season is open!

Yesterday marked the first wedding of the year for Cal and I...and it was wonderful! I loved planning my wedding; every little detail was exactly what we wanted, and almost five years later I still look back at it and wouldn't change a thing. So, now I really enjoy attending other people's weddings to see what choices that have made in planning their own big day, and always enjoy seeing how the ceremony and reception complement the couple.

The wedding we attended yesterday was for a great friend from my university years, so not only was it fun to see this lovely couple tie the knot, it was a real treat to see several old friends from school who we don't get to see very often; the same people who witnessed the beginning of our own relationship when Cal and I started dating, and shared in our wedding day with us. Just having the opportunity to catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a while - those who flew in for the occasion, those who live around the corner, and those who we just don't get to see very often - made an already great day even better.

This particular wedding had the most adorable flower girls and ring bearers who were incredibly well-behaved, which made me really excited to see my little Lady M as a flower girl in a few short weeks. We've got her dress already, and she loves wearing her 'wedding shoes' around the house. She doesn't quite understand what she's going to be doing as the flower girl, but I think its going to be fun to watch! And my dear friend, the bride, says that even if she doesn't walk down the aisle, that's ok! We'll see how it all goes down soon...

It was also Lady A's first big event, and she seemed to be quite riveted as she slept through most of the night! She happily slumbered through the ceremony, until the reception started, and right through the appetizer. She woke up for the main course and dessert, had her own little meal and slipped back into dreamworld. She was a star guest!

So, with this wedding over, the couple happily married, starting their lives together, and feeling blissfully caught up with old friends, it's time to keep working on preparations for the next wedding - which will be filled with friends from high school - another group to catch up with and enjoy the company of!

Wedding season is officially open!