Headed to the Falls

After discovering the beautiful Fall foliage in the NE last year, I have decided we will make this a yearly trip to this area. Even though we couldn't get to Vermont, we decided to trek further north. We started in Toronto, drove north to Lake Huron, then back down South to Niagara Falls. We stayed on the Canadian side and never felt like we missed anything by not traveling into New York.

Brad and I went to the Falls years ago, but this time we thought G would really like it. We spent one day driving north, etc to see the most fall foliage. Then we spent the next day walking around the falls and the surprisingly "year round" carnival type street with rides, wax museums, etc. That evening we drove to the nearby Niagara on the Lake and toured some of the wineries. They are known for their reds and icewine. It was overcast and rainy all day, but we made the best of it. The next day was time to go home, and of course the sun came out and it was gorgeous! We packed up, found an illegal place to park, ran to the falls to take our picture and then loaded up and drove back to Toronto. We had a great time. Can't wait for the falls leaves next year!

Go West Young Man (Labor Day)

Oh Canada!

Our extended time together as a family is rare, so we try to make the most of it when we can. Brad had 6 days off (which is an anomaly), so we took a long weekend trip to Banff, Canada, a small ski village/touristy town outside of Calgary. Brad and I had been there before G came along. We remembered how beautiful it was and wanted to go back. We have so many great photos that I am going to make several slideshows so you don't have to watch one with 100 photos. Yikes! Yes, there are many photo ops. It was just so gorgeous.

After arriving in Calgary late the night before, we woke up and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Banff National Park. We signed up for a tour the next day, shopped for road snacks, and drove another hour or so to Lake Louise, where we were staying for this trip. We decided to stay at the Fairmont Lake Louise Hotel, which is located on a lake created by glaciers. It's the gorgeous blue you see due to the glacier sand that collects as the water melts and is pushed down the mountain. I believe the sand is mostly made out of limestone.

The next day we had three sites to accomplish, and they were all in Banff. We took the gondola up the mountain, we did a float trip, and we went to the Upper Banff Hot Springs. I would recommend all except the Hot Springs. I had originally envisioned this gorgeous rock formation with hot bubbly fresh water collecting in the bottom and the steam rising up toward the mountain. Uh. Nope. Brad and I decided it was one of the nastiest things we have ever done as far as germs go. Blech. It was just a hot pool with TONS of people sitting in it elbow to elbow. You could almost see the germs swimming and doing the backstroke in the disgusting water. Had we seen the springs before we bought tickets, we would not have wasted our money. So we climbed out of the pond of filth, bought a bar of lye soap and proceeded to remove the top two layers of skin. Well, not really, but we wanted to.

The last full day, we drove two hours north of Lake Louise and did a Columbia Icefield tour. The drive was a sight in and of itself. There were many place to stop and hike or just lookout and see the sites. We saw a few animals - bears. We did a short hike with G, and that's all his poor legs could take. It was hilarious as he decided that he was ready to go back to the car after the first big hill. Brad took him the rest of the way up on his shoulders. Poor daddy.

The glacier tour puts you on this bus mounted on Gigantic tires. It's able to drive across the snow. I felt a little bad about driving and walking on a receding glacier thinking that it wasn't very ecofriendly, but they have steps they take to make it as green as possible.

That night, we had yet to canoe across the lake in front of our hotel, so we decided that was our last adventure for our trip. You can tell in the photo that I was petrified of flipping the entire time. A little wiggler in the middle perpetuated that fear too. Since the lake is formed from a glacier, then it is constantly 32-35 degrees F. I didn't want any of us spending time in that lake (or my cell phone and camera). Burr!

If you want to see our first trip from 2004, follow this link.
http://www.thewhitehouse.cc/Images/Calgary/index.html
We didn't have our camera with us on the lake, so we used Brad's cell phone. Cell phone cameras have come a long way...

Viva Mexico!

I love Playa del Carmen, so much so that when my colleagues mentioned that I should go down there for work, I didn't hesitate. We flew down over 4th of July weekend and took G and mom. Brad got to go for one day but had to fly off to work. Even a friend of mine was in Playa the same weekend, and we got to spend some time with her too!

We stayed at the Fairmont Mayakoba just outside of Playa and rented a car. The car worked out perfectly, and I'm SO proud of myself for driving all over the place and got being run over or stolen.

When we dropped off Brad at the airport in Cancun, we found a place to parasail. Mom has wanted to go for a long time, so it was time to mark that off of her list. G is under the age limit, not because of safety reasons, so it was up to the captain to approve him. The captain spoke to him for a while and asked if he was scared, "No, I'm ready to go up!" G and I went up first, then mom was to go it alone. We had so much fun looking around and he wasn't scared at all. I saw sting rays and turtles even from those heights. When we landed, they were so impressed that G did so well that they offered to let him go up with mom again, no charge. Of course! So he went up to show mom the ropes. :)

The rest of the trip we either hung out at the resort or went into town to eat/shop. It was relaxing. I LOVE Playa, did I say that already?

We survived our first Disney encounter

Well, we did it. We sailed on the Disney Wonder and lived to tell the tale. It was actually a lot of fun. You know we are cruisers, but our friends talked us into a Disney cruise. G and I have never been to Disney, so I wasn't sure what to expect on a cruise. The kid's programs were phenomenal. You could, if you picked a Disney cruise to party, drop your child off at 9am and pick them up at 1am. They would feed them, let them lay on a mat if they were tired, etc. WOW. Of course we didn't take advantage of it, but the kid's programs were great. They dressed G up as a pirate one night. He LOVED it.

G met Kelsey for the first time. The are only a week a part in age. Good thing they got along splendidly because the arranged marriage will continue as planned! :) They were so cute. G coyly put his arm around her during a movie. Daddy's boy!

Thanksgiving

I thought I would show off photos that my talented "sister"azzi took of G and me at Thanksgiving. Also, I threw in a self-portrait of me and my look-a-like cousin, Sarah. :)



Tickle monster!

Cruise

Well, I will try to post more about our cruise in the following days, but here are a few photos. Meme, my sister, has more photos that I will try to get from her. She has the beachy photos, and I didn't want to take my new fancy camera to the beach. Anyway, we had a blast and so did G. We did a lot of beach time and relaxing, but it was fun.

More about Santa and Christmas soon.

Playa

In November, we talked our friends Trek and Traci and their son E into a quick trip to our favorite place, Playa del Carmen. They had never been. My mom went as well. We all had a great time just hanging out and relaxing on the beach. After we returned home, G kept asking to go back to Mexico. Maybe daddy will buy us that condo in Mexico after all...probably not.

Cactus legs and large snacks

We just returned from Sea World San Antonio, and we had a blast. My mom (mamaw), my sister (meme), G and I left on Tuesday and got back Thursday afternoon. Thanks to Meme for being our paparazzi for the week and sorry to say that she was only in a few photos! She did a fantastic job though. The photos are beautiful. I'll post a slideshow of all of the photos later.

G couldn't get enough of the "amimals." We were there from park open to close, and he was such a good boy. You can tell by his expressions that he loved seeing Shamu, alligators, sea lions, feeding fish to the dolphins, sharks, tropical fish, etc.

A few funnies from the trip. We showed him cactus outside of McD's and later he touched mamaw's legs. She asked him what it felt like and he said, "Cactus!"

A new thing on the trip is that when he's really hungry and he doesn't think we are going to eat any time soon he's decided that he wants a "large snack."

I have a little adventurer on my hands. We went on the log ride, which was the only ride he could go on as long as he was with an adult. He absolutely loved it! He didn't want to go through the "river" as that wasn't enough of a thrill. He kept asking to go up high. As soon as we went down our final drop he knew the ride was over, and he didn't want to get out. He was begging to stay on and go again. I guess daddy will have a partner to ride rollercoasters when he's tall enough.

We stayed near the Riverwalk, so Mamaw and Meme were able to see the Riverwalk and we took the boat tour. The tour was ok, but G would rather jump in than just watch it from a boat.


If only I could swim with Shamu...




G's the one under the hat!


Preparing for his big ride.


I never thought I'd pick up a dead fish especially since I thought nothing of it at the time. I guess you'll do anything for your child. :)


Me and my sweet boy.


So crazy.


Meme and mamaw