Vancouver

Welcome to the Canadian portion of our vacation, eh!

The day after our Seattle adventure, we headed north of the border. I don't know about Chris, but I was pretending I was a fugitive trying to slip over the border undetected. It must have showed because the rather stern Canadienne at the border gave us a small yellow piece of paper and ordered us into the customs building. When 20 minutes of sitting in hard plastic chairs and being stared down by border agents didn't crack us, they decided to let us go.

Onward and Northward!

For those of you who have never been to Canada, everything is slightly different. For instance, they are not quite sure how to spell the word "center".

Instead of dollar bills, they have a weird coin and they have an even weirder coin for a $2 denomination (loonies and toonies to we seasoned world travelers). I realized that the reason they do this is to make you look cheap if you're not generous with tips. 

They still have American icons, but they have given them a unique Canadian twist.

The most difficult part? All those km/h speed limit signs. I have no sense for metric measurements and the metric dial on our American rental car was super hard to see. That difficulty quickly resolved itself when I realized that all I had to do was multiply the number on the sign by 3/5 to get the mph. Easy as pie! Canadian apple pie, that is.

Vancouver was different than I had imagined. Although the population is similar to Denver, it somehow feels much more crowded. Maybe because of all the clueless American tourists.

The highlight of our visit to Vancouver was the stunning Stanley park. We had our first sea level run ever along the seawall there. It was AMAZING. I'm pretty sure I would be a lot better runner if I could have my own seawall. Alas, I must make my treadmill do and be consoled by the fact that at least I don't have to change in my car in order to run on it.

That day in Vancouver was full of firsts because it ended with a trip on a ferry. I tried to act cool, like it was the most natural thing in the world to drive a parking lot full of cars into the belly of a giant ship, but the act ended as we started to drive into the Spirit of Vancouver and I whipped out my camera to document the boarding process.

My cool image was totally shattered when I had to be king of the world on the bow of the ferry. I don't care. It was my first time on a ferry, my first time on the ocean (I'm pretty sure a strait counts), and my first time on a mode of public transport that has its own cafeteria and gift shop. The moment demanded embracing and embrace I did.

Our trip on the ferry ended in Sidney on Vancouver Island. Stay tuned for the next chapter of our Canadian adventure in Victoria.

Seattle

Last week, Chris and I took a fabulous trip BY OURSELVES. As in no kids. As in it was absolute heaven. We started in Seattle, then drove to Vancouver, Canada then took a ferry to Victoria, then drove along the Olympic Peninsula back to Seattle. Since we have about a zillion pictures and there is way too much awesomeness to be contained in one blog entry, I'm going to have to split it up. Today's fabulous city: Seattle.

Okay, I guess I should start with Salt Lake since that is where our flight originated. Why Salt Lake? Because my wonderful parents volunteered to watch the kids and we had to dump them off before we flew away.

 Our hotel in Salt Lake was actually on the historic register.
The rooms were historically sized (I know it doesn't show on the picture but it was the size of a cruise cabin).
The elevator was historic (which resulted in us having to haul our historic 100 pounds of luggage up three historic flights of stairs). But it was all fun and all a part of our adventure.

Upon arriving in Seattle, we made straight for the waterfront.
We visited the Aquarium.

It was amazing.

Then we headed for Pike's Place Market.

It made our local farmer's market look like a roadside stand.

Then we took a lovely walk along the waterfront. If you look closely above my right shoulder you'll see a bucket. That, my friends, was the site of the first time I have witnessed public urination. This was an extremely educational trip.

Oh and lest I should forget, we also saw the very first Starbucks. It's amazing how people are willing to wait half an hour in line for the same coffee they can get down the street. To each his own.

 Next stop: The wilds of Canada.

Happy Birthday, America!

Our kids love the Fourth of July.

They love the s'mores.

We all loved that the first peas arrived that day, as if on schedule.

They love these lame snakes.

They love sparklers.

Most of all, they love the city fireworks display.

 Our kids are always up for a good holiday, but holidays are even better when they come with fire and loud noises. 

A Game and Some Wild Game

I was going to wait until the end of the holiday weekend to document our celebration as a whole. However, if I wait much longer the task will be too overwhelming to contemplate, so here is Part I of our Independence Weekend Raise the Roof Blowout Epic Party.

On Friday, my brother in law, Jacob, had tickets to a Rockies game which he so generously shared with our family. I had never been to a major league baseball game before, so this was all new to me.... and to Chris... and to Emily who loved the celebratory atmosphere despite her lack of understanding when it came to the game itself.

From the game dog

to the game cotton candy

to the game ending fireworks, she loved it all.

All this food and pyrotechnics was somehow connected to this:

 but Emily tried not to concern herself too much with it. (Jane spent the evening with Grandma, for which we were grateful)

The next day, we were up at at it again for a trip to the zoo where we saw some animals.

 

From which Jane spent the day protecting her yard o' Icee.

 

 (Jane and cousin Simon hitching a ride)

My favorite attraction? This guy's shirt. The camera doesn't do it justice, but the off white shirt on the guy behind me was completely made of a sheer material, making it totally see-through. It was amazing. Really. Actually, it was so hot that by the end of the day I was ready to ask him where he got his duds.

It was a great weekend. Thanks, Ami, Jacob, Simon, Lucy, Grandma and Grandpa for a lovely time.

I Know What I Did Last Summer

Last summer I committed a horrible crime.

Let me start from the beginning. Every spring, I start my planting rituals with a good ol' bottle of Roundup weed killer. I spray the soil a week or two before I plant and, voila! It's all weed free and ready for seeds and plants when I'm ready to put them in. Last year, I discovered Roundup had come out with a new product: Extended Control. Who wouldn't want extended week killing capabilities. Sign me up!

Even the bottle looks super advanced. So I bought it. And I sprayed away. I made sure to apply liberally around my rose bushes. I loved those rose bushes and I didn't want any weeds choking them out. It wasn't until after I applied it that I decided to read the label.

I was horrified to learn that this particular product was meant not just to kill weeds, but ALL vegetation. FOR FOUR MONTHS. Meaning that not only was this going to kill my roses, it would also kill any seed, seedling or fully grown plant I put in the dirt for the next four months. That was a sad day. And a sad summer. I did my best to replace the topsoil and I got a few petunias to grow, but my roses were putting out these sick little spider like leaves and no roses. Did I mention how much I love my roses? Summer was ruined. I planned to replace the roses the following spring, when the extend-o-kill wore off.

Then, this spring, a miracle happened. Two of my three rosebushes were putting out REAL leaves. I let it play out.

Finally two weeks ago, I got a Cabana rose.

Then a Bella Roma.

And then, finally the Nancy Reagan rosebush decided to show some life (believe me, this is a huge improvement over last year).

Add that to the promising buds on the new rosebush Chris got me for Mother's day and I am finally having a happy summer. My roses won't win any prizes at the county fair, but summer just isn't quite the same without them.

The Freshness of a Summer's Eve

Our clan loves Summer. Around here, Summer is shorter than balloon boy's fame. So we have to take advantage of it.

Here's what we've been doing:


Taking advantage of the short growing season of sweet corn.

Drawing on sidewalks.

Learning to swim. (I must say this is not Mommy's favorite. Who wants to spend a lovely summer day in a swampy pool area? But Emily loves it and so I endure. Sorry about the dark picture. The atmosphere in our municipal pool is quite cave-like)

Eating s'mores.

Eating some more s'mores.

Keeping our rides sparkling for all those summertime trips down the main drag with our music blasting and our windows rolled down.

 I love Summer. I hope that this year it kind of forgets to end until late November.

A House of a (Slightly) Different Color

Of late two startling things have crept into my realization: 1) As of this summer, we have lived in this house for 7 years. 2) A paint job (specifically one of a darker hue) can't be expected to last much more than 7 years.

With those two bombshells having been dropped, we decided it was time to paint. And with the additional shock of a few price estimates from painters, we decided it was time that we painted our house ourselves.

It took us three days to take the house from this:

(Obviously this is not a recent picture, but we kind of forgot the "before"shot)


To this:

We really liked the main body color, which is why we chose it in the first place, so we decided to use a similar color, but switch up the accent color and lighten the trim a touch.

Here is some interesting trivia associated with our house painting adventure:

• We went through 16 gallons of paint.
• Chris logged approximately 30 hours of painting time.
• I logged approximately 6
• A paintbrush duct-taped to a dowel makes an excellent tool for reaching 2nd floor eaves. 
• It is impossible to paint while small children are running around the yard (this accounts for my token amount of help)

It's nice to have a freshly painted house, but I hope the next 7 years go slowly... very slowly.