A V-V-Vacation

Adam and I were lucky enough to get away for a week to Victoria and Vancouver without kids thanks to Diane, Adam's mom, and our friend Morgan, who split the babysitting in half. We left Monday morning and got back last night and I must say it was the first time since having Sienna that I came home from a vacation totally rested and ready to return to my daily life as a SAHM. It was three years coming ... and it was amazing. I missed the kids a little, worried zero, and came home sick enough of peace and quiet that I was ready to embrace chaos. That's the mark of an excellent break indeed.

 Since I have what's called Over-documentation Syndrome, a condition where I take way too many pictures and want to blog them all, I really held back on this trip and will therefore hold back on this blog post. These are basically the photos I deemed worthy of Instagramming during our trip. If you follow me on Instagram (which I'm pretty sure you don't), this will be a repeat of that with just a tad more info. The photo above is us waiting for the ferry. Monday was not well planned and after chasing around trying to figure out what ferry to take, we ended up in Vancouver taking a ferry to Victoria at 7 pm. Yeah, it was a day of driving and waiting and stressing. But it ended well with us in Victoria, hitting up Denny's at 10 pm for the Sausage Slam. Thank you, Canada, for having Denny's! (And just about every other American chain known to man.)

The ferry! It was a beautiful 1.5 hour trip on the ferry during which we saw killer whales! SHIVER! Their fins were craggly and terrifying.

Tuesday brought a zipline adventure! It was really fun. I learned how to zip upside down. Awesome!

Post-zip, we went for a hike. It was gorgeous.

One of the first things I bought in Canada was this fantastic candy item, the Wunderbar. My former college roommate, Renee, was Canadian and had a huge box of Canadian candy bars under her bed. I would secretly hope that she'd offer me a Wunderbar. She was very generous and did from time to time. They were just as good as I remember. (Think soft Butterfinger with caramel.)

Wednesday was Butchart Gardens!

It was pretty magical.

We stayed at an adorable B&B on Wednesday night after two nights at the ever-lovely and not-so-quiet Travelodge. We had been striking out on food thus far on the trip - well, you heard about Denny's already (which is never a strike out, but, still, I know we could do better), then there was some mystery Chinese food, there was the penne pasta with a sad and underwhelming brie cheese sauce and red grapes and smoked chicken (it tried, but not hard enough), meanwhile Adam is eating salads with a vengeance! So,Breakfast at this B&B was the first win!

 
Over easy egg atop asparagus and tomato on crusty bread plus charred yams and black forest ham. And a cute little fruit cup.

After that breakfast we headed back on the ferry over to Vancouver. We rented bikes and went around Stanley Park and enjoyed beautiful views like these.

Lion's Gate Bridge was spectacular. Like a green version of the Golden Gate Bridge. We kind of accidentally went around the park 1.5 times and were biking for 2.5 hours. This did not phase Adam, of course, because he bikes much harder for that amount of time on any given day, but I was famished by the end as well as walking like a bowlegged cowgirl. My friend from Vancouver gave us great recommendations for places to eat, and that evening's meal at The Banana Leaf did not disappoint. One of the best meals of my life in fact.

 This was something like chili coconut prawns with coconut rice. But it was so much more. I can't explain what was really in this mixture, but it was absolutely to die for.

Next day: kayaking at Deep Cove! Gorgeous day for a kayak! Deep Cove itself was really gorgeous beyond imagination.

Here's our fearless steersman:

And I in the front.

Our final day was spent at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

 Adam was mesmerized by Lucy the Owl.

 And ... trip over. Here's what we brought home for souvenirs. Bueno indeed!

Mr. MBA

Adam graduated with his MBA on June 9th! Woo hooooooo

Apparently we missed the memo about bringing your infant child on stage with you. Oh, right, we don't have infant children anymore. 

A congratulatory kiss. 

A slightly awkward attempt at recreating that famous dip depicted in that one black and white picture. ???

And done! (With HONORS, mind you.)

Adam with Kalen, his fellow TA. He probably saw more of Kalen than me in the past 2 years.

Adam's parents, plus the UW library in the background.  Congrats, Adam! Now what?

Noah's First Haircut

The day after Noah's first birthday I decided it was time to say goodbye to baby hair. 

I am not sentimental at all when it comes to baby hair. Sienna got a buzz at 6 months. Noah got lucky and lasted a year (thanks to full-time tummy sleeping, he never developed the unfortunate baby bald spot).

He was my adorable blondie.

Yes, there were swirls of blond feathers ...

... but all good things must come to an end ...

... and that mullet had to go.

He was not happy about it.

But I am. Now I can see his cherubic little face and nuzzle his soft little neck.

Goodbye baby mullet. 

Noah Turns One!

Mr Noah turns one tomorrow! We had all the festivities today including a photo shoot and cupcake eating.

I think this one (above) is my favorite. I was going for "rustic outdoor picnic" when I shot these. I guess this one captures that best.

Our neighbor left this broom out, so why not use it for a prop, eh?

And now for the cake. I got him a maple bacon cupcake from Cake Envy.

He took a few bites but that was it. I finished it for him. (What are moms for?)

Here's Adam getting the video.

Come on! Try the frosting, it's the best part! (Nope. Didn't care.)

Sienna got this far on her cupcake and requested another one. Huh? I finished hers, too.

Adam ate one, of course.

No thanks on the cupcake.

Balloons!

He's my guy. That's all I got ta say. He's all mine.

Here's the video: