west coast wedding weekend

so last weekend was our first weekend away from liam.  a whole weekend!!  i know to some that may sound crazy.  but not really to us.  it's not as if we haven't been away from him, rather it was a result of circumstances.  no babysitter for the entire weekend = no trip for mommy and daddy.  until now.

our very dear friends, mike and kelly, got married.  we're so excited and happy for them as the embark on their adventure of life together.  it also gave us a very good excuse to plan a parents only trip.  believe me it took work to make this one happen.  at one point we were considering multiple flights just to do it.  in the end, liam's gramma's came through for us.  lots of hugs and thank-yous all around.

our weekend started off with flying to vancouver island, driving an hour and then catching a ferry to quadra island.  our point of destination.  and despite the cold rainy weather, it was an awesome weekend.  full of great friends and good fun.  here's what quadra island and our weekend looked like.

thanks for the good times quadra!!

we'll be back soon.

the montreal escape

Well we've been home a week now so I figure it's time to get these posts done.  I do have a couple of good excuses for not doing them right away.  Number 1:  it has been super nice so Liam and I have been playing outside a lot (good mommy = bad blogger).  Number 2:  I got knocked on my ass with a cold (seriously felt like I was hit by a bus for the last 4 days).  Here's hoping I haven't spread the germs to everyone else.

So, the first family vacation.  It was funtastic!  We had 10 days to explore Montreal and Quebec City.  We saw the sights, went to F1 Grand Prix, ate all the poutine and smoked meat we could ever want.  Liam was a real trooper and we survived all the new challenges as travelling parents.  Here's what I'm gonna to do.  I'm breaking our trip into 3 parts, mostly due to the obscene amount of photos but also because we essentially had 3 different parts to our trip.  We started in Montreal for the F1 race, moved to Quebec City and then back to a different part of Montreal for the remaining few days.

Montreal part 1 ~
We stayed in "old" Montreal right along the river.  It strangely reminded me of being in Buenos Aries, it was European...but not.  A ton of beautiful buildings line the cobblestone streets with cafes and outdoor patios crammed with people.  I immediately fell in love with this city.  As the husband said "Montreal has a great vibe."  It appeared that there was something going on everywhere.  Just that weekend there was a music festival, a wicked street fair and the formula 1 race.  It was fantastic!  When we landed we headed straight for the race track.  A very good friend of ours works for one of the teams and he took us on a tour of the paddock and the pits.  The husband was in his glory...smile from ear to ear.  The rest of the weekend was full of some sight seeing with a ton of walking, a street fair with some friends who live in Montreal and a soggy race day.

Click twice for a sunny Tuesday!