First prize

Biking through Annapolis Royal's 'Haunted Public Gardens'. So many amazing and spooky things to see!

Caleb has had a few exciting things happen to him at school over the past few weeks. These stories speak to what a sweet and truly special little guy he is:

First School Honour

One day late last week I picked Cale up from his after school program and he was absolutely beaming. The moment he saw me the exciting news came bursting out -
"Mom - I won a contest at school!"
I was impressed, and asked what the contest was.
"It was for world breastfeeding week" He could still barely contain himself.
Hhhmmm, I was thinking, that sounded great but I needed to know more...
"Tell me about the contest..."
"I drew a picture and won first prize!!"
OK...wow! I was not expecting that, but I was still trying to sound very impressed. Now my interest was really peaked and my mind was racing, thinking what on earth did he my little boy draw to win first prize for world breasteeding week!!??
"What was your picture of?" I asked, somewhat tentatively, really hoping for a PG rated answer...
"A mother and baby whale".
My reaction was a mixture of relief, laughter and some head nods, thinking how cool it was that he thought to draw another mammal nursing instead of his ole mama!
We got home and he ripped open his bookbag and there it was - the prize winning picture (which turned out to be a coloring page and made much more sense!!), a family pass for the Y -and- he was most excited about seeing his name printed in the school's Monday Memo. "Caleb Jeffries First Place World Breastfeeding Week Coloring Contest!"

What an amazing, and very memorable, first honour to win at school!!

The prize-winner

Assembly Rules

Caleb's second tooth finally fell out after it has been just barely holding on for the last week. The tooth fell out at school, during an assembly. Caleb was sitting quietly in the gym, when he his tooth fell into his lap. There was some pain, some blood, but because there was an assembly going on, and the rules are that you can not talk during an assembly, he didn't say a word.

He held onto his tooth, swallowed the little tastes of blood in his mouth, and patiently waited until the assembly was over before telling his teacher what had happened. He told me he even tried to clap along to the songs that were being sung, but he had to be very careful not to drop his tooth! What a trooper. And an obedient and respectful little trooper at that!

Getting ready to put his tooth under his pillow before bed

Odin update

In other news, we now have a walker in the house. At least 50% of the time, anyway. Odin did a ton of practicing while Grammie Jeffries was here and he finally has the balance and coordination to walk across a room. We are thinking of dressing him up as a drunken sailor for Halloween and letting him stumble his way around to our neighbour's houses!

Thankful

Thanksgiving photo by Greg

This year I am incredibly thankful for my wonderfully supportive family whom I seem to be depending on more than ever this year. We are still struggling to find childcare for Odin until he reaches the 18 month mark and can enter the only daycare in Annapolis Royal. Until March 1st, we have managed to line up a rotating circuit of family members who have generously offered their time and assistance and are traveling from away to watch Odin during the days while I'm at work and Alan is on tour. First up, my fabulous sister-in-law Sarah and her little boy Jack spent 3 nights with us. Not only did Sarah help with childcare and cook, she also took some adorable photos of the boys after Caleb's school photos didn't turn out due to an ongoing problem of overly-forced-smile-itis! Thanks, Sarah!

There it is - the elusive genuine smile!! Love this pic! Sarah has a studio in Truro called Shutterbug Endeavors. She is awesome as you can see.

Brotherly love!

Next up was a week with Greggy who thought he was going to have a relaxing time in our sweet little town. Turns out, I had to travel for meetings the entire week, so I packed up both boys, met my dad in Truro and we headed out for 4 nights in two different towns, where the 4 of us shared one hotel room! What a trooper my dad was to agree to that..well he didn't actually know the plan when he agreed, but still, I was impressed! Thankfully the hotels had swimming pools and the weather was great, so the three boys had a wonderful time together. Thanks Greggy!

Our final night out for dinner in Bridgewater. 

This week my mom and Aunt Colleen are with us in AR. Caleb is back in school after his week off and Odin is loving the attention being lavished on him by my music teacher mom and retired daycare worker aunt. Songs, games, 2.5 hour naps (which never seems to happen for me!)....it should be a great week. Next week, Grammie Maureen comes to the rescue for 4 more days until Alan finally gets home. Wow. It is exhausting to think about, but somehow we have all managed to pull it off again. I sincerely thank my family for their incredible support. Whether I ask them to come to Nova Scotia or Jamaica, they are always there for me (and probably wishing they were in Jamaica this time around!). Thanks mom, Colleen and Maureen!

Having a laugh with the ladies!

And one more person I have to thank is my wonderful hubby who I miss very much. I can't wait for him to be home for a few weeks. Odin is growing and changing so much everyday, Alan will hardly recognize his little boy. Thanks Alan!

Ode to Odie

I was going to write a blog all about Odie, but then Caleb lost his first ever tooth! I sure hope the tooth fairy finds us in our hotel room in Antigonish tonight!

And now back to Odin...

Odin's usual smiley face

Odin's new (and hilarious) facial expression that he has been flashing at us non stop for the past 2 days.

At 13 months, Odin's personality is really starting to shine through. Not only is he an absolutely adorable and charming little boy, he is also turning into quite the little ham. (A mini John Jeffries, if you will.) He has added so much laughter to our home and it is wonderful to watch both of our little boys squealing with joy together. Most of the time, Caleb and Odin get along wonderfully well. Caleb is so patient and kind, and extremely proud of his little brother. But Odin is still a baby and he is a rough and tumble little fella at that. The only time Caleb gets frustrated is when Odin gets a little too curious about Caleb's many building projects. He loves nothing more than knocking over a tower Caleb that has intricately built...or dumping out a newly put-away box of toys, or pulling every single book off of a book shelf, or emptying the contents of a garbage can...you get the picture, I'm sure! I often find myself saying that we have one builder and one destroyer in the house.

Odie is not yet walking, but he is getting VERY close. He's seen here mastering the advanced bum-up crawl position, also known as 'the gorilla'!

Not only is Odin a one-man-wrecking-machine, we recently learned during his 12 month doctor's appointment that he is also a giant (which could be a helpful if he continues to pursue a career in destruction). He measured in the 99th percentile for height and head circumference, and 75th percentile for weight. We couldn't be more in love with our almost-walking, tower-crushing giant. Here he is trying a walker for the first time with Aunt Sarah.

First days

It's happened. My little boy has started school. I didn't actually feel overly emotional about it because he was so excited to hop on that bus and begin a new adventure. And of  course, he loves it. Loves the bus, loves his teachers, loves the playground, his classmates, music class, gym class, assemblies, bringing his own lunch...everything. He is 100% ready to take his Primary class at Champlain Elementary by storm!

First day shot. He said 'wow, I look like a man going to work!'

And first day pose (taught to him by Aly and Ava)

Odin has also had some big firsts this month. He spent a wonderful 2 weeks at home with Alan which went so much better than I could have imagined. Turns out he doesn't need his mama 24 hours a day after all! Who knew?! Everyone except me, it seems! They had such a great time together going for walks, playing tons of music, taking a few naps and getting in lots of quality father and son bonding time. The bigger challenge, in my mind at least, was getting a new sitter to come in and watch Odin now that Alan is off to California on tour. Childcare has proven to be a very tricky scenario for us in Annapolis Royal. The only daycare in town doesn't start taking kids until they are 18 months and after a few home care options fell through, I was left scrambling to find someone to watch Odin during the weeks when Alan is away this fall.

Our first sitter is in the middle of a 5 day stint with Odie and it has gone so well! I can hardly believe how adaptable, happy and independent my little baby is. But I guess that is just it, he is no longer my little baby. He is turning into a toddler and he loves people, stimulation, BOOKS and TOYS! As long as he has his hands in a basket of toys or is flipping through a stack of books, he is completely content. So, the sitter experience has been great and I'm able to work without feeling guilty or feeling like I'm breaking a little boys heart by being away. It is great to get home at the end of each day, and I am hilariously greeted by Odin smiling at me and making the 'milk' sign. He is ready to jump into my arms, cuddle and nurse for a minute. It's a nice way to reconnect after being apart, even if it does feel like he thinks my name is 'milk'!

The next few weeks will be a rotation of family members, Alan and hopefully a steady babysitter beginning in November. Whew, it is exhausting, but somehow once again, with tons of help, we are going to be able to find a way to make things work.

And now for a quick update about my other child - Sunny!

Lydia and I have been making plans for months to do a moms camping trip together, and this weekend turned out to be the perfect time for us to get away. The weather was glorious and Sunny was ready to roll. This was my first 'solo' trip in Sunny without Alan to take care of the campsite set-up, but I am proud to say that I figured everything out and we had an amazing time. We even managed to get the kids asleep so Lydia and I could have some much needed one on one time by the fire in the evening. Oh Sunny, still keeping our summer adventures alive!

And we are off. Baby Mia is usually the calmest baby in the world, so it was unfortunate (and a tad hilarious) that she was so upset in this picture. She quickly recovered and was amazingly content for the rest of the trip!

2 moms, 4 kids and 1 RV!

PJ party in the morning while Odin is possibly eating a rock. 

The Summer of Sunny

End of summer family gathering at Teresa's farm. It was wonderful to have so many cousins, aunts and uncles all in one place for a few days. 

With September upon us, I am able to reflect on what will surely be remembered as one of the best summers of my life. I thought I'd recap some of the highs (and a few of the lows) of our time wandering like a family of gypsies through the Maritimes. And what a time we had.

In total, the four of us have spent 22 nights together sleeping in Sunny. There have been probably an additional 10 nights where 1 or more of us have spent the night, but as a family - 22 nights is a number that I'm quite proud of! With me being back to work, it will be hard for us to beat this record, but I feel like we knew how precious this summer was and we were all set on making the absolute most of it. 

We have been through the 3 maritime provinces, to 5 music festivals, in several campgrounds and even in a few driveways. I love the outdoor lifestyle that camping literally brings to your doorstep. I have gone swimming more this summer that probably the last 5 summers combined. Ocean, lakes, rivers and pools - we have done it all, and as often as possible. We have had too many campfires, outdoor meals, hikes and card games too count and I'm proud to say that Caleb didn't mention tv or video games once! We rarely had to rush, so we enjoyed the back roads, we snuck in some extra, unplanned nights on the road and really took time to enjoy our surroundings. The best part, and what I will definitely miss the most, is just the time together. Time as a family to be together, talk, laugh, play games, explore...what we were doing didn't really matter as much as the fact that we were all doing it together.

Putting our cooler to good use on a hot day at the farm!

We did have a few bumps along the road, however. For being a 1986 motorhome, Sunny held up amazingly well, although we did have a few scares. The first one was when we ran out of gas on our way to our very first festival of the year. Everything works very well in Sunny, except for a practical little piece of gear known as the gas gauge. At first glance, Sunny has a full tank ready to go. The problem is she ALWAYS shows a full tank and it took some trial and error to figure out just how big that tank was. We puttered to a stop on the side of the highway near Middleton, about 30 minutes from Annapolis Royal, unsure of just what the problem could be. Did we just run out of gas, or was it something much more serious. Turns out, through Alan's extensive bluegrass network that runs deep around rural Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we were able to call a friend, who called a friend, who showed up with a jerry can of gas within 15 minutes. We filled Sunny up and were off on our way with relief and gratitude in our hearts! 

The next slight issue we encountered was driving from Grand Manan to Fundy Park in mid-August. Luckily, I was driving the car as we were heading back to Nova Scotia following our August tour. I got a call from Alan and Caleb near Rothesay saying that Sunny was stuck in first gear so Alan couldn't drive faster than 40 km/hr.  I turned back to find them and figure out what we could do late on a Saturday afternoon when we were supposed to be in Fundy that evening. Once again, Alan's bluegrass connections were called and help was on the way, spare part in hand. Unfortunately, the part wasn't what we needed and we ended up having to leave Sunny in Sussex for the weekend. But karma turned out to be on our side again, because thankfully we had the car with us so we weren't stranded and we were able to stay in an 'O-tentik' in Fundy for 2 nights. We jumped in the car with a handful of clothes, made it to Alan's gig and still had plenty of time to enjoy the park. We headed back to Sussex to find out Sunny's fate, definitely fearing the worst and scrambling to come up with back up plans in case Sunny was unable to continue the road trip with us. Miraculously, the mechanic managed to fix the broken part in 40 minutes first thing Monday morning and we suddenly found ourselves back on the road!! It was amazing to have our 'home' back and to be able to continue our planned adventure! The greatest part was how positive we were all able to stay. Caleb held back tears at first, but then we set out to make the best of a bad situation, and we ended up having a great weekend and getting Sunny back on the road for the rest of our summer adventures. 

An unimpressed Caleb watching while Sunny was raised on lift at the garage. See our poor girl in the background?!?

Odin kept his spirits up, even while we spent 5 hours in a Canadian Tire parking lot trying to sort out our mechanical issues. Odin was handing out 'high fives' , making us laugh and helping us keep things in perspective. He was particularly impressed when he received an entire plate full of pickles from the A+W across from Canadian Tire. How could anyone be sad after that? 

So thank you for the memories, Sunny. And thank you Alan, Caleb and Odin. I couldn't have asked for better travel companions. Now we need to figure out a way for me to have every summer off work so we can do it all again next year!

Happy Birthday!

One!

My little fella turns one today. Happy Birthday to our amazing little man, Odin Alistair Jeffries. I love your smile, your laugh and even your heartbreakingly adorable pout. I love how you stare, completely transfixed at strangers until they can't help but smile. You love being in the middle of the action, surrounded by people, sights and sounds. You have learned to cuddle and you love to share your hugs and kisses with your family. You are totally taken with your big brother. He will be your best friend and partner in crime for life. I especially love how you have made our little family feel complete. Here is a post dedicated just to you!

All about Odin at age 1:

Eyes: hazel, with more green than brown on most days
Hair: brown and curly! Yay!
Teeth: 12 (including 4 molars)
Favourite food: blueberries and bacon. Basically he would be very happy eating only fruit and meat all day
Favourite toys: No one real favourite yet, but he loves playing with rocks (and taking an occasional taste test),  instruments, emptying and refilling the toy basket and he shows a very keen interest in just about anything Caleb is playing with
Interests: Music and dogs. He can't seem to stop himself from clapping and dancing when music hits his ears, and he is completely fascinated with dogs. He will bark and shout until he gets our attention and we agree to take him over to say hello.
Words: Mama, dada and bop!
Signing: He is really getting the hang of sign language these days and consistently signs for 'more', 'drink', 'all done' and he'll throw out the 'dog' sign once in awhile
Mobility: Not walking yet, but he is starting to 'cruise' around on his feet by holding onto chairs and couches. He has mastered a high speed crawl and has very recently discovered stairs. He is fearless and determined to climb over everything in his path. I forgot how exciting and terrifying this stage can be!
Sleeping: Still co-sleeping with his mama, but now that we are home and getting settled back into the real world, we are working towards longer stretches in the crib. I must admit, I will miss having him in my arms at night, but I think the time has come for both of us. It's been a good run, buddy.
Daycare: Alan is on daddy daycare duty until mid-Sept when he heads off on tour. Odie will then go into home care with a friend of ours until he is 18 months and gets a full time spot at our local daycare.  He just spent his first full day without me and I am extremely happy to report that despite my fears, he was perfect. Not one tear was shed by either of us. I guess he really is growing up.

We love you so much, Odin. I can't wait to share my life with you and watch you as you grow. Your first year was one of the happiest years of my entire life. Thank you.

Signing for more carrot cake on his early birthday party at Greg and Linda's in mid-August

Family fun in Fundy Park

Sporting a new leather birthday jacket from Grampie John!

Camping in Sunny at Rogersville - his 5th festival of the summer!

Amazing shot by Aunt Sarah at Teresa's farm.

And now for a short birthday video:

Family on the road

Sunny parked at Cloggeroo Folk Festival in Georgetown, PEI

August is well upon us, and we have set out to make my last month of maternity leave a memorable one. We packed up Sunny on August 4, and hit the road for the remainder of the month. We have based ourselves in Fredericton to spend some more quality time with our family, and are taking extra extended long weekends on the road, traveling to different music festivals and campgrounds all over the Maritimes. By the end of Odin's first summer he will have camped out at 5 different festivals. Pretty good start to life, I'd say!

The 4 of us have now spent 14 nights on the road together in Sunny and we are starting to view ourselves as campground connoisseurs! We know what we like and what to look for in a quality family friendly campground. Here are a few things we have discovered that truly make for a wonderful camping experience:

•  For Caleb the number one thing to look for is a playground. He loves to be able to head off on his own to play and hopefully meet a few new friends. I love the (usually) old school playground equipment that reminds me of my youth. We rarely find new plastic equipment, but instead the older wooden climbing structures, teeter-totters, balance beams, ziplines and other fun things that probably wouldn't be deemed safe enough by today's overly cautious standards. 

Tire zipline (pic taken by Caleb during a solo campground photo shoot)

• We love water! Waterfront sites are an amazing treat, but any sort of beach or pool will do just fine. We've been swimming more this summer than probably the past 4 summers combined, often squeezing in multiple swims per day.
• The more grass, trees and green space to play, the better. We've had to camp out at sites with gravel which really didn't work for us. Odin needs to be free to crawl around and we all want to be barefoot when we can, so grass is a much, much better option for us. 
• Old school recreation rooms filled with fun, free things to do pretty amazing. Ping pong, shuffleboard, bikes, arcade games. Bring it on!
• I really appreciate a clean campground that makes garbage collection and sorting easy. Garbage cans, recycling and bottle refund areas, even propane canister drop-offs are really important when you are on the road. Litter on site leaves a lasting, negative impression for me. 
• Campfire pits and picnic tables make for extra outdoor time. I love eating all of our meals outside, especially because it means way less crumbs to worry about with Odin, and an evening fire is a great way to wind down after an action packed day. We even discovered a new twist on s'mores - the Peanut Butter Cup S'more! For a moment, I thought that this may be our million dollar invention idea, but of course it turns out to be quite a popular camping snack! So good. 

• Quirky touches, like funny road signs, decor, and friendly animals on site are all great.  Little things that make a site seem fun and vacation-y score points in my books. 

Cale really got a kick out of this sign in Coles Island, NB

• Music! We love camping out at festivals where everything is self-contained  and we are surrounded by friends and great tunes for a few days. I love that my boys can fall asleep while listening to music from the stage or jams outside of our RV. 

Another photo by Caleb of his dad playing at Cloggeroo!

Odin practicing his baby sign language in the back of our home on wheels. Here he is signing for 'more' animal crackers!

Playing in the red sands on PEI

 Once in awhile you come across a great play structure, like this bouncy pillow, that really made for a special night for Caleb

And of course, what big brother does, little brother now wants to do too!

Camping selfie! Aly and Ava joined us on a trip to Woolastook Park

How the parents saved Christmas (in July)

We learned a very valuable RV life lesson last weekend that I must share. We decided to spend one night at our 'local' campground, Dunromin, in Granville Ferry. It was a Saturday night, so we knew it would be busy, but we had no idea that we were arriving during 'Christmas in July', which turned out to be a particularly big night for the campground. I noticed on the daily event board while we were driving in that Santa was arriving at the playground at 8:00. When I paid for our site, I confirmed this with the worker who told me that Santa would be in fact be there that night with presents for all the kids. Wow, I thought to myself, Caleb is going to loooove this and how generous of them to hand out a candy cane or dollar store item to each kid. When I told Caleb, he couldn't believe his luck. Santa? Here? Tonight! With presents?!?! Amazing!! I overheard him excitedly discussing this with the kids on the playground all day. At supper he told me that Santa was here last year, too, and that he arrives on a golf cart!

Earlier in the evening

By 7:45, the playground was buzzing. I have no idea where all these children came from, but there seemed to be about 80 of them all sporting their little Santa hats and elf pyjamas. Alan and I watched as Caleb tried to act calm while he paced by the road watching and waiting for the magical golf cart to pull up. At 8:00 sharp, the big man arrived towing a trailer full of gifts. He merrily jumped out of the cart waving hello and seated himself on an oversized adirondack chair in the centre of the playground. The chair was probably built solely for this annual celebration. Caleb watched in awe, and was the first child seated directly beside Santa's shiny black boots. At 8:01, my heart sunk as I realized that the gifts were definitely not dollar store items. These were REAL gifts. Big and wrapped in festive paper. These gifts were definitely not from the campground staff, but from parents. Parents who were not newbies to this whole 'Christmas in July' at a campground experience. These parents, unlike us, had come well prepared for this event.

I looked up in terror at Caleb, who was watching with big bright eyes as Santa started calling out names on each of the packages, knowing that there was definitely not a parcel with his name on that trailer. Alan and I stared at each other, shaking our heads. We were about to watch our little boy gets his heart completely crushed. We knew we could not stand by and let that happen. I threw Odin in the stroller, asked Alan to stand guard and be ready to comfort Caleb in case I didn't get back in time. I literally ran to the campground office to see what items I could purchase and find a way to sneak back into Santa's stash. $6.25 later, I was armed with a glow stick, a flimsy frisbee, a $1 Surprise Bag and a bag of rock candy. I explained the urgency of the situation to the worker, and he kindly 'wrapped' my parcel in a plastic bag and wrote Caleb's name on it. I sprinted back to the playground, snuck up to Santa's helper and handed her my package just in time. There were only about 6 kids left when Caleb's name was called out. He jumped up, no longer able to contain his excitement, and was handed his plastic bag. Thankfully he didn't seem to notice the lack of wrapping paper. He opened up the gift and was overjoyed with all of the contents. A surprise bag?!? A glowstick?!? Oh, Santa, you really out did yourself this time!

And that, my friends, is how the parents saved Christmas in July.

Stepping up to receive his gift!

Sunny days of Summer

Our co-pilot guiding the way to Kempt Shore while sporting his new 'fish head' hat. 

This past weekend we packed up Sunny and headed off to our first festival of the summer, the Kempt Shore Acoustic Festival on the beautiful shores of the Minas Basin. We had done a trial run with Sunny earlier in the week by spending a night at the Dunromin Campground in Granville Ferry, and things had gone really well (mind you, we only had to drive 3 km to get there), but we were feeling very ready for our first real trip in the old gal. After 13 summers of tenting with Alan at festivals all around the maritimes, we were super excited to hit the road in our little home on wheels, and to bring our two wonderful little boys to share the experience with.

Having Sunny at the festival was better than I could have imagined. We were able to cook all of our own meals, instead of filling up on french fries from the canteen all weekend. We had our own bathroom, so no port-a-potties for us! We stayed dry under our canopy when it rained. We had our own space to play, nap, relax and even host a fantastic late night jam session.  It is so nice to feel organized and know that you have everything you could ever need for a successful weekend. Board games, extra clothing, band-aids, snacks, drinks, towels, blankets...everything has its own little space in Sunny. Who knew that RV culture would suit me so well!

And of course the boys were fantastic. I felt like I was walking around with three celebrities at times. Alan ripped it up on stage all weekend and received many hellos and as we walked around the site. Caleb, with his fish hat that he had purchased at a yard sale earlier this summer, was getting comments everywhere we turned. At one point he said to me 'I think I've gotten something like 40 or 45 compliments on my hat!'. And Odin, with his bright eyes desperately trying to make eye contact with everyone around him, was also charming people and making friends around every turn. More than once we would be watching a show on the stage and I'd notice that Odin had at least 10 people behind him completely captivated - smiling, waving, clapping and laughing with him.

Odin loves to clap to music. The second he hears a little ditty on the radio or in passing, he'll begin clapping. Last night, I was laying in bed watching a show while he slept beside me. He had been sleeping for about an hour when the show's theme song came on during the ending credits of the show. Immediately, his little hands went straight up into the air and he began clapping! In his sleep! It was quite hilarious.

We now have a week off before heading out again in Sunny to a bunch of festivals throughout August. Sounds like a great way to spend my final 6 weeks of maternity leave.

Sunny's first jam

A love letter (to family and Fredericton)

Cousin party at Kelly's Creek. I love watching these kids make memories together.

It's hard to believe that 10 months have passed since we first hopped on the ferry to embark on my one year maternity leave adventure in Fredericton. I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. Spending time so close to our family and friends has brought all 4 of us so much joy. I don't think Caleb has ever felt more friendship and love in his entire life. The closeness he has developed with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and especially cousins mean so much to all of us. And what an amazing way for Odin to begin life, with so many arms to hold him, so many faces to smile with him and so many people to share in the amazing developments of a baby's first year. Our boys are incredibly lucky to have so many wonderful influences in their lives. How we ever will go back to being on our own, I'm not sure, but I do know that I wouldn't have traded this year for anything.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year wonderful by celebrating so many special occasions with us - birthdays, mother's day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Patriots games on Sundays, lunch dates with Grammie and Grampie, play dates with Teresa at Kathy and Roland's,  inventions with Greggy, piano lessons with Linda, Wednesday afternoons with Ava, watching Alyssa play basketball and the list goes on  and on... We will especially miss the ordinary days, just hanging out together because we could.  We may just have to have another child so we can do it all again! (**this is a joke, so don't get too excited, Linda!!)

Watching Dada play in Officer's Square

It has also been wonderful to rediscover Fredericton after so many years away. I love this town and I can clearly see why so many friends have decided to stay here to raise their families. Here are a few of the many things we will miss about this wonderful city:

- The Northside market. I have always loved the Southside market, but the Northside location was a new discovery for me. Amazing food (amazing falafels and delicious Ethiopian veggie meals), home baked pretzels (Caleb's favourite weekend treat) and weekly visits with Perley the Magician.

- Fredericton library - living without internet or cable the past few months means we've made several trips to the library for books, music and DVDs. This year's entertainment can be summed up for me with The Gilmore Girls (finished 5 seasons!), The West Wing and Choose your Own Adventure Books  which are as great as I remember.

- The TransCanada Trail. This is where Caleb first learned to ride a bike, and many, many trips soon followed. We stashed our first ever geocache here and found several more. The trails are such an incredible gem in the city.

- YMCA - It felt so good for me to join the gym and regain some sanity by spending an hour away from both kids (thanks mom and dad for giving me this precious time off). The Y is also where Caleb spent 9 months in junior kindergarten making many good friends and memories, and also where Odin had his first swims.  I can't wait to join the Fundy YMCA once we get back to NS.

- Friends! I was able to spend time with many close friends this year. Jill, Owen, Harris, Brent, Sarah,  Leah...the list goes on. I didn't actually get out as much as I thought I might, which may have had something to do with the fact that I had an infant latched onto my side 24 hours a day, but that made the times I did spend with friends all the more valuable and it truly felt good just know you were near.

- The Johnston family and the Alders family who shared their homes and wonderful waterfront views with us. Without them, this year would not have been possible.

Thank you all so much. We are already looking forward to our next trip back in August.

The boys and I took a trip to Bar Harbor with Greg and Linda last week. Lots of exploring and seafood consumption took place!

Tidal pool love

Mt. Katahdin look off

And we are off. Don't worry, there is a rope attached to the canoe!