Vacation!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be going on vacation, and I can't tell you how even more excited I am to have a direct flight tomorrow! We may have to fly into Newark, but there's no way for us to get stuck on the runway waiting for our flight to take-off from Newark if we don't have a connection! Hah! Take that, Liberty International Airport!

I know all the taunting could backfire, and we'll end up with a lost bag or a lost carseat or the mother-of-all immigration lines, but whatever. I know we could end up sitting on the runway in St. John's instead waiting for fog to lift or waiting for the flight crew to sleep off their George Street headaches, but whatever. I know we could get to Newark and after schlepping three kids, a stroller, two carseats, a booster seat, three suitcases, and numerous carry-on items to the rental car desk find that Newark's supply of rental cars has been depleted of all minivans, and we'd be stuck haggling over what inadequate piece of rental crap they'd unload on us instead, but whatever. I know we could end up stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike while the kids complain about how tired and hungry they are, but whatever.

Trust me, I know of all the travel mishaps that could arise. And I'm all too aware of the fact that when our vacation is done we do, in fact, have to fly out of Newark, where we will, almost definitely, be stuck sitting on a runway for several hours before taking off. But WHATEVER. Whatever, people. Because I'm going to the shore!! For two weeks!!

Take that, Liberty International Airport!

The Man of the House

I think Shaun must have had some kind of pep talk with Kyle before he left on his business trip this week. Kyle and I just had the following discussion.

Kyle (in response to seeing Brandon chewing on a toy): "That's his second chance. He needs to stop chewing on that."

Me: "Oh, really? I don't think it's your job to tell Brandon what to do. Are you his mom?"

Kyle: "No, but I'm the man of the house."

Then he grinned at me.

You can imagine the eye-rolling that occurred.

Brigus

We decided to go on a mini-roadtrip on Sunday morning since my MIL was in town and the sun was supposed to be shining (it wasn't actually shining, but the forecast told us it should be).

I didn't want to go too far from town since I still wanted to attempt naps at home in the afternoon. I also wanted to find somewhere to use my National Historic Sites of Canada Annual Pass since Shaun has been giving me dirty looks ever since I bought it--I thought of it as a nice charitable contribution towards our wonderful host country, but Shaun just sees all kinds of multiplication, division, and how we'll never visit numerous enough National Parks or National Historic Sites in the course of a year to justify the cost of the annual pass.

I scoured the internet and found what looked like a cute little town called Brigus less than an hour away which also happened to be home of Hawthorne Cottage, National Historic Site. Bingo. Take that, Shaun.

Poor Shaun doesn't realize that scoffing at my purchase of this Annual Pass has just guaranteed that he'll spend the next year being dragged to every flippin' National Park and National Historic Site on the entire island of Newfoundland. He's lucky that a trip to the mainland involves either hundreds of dollars worth of airfare or an hours-long ferry or he'd get to see a lot more of them.

While a small part of me turned the car towards Brigus just out of spite, I was excited to discover that Brigus is a sweet little harbor town with a beautiful church, a cute little tunnel, and Hawthorne Cottage. Hawthorne Cottage, it turns out, was the Newfoundland home of the 'famous Arctic explorer Captain Bob Bartlett.'

I know Bob Bartlett was famous because it said so on the visitor's guide, and there were letters written to Bob from other well-known people of his time hanging all over Hawthorne Cottage. I have to be honest and admit that I don't really recall learning about Bob Bartlett before Sunday, but that really could have been because I wasn't paying attention during a history class.

The house itself was fun to tour, the kids had a great time, and the gardens were small but beautiful. We also took a little walk around Brigus and admired all the tidy little houses nestled together and the amazing view from St. George's Church. Brigus was so cute that I may just have to go back for this weekend's Blueberry Festival.

Check out the pics. And wish me luck finding any and all obscure National Historic Sites!

Hawthorne Cottage

St. George's Church

View of Brigus and Harbor

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

For the Record

It is now August, and I am officially retiring the Winter '08/'09 Snow Log. I know, Newfoundlanders, go ahead and laugh at me. I have probably just mother-of-all-jinxes jinxed all of us, but I'm freaking tired of looking at the thing. And it's time. Because we all know I'm going to have to break out a new one before the end of October anyway. So, here it is, for the record.

My Winter '08/'09 Snow Log
3 Nov. 2008 - 1/2 in.
4 Dec. 2008 - 3 in.
9 Dec. 2008 - 2 in.
12 Dec. 2008 - 2 in.
14 Dec. 2008 - 1/2 in.
18 Dec. 2008 - 2 in.
19 Dec. 2008 - 5 in.
22 Dec. 2008 - 1 in.
23 Dec. 2008 - 1/2 in.
31 Dec. 2008 - 1 1/2 in.
1 Jan. 2009 - 2 in.
3 Jan. 2009 - 5 in.
4 Jan. 2009 - 2 in.
7 Jan. 2009 - 2 in.
10 Jan. 2009 - 6 in.
12 Jan. 2009 - 8 in.
13 Jan. 2009 - 5 in.
17 Jan. 2009 - 1 in.
21 Jan. 2009 - 2 1/2 in.
23 Jan. 2009 - 1 in.
29 Jan. 2009 - 4 in.
30 Jan. 2009 - 1/2 in.
31 Jan. 2009 - 1 1/2 in.
1 Feb. 2009 - 6 1/2 in.
4 Feb. 2009 - 2 in.5
Feb. 2009 - 1 in.
9 Feb. 2009 - 1 1/5 in.
13 Feb. 2009 - 2in.
15 Feb. 2009 - 1 1/2 in.
18 Feb. 2009 - 8 in.
20 Feb. 2009 - 6 in.
23 Feb. 2009 - 7 in.
5 Mar. 2009 - 1 1/2 in.
7 Mar. 2009 - 1 in.
17 Mar. 2009 - 1/2 in.
21 Mar. 2009 - 12 in.
24 Mar. 2009 - 3 in.
25 Mar. 2009 - 2 in.
14 Apr. 2009 - 1/2 in.
30 Apr. 2009 - 1/2 in.
26 May 2009 - 2 in.

Total: 117 inches
Total snow day count: 4

This is entirely approximate. I'm not the weather service. My measurements are conducted from inside the house as I look out the window and estimate how much snow is piled on my back porch.

Fun With Grandma

When I returned from NYC last Sunday night I brought a visitor home with me--Shaun's mom, Lois (aka Grandma)! I loved having her to travel with since it made the extra two hours we had to spend on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International (have I mentioned how much I love it there?) much more tolerable. I did not like having a witness to me spilling salad dressing all over myself on the flight, but therein lies the tradeoff to having a traveling companion.

Lois has now been awarded the title of Our First (and only) Visitor in Canada. I'm hoping the 'only' part will have to be rescinded soon. There are no guarantees, though, since once Lois returns home and the guest room (the couch in the playroom) situation here becomes public information no one else may want to visit.

The kids have been keeping Grandma very busy in the week she's been here. Princess performances are scheduled practically non-stop courtesy of Natalie, and attendance is mandatory for grandmas. Brandon is enjoying yelling 'Boo!' at Grandma every time he turns a corner and sees her. Kyle looked forward to forcing Grandma to play Wii until she beat him--now he just spends his time talking her ears off.

We've also been treating Lois to a sporadic tour of some of the local sights, including Signal Hill, Cape Spear (where she got to see whales, and where I also FINALLY got to see whales), the Johnson Geo Centre, Moo Moo's ice cream, George Street, Water Street, and Hawthorne Cottage in Brigus. Newfoundland has also been treating Lois to a little taste of what the weather is like here. I'm pretty sure she's seen it all (minus the snow) this week--rain, fog, wind, sun.

Thanks for coming to visit, Grandma! We sure are going to miss you when you fly back out on Wednesday. The kids are going to miss having you around to play with, and I'm going to miss having someone else around to entertain the kids while I'm doing important Facebook-related chores.