Remembered

I know I said that I had made peace with not writing about this, but tonight two things happened, Jack had a forty five minute heaving sob session when he went to bed, because he is  missing Canada and said it is just too long until we will ever go there again. Then I received an email from my dear friend Tess, with a list of prompts no less, and an urging for me to record our Canada 2012.

From a different time and place

I am sure I am not the only person who does this, but in my first week home from having been away I find myself constantly making time and space comparions, this time last week we were........ In the immediate return and with the help of a mind hazed by jet lagged it's easy to evoke the feeling of being in the place that you have only just left behind, for a few short days it is as if your mind can co-exist in those two spaces. But all too quickly,  just like our  amazing holiday tans, the feeling of any reality being attached to such recent experiences slips away. Best I get writing it down then.

Tess prompts me with favorite food?

This is a tricky one, for the kids it might be the giant ice cream volcano cake that we let them order for dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe, when we visited Niagara Falls, on the hottest stickiest Friday that I had ever had, so hot in fact it broke a fifty year weather record.

Volcano!!

Then again Jack might have to venture prawns. My texture phobic, slighly oral aversive child, went to town on these crustrations while we were away, it took three meals out where Nana Canada was cleaned out of her own dinner plate before we started ordering them for him separately. Then in the last week of the trip he amazed us by cleaning up Jacobs plate of sashimi and raw salmon sushi, who knew?

For me it was probably poutine, I had never heard of poutine until my first visit to Canada, now it is one of the first things I look forward to every time we go. French fires smoothered in a very savory gravy and topped with cheese curds, the perfect balance of carbohydrate, salt and fat, what's not to love?

I will answer for John and the kids again by saying being reunited with burnt Tim Hortons coffee and maple glazed donuts was definitly  a highlight.

Eating was such a central part of our time away, I have great low rent food  memories, the night the boys stayed at the Grandparents and John and I spent the evening at the mall pretending we only had one child. This night had so many of my favorite elements, poutine in the food court, a sleeping baby in a buggy while John and I had the chance to just slowly walk around and enjoy our time and of course, shopping. Nothing says romance like the mall on a Friday night.

We went up town too too, Uncle Jeff and Auntie Daar taking us to their fancy schmancy weekly date night restaurant, where all of Ben's master chef dreams came true.  I can say with utter conviction that the Japanese steak house at the Orlando Marriott is my children's most exciting and memorable culinary experience to date.

Most stressful thing?
Take a pick. It might have been when we were detained at the US border trying to cross between Canada and the US to catch a plane to Florida. We were in a locked building, could not use our phones, too scared to even check the time on them after watching a poor Indian lady for whom English was obviously not her first language, almost get taken down for using hers. Border Patrol it was not. In the end it took two  terrifyingly frustrating hours and resulted in my first ever missed plane flight. After a day  spent  at Buffalo aiport we ended up flying to Florida via Baltimore to get to our destination,  so we got to add another US destination to our intinerary. And arriving at hot balmy Orlando airport with it's bright lights, art deco colours and monorail to get from the terminal to the baggage claim is something I am NEVER going to forget, it felt like we were having a sort of secret middle of the night exotic adventure.

I think that was out stressed by our  unscheduled seven hour layover in Nadi airport with no air conditioning on our final flight home. Three children, thirty hours of travelling, I could tell you a thing or two about stress.

Yet I learnt  a lot from the traveling aspect never again will I worry about travelling with my children, at several times during our travels, at least ten people told us what great kids we have, and what amazing travellers they are. And it's true, they were incredible. John and I, maybe not so much, but the kids, just fab.

Most Funny Experience?
Has to be the afternoon we left Disney World. After much discussion and strategising it was decided that Nana Canada and I were the best people to take the boys to Disney. John knows his limitations, he hates crowds,  tacky rides and can be a bit intolerant of people in general,  he was worried he would ruin their experience with his antisocial irritations.
So, Nana and I had the most wonderful, exhilarating, exhausing and possibly the hottest day I have ever experienced. Everything went so smoothly , except for the part when I thought it would be okay to take Jack on Space Mountain,  ( he eventually recovered). And then at the end  day, totally wiped we got off the ferry and walked into a phenomenal thunder storm. I have never been quite  so drenched in all my life, there was nothing to do but laugh hysterically, it just seemed like it was SO funny, not sure why.

Two of the only three photos I took at Disney world, I was the very definition of a hands free Mama that day

I got the most mileage out of my incredibly funny story of how on our Sydney to Vancouver flight John was bumped to business and I sat in coach with three kids for FOURTEEN HOURS. At the end of the flight one man turned to tell me I was a legend. I told this story over and over again at John's expense in Canada and I thought it was pretty funny....

What we did?

So Many things....

Walking, just walking around and around our pretty Hamilton neighbourhood, walking pushing Millie in the pram, walking with all the kids, walking John and I with a sleeping Mils in the pram. Millie and I going on long neighbourhood walks, John and the boys hiking the Bruce Trial, all awesomeness.

Our Canadian neighbourhood was just so pretty to walk around, from turrets and scalopped roof tiles, to inspirational cards posted on doors, Keep Calm and Carry Yarn,  people.

The boys were very excited about getting to hike on the Niagara escarpment with their Dad again. 

Sitting, sitting  outisde in the pool cabana when the kids were asleep, drinking fancy red wine with Dar and Jeff and bumming a cigarette or two off Jeff when I was slightly inebriated. It would be an accurate assessment to make that I was more relaxed on this trip than I have been at any other time in the last nine years of my life.

Swimming, swimming and  then more swimming.

Watching, watching the kids spend time with  with Nana and Poppa and building bonds with their Canadian family, being cousins

  And listening, I will always be instantly transported back to a hot summery Canadian afternoon whenever I ever hear either of these two songs

It was THE trip of a lifetime, is it any wonder we have come back down to earth with such a hard thud.

Thanks Tess for the motivation to do this, looking over our photos tonight has made me realize that by being mindfull I can still recall what it felt like to be in the middle of a late summer afternoon 
Canadian thunder storm. I can still recall the smell of burnt Tim Hortons coffee and if I try hard enough I can even evoke the feeling of waking up with no agenda and wondering what fun thing are we going to do with our day today.