Remember Remember

We had the awesome opportunity to join Tyler in Ottawa for Remembrance Day this year.  He had a conference right over the holiday and I decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the kids to spend this significant holiday in the nation's capital.  Plus, being in a hotel is always fun.  Especially when it's paid for.  

Seeing the ceremony proved to be more difficult than we were lead to believe by the concierge and native-Ottawaians…?  It was so crowded that the kids couldn't see a thing and were quite cranky about it.  But eventually we moved and got a front-row view of the march of the Veterans.  It was amazing.  

Once the Veterans were dispersed, they filtered through the crowd.  These two men beside us embraced with tear-filled eyes.  They didn't even know each other.  Just celebrated the sentiment of the day.  It was quite breathtaking to watch.  

We walked around the conference centre a bit to pick up swag from the different stands and came to see this sign at the top of one escalator.  Tyler texted it to his mom and asked her how much she had paid to have this sign put up.  Too funny.  

Most of the rest of our time was spent in the hotel pool.  Actually, in the hot tub and sauna.  It was great.  All three kids are alive and well in this picture, despite how it looks.  

We also went out for a fantastic dinner at a place called Play where we had this fabulous soup.  It was seriously one of the best things I've ever tasted in my life.  Curried Butternut Squash Soup with toasted pecans and coconut milk.  Ahhhhhhhhhh.  

 So I came home and googled a recipe and recreated it.  Pretty successful attempt I'd say.

Travel

It's been a while since Tyler had to do any business travel.  Since he's been called as the BP he's tried to stay close to home.  Plus he's a bit more established with his business contacts now that we've been here for over 2 years that he doesn't need to say 'yes' to every travel opportunity.  But alas, sometimes travel is still necessary.  

This business trip took Tyler to DC again, and we looked into having us all go with him, as well making a weekend trip to New York as well.  Lucy's rehearsal schedule has gotten quite heavy so we decided it was best if the kids and I stayed home. Plus, we looked into hotels in the New York area for $200 or less and the only hit we for was the Harlem YMCA.  Ummm...no thanks.  Some other time.  

So on Monday morning we dropped the kids off at school and Tyler, Logan and I made the drive to Syracuse to take Tyler to the airport....with a stop in Watertown for cheese and root beer of course.  

It was a long day of driving for Logan and I but he was good.  And he enjoyed a few minutes break at the airport.  

They have a mock cockpit set up that he enjoyed playing in and calling the flight tower from.  He kept telling us he was flying to Mexico.  

With Tyler away, I have to be far more organized.  No tag-teaming.  But we survive.  

I also find that I go to bed super late whenever he's gone, waiting until I'm drop-dead tired before even trying to go to sleep.  But I sleep so gloriously!  Spread out in the middle of our queen bed.  The blankets barely disturbed when I wake up.  Blissful.  Life's a toss up.  

Tyler came home Thursday afternoon, this time flying into Kingston.  I so prefer these smaller airports.  Less people. less traffic. less stress.  I get filled with anxiety hen I'm in unknown crowds with my kids.  Like anything could happen.   But in Kingston, Logan can stand right by the window and watch Tyler's flight land and see him get off.  It's pretty exciting.  

And this weekend Tyler's headed to Ottawa, and we'll join him on that trip.  The kids love an excuse to stay in a hotel and swim.  And I get to avoid cleaning my house for a few days.  That's reason enough for me.  

Kingston Penitentiary

The Kingston Penn has closed and they have been offering tours of the empty prison for a few weeks through United Way and Habitat for Humanity.  It's been near impossible to get tickets and so we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to go.  But last week one of our friends posted on Facebook that she had a few extra tickets if anyone wanted them.  We snagged those up real quick.

To be honest, I had second thoughts as soon as we got there.  We were informed that they hadn't had a chance to clean the facilities since the inmates had left so we weren't allowed to touch ANYTHING.  Gross.  Tyler then proceeded to inform me that prisons are Public Health nightmares with things like Hepatitis, and who knows what else…ummm, gross.  Hand Sanitizer was readily available, but kids do not listen to the 'no touching' rule.  And this germ-a-phobe was on high alert.  I had the heebie-jeebies before they even started talking about famous inmates like Charles Manson and the Kingston Mills murderers.  Nice.  Great start to the day.

Some things were interesting, but it was mostly just yuck.  So I tried to focus on the architecture.

Happy Halloween

It's been rainy and cool all week, and I was worried that halloween would require raincoats, but the rain subsided for the 2 hours that we were out, and it was perfect.  

Both Lucy and Max were determined to out-do each other this year…and their record for last year.  Rain or shine.  We made it down 3 streets and were done.  Seriously, I don't think we could handle much more candy than that anyway.  I'm one of those mom's that rations halloween candy in the name of good health, so we often have halloween candy left in the bags the following year that we have to throw out to make room for more.  It's a terrible time of year.  Halloween and Christmas candy time are just too close together…and then there's valentines and easter!  I'm convinced Dentists have created most of these holidays…or at least turned these innocent holidays into 'candy-loving-teeth-rotting-belly-churning-money-grabbers.'  But, that doesn't stop me from indulging in Logan's mini-chocolate bars…since he doesn't really like chocolate all that much anyway.  

This year was particularly fun because all 3 of our kids were really into the holiday.  Logan still gave out sooner than the other two, but he put in a good effort.  He was so disappointed every time someone would put chocolate in his bag and we had to remind he that we thank them anyway.  It's hard to teach a 3-year-old the principle of 'it's the thought that counts'.