5 on Friday - May 20th

I can't believe it's Friday again already. Greg and I have been back for a week, yet it feels like longer! The time away from the kids was wonderful. I missed them like crazy, and it was very strange to be apart from them on Mother's Day, but the feeling of renewed parenting energy I had when I first got back (which is all too quickly being replaced by parenting fatigue ... sigh) was worth every moment away.

1. To finish up our trip journal here are a couple pictures of our last night and our arrival into Vancouver.

We arranged to have dinner with my friend Bonnie and her husband Darryl. It was a fun way to spend our last evening on board!

Here are Greg and I. 

The next morning I got up before 6:00AM so I could take picures of our arrival. Here are some of the best (IMHO!!)

This is us entering Burrard Inlet. How gorgeous is that view?!

We truly live in the most beautiful city in the whole world! 

Approaching the Lions Gate Bridge. On the right is Stanley Park. On the left, North Vancouver.

Going under the bridge.

Downtown Vancouver. After leaving the industrial wastelands of Long Beach in LA - coming into Vancouver's cruise ship terminal I was full of pride for how beautiful it is.

Oh, and here are 2 of the 3 other cruise ships docking that morning. It was a WEE bit busy in the terminal!

Only Marley and LC would put on and pose in the outfits I bought for them in Chinatown in San Francisco. Paige was being ... well ... Paige!

2. True Scrap

 In April I took part in an online Scrapbook Retreat called True Scrap put on by Lain Ehman of Layout a Day fame. One of the virtual make and takes was a mini album using mini calendar cards. I didn't have the exact cards but decided to have a go at making my own. It worked and here is what I made - I decided to make it for my Mother-in-Law as a birthday/Mother's Day present.

Supplies used: cardstock from my stash (sorry can't remember the manufacturer now), Sassafrass Lass patterned papers from their Nerdy Bird and Cherry Delicious 8x8 paper pads, Sassafrass Lass layered blossoms, buttons from my stash, tags cut out on my Cricut, various border bunches and shape punches, ribbons and inks.

Okay, sorry to do this to you but we have to hit the road. We are heading to Vernon for a wedding and I will have to finish the commentary on this post when we come back. Have a great weekend everyone!

We are back from Vernon and I decided that the pictures didn't really need to have commentary added but I did add a supply list (such as it is). Oh, and the hand prints on the back are my girls'. The red one is Marley's, the purple one is Paige's and the yellow one is LC's. Thanks!

Day 6 - On board the Zuiderdam

Hi girls!!
Sorry this is SO late! You probably thought I wasn't going to post today and I admit to thinking it wouldn't happen either. The ship's satelite feed was out until just recently so no one was able to get onto the internet. But I am here now so here goes ...

It was a pretty lazy day and I really don't have too many pictures to show you.

We went to a cooking demo in the afternoon and learned how to make a Roast Beef and Arugula Crostini from Party Planner Katie (at least, I think her name's Katie). She's from Australia and was very funny.

After that we sat and enjoyed the glass of wine that came with the demo.

Last night was "Formal Night" here on board which basically means that everyone is supposed to get dressed up to go to dinner. They have photographers to take your pictures and the menu is more high class than normal. Daddy and I checked out the pictures today but they weren't good enough to buy.

This was our towel creature that greeted us when we got back from dinner. A stingray. Oh, and we also get chocolates every night too. Yummy!

We've really done nothing much today so I won't bother putting up a post about it. I'll just tell you now and then if we take any pictures I'll show them to you when we get home.

The seas were pretty rocky last night and while Daddy seemed to be able to be rocked to sleep by the waves, I was not. So this morning I got up earlier than Daddy and went for breakfast while he was showering. I needed to get out of our stateroom and get some fresh air! After that I went to the Spa and had a pedicure while Daddy went and listened to the Cruise Director tell everyone what to expect tomorrow morning during disembarkation. I ran into Bonnie (Eowyn and Farryn's Mom) and arranged to have dinner with them tonight. That should be fun! Daddy said he saw some whales today but I didn't. Boo hoo.

I tried to write this post earlier but the internet was down so I finished my book instead. Good  thing as I have book club on Sunday! After lunch we tried to see the movie Inception but there were no seats left so we went back to our stateroom instead and watched a different movie. I tried to read again but ended up falling asleep for a bit and now I'm blogging to you. So you see, kind of a nothing day!

Tomorrow I hope to get up really early and take some pictures of us entering Vancouver harbour. Shouldn't be a problem as I haven't been able to sleep well on board and tend to wake up often! Then we will disembark, fight our way through customs with all the other thousands of passengers arriving in Vancouver tomorrow (Grandpa said there are 5 ships docking tomorrow! Yikes!) and make our way to the skytrain and home. I can't wait to see you all!

Hope you had another good day at school today and ballet too. We'll see you tomorrow!

Love you all!

Day Five - LA and getting on board the Zuiderdam

Hi girls,
Sorry this post is late. It's also going to be short 'cus internet access is costing me a small fortune!

Yesterday Daddy and I got up early for our flight to LA from San Francisco.

Here's Daddy on the train we took from where we dropped of the rental car to the Terminal.

A view of San Francisco International airport.

I got Daddy to pause as we were walking up the gangway to board our ship. That's it in the background - Holland America's Zuiderdam.

A view of our stateroom. We got upgraded from an inside cabin with no windows to one on the outside with these giant windows. We have a fantastic view! ... of a life boat!!! :) Actually, we can see over it and see the sea. The natural light is really nice!

Looking the other way - you see the little sitting area. Daddy's busy reading up on all the onboard events of the day.

Dinner that night. We shared a table with a couple from Vancouver and two lovely ladies from Williams Lake. Food was great!

Our Head Waiter did a little trick for us - he balanced 2 forks on a toothpick! Pretty cool, huh?

When we got back to our room we found they had got our room ready for the night and left us a traditional folded towel animal. This one's a lobster!

Okay, that's all for now. Daddy wants to go to this Travel Trivia thing so I'm going to sign off and join him.

I hope you have a good day today. I'll talk to you soon!

Day Four - Sonoma & Muir Woods

Good morning Marley, Paige & Christine!

This morning I took a bunch of pictures of our hotel so you could see what it looked like. And yes Paige, we DID like our hotel, thanks for asking. The one we are in right now is close to San Francisco Airport and is not very nice. I don't think I'll bother taking any pictures of it!

Here are some of our hotel in Napa.

This is our hotel - The Elm House Inn. Pretty, isn't it?

See that top window? That was our room!

This is taken from the second floor balcony, looking down at the breakfast set up.

And here's Daddy loading up with fruit salad and a freshly baked mini loaf. Today is was poppy seed. Yesterday it was blueberry crumble. Sooooo yummy!!! They also make Belgian waffles and I had a yoghurt with my fruit today. If we ever come back to Napa we'll be staying here again. The breakfasts, the freshly baked cookies in the evening ... so yummy!

Anyway, moving on. Here is a view (also taken from the upstairs balcony) of the sitting area and fireplace.

Out back is a little garden and beyond that fence on the left is a hot tub. We didn't use it though.

Just off the breakfast area is this outdoor patio area. I can imagine this is a popular breakfast spot in the summertime!

After we packed and checked out we went shopping at an outlet mall across the highway from the hotel. Marley, I got you a few things for summer. Paige, Daddy picked out a new swim suit for you. And all of you girls have a new summer dress that you can hopefully wear to Aunty Jonina's brother Josh's wedding in a couple weeks. Hope you like everything and I hope it all fits!

Then it was off to Sonoma.

I liked this town immediately. It has character - something I found a bit lacking in Napa. As charming as Napa is! We had lunch first at a Mexican restaurant.

I had a strawberry margherita and decided to get a little silly for you guys!

This picture is for Grandpa. I got the fish tacos.

The one on the left was my favourite (I didn't like the pinky cream stuff on top of the other one.)

Daddy ordered Carnitas (basically pulled pork tacos.) Pretty yummy too.

After lunch we went across the street to the old Spanish Mission. It was pretty interesting but I won't bore you with a history lesson right now.

I will however ask you a question: What type of tree do you think this is?

It's an orange tree!

This was in the courtyard of the mission.

Also in the courtyard was this GIANT prickly pear cactus. Ouch! Watch out Daddy!!

In the front was this other massive cactus. I have no idea what type it is but it looks seriously scary!!

See what I mean? Look at all those prickles and thorns!

After a quick walk around the Sonoma town square, we drove to Muir Woods - a State Park full of really tall, really old redwood trees.

Here's is a picture of Daddy in front of one of the trees. It probably doesn't look that tall, right?

How about now?

We are now at San Francisco International airport waiting for our flight to LA where we will board the cruise ship. There is free WiFi here so I am able to finish off this post. If you checked in before heading off to school this was a far as I got. So ... to resume ...

This is a slice of a very old redwood. Can you see the tags? These tags are pointing to rings which indicate years of growth and therefore years of age of the tree. The innermost one says the tree was born in 909AD and then the outermost tag says it died (fell down) in 1930. So this tree was over a 1000 years old!!!!

It may not look very big here but check out this next picture ...

Now do you think it was a big tree? It was about as thick around as Marley is tall!

More pictures of trees.

Me in front of another big tree!

Daddy is just entering an area they call Cathedral Grove.

Remember Where's Waldo? Now Where's Daddy?!

The trees really are unbelievably tall!

I took this picture of what is basically  root-like growth on one of the trees because I thought it kind of looked like a bear. What do you think?

After leaving Muir Woods we headed to San Francisco. This time we got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. This was our first glimpse of it.

And here we are approaching the bridge deck. Very exciting!

Okay girls, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed all the pictures today!

Have a good day at school and preschool and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.

Love you all!! Mom.