henry’s first vacation

a couple weeks ago we took our first mini vacation as a family, henry’s first. with my parents and siblings we headed to a family friend’s lake house a couple hours away for some swimming and relaxation. my family loved spending time with henry, henry loved the boat as it put him to sleep (and we did too – we  may need to buy a boat now, hehe), i loved having nothing to do but relax -  no to do list, and the weather was perfect. it was wonderful.

{cue photo overload}

{love their matching blue eyes}

summer vacations are the best! and so are babies in bathing suits

{justine}

 

oh canada {part two}

{read part one here}

after 5 days/nights in whistler, we took another long bus ride back to vancouver. i wasn’t feeling well for some reason, but the gorgeous views of water, mountains and even glaciers helped take my mind off it (a little). luckily i was feeling better when we got there so i could fully enjoy the two days we had. after we got situated in the hotel, we explored a bit of what vancouver had to offer. we had lunch overlooking the harbor and then took a short bus ride to stanley park where we took a walk to see the totem poles. since it was cold, that was about all we spent time sightseeing in the park, but i can image stanley park is amazing in the summertime. per the recommendation of a local, that night we had dinner at vij’s – amazing. the next day was spent shopping around granville island, in the rain. if you go to vancouver, this is a must-go. there are so many cute, unique shops and the food at the market is pretty to look at but also good. we then took the aquabus, which was the cutest little boat ever, from the island to yaletown where we had refuge from the rain in a starbucks (so touristy, i know) and then enjoyed our last dinner of the trip at rodney’s oyster house, per another local’s recommendation. i don’t eat oysters (and can’t), but everyone else was raving on and on about their quality, freshness and taste. the next morning we bid adieu to the great city, which i imagine is even greater without rain and cold.

{ryan’s favorite: a hotel pool and hot tub}

{granville island market}

{all soap}

{you can’t really tell, but this boat is tiny}

{i’m on a boat…or aquabus}

{shucking fresh oysters right at the bar}

it was a great week-long trip, and i discovered that canada is cold (though i already knew that) and beautiful, and the people are extremely friendly.

have you ever been to vancouver? i definitely recommend it, though in the summertime where you can really experience all the city has to offer (without rain and coldness).

have a great weekend.

{justine}

oh canada {part one}

we are back from our week-long trip to canada. being on vacation is great, but it can feel so nice to just get home – especially to reunite with your dog who you missed every day (seriously. are we pathetic? how will we ever leave our human child?).

of course i took tons of photos, so i’ll split up the description of our trip and photos into a couple posts.

we flew to vancouver saturday morning on a four+ hour flight, then took a three-hour bus trip through gorgeous scenery to finally reach our destination – whistler.  our hotel/condo was in the best location of the village – it was directly at the base of the mountains, a 30 second walk from the lifts. the views were incredible, from the top of blackcomb and whistler mountains all the way down to the base. we enjoyed some skiing (the same mountains olympians skied on in 2010), walks and shopping along the adorable village  and good old fashioned relaxing (i read a total of 4 books for the week-long trip!).  the downsides of whistler were the extreme coldness (it was in-the-negatives cold, colder than normal), some pain from crappy ski boots and only so-so food that was marked up a ton. overall whistler was a gorgeous place with great skiing – and it was great spending all the time with my sister-in-law, sarah, and her husband, mike.

{view from room}

{hotel on right, gondolas and mountain directly behind}

{view during lunch}

{the peak 2 peak gondola route. it’s the world’s longest and tallest, from blackcomb mountain to whistler mountain. eeek – but amazing views. and convenient.}

{it even looks as cold as it was}

{frozen}

{ryan trying snowboarding}

gorgeous, right? you don’t see those views every day.

oh! i also took a couple videos. the first is ryan snowboarding the last hill of the mountain, and the other was taken while skiing (down a almost level run).

i’ll be back with more pics and highlights from our stay in vancouver.

have you ever been to whistler? where’s your favorite skiing? or do you prefer a beach (like me, not gonna lie)?

{justine}

mia

i will be a bit mia this week. we’re taking in some great views, skiing fresh powder and doing some r&r while visiting our neighbors to the north for the week.

hope you have a great week! i’ll be back with plenty of pics.

{justine}