Build traditions of family vacations and trips and outings. These memories will never be forgotten by your children.
Ezra Taft Benson
Ninja and I are not what you would call relaxers LOL I like to multitask, it takes many things to hold my interest, take for example my evenings. On a normal night I will have my TV on, my laptop on, my laptop has 10 tabs open in case I think of anything I need to look it up, usually I have one earbud in my left ear because I usually have a TV show that I have downloaded playing behind my open tabs… And oh, I usually have my phone in my right hand blogging LOL
My Sister and her Hubby on the other hand are totally relaxed, laid back and go with the flow… as long as it is flowing at a average speed 🙂
2 weeks ago they brought SweetPea and came out for a visit. They got here late Friday afternoon. HBear was just finishing her Get Bent Karma Kamp (which I LOVED BTW! They did so may fantastic things like picked up litter at Gyro Park, brought handmade cards to 2 retirement homes, danced, painted rocks and LAUGHED!)
When we got home they were there! I made my famous pulled pork and favorite coleslaw for dinner. As the night went on and the drinks kept being poured I think I mentioned that it was too bad we didn’t book a room in Seattle for the weekend as it was supposed to be rainy at home and the Jays were playing.
IN.
What?
My Sis was like “We are in! Let’s do it!”
I got on my phone and typed in Seattle hotels… my Google came back with “97% of Seattle hotels are full.”
Hmmmm that doesn’t help us. Within an hour we had found the LAST 2 rooms in the whole state of Washington (maybe lol) and had 8 tickets to the Mariners vs. Blue Jays game on Sunday! It was midnight so we all went to sleep. Well, I didn’t because I was planning what I needed to pack in the morning LOL
The next morning we got up early, packed, went to the bank and we were off by 9am!
We drove to our Hotel in Bellingham. We stayed at the Econolodge It was affordable and cleanish.
We then Googled things to do in Bellingham and drove out to the nearest Outlet Shopping Mall 🙂
We bought a few things and it was getting late so we headed into town for dinner. We are super lucky to have stopped at an AWESOME woodfire pizza place called LA FiAMMA.
OMG it was so good! We had 3 pizzas, the Ham & Pineapple: tomato sauce, Coppa ham, sliced pineapple and mozzarella, the Meatlovers: a sodium rich, meat lovers’ delight. thinly sliced prosciutto, pepperoni, dry aged salami and our housemade fennel Italian sausage. and the Sophia: which had tomato sauce, prosciutto, rosemary, red onion, mozzarella and freshly cracked black pepper.
DELICIOUS!
The girls were all given pizza dough and trays to play with as we waited. The service was amazing and Hanna, our server even brought us samples of different wines, so we could buy a good bottle for after our craft beers lol
For dessert we had a Brownie Sundae: English toffee & peanut butter chocolate fudge brownie, topped with vanilla ice cream, fudge sauce and toffee crumbles. We also had, a Wood-Fire S’more: a home made graham cracker shell, filled with gooey caramel and Belgian chocolate, topped with JettPuff marshmallows and toasted to perfection in our wood-fired oven.
Oh Man, the whole experience was great, I definitely recommend it!
When we got back to the hotel I bathed the girls and then it was off to bed. I forgot how much I hate sleeping in a hotel with children. In fact SBean just started to sleep in a big girl bed since we got home from Vegas!
It sucked.
As soon as I turned off the lights SBean was like NO FREAKING WAY! She scurried out of her and HBear’s bed and right into mine. Ninja was in my Sis’s room having a drink because unlike my cray-cray kids, SweetPea sleeps through ANYTHING.
So, SBean hung on my neck screaming “Mommy I need you! I neeeeeeeed you!” She is a master manipulator I tell you! She knows just how to play me lol. So I “slept” with SBean. Every time I moved she woke up and regripped her hug and cried “I need you Mommy!” Sometimes for no reason she just woke up and yelled “I Don’t WANT to!” LOL It was terrible. Oh and our mattress had a plastic protector so every time I moved my sheet crinkled… oh and we were in the pet friendly room and my “duvet” smelled like cat pee.
That is what you get when 97% of Seattle is booked. I have to say though I had been sending my Sister Groupons for for Seattle hotels for months, you know trying to PLAN this trip earlier… just saying 🙂
The next morning we had a great continental breakfast and we left for Pike’s Market
The last time my Sis and I were there it was a surprise visit for my Sis for her “bachelorette party”. The best girl’s weekend EVER! I will post the weekend in the future because it is definitely worth talking about 🙂
Ninja and my BIL had never been there though and it was a great morning of great company, great food and new memories.
Off to the Main Event! It is definitely the Summer of Ninja because has is the BIGGEST Jays fan and has never seen them! In fact, only my BIL had seen them play before so it was a big treat for all! We went to Safeco and watched a great game! We ate sooooo much! 3 refills of popcorn, garlic fries, chowder, burgers, pizza and drinks! Such a great game! We even saw a triple play even though it was for them lol!
We left right after the ninth even though it went into the tenth. We still had a long drive home. All weekend Dad kept saying, “are we doing this?”
Yup, We did it Dad!
LOL
The rest of their visit was wonderful too 🙂
We colored,
Went for a stroll on the beach,
Had Mini donuts for lunch 🙂
Went to the park,
I took my Sis and BIL wine, cider and distillery tasting,
We went to Summerland Sweets for lunch… ice cream lol,
We had morning snuggles,
Met my FIL, SIL and JQ who had just arrived 🙂 at the beach/park/waterpark in OK Falls,
Did some reading,
Went to ANOTHER park,
had delicious dinners… even my “vegetarian” SPea ate the bacon wrapped chicken!!
Ate Frozen Yogurt for lunch… lunches suck lol
Had a fire with marshmallows,
We also took a family bike ride on The KVR,
AND had fun in the pool!
We ended the week with brunch at the Local in Summerland. NOT a good experience at first! I had made a reservation and when we got there just as it opened the hostess told me that they had decided not to let big tables on the patio this morning. What? She said I called you didn’t you get the message? Ummm no. I checked my phone again, No, I said I have 3 families coming from different places for breakfast in 4 minutes, what am I supposed to do? She said hold on and talked to the owner. She came back and said “OK the owner says he will let you but you have to be split into 2 tables. 15 minutes later we went outside. They gave us 3 tables. We asked if we could push 2 tables together and make do? They finally agreed and we say down. 4 tables were sat outside our entire stay. No one inside. When I went to the bathroom I heard the hostess say to new people coming in, “do you have a reservation? It’s the long weekend you know? We don’t have to seat you”
????????
Our server dumped a chocolate milk on my SIL’s head AND half of our table almost finished before the other half got theirs. I’m talking 8 adults and 4 kids, come on.
PLUS, there were no kids menus and no substitutions for kids. We couldn’t even order just toast or eggs, we had to buy the entire meal for my 18 month and 25 month old niece and nephew!
The worst part… the owner/manager didn’t come talk to us once. Terrible!
Thank goodness that experience didn’t spoil what was a FANTASTIC week!
The next week was PeachFest and HBear’s YMCA Camp. We LOVE PeachFest. This year it was chilly and BOTH girls got sick L It was super disappointing because my SIL and JQ were in to have fun with us. We even had an AWESOME Jurassic Park float planned for the Kiddies Day Parade! We still managed to get a few good visits in though J
This past week we drove to Calgary for my Cousin’s wedding. During the week we met up with my WpgBesty and her family, stayed with my Sis in Cochrane AND drove to Edmonton to catch up with family and meet the newest member! Stay tuned for all the GORY details! LOL
We brought back lobster from my BIL’s Mom from New Brunswick. Tonight I made my Dad’s whole summer and made classic lobster rolls for dinner with Fresh Taber corn from the Cochrane Farmer’s Market J
New England Lobster Roll
Adapted from A Family Feast
1 pound cooked lobster meat cut into bite sized chunks
⅓ cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ cup celery, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons chives, minced fine
1 dash Sriracha hot sauce
Pinch is salt
Few grinds freshly ground black pepper
Fresh Rolls
lettuce
Place the cooked lobster meat in large bowl.
In a separate, smaller bowl combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery, parsley, scallion, sriracha, and salt and pepper. Mix and taste for seasoning.
Once you have the seasoning to your liking, add to the cooked lobster meat and mix.
Divide the lobster salad between each roll per your preference. Some serve lettuce under the lobster salad.
Dad was in his LOBSTER glory!!!!!!!
