Thanksgiving happened!! And we roadtripped with the kids up to Vancouver BC to spend the long weekend with my best friend, Maris and her family. The end result was kid-palooza! And both Kamel and I talking about how much we LOVE to travel with our kids and wished we did it more often. More family vacations please. More more more.
(That is real joy on my face after spending a really long time waiting for my to-go order before hitting the road northbound!)
Our Vancouver airbnb was amazing. It was the perfect size and had a great kitchen, heated bathroom floors, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed running in circles all over it.
When we got there, Gabe really wanted to document the place. So this next series of photos is all him. “Cheese with the movie!” (TV) “Cheese on the couch!” “Cheese jumping!” and so on.
And then everyone jumped and promptly fell off the slipper odoman, so…
The night before Thanksgiving was piling into Maris’s apartment with burgers and fries and all the babies.
Gabe doesn’t sleep well alone in new places. So on vacation he usually piles into bed with Kamel and I if we have a king bed. This time around he got his own room, while Fae was in the packNplay in the master with us. Gabe was very excited that there were TWO pillows in his bed so that there would be room for one of us too!
So I slept with Gabe the first night and Kamel slept with him the other two. Everyone sleeps, everyone is happy. Baby snuggles!!
And then it was back to Maris’s where we headed out for a donut breakfast to kick off the holiday right.
Exploring new playgrounds is one of my favorite things to do on vacation with the kids. It gets you out in the neighborhood, enjoying the day, and it makes everyone happy. We have playgrounded in Boston, Miami, and now Vancouver. Where will we playground next?
Thanksgiving evening was total utter chaos. Because Thanksgiving with kids and babies and the cooking and the heat of the cooking and the children and the children and oh yeah the children… but it was chaos completely surrounded by love and family and the amazing spread Maris whipped up.
Gabriel would not, could not stop talking about pumpkin pie. When will he get pie? Where is the pie? Is this the pie? Is it in the oven? Can he have it now? Why can’t he have it now? How about now? Is it pie time?
The whole time I had doubts as to whether or not he would actually EAT THE PIE because Gabriel… oh have you heard? DOESN’T EAT.
He totally ate pumpkin pie. We all held our breaths and looked away and he proclaimed, “I’M TRYING NEW THINGS!….I get at treat because I am trying new things.”
(Modern motherhood with my best friend, you guys.)
The next day we had a relaxing start with bath time and Curious George before heading out to explore the neighborhood.
(Classic auntie Maris, using her butt as an anchor.)
In the afternoon we went to Kitsilano Beach Park and playgrounded hard.
On our final day we made one last pitstop at Chez Maris for Uncle Alex’s Famous Crepes.
And then… Maris and I literally ran to catch our booked sea-plane tour. Only to show up 5 minutes BEFORE the scheduled time and be told we couldn’t get on the plane because we needed to be there 10 minutes before.
This is us after we watched our seaplane depart without us into the mist. Which probably caused a crappy tour anyway, so there.
So we went on this super cheesy FANTASTIC video ride experience instead and it was amazing.
Meanwhile the kids were dry and warm, eating snacks.
And then we drove home. And the next day we went to the zoo, which there are also photos of. But this post is getting to be literally a mile long so I will stop here.
I hope your weekend was fantastic and it somehow restored lost hope in humanity. Because yes.