Camping Adventures

Last Monday, the kids and I went on a spontaneous camping trip. A couple mama friends and their families decided to go to Butter Pot Provincial Park, just 40 km away. I was going to just join them for the day. But the thought of driving out there and then staying all day for a campfire and driving home and putting the kids to bed myself was almost as daunting as actually staying the night! So I took the plunge.

Brian and I both love camping, and each camped a lot throughout our lives. We have gone with Bronwen as well, and camping with one baby was fairly straightforward. Still not the same as camping pre-kids of course.. but really, not bad at all. But I was hesitant about camping with two kids.. mostly because of the sleeping situation. Our kids don't sleep the greatest at home in separate rooms, nevermind out in a flimsy nylon structure right next to each other. But, why not give it a try... I was also excited about the social aspect as Brian is right in the middle of his 3 weeks away. Plus, joining in the pre-existing camping trip meant I didn't even have to cook- I brought some food items to fill in the cracks, but my friend's husband did all of the cooking (and did a great job!). 

It was gorgeous weather, hot and sunny. Here is John in his cabana at the beach. Glad I brought the playpen, or he would be trying to stuff each one of those pebbles into his mouth...

Bronwen decided the water was too cold (it was pretty chilly, but really refreshing!) and decided to play with the rocks instead.

Beautiful blue sky!

Bronwen and Sophie and the chips!

The whole gang. Little Thomas Whitt arrived just 4 days later and now Sophie is a big sister!

Deep conversations at the fire.

Kids all in bed! And finally asleep! It was shortlived.... the night did turn out to be as bad as I was expecting. Lots of waking up. But we survived.

Here is John.. woke up at 4 15 am, and already got a short nap in by 7 30!

Bronwen had a catnap in the playpen... at 7 am.

Our tent!

We stopped for a treat on the way home... French fries and "'chup" as Bronwen calls it.

Just a couple pics from supper that night....

So we did our first camping trip of 2014... and it definitely was fun! Maybe we'll head up to Gros Morne National Park when Brian gets home.

Daddy love

Salmonier Nature Park

We had some really nice weather last Monday and so some mama friends and I decided to do a field trip out to Salmonier Nature Park, about an hour from St. John's. It's a wildlife sanctuary with a 3 km boardwalk- perfect for strollers!You walk right through the animal habitats.. all of the animals that live there are native to Newfoundland. We had a picnic lunch afterwards. It was a lot of fun!

There's the caribou!

Bronwen and her buddy Sophie

Can you spot the bald eagle?

I don't have any pictures of our picnic lunch and the ice cream treat we had after that... but a good time was had by all!

The next day, Brianne and I walked downtown to Rocket as she had the day off work. Here are Bronwen and Zoey waiting for treats!

Brian has been very busy and is now gone for almost 3 weeks. We really miss him! I'm trying to still take advantage of the summer... even though it's definitely more work to do all this stuff with the kids on my own. But everyone is happier when we get out on adventures, and it helps me to keep my sanity in his absence as well!

Tourists in our own city

June 20-22 marked "St. John's Days", a celebration of the birthday of our city! There were lots of interesting things going on around town. Since Brian was at school, I decided to make the best of it and take the kids on a little adventure.

Here we are at Rocket Bakery. Bread keeps everyone happy...

This sums up their relationship at the moment... but I'm sure that the day is coming soon when John will no longer tolerate his thieving sister!

Attempt at a tabletop selfie.

I love butter, yes I do... I love butter, how 'bout you?

The St John's Trolley Line was free for all passengers on June 21, its first day for the 2014 season. This is the first time Bronwen has ever been on a bus.. well in her memory, at least. She went on one in Vancouver on our 2012 trip but was only 4 months old then. Turns out, buses out our front window are a lot friendlier than actually being on the bus. She screamed for a good few minutes when we boarded and refused to sit down. Here she is about 15 minutes in, still looking very nervous. John, on the other hand, needs a nap.

The bus went up to the top of Signal Hill, and this was the view from the window!

Our next stop was the Craft Council craft shop, where we sampled some lavender scones (not a fan, too flowery). Then we went to the Commissariat House, a historical house built in the 1820's right downtown.

Looking at one of the exhibits.. and enjoying some lemonade.

Some volunteers were making ice cream in the wooden bucket, and raisin bread pudding over the open fire. Here is Bronwen sampling both.

We went upstairs but it was deemed to "sca-wee" (scary ;).. I think the old lumpy canopy beds were somewhat creepy for the little lady.

Walking by St. Thomas' Anglican church, the oldest church in the city!

Waiting for the bus!

There is a picture of me around the same age as this picture smelling daffodils at the Domain in Auckland, NZ- right Mum? :)

So that was our little adventure! In case you're wondering where John was after the bus ride, he was sleeping on my back in the Ergo carrier the whole time. We had a lovely morning!

Iceberg ahead!

A couple of weeks ago we heard rumours of a huge iceberg very close to downtown, so we went out to take a look. Newfoundland has had an amazing iceberg 'crop' this year.. one of the benefits of a long cold winter and late spring! In the pictures below you can see other icebergs and the smaller "bergy bits" scattered across the water.

As you can see, this berg is huge.. note the boat beside it for comparison. The boat is actually one of the iceberg tourboats, they take tourists out from the docks downtown in search of whales and icebergs. They're going to get plenty of both this year!

I also find it amazing that you are really only seeing, as they say, the tip of the iceberg... about 90% of this chunk of ice is underwater! 

Here is a boat of similar size leaving the St. John's harbour.. so you can see just how big that iceberg really is!

And all of this so close to home! We drove the 10 minutes (or less!) downtown, parked and walked 5 minutes to Fort Amherst.. and there they were! Love living in this city on the ocean.

June days

Here are some of the latest photo updates!

Last Friday I went out for a lovely dessert date with my handsome husband. We hadn't gone out just the two of us for a long time... and things have been pretty hectic around here lately so it was nice to spend some time together, just the two of us. Upon our return, our babysitters said, "Well, we've never met a two year old who knows how to yodel." Good thing they are very relaxed and experienced with kids and grandkids, because Bronwen had finally fallen asleep about five minutes before we arrived home. At least we weren't there to hear it... haha.

Mr John is on the go! Crawling all over the place. Just this morning he performed the good old unroll the toilet paper trick, and here he is getting into his favourite cupboard.

We went back to the botanical gardens, and it was sunny this time! Here is Bronwen looking at the "dutts".

Such a beautiful day!

If Bronwen sits on the front of the stroller, then mama can actually walk the trails... I do enjoy walking a good trail.

Some of the garden grounds

Picnic lunch!

Bronwen was really excited for her juice... I think she was looking forward to this special treat all morning, haha.

Mmm.. peanut butter and jam!

We went to Home Depot to buy some tomato plants and snagged the truck cart. I have never used one of these things, thinking they were too big (they're huge!) but Bronwen saw some other people return it since we parked right beside the cart corral and was fascinated. I have a feeling she's not going to forget it anytime soon....  I may be looking for the truck cart more often when we go to such stores! Cheap entertainment at it's finest.

"brrrrrmmmm brrrrrm"- truck noise

John thinks it's really tasty...

That's all for now! I did find some tomato seedlings at Canadian Tire, so I'm hoping to try again what I had great success with last year- cherry tomatoes on the back deck. We planted our garden last Saturday and we're hoping to see some green things growing in it soon- nothing yet, hopefully the seeds didn't all perish in the very cold weather we had this past week. It's supposed to be a nice weekend in St. John's... grow seeds, grow!!