Nova Scotia 2010

We got back last week but we sure wish we were still there.  This year was a lot more relaxing than last year since the bulk of the work (e.g., building our cabin) was already done.  I won't recount the whole trip but here at least is a summary...

We flew up on Wednesday evening, July 28.  Since we have frequent flier miles with Delta, we flew with them and used some miles.  We've flown that exact same flight (6:55 pm to Boston) three times now this year and each time it's been delayed.  Very annoying.  But what was even more annoying was the seating.  When I booked the flight about six weeks before, there was only one available seat to pick.  So I picked that for one of us which obviously left two of us without an assigned seat.  Well, due to the flight delay and trying to eat supper, we didn't get to the gate until about ten minutes after the desk opened.  I asked about getting seats together and it turns out that they had assigned the remaining two seats together but they weren't next to the third seat.  The plane was just about full so there was nothing they could do.  The lady advised that if happens again (where you go to book seats and there is only one left) that you don't select any seats.  Anyway, thankfully once on board, we got a lady to switch around with us and the crisis was averted.  Although Aubree didn't fall asleep until about the last forty five minutes of the three hour flight, it went pretty smoothly.  My mother picked us up in their brand new Kia Sedona.  Yes, they duplicated our purchase except in blue.  We felt right at home.

On Thursday, my mom went to work and then we scurried around trying to buy things we needed to take up with us...food, paint, etc.  One of our big things was painting the exterior of our cabin.  I decided to go with yellow and found a really nice Benjamin Moore yellow called "Cheerful."  I didn't want to pay $38.95 a gallon though.  As luck would have it, you can go to Lowe's and tell them the name of the BM color and they'll duplicate it but for only $17/gallon.  Now we're talking!  Of course, I'm sure it will fade much faster but oh well.

We picked my mother up at work and then we were off.  We met Shawn, Camille, and Camden in Freeport where we had supper and then we started the overnight trip.  Let me interject her for a moment and tell you that this is a little earlier than we usually go.  Typically we arrive at my parents house on a Saturday and then drive up on Saturday night.  Despite being a little earlier, there were still several people who had already arrived before us including my Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie who had almost run into a moose on the way up.  Okay, so back to my story.    Duncan was the first driver and it was he who was driving on the portion of the trip that is called the "Airline" which is a very hilly 90 mile route between Bangor, Maine and the Canadian border.  It was the middle of the night so you barely see any cars and Duncan tends to have a heavy foot.  The rest of the car was sleeping or attempting to sleep but the next thing I know, I hear Duncan muttering and I see blue lights to our rear.  Yup, a cop is about to pull us over.  Now, I feel like I have a bit of experience when it comes to being pulled over and getting out of a tickets since afterall, I have been pulled over nine times with no tickets.  So I tell Duncan "Just be contrite.  Tell him you're sorry."   The cop comes up to the window and asks Duncan if he knows how fast he was going (I believe the speed limit was 55 MPH) and Duncan says "70."  The cop says "No, you were going 77" (which Duncan later told me he didn't believe).  He then asks Duncan if he's ever been in Maine before and Duncan says "Yes, I travel this road once a year."  And the cop says "Well, you know, you need to be really careful on this road because there are a lot of moose."  What does Duncan say?  He says "Yes, yes, I know.  My relatives were just on this road a few days ago and almost hit one."  I just about died in my seat.  Of all the things to say!  I knew we were a goner at the point and we sat there trying to figure out how much the ticket was going to cost.  Duncan looked in his rear view and noticed interestingly, that there was a young girl in the passenger seat.  Eventually (well after the time that Shawn and Camille drove by, I'm sure thinking to themselves that they were relieved that they didn't try to keep up with us) he comes back to the car and low and behold, he only gives Duncan a verbal warning.  Duncan did show a lot of remorse at this point and the cop says to him "My partner (which I think was the little girl!) and I were laughing over your license.  Who gets a license picture with a suit on???"  So I don't know if that's what did it or what but either way, I was very relived not to have to shell out several hundred dollars.  Thankfully, the rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived at the cabins at about 7 am Canadian time (or as Shawn likes to correct me, Atlantic time).

Duncan got the door on the cabin right away and we were able to move right in to our cabin.  It's 12 x 16 so it's pretty spacious actually and will be even more so once we get some kind of dressers or structure for our clothes.  Aunt Lori had picked up a couple of pack 'n plays at some yard sales for us to bring up and leave there so we set them up both in our cabin.  Within about five minutes of the girls getting into their respective beds, I knew it wasn't going to work out.  Calleigh, as I've mentioned, doesn't actually go to sleep for like an hour plus.  She's talking, "reading," singing, you name it.  Meanwhile, Aubree was trying to go to sleep but was so distracted.    So we had to change back to our Plan A which was to have Calleigh sleep with my parents and thankfully they were very accommodating.  It really was for the best because I just don't think I could have left Calleigh out in that cabin.  Pretty much every night she has to get up anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after she gets in bed to go # 2 and how would that have worked if she's in the cabin and nobody was there except Aubree?  So it all worked out for the best with how we had it set up.  Aubree had no trouble going down for her nap by herself in the cabin but each night one of us had to stay out there while she feel asleep.  I don't know if it was because it was getting dark or what.  It wasn't a big deal because she fell asleep in about ten minutes or so.  Thankfully she had no problems during the night.  She only woke up maybe a couple of times during the night while we were there and as soon as I put on my headlamp so she could see me, she settled right back down.

  That's Shawn and Camille's cabin next to ours.  Eventually Ricky's will be to the left of ours.

     The inside.  Notice the red blotches on the wall which don't look so nice.

I, on the other hand, did not sleep all that well especially the first few nights.  It was a lot colder during the nights than I had anticipated.  We only had a thin bedspread and two blankets that weren't very warm.  So I was pretty cold.  I tried to layer up but without some long underwear or tights or anything, it was hard to do and still be comfortable.  I ended up getting a few more blankets and that helped considerably although one more night at the end was exceptionally cold and I did not sleep well at all.  Next year I will definitely come more prepared (and I plan on bringing a thick comforter).  Amazingly, the cold never bothered Aubree.  She had her sleep sack, a blanket on her, and I always covered her with my fleece sweatshirt.  It did rain a couple of nights and boy, it was loud (we have a tin roof).  I think I could have slept through it but I was so paranoid about Aubree waking up (which she did once but went right back to sleep) that it kept me awake for what seemed like hours.  Despite the sometimes lack of sleep (I got into bed every night about 12:30 and woke up about 7:15), I didn't feel really tired during the day so that was nice.

In terms of weather, it certainly wasn't nearly as hot as last year but neither was it as cold and damp as the year before.  It was mostly around 70 degrees and more sunny than not.  I would say it was very good weather overall although I wouldn't have been mad if it were a little warmer.  It rained a couple of the days but only during parts of the day.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this year was more relaxed for most of us because there wasn't as much work to do.  Duncan did the door, painting, and our stairs (which Uncle Kevin helped on tremendously).  Some of the others did more things to theirs (Devin completely finished the inside and it's gorgeous), Heath put on a screen door and put plywood on the roof, etc so they stayed pretty busy.  At some point, we're going to finish our inside.  It's just not that pretty of an inside.  I know we're only there two weeks a year but when you think how you'll be there two weeks a year for the rest of your lives, it seems worth it to spend a little money to make it more comfortable and pretty.  We're still figuring out the best way to do it because we don't want to do it ourselves.

So there was fun to be had.  We did the Amazing Race (which Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie planned out) and a Scavenger Hunt (which I had planned last year but we never did).  Duncan was on the winning team both times so he felt pretty smug.  We let Calleigh stay up to do the Scavenger Hunt and I think she had a great time especially since she was on Mia's team.  We also did the Family Feud and that was good for a ton of laughs especially courtesy of my mother and I was fortunate enough to get on video.  On the second Sabbath, we all went to Point Michaud Beach and had a picnic up on a bluff overlooking the ocean and it was definitely one of the highlights for me of the trip.  Just so gorgeous.  We also did our annual trek to Baddeck the day before we left.  We just walk around and go in shops but the scenery is just so beautiful that you can't help but love it there.

    Winning team for Amazing Race.

     Winning team for the Scavenger Hunt.  Notice a common denominator??

         Point Michaud

    My bros and awesome sister-in-law, Camille.    

       Baddeck

As far as the girls...Calleigh had a wonderful, wonderful time.  She was busy doing everything whether it be playing with Mia, swimming, picking blueberries in her garden (as she called it) or just hanging out with the boys as they worked on the cabins.  It's so nice because, at three, I didn't have to follow her everywhere any more.  One thing I was very impressed with was her swimming.  My mother had gotten her a really nice life jacket and Calleigh was able to swim all the way to the raft and back unassisted with it on.  I'm hoping this is getting her closer to actually swimming with one.  Anyway, I have to share this one story about here.  So, as I said, she was sleeping in a pack 'n play in my parents room.  While she was in there sleeping, we would turn the fan on and leave the door pretty much wide open.  She's not bothered by noise or light so it was no big deal.  I would sit in the living room next to the door and every now and then she would call out like "I have to go potty." or whatever.  So this one night, about half way through our time there, there are only about four of us there because everyone else had gone for pie.  It's about 9:30 pm and I'm sitting in my usual spot.  All of a sudden, I hear the toilet flush in my parents bathroom.  The few of us at that are there (I think it was my mother and Camille) just look at each other like "What?"  We turn to look and we see that the door to the bathroom is open and the light is off.  Did we imagine it?  Did the toilet flush on it's own?  I get up to go investigate and just as I go into the bathroom, out trots Calleigh who tells me "I just went poopoo."  Now keep in mind, she's not even climbed out of her pack 'n play once this whole time.  I didn't even know that she knew how.  So I was completely startled by it.  But she was as nonchalant as can be as if she got up and pooped by herself every night at 9:30.  Needless to say, once she figured out she could get out, things became a lot more difficult because than she was constantly getting up and I had keep threatening her to stay in there.

Aubree, Aubree, Aubree.  What can I say about her except to say that she had a severe case of "Mommy's Girl."  I think I kindof knew she had it but boy, it was completely evident pretty much the whole time.  She always wanted to be with me and if anyone tried to hold her, she would start to whimper or full out cry to get back to me.  Can you say annoying and frustrating?  This was so NOT like Calleigh.  I kidded Camille that we had the opposite problem of last year.  Camden would cry and demand to be held a lot and Aubree would just sit there silently in her chair.  This year it was the exact opposite.  Camden was happy with whomever as long as he could walk around whereas Aubree was only happy if she was with me (or really, Duncan too).  Fortunately, it got to the point that if I left the room, she would calm down after a minute or two and be happy but the second I walked back in, she would start to whimper to get back to me.  I pray, pray, that this is a stage and that it will pass soon.  And of course, it was also frustrating that she was still not walking so that hampered things a bit too.  But despite these complaints, she did have a good time and I did too.  Oh, and one other thing.  She's finally getting another tooth.  I discovered it near the end of our trip.  It's her top front right tooth.  It hasn't caused any problems for her as of yet.

    I felt like I was in this position, ALL the time.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that although there were 30 people (including Eric who came at the tail end) and 5 dogs that made the trip up, only 30 people and 4 dogs came/are coming back.  Kuna, who is my Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie's Italian Greyhound, was put to sleep up there on August 12.  She was deaf, going blind, and had developed a bad eye infection.  She was fourteen and at that age and it's clear that there's no quality of life, you know what you have to do.  Kuna was the original Italian Greyhound and what inspired me to get two of them.  So I'm especially sad that it was the end for her.  See you in heaven someday, Kuna.  I know one happy Mimi that will be happy to see you there.

So I think that covers the trip.  We left on Tuesday evening to drive back to my parents house.  We made our usual stop to eat breakfast at Friendly's in Freeport and went to a few outlets before continuing on to my parents.  We left out of Boston at 7 pm on JetBlue and got back home at about 10 where Ron and Elaine picked us up.  My bed felt SO wonderful.

Things are back to normal.  As far as Aubree and the walking...she's walked around some more today with urging but she's certainly not doing it on her own accord  But at least we know she can!

By the way, I'm posting some pictures here but I've already posted a whole bunch on Facebook or else I'd probably put more here.