I’m writing this from our pretty (and huge) cabin on Apex mountain. I thought I might have time to write, here, this week, but our days are full and then it’s time for bed. I’ll write all about it when we get home, because it’s been amazing. Or, UH-MAZE-ING, as the kids are saying these days.

I did do my regular freelancing stuff this week, for those who are interested.

Over at Work It! Mom:

• Fighting with your spouse makes for a better marriage
• Would you change your last name if you got divorced?

Over at The Bad Moms Club:

• Bad Moms Take Their Kids Out Of School

Over at Life Made Delicious

• They’re behind on posting my submissions, but here are my past posts.

I’ve also been participating in the #janphotoaday challenge, using Instagram. It’s never too late to join in, friends. It’s a lot of fun. Here are my first 12 days (hover your mouse over the photo for the description). (I’m “AngellaD” on both Twitter and Instagram, if you want to follow along.

Day 1: Me.

Day 2: Breakfast

Day 3: Something I adore

Day 4: Letterbox

Day 5: Something I wore

Day 6: Makes me smile

Day 7: Favourite

Day 8: My sky

Day 9: Daily routine

Day 10: Childhood

Day 11: Where I sleep

Day 12: Close-up

See you (ha!) next week!

He agreed and we sold the cabin at a premium (and paid down our house mortgage) before the market crashed. There have been so many times, especially when he was out of work and we were both on shaky ground work-wise, where we have been so thankful that we sold when we did. So, so thankful.

So, no, we don’t own our own cabin. But we do have a tiny (TINY) mortgage and we’re both employed and we’ve found a cottage that we rent that feels like our home away from home.It resides in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

It’s not ours, legally, but it’s ours once a year.

I love living in the Okanagan, I really do. The desert climate and mild winters are a nice change from the non-stop rain that I grew up with. I spent twenty years on the north coast of B.C. (Highest rainfall in Canada!) and six years in Vancouver (Not better!) but the ocean, you guys. The ocean. I lived near it for twenty-six years of my life and I think that once you know it, it never leaves you.

We spent (two nights in Portland, and) four nights at “our” cottage in Cannon Beach. I took out my “big camera” a lot for the first time in a long time and it was good. I also took iPhone photos along the way and shared them, but in case you aren’t an Instagram/Facebook/Twitter friend (or maybe, you are and are ignoring your computer in favor of summer weather)(As you should) here are some of my favorites:

Miss Kerri Anne met us for dinner in Portland and spent a night with as at the cottage. We love her. I’m sure you do too.

Day one at the beach:

We had expected it to be like last year: Sunny, but cold. Jeans, shirts and hoodies. We wore the same this year and then ten minutes later we went back to the cottage to change into bathing suits and shorts. It was warm.

Our second day was cloudy and misty. I went for a run anyway and loved every minute of it.

Miss Emily’s silhouette.

Kerri and my kids swam in the ocean. FULLY CLOTHED.

Post-dinner cuddles.

The view from far south (another morning run):

A few other favorites from the “big camera”:

My three little fishes spent the bulk of their time swimming in the ocean.

It was far too cold for me, but I’m just an old bat.

While the kids were swimming in the ocean and I was reading/talking with Kerri, Matthew went and built himself a friend.

He got the slow clap from fellow beach goers when he was done. Later that night, when we went back to the beach to watch the sunset, someone had written AWESOME in the sand. Indeed.

Speaking of the sunset…

Seriously.

One last shot of the beach before we went back and hunkered down for the night.

Our entire trip was AMAZING and the fact that our kids traveled TEN hours straight to Portland and TWELVE hours from Cannon Beach to home, with nary a complaint, means that they are the BEST KIDS EVER. I have told them as much, repeatedly. We’ve entered a Golden Age of no diaper bags, no toddler meltdowns and hilarious conversations and hanging out as people who like each other. I remember when a trip to Costco would set fear in my heart and now here we are, driving across one Province and two States, and enjoying ourselves. ENJOYING ourselves.

This is what vacation (and family) is all about.

*More photos are on Flickr, with more to be uploaded this week.

Whenever anybody asks how I’m doing the response is usually the same.

BUSY.

I keep saying that it will get better when this is done or that happens but then this gets done and that happens and nothing is really different. All of the other stuff that got shoved aside when I was dealing with this and that now needs to be dealt with and I kind of want the wheel to stop. But the momentum has caught and it’s all I can do to keep from being towed under.

I am tired, friends. Burnt. Spent. Exhausted. It’s been one thing after the other and while it has all been good, too much good cannot be entirely good. Or some other smart or witty statement that will convey how verily done I am.

All hope is not lost. There is some non-stressful good about to happen up in here.

• We pick Graham up from camp on Saturday and I plan on wrapping my arms around him and never letting him go.

• I have plans to go out on Saturday night with two of my best girls (Amanda and Tamara) to celebrate Tamara’s birthday.

• On Monday morning, our house/dog sitter arrives and we’ll be driving away so that we can spend a week in Portland/Cannon Beach.

See you on the other side.

*needtobreathe. Of course.

I’ve been sitting here, cursor blinking, trying to figure out how to write about our six nights in California. We did five days at Disneyland and one day at Universal Studios and at the end of each day I would sit down and journal about our day and list all of the rides we took and the people we saw and the things the kids said, but…how do I put that all into a blog post?

I can’t.

What I can do is tell you that after taking my kids on their first airplane ride, walking with them all over Creation for fourteen hours a day and having many random conversations while we waited in lines/walked back to our hotels is that I HAVE THE COOLEST KIDS ON THE PLANET.

Oh, sure, there were hiccups. I have an eight year old that NEVER STOPS TALKING and likes to ask, “I wonder why…” followed immediately by, “It’s probably because…” He also likes to correct me on topics that he is not anywhere close to being an expert on. Like that time he told me how he would have parked the van, had he been driving. He’s EIGHT.

I have a middle child who was my ride partner for the bulk of the time and who is the biggest lover of all time – ask him for a hug and his whole face lights up. He also has the habit, if one of his siblings is being spoken to about an attitude/behavior, of pointing out how HE didn’t say/do what they did. Dude. Nobody likes a suck-up.

And then we have the baby of the family, who is a Princess with a capital P. When she gets tired or hungry everything is so TRAGIC and I have to do BREATHING EXERCISES with her to get her to stop crying. She really is a mini-me.

Those bumps were few and far between (except for the NON-STOP TALKING) and we really did have a lot of fun. My husband cracks me up. An example:

Me: “We should create our own language so that nobody can understand us.” Him: “Sometimes you speak so fast that it’s like you already DO have your own language; I can’t understand you.” It’s funny because it’s true.

The kids charmed strangers (we got to ride in the front compartment of the monorail):

We had hilarious conversation after hilarious conversation. Have I mentioned that my kids are HILARIOUS? Like when Graham said, “”Why is Disneyland in California? Is California special or something?” Or when we were talking about the years that Matthew and I were born and Nathan said, “So…electricity was created ten years before Dad was born?”

Oh, gosh. I really can’t give any of it justice. Just know that in between the meltdowns and corrections, there was an abundance of laughter. My kids RULE.

Here are more photos, since I took 50 or so:

Graham saw this Mickey and Minnie table and asked me to take his picture.

His brother and sister followed suit, per usual.

Here are a few more of the Instagram favorites:

I’m still working on editing/uploading photos to Flickr, so check there over the next few days. I promised the kids we’d sit down and create a Disneyland photo book, which means I have been spurned on to get ‘er done.

We knew that our kids were good travelers based on the many road trips we’ve over the years, including our trip to Cannon Beach last summer. This trip kind of blew us away. There was fresh air and excitement and rides and many, many miles of walking per day, with very few complaints. We’ll definitely go back to the Land of Disney one day but before we do, we’re going to MEXICO, where we will do nothing but lie on lounge chairs and swim in the ocean. Amen.

Matthew knows how much I have longed to go to New York (The fact that I tell him so every time it’s on T.V. or in a movie helps) and when we found out that was where BlogHer was going to be held, he told me that I needed to go for a week. It’s a full day of travel each way, which meant I would have five full days in the city. I booked my hotel and my flight and then realized that I had no plans from the Monday afternoon I arrived until the conference attendees started arriving on the Wednesday night.

I emailed my cousin Candace, who left Canada after high school to set up a new life in Boston. Dad and Her Mom are siblings, we’re the same age, but we haven’t seen each other in fourteen years. I sent an awkward, hey-I’m-coming-your-way-do-you-want-to-meet-you-can-totally-say-no-and-that’s-OK email and approximately two minutes later she replied with a YES I’M COMING OH MY WORD HOW MUCH FUN WILL IT BE???

Fun, it was. She’s one of the most hilarious people I’ve ever met and is a phenomenal story teller. She’s also really pretty.

I made her hang out with two of my blogging/real life friends upon her arrival but she put up with all of the blog talk nonsense like the trooper she is. We went our own way in search of a place to catch up and talked into the wee hours of the morning.

The next day was Tuesday, or The Day We Did Everything. We started out in Central Park.

(This one is from a subsequent excursion with Leah and Sundry.)

This one, too.

After walking through Central Park and watching me twist dials and meter and whatnot she told me that she had always wanted to take her photography up a notch. So what did we do? We went to B&H, of course. (HOLY MECCA OF PHOTOGRAPHY, BATMAN.) She bought herself a sweet little Rebel and we headed to Grand Central Station.

GRAND CENTRAL STATION. It was just like it is in the movies. My kids have been firing out Madagascar references which, yes. Of course.

There were pretty lights.

We made our way to Rockefeller Plaza, and not just because we love 30 Rock.

Then there was Times Square. Oh, you guys. TIMES SQUARE.

I kept going back there. During the daytime, in the evening. With friends, by myself. There is this energy about it and you cannot help but look and engage and take photo after photo after photo. Or sometimes, just sit on a bench and watch all of the people as they make their way through.

New York is every single piece of the hype that you have heard, with a huge dollop of awesome thrown on top. You feel so ALIVE when you are there and, well. I <3 NY.

*SO MANY MORE photos on Flickr. Even more to follow.

It’s been a week since I told you that I was heading to New York and I feel as though an entire month’s worth of experiences were crammed into those seven days. A week away from typing anything longer than 140 characters has me wondering how I’m going to articulate all that I saw/did/smelled (Seriously, New York. What’s is up with your SMELL?) and I think the easiest thing to do is to start with the conference itself. Everyone’s going to be posting their recaps in the next few days and I’m nothing if not a lemming. Plus, it will bide me some time to go through the 867 unedited photos of the city itself.

This was my third BlogHer conference and it was…different this year. The conference has grown exponentially (2,400 people, NO JOKE) and it felt so odd to walk into the ballroom during a meal or session only to look into a sea of faces and not see ONE that you recognized. In talking to my roomie and our friends, it turns out that I am not alone in my sentiment that it felt like you didn’t get to see enough of everyone you know. It was in no way a bad weekend, it was just different. That being said, it was pretty spectacular to descend on a fabulous city with a group of my favorite writers and sped some quality face-to-face time.

This year, as in years past, I had both Leah and Linda to wander Central Park with (photos to come some day), attend parties with and run to when I found myself surrounded by strange (but friendly) faces that I did not recognize. These girls right here?

They make this introverted extrovert able to attend a large conference (2,400 PEOPLE, you guys) without spending every minute of it hiding in my room, wishing I had the balls to just go downstairs already. They are every bit as lovely and witty and hilarious as they appear online. Scratch that. They are one BILLION times better than they appear online. I love them. Immensely. I also love that Linda made me get into a bike cab with her as our mode of transportation to a party. The dude weaved in and out of traffic while I laughed hysterically. It was either that, or soil my underwear. I chose the former.

Speaking of that fear of heading downstairs alone, I have to thank Miss Britt for taking care of me on the Wednesday night. I had plans to meet Kristin and Corey for late drinks but planned on hiding out in my room until then (See? Introvert) and edit photos. Heather had DM’d me to see if I wanted to grab dinner and Britt put the call out on Twitter wondering where people were. She told me to get my butt downstairs and I’m glad I did. I had a good time hanging in an Irish pub with some great people.

Kristin is another great friend who is one of my home base people, but I had yet to meet her honey Corey. I had accosted him with a “Corey! I’m Kristin’s friend!” exclamation outside of the hotel that afternoon when I recognized him.  Apparently I wasn’t too frightening because he was willing to meet in the hotel bar for drinks. I’m not surprised, though. He’s so NICE. And aren’t they adorable?

By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, Leah and I were lamenting about how few photos we had taken of our friends. Part of the reason is that there were so many parties on Thursday and people were spread out, and the other part of the reason is that she and I were at a fancy schmancy dinner at The Boathouse on Friday night due to the fact that she’s a Nintendo “ambassador”. There was wine, fine food and a free Nintendo DS at the end of the evening. I KNOW. Did you happen to see the ride that took us to said party? It was as ridiculous(ly awesome) as it looks.

While she and I were wandering Times Square and trying to up our photo count, we ran into our friend Catherine. And then took photos of her with the naked cowboy.

Perfect timing, that was.

We set out on Saturday night with the intent to capture as many photos of our friends as we could. First stop, the lobby bar for the Style Lush gathering. It was so good to finally have the chance to chat with some of our closest friends.

Kristabella, Ali, Adam:

Metalia (from Metalia) and Kate:

Diane and I:

An attempt at a group shot, including Heather B.:

We left the lobby bar and walked over to The Volstead for another informal gathering co-hosted by the one and only Alice. She’s someone that I’ve wanted to meet for years and she’s just as lovely in person as she is online.

She’s also quite wee, much like many of the ladies above. If only I had enough pockets to bring them all home with me.

Also in attendance, Kelly. This woman can make me laugh from the depths of my belly.

Susan, Eden and Chris:

Beautiful Lady Whose Name I Don’t Remember, Karen (She took my photo this weekend!), Helen Jane (Finally met her this weekend and adore her) and Bossy.

Bossy and Jessica:

I was up past 3 am with those ladies and a few others. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sunday morning, not so much.

Before we enjoyed #ReclineHer10, we had all been at the fabulous Sparklecorn (No photos – too busy dancing. You can bet that Ryan will have his official photos up soon) and CheeseburgHer parties. Large dance floor, loud music and dancing with your friends? SIGN ME UP. Plus, burgers!

(Yvonne, Lena, Isabel, Lindsay)

(Sorry about the harsh built-in flash. Half way through the evening I arrived back to my purse/camera bag only do find that the flash had been ripped from its base. Lucky me! I get to buy a new one! Sigh.)

Not only was the party a blast, it was pretty rad to watch the jumbo slide show and see so many photos (of me, and) that I had taken the last two years.

So there you have it, folks. I had a fantastic time with wonderful friends and even lived to tell about it. Barely. I had the longest day of travel known to mankind but I finally made it home. It’s great to get away but it’s even better to be home. At least until next year’s conference and it’s STILL NOT OVER.

See, I used all of my time at the airport/on the plane (Wifi! On a plane!) and drafted this post with that nice little ending that now has a strikethrough on it. I totally jinxed myself.

I arrived in Seattle tired, bracing myself for a few more hours of travel and walked over to the big board to see what gate my flight flew out of. Alaska Airlines…Flight Number…Destination: Kelowna…Status: CANCELED.

*Blink, blink*

I walked over to an Alaska Airlines counter, holding back tears, and asked the lady what was going on. She had no idea but made a few phone calls which confirmed that the flight was indeed canceled, due to “technical difficulties”. Annnnnnnd…tears. And snot. She gave me a boarding pass for a Monday flight and told me to see the ticket agents downstairs in order to get a hotel voucher. I asked her what I needed to do about my luggage and she told me it would be on carousel 12.

I made my way downstairs, tears falling, sniffling loudly and made it carousel 12. No luggage whatsoever and no people around. I looked on the board and it said that the luggage for my flight number was on carousel 15. After five minutes of standing there, I realized that not one of these people were on my flight. I think that the number of people wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis would have been a good clue if I was not standing there with water and snot dripping out of my orifices.

I went to the Alaska Air desk in the luggage area and asked the agent where my luggage might be. I explained my situation, she took all of my flight tickets and told me that my luggage would be put on the flight the other agent had put me on for Monday at 10:30. PM. If I may quote myself:

“Oh, HELL no.”

She was calm and cool and told me that I had to go see yet another agent upstairs at ticketing. This agent at first told me that there was no other flight but I think that the weeping, sniveling, hyperventilating mess that was me, who was eking out words in a pitch that only dogs can hear, touched her heart strings. She found space for me on a 10:30 AM flight, gave me a hotel voucher and arranged to have my suitcase put on the morning flight.

So here I sit, in a Seattle Comfort Inn (It’s no New York Hilton, by the way), finishing this post in order to have it run tomorrow. I just want to be HOME, you guys. I just hope that by the time you read this, I am.

*More photos in my BlogHer Flickr set.

This, of course, was before I met Matthew and we decided to leave the craziness of the city for the chance at owning a big house on a large property so that our (future) children could have space to run and play. If he’d wanted to move anywhere other than here, there may have been some resistance on my part. Thankfully, the vast Lake Okanagan is as close as you can get to be an ocean while actually being on a lake.

It’s like the little lake that could.

The second half of our family vacation was spent at Cannon Beach, for those of you who aren’t Twitter/Facebook friends and/or have been too busy holidaying yourself to pay attention to the minor details. Why Cannon Beach? Well, we spent but an afternoon there last fall on our annual stateside shopping trip and fell in love. Having the chance to see my Kerri Anne yet again was an added bonus.

(Speaking of Kerri, please tell me that you read this post. Please make sure that you’re not drinking or eating while you read it, lest you choke. Consider yourselves warned. )

I mentioned that the first part of our vacation was not what you would call restful. We left Vancouver a day early (to escape the gnomes, and) in order to spend a night in Seattle so that we could be that much closer to our final destination on the day we got to check in to our cabin. We booked it to the Coast, unloaded our stuff and looked at the view and then made the three-minute trek down to the water.

Pretty, right?

Breathtaking, beautiful and BITTERLY COLD. I mean, I knew we wouldn’t be having the high temperatures that we’re used to in the Okanagan, but that ocean wind was pretty biting.

Nothing that a hoodie couldn’t remedy.

Thursday morning we woke up to gloomy, misty weather but the winds had stopped and it was a lot warmer.

The kids played in the sand and the mud while we watched the waves roll in and then Matthew decided to write in the sand. He started with my name, finished his creation and then stood up proudly, only to see my standing there laughing.

He quickly did an edit.

There was only so much mist and gloom that we could take and so we treated the kids to a movie (Despicable Me – my new favorite animated movie). The rest of the evening was spent in the cabin, teaching the kids how to play Scrabble, reading and just hanging out.

Friday, we headed into the city of Portland. We spent a couple of hours at Powell’s buying books, then fall clothes for the kids and then ended up at our ultimate destination: dinner at Deschutes with some of my good blog friends. Kerri’s been to my house before, so she’s met the family, but nobody else had. I got to see friends and friends got to meet the four biggest loves in my life. Win, win.

In the back with me is Amanda. Front row, left to right: Sarah, Vahid, Rhi and Kerri.

Miss Kerri and her little pug Iggy (he loves me) came to spend the delight of everyone. We talked, we walked, we sat, we took photos.

This one that that Kerri took of Emily and I makes me smile every time I even think about it.

Kerri and Iggy headed home in the late afternoon and the family and I headed down to the beach to take our family photo.

After supper, I went on a solo mission down to the beach to capture the sunset.

I was so amazing to just stand on the edge of the water and soak in the beauty.

So, yeah. Our family vacation was even more than we hoped for and our kids did so amazing (TWELVE HOUR drive home and not a single meltdown. NOT ONE) that we’ll definitely be going on another road trip next year. Will it be back to Cannon Beach? Yes. No. Maybe.

*More photos of our trip in this Flickr set

When deciding where to go on our first! ever! vacation! that was not wrapped around spending a recognized holiday with extended family, we had originally thought about going to Mexico. We could easily buy a second house for the cost of taking the five of us to Mexico so, no. We asked the kids where we should vacate to and they instantly replied, “VANCOUVER”. They wanted to take in some of the attractions that their friends had gone to and I hadn’t been to a couple of them in the six years I lived there and, so. We made plans.

Before we started being the tacky tourists that you know we were, we stopped in at Matthew’s grandparents to (see them, and) enjoy their pool.

The two of them never use it themselves but their kids and grandkids and great-grandkids who live nearby are over there almost every day. We got to catch up with (Matthew’s) aunts and uncles and siblings that we rarely see while the kids flew through the air…

and jumped into the water

and played with their cousins

Speaking of (Dykstra) cousins, the kids see the two who live here pretty frequently but we only see the other ones a few times a year.

You’d never know it by how famously they all get along.

The three full days we spent in Vancouver were packed with visiting tourist attractions. Saturday was spent at Science World.

It was fun and super and amazing and whatnot, but was considered to be only slightly more exciting than the Sky Train in my kids’ eyes.

Who knew public transportation was so exciting?

Sunday was spent at the Greater Vancouver Zoo, walking and taking photos of everything that we saw.

See? Tacky tourists. (I kind of love this photo.)

Filed under: I am easily amused:

Filed under: I’m glad there’s a fence between us:

Monday was spent exploring Stanley Park, including the Aquarium. I had never been there before and I have to say that, despite the crowds, it’s worth the money to go to there.

The kids loved it too. Can’t you tell?

Seriously.

Our days were full of tourist attractions and our evenings were full of family dinners and I even managed to sneak in hosting the pre-BlogHer meetup while in Vancouver.

While I do love (cities in general, and especially) Vancouver, after four nights of fighting crowds and navigating traffic and finding parking and listening to sirens wail all night long…I was done. We were done. And so, we left Vancouver a day earlier and made a run for the border.

I’ve rambled on long enough and I have a lot to say about our time spent south of the border, so I think I’ll save the second half of our trip for another day. It only gets better from here, if you can even believe it.

Stories to follow once I recover from our epic TWELVE HOUR drive home yesterday and the many late nights we pulled. So…tomorrow? Maybe? Sometime before I leave for New York next Monday (!), I promise. I hope you all had as great of a week as we did.

Thursday

Thursday saw us leaving the house at 8 a.m. in order to drop the dudes off at school and head to the airport. International flights require you to be there two hours in advance and we live over an hour away, which means that by the time noon hit…we hadn’t even left the country yet. Eight hours and three flights after that startling revelation, we finally arrived at our hotel (The Mirage).

People had told us that the hotel was not only nice, but that it was in the perfect location – right in the center of the strip. Even our can driver told us that we had made a great choice. While Matthew checked us in, I got distracted by the hugest indoor aquarium I have ever seen. This is but one tiny snippet of it.

I cannot remember how many gallons of water it contains, but if I were Miss Emily I would go by her old standby: One thousand hundred billion hundred thousand. Or something.

We had told the hotel staff that it was our anniversary and they upgraded us to a beautiful room on the 23rd floor. Would you like to see the view?

That’s facing south down the strip.

Here’s the view after dark:

Not too shabby.

We quickly freshened up and headed downstairs. We had been told great things about the piano bar at Harrah’s across the street and had planned to take it in since it was already so late. I had mentioned this to a man in the elevator who had asked us our plans and he gently corrected me on my pronunciation – I had been pronouncing it as “Hurrah’s”. As in, “Hurrah! We’re in Las Vegas!” I kept slipping up with the pronunciation all weekend, but hey. Hurrah! We were in Las Vegas!

We acquired margaritas to go, headed out to the street and promptly decided that we should explore the strip instead of going inside another hotel.

Walking the strip was indeed a sight to see and before we knew it we had spent two hours wandering around the area close (“Close” in Vegas is not what it appears to be) to our hotel.

We had a lot of fun apart from the fact that I had worn strappy heels instead of comfortable shoes. We had planned to simply walk across the street! Our plans changed! Band-Aids from Walgreen’s saved the day! Eh, lesson learned.

Friday

You guys aren’t going to believe all that we crammed into Friday. Heck, I was there and I don’t even believe it. My feet are still cursing me and all of the walking I did.

Matthew had heard about this huge store (Bass Pro) that carries outdoorsy stuff. Seeing as he’s into hunting and fishing and all things manly, he really wanted to go to there. It was a little ways past the very south end of the strip so we hopped on the bus which took us to the smaller outlet mall. I walked around for, oh, almost two hours while he drooled over range finders and gun straps and whatnot. Being the frugal man he is and the fact that there were no real deals to be had, he met me back at the mall empty-handed. We had a quick lunch and then got on the bus to head back north.

Because we started at the end of the line, we managed to snag front row seats on the top level of the double decker bus. Yeehaw.

We saw “the” Las Vegas sign.

We had a great view of New York, New York

We had a great view of everything, really.

(That’s M&M World, etc. – we went in there on Sunday.)

Being the geniuses we are, we thought we should maybe get all of our planned shopping done and over with. This saw us stopping at our hotel to drop off my purchases and then getting back on the bus and going to the very north end of the strip to where the Premium Outlet Mall is. Two more hours of walking and shopping and all of our “must-buys” were crossed off of the list.

THEN, to further prove our intelligence, we thought that since we were already in the area, we should explore Fremont street (Old Vegas).

We grabbed dinner, asked what time the lights came on and found out we’d have to wait two hours. Um, no. As much as I’d love to have seen the full light display, my feet had been on the go for over nine hours straight. We headed back to the hotel, filled up our margarita containers and…hit the street again. Lest you think that we’re completely insane, we merely sauntered across the street to the Harrah’s Piano Bar. (Hurrah!) If you ever go to Vegas, I highly recommend it – a lot of singing and a lot of laughing.

Saturday

We had planned on lounging by the pool for a few hours but we slept in until nine. Nine! NINE. I can’t remember the last time I slept in that late. Maybe when we went to Mexico? Two years ago? Anyway, by the time we pulled ourselves together and grabbed breakfast there was not a single empty deck chair to be found. So, we did what we knew best – we bought a bus pass and went exploring. I KNOW.

We decided to check out the Miracle Mile because, you know, we hadn’t done enough shopping the day before. Good grief. We ate lunch on the patio of a Mexican restaurant and basked in the sun while people watching. I like people watching in general, but people watching in Vegas takes it to an entirely new level.

We wandered across the street to the Bellagio. We had heard nothing but good things about their atrium and fountains, and had tickets to see O that same night, so we thought we best know where exactly we would be going. Upon walking through the lobby and catching a glimpse of the atrium, my mind was instantly blown.

The atrium is amazing.

So is the lobby ceiling.

We headed back to the hotel to change, grab some dinner, and head back to see our very! first! Cirque du Soleil show! We had picked seats that were basically smack in the middle of the theater and I was in awe of the view we had. The show itself left me gasping at some of the stunts and applauding many times over.

I think they should rename O “OMG” because that’s what I was thinking as I walked out of there. We got outside just in time to catch one of the fountain shows.

(I have approximately thirty photos of the fountain show alone. It’s hard to delete any of them because water + lights = pretty.

Sunday

The weather was a little bit cooler which meant that us hearty Canadians were finally able to find a chair by the pool. Two hours of sitting in the sun with a book was exactly what my body (especially my feet) needed.

The afternoon saw us exploring. Again. Despite the fact that my hips and ankles had now joined the chorus of, “CAN YOU PLEASE STOP WALKING ALREADY?” We headed back to the south end of the strip where we checked out Coca-Cola World, bought M&M’s in each of the kids’ favorite colors at M&M World and went into the MGM Grand to see the tigers.

Nice kitties.

We finally wandered through New York, New York and loved the food court design.

We had planned on eating dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen but we ended up at the hotel in the early afternoon and had no desire to walk anymore. At all. Ever. We did manage to make it to the bus stop and back to the hotel where we freshened up, grabbed dinner at the burger joint downstairs and mutually agreed that the only walking we would be doing for the rest of the evening would be back up to our room in order to relax.

Honey watched a basketball game, I started going through photos and slapped up a quick post and then we curled up together with the bottle of champagne that the hotel had sent up for our anniversary and watched LOST. The perfect end to a perfect weekend. Well, apart from the fact that we still don’t know what LOST was really about.

Monday

Another twelve-hour travel day which included a three-hour layover in Seattle (Which gave me time to edit photos and draft the bulk of this epic recap). It’s great to be home with our three little munchkins and I’m looking forward to getting back into our routine. As much as I love to travel and to see new places, I love coming home that much more. My feet are pretty happy too.

*More photos will be on Flickr this week as I go through them and throw them up there.