Jo Knits!

Nine!

Look who just turned a year older! Zoe is now enjoying life as a 9 year old. WOW! Can't they stop growing up so fast? I'm afraid to blink and skip a few years ahead! The picture above is from our hotel room last week. We had a little chocolate fondue dessert in our room after a late dip in the pool.

Ottawa we love you! Our little vacation was a success and just gave us a taste of what we already knew. We truely love this city and it's the perfect spot for the kids and I to go too. We are big walkers and in Ottawa, you can walk to just about everywhere you need. Luckily, the only time we took a local bus, we had a resident to steer us in the right direction. LOL! We went to museums (still have many to discover in the future!), spent an afternoon at the farm (saw a sheep being shorn), went swimming daily. Had the friendliest service at the hotel, we got perfect restaurant suggestions. This family had a GREAT time and we are planning to repeat the experience this summer. There's something comforting for the kids in knowing the city a bit more each time. I'm hoping we'll find a way to get Lucas into learning english, that means many more trips to Ottawa 'cause he's a slow learner. Ok, so maybe that's just an excuse to go but I'm keeping it. lol!

I'd say the most shocking thing of our trip has been that I did not knit one single stitch in 5 days! In the morning, we'd go swimming before breakfast, then we were busy all over town throughout the day and by the time we came back to our hotel room in the evening, it was back to the pool and off to bed. I was just as tired as the kids! LOL! One fine day, we went to Knit Knackers and had a great time. Have I said how we find a way to enjoy ourselves just about everywhere? The yarn and fiber filled store was a pure joy to look through, the kids got to feel so many different fibers. They even started their own fiber stash. teehee!

Since we got home, the week flew by so fast. First there was the end of year outing, where I tagged along with Zoe's class. We went and climbed in trees all day! Since her teacher had an injured arm, I decided that it would be fun if I climbed with the kids. Boy, did we ever have a great time, especially trying the incredibly long zip line of more than 350 feet! Now I want to go back and play more, wish I could go with the kids but it's not an easy place to go by public transport.

At the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa, we tried out some poffertjes at the Holland stand in the International Pavilion. They were like tiny pancakes covered in powdered sugar. Each different country had foods to sample or crafts to do for the kids. Our favortie country to 'visit' was Japan. The kids made origami tulips and wrote they names in japanese.

Meet Khadra, when she learned that we were celebrating Zoe's birthday on our trip. She came and hand delivered a chocolate sunday to our door! Khadra truely made the difference on our vacation, she made our stay go from great to fabulous!!!

We really had a FANTASTIC trip last week and it made me realize so many things about the kids, myself and my life. It felt good and I know I grew from this 1st trip taken with the kids and myself alone. Our little unit is built strong and the kids are even better than I had realized, they truely are little individuals on their own with opinions and different tastes and all that. It was good to take a break from our routine life and just get re-accainted. Summer is only 4 weeks away and I look forward in spending much more time with the kids.

Posted by Jo at May 23, 2008 02:45 PM