Happy Halloween!

This year I had predicted, with much help from last year, we would have hardly any trick-or-treaters on our busy street, so I only bought one small bag of candy.  Eric panicked on Thursday after work and stopped to buy three more bags (strictly KitKats and Peanut Butter Cups).  We actually were able to give a couple pieces away to a high school kid who was collecting for the food pantry, but that was it!  We stayed in and watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Annabel seemed to like it.

Richard Simmons was our original plan for Annabel, as we thought she could pull off an afro quite well.  We even had a jersey tank top and shorts, but with pre-Halloween practice, she wouldn't keep a sweat band on her head more than a second.  Idea two was a lion, as she makes a great lion or tiger sound lately, but I wanted to make it and just didn't set aside the time to do it.  With no Halloween plans, the ambition was lessened.  Last minute we decided to attend the Western Development Museum's Boo-town Wednesday night, so Eric came up with this cute costume.  Annabel seemed to enjoy looking at all the costumes.  She said "rarrr" to a witch who had a black and orange boa, mistaking her for a tiger.  Same, same.  She went to Smurfs 2 at Movies for Mommies with daycare and our provider said she really seemed to enjoy watching it vs. falling asleep.  She also came home with some fun Halloween crafts.  Such a big girl now!

The museum is set-up as a old town.  Old buildings such as a school house, blacksmiths working, and a real train.

 She got so excited when she spotted this in the grocery store.  She pointed and then clapped before climbing in.

Fall Getaway

We know we have limited time before the snow and cold hits, so last weekend we took a getaway to Edmonton, Alberta.  Edmonton is about 6 hours Northwest of Saskatoon and about three times the population (Saskatoon around 300,00 and Edmonton around 900,00).  Six hours drive for a weekend away still seems a bit far for my mind, but if you recall, distance is relative. 

We had an excellent time in Edmonton.  We took Friday off, and headed out of town in the morning. After making it to Edmonton and checking into our hotel, we made our way to the Telus World of Science.  They had a toddler area that Annabel loved and Eric was able to get his geek on at some hands-on science puzzles and demonstration stations.

This was a great playground where she could just play on her own.

This airplane was so cool:

Our Big moment:

Annabel trying her darnedest to hand me this huge ball.  I laugh every time I see this video.

Saturday was our big trip to the zoo.  It helps that Eric and I share a love for zoos -- although he would never admit it.  The big attraction at the Edmonton Zoo is Lucy the Elephant and Annabel loves making the elephant sound Grandpa taught her, so we thought it would be fun to see a real elephant.  The zoo was actually not in the best shape for the size of the city, but it looks like they have some good renovations underway.  We walked around in the slightly chilly wind seeing a tiger, arctic animals, and llamas, sheep, owls, wallaby, and monkeys.  The elephant walks a lot during the day so she was never in her enclosure when we went by.  I guess she was 1000 lbs overweight so they are working hard on getting her proper exercise.  Right at the end of our touring, we thought we'd make another quick loop in hopes of seeing her.   As we rounded a corner....there she was!!  It was really a neat scene!  Grown men were running around the corner with big grins on their faces.  It was fun to see her out in the open.
 

I love how she's peeking around at that large animal.

A lady came up to Annabel and asked her what Annabel that was and she confidently raised her arm as she said "burr-ah."

Just hanging out watching an elephant.

Annabel feel asleep in her stroller while Eric and I enjoyed a brunch at a neat, hippie place called Sugar Bowl.  We both ordered a Southern meal with Eric having chicken and waffles and I had eggs Benedict on corn bread.  I've actually never had eggs Benedict (despite being friends with Meredith) and I loved it!  It might have helped that I had downed a pumpkin beer on an empty stomach right before so I thought it was the-best-meal-I-have-ever-had! This place had 5 pumpkin beers on tap!  I have asked for pumpkin beer at the liquor store in Saskatoon and they looked at me like I had two heads.  Here I thought Canada wasn't up to date on seasonal beers, but I guess it's just Saskatoon.

We also made our way to Ikea that afternoon and did the usual where we got in too deep, got really tired, and then still had our list of items to try and find in the warehouse area.  Needless to say, we were all three exhausted by the time we made it back to the hotel, but we got some great finds that are already making our place feel a bit more organized for toys and our never-ending paper mess.  Annabel also got a cool crawl tunnel and house...all that can be folded up and a cute stuffed pig.  And, the Ikea frozen yogurt cone never tasted so good!  Actually, it was my first time buying the frozen yogurt and I will make sure I do every time now.

We ran out of time to take advantage of the hotel pool and I had forgotten my swimsuit anyway.  It was fun to skip town for a couple days, while the roads were clear and Annabel was healthy.  This weekend, she is now starting a new runny nose and cough and the crisp wind has arrived!

Europe Trip Part 2: Krakow, Poland

It's been a while since Europe Trip Part 1, but here we go with Part 2.

From Prague, we took the train to Krakow, Poland.  We learned a great tip for future train travel, which is to first get on the train, any car, then make your way to your seats.  We about missed the train.  It seemed like everyone and their dog was all trying to get on the same car.  We waited in line, Eric got on with our luggage (and all important paperwork) and Cameron, Annabel, and I were next to get on with the stroller.  All of sudden the doors shut, Eric hit the open door button, the three of us quickly got in, the door shut again, and the train took off!!  Later when we discussed what would have happened had we been left behind and we figured Eric would have just gotten off at the next stop and returned, but it would have cost us all another ticket.

The trickiest part of traveling in a group with 2 babies was carting luggage around.  We tried to pack light, but still had too much.  When we first arrived in a new city, we had all of our luggage and would have to make a game plan about who was taking what in order to get on and off the tram in the tiny window of time they allowed.  The babies were usually in a carrier at these times, but a few times Annabel was in the stroller, so we would move quickly and one would meet me at the door to help get the stroller off.  One time I got stuck behind a lady using both sides of the rails to enter (and not letting people get off first) and I about got my foot caught in the door when it quickly shut.

These nights were some of my favorites; just hanging around at the apartment.  This night we had a bunch of unique, delicious stone-fired pizzas.

The Cloth House, now filled with a souvenir market.

A lot of the restaurants have an area for kids to play.  We found Europe to be very kid-friendly.  We were at one restaurant where they brought toys to the table and the waitress even followed me into the bathroom to assist with a diaper change because she knew they didn't have a great change table set-up!

Perogies were the most common meal in Poland.  They are potato dumplings filled with meat, cheese, or sauerkraut.  It's a popular dish in Saskatoon too, as we have a large Ukrainian population.

Ladies, he's single......

We toured this castle and grounds.  During WWII, this castle was taken over by the Germans.

This was my favorite area in Krakow.  This square was so beautiful and was surrounded by a lot of restaurants, pubs, and shops.

Krakow is a big city, but feels very small as a lot of interesting (maybe touristy) things are all in this same area.  From this square, you can walk to the castle.  We stayed at an apartment just a short walk from this square. 

At an outside restaurant

After a couple nights in Krakow, we sadly parted ways with Cameron(who headed back to the U.S. via Prague) and we headed off to Warsaw.