Hotel Review: Ramada Hotel, St. John's, NL

We stayed at the Ramada hotel in St. John's last weekend when Jon was competing in a triathlon.  I chose this hotel because the location makes it super close to the town of Paradise, where the triathlon was happening. 

Price: $205 (taxes included) for a room with two double beds and a little kitchenette. Pretty normal for the area.
Bathroom: Small and old-looking. Nothing special.
Breakfast: No. Since we were out the door by 7 am for the triathlon, that was cool for us.
Wifi: Yes, good. We watched Netflix on our iPad (so addicted to Friday Night Lights right now).
TV: Good. We watched cartoons at 6 in the morning.
Pool: Nope. Totally should have a pool.
Location: Really close to the mall and Starbucks and stuff. Not awesome if you want to be downtown, but good if you are prepared to drive everywhere.
Parking: Free, but we actually had a really hard time finding a spot because there was a wedding happening.

Notes:
- We had supper in the restaurant off the lobby. OMG. The worst meal ever. I could not eat my scallop salad, and Jon's stir fry looked like soup. Cohen's burger was hard as a rock, and the restaurant was super hot. Definitely no AC where we were sitting. Maybe the breakfast would be good?
- The first thing we do when we walk into a hotel room is try to find a place we can put the travel crib that will keep Cohen separate from us so we can hang out after he goes to sleep. Usually there is a closet-ish area or sometimes a separate bed area. At Ramada, they actually showed us all their room styles, and no rooms were conducive to baby/toddler sleep. So we put Cohen in the bathroom with a sheet over the door since the door wouldn't actually close with his crib in there because it was was tiny. Awkward but worth it.
- We used the hotel's travel crib and it was covered in ketchup on one side. So gross when I went to move the crib and found my hand in a sticky mess. But it happens.

Some recent pics...

(chalk on a nice day) 

(a very early morning watching the swim leg of Jon's triathlon) 

(post-triathlon) 

(checking out the renegade "fair" in an old parking lot in our tiny town) 

(ferris wheel) 

(last day of soccer for Cohen) 

(food court with grandparents) 

(Cohen and his Nan) 

(always taking pics of his feet)

The last few weeks have been pretty busy for us. Jon competed in his last triathlon of the season (he came in second in his category!), and we attended the Annual National Dental Conference in St. John's. Soccer ended for Cohen, and we have been trying to be outside as much as possible before fall really sets in around here. 

In the background I have been wrestling with some life stuff. Namely, do I want to go back to school? When we were on vacation a few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with one thought: I should go back to school. I didn't sleep for two nights. I was rolling the thought over in my head over and over. Thinking about what that would mean for our family, for our finances, for my career, for our whole entire life. On the third day of thinking about it constantly, I told Jon what I was thinking. Jon said, do it! He said he was totally on board, that it would be an exciting move for our family. So I looked into my options. Odds of getting in: 4%. Minimum average needed: B+ (I am only slightly above that). Length of program: 3 years. I started researching living accommodations. I started writing my entrance application essay in my head. I started thinking about references. 

And then just as quickly as the thought entered my head, it was gone. I don't want to spend three years super busy and barely seeing my son right now. Maybe someday. But for now, I really want to focus on Cohen. I will keep getting myself more and more educated. I will keep taking courses. And I will be grateful for my amazing work schedule (3 days a week). So that's that. I feel really at peace with where we are in our life right now, which is super lucky, I think. 

Our chilly July

Just a few pics from our cold, cold July. The weather is so much better now (today: 16 C and cloudy, but I can't complain), but a sun-less July felt pretty sad. On the bright side, we made good use of our sweaters. 

(growing and cutting micro greens) 

(watching TV in the clinic waiting room) 

(bike rides to the park) 

(happy)

(swinging) 

(throwing rocks in the harbor)

So these pics are from our nicer days in July. Some of the days were just so cold, we mostly stayed inside and drank tea and felt sorry for ourselves. I love the last pic of Cohen and Jon so much. Watching Jon be a dad is the best. 

Our annual trip to NB/PEI

Even though we took almost two weeks off from work, it never quite feels like that because we spend a ton of time driving and flying. We flew to Fredericton, where my parents live, picked up their car, and drove right to Cavendish, PEI, where Jon's family meets annually for 5 nights. Then we went to Saint John, NB so that Jon could stand in a wedding of his close friend. Then it was back to Fredericton for another night before heading home again. 

(this little guy loves airplanes and airports) 

(taking a sink bath- and having a snack) 

(almost too big)

(driving to PEI) 

(cousins having breakfast) 

(watching cartoons in the cottage we rented) 

(Jon and G chilling on the hammock) 

(relaxing after swimming. we kept the cottage so tidy:) 

(fav ride at Sandspit) 

(Cows ice cream. the best) 

(the grandparents were babysitting both grandkids for the weekend) 

(visiting the mall) 

(meanwhile in Saint John...) 

(wedding time) 

(he looks so old!!) 

(back on the plane) 

(view) 

Notes:
- This was the first trip that Cohen got his own seat on the airplane. For flight #1, it was awesome. We hooked him up with a show on the iPad and a snack, and he was in heaven. Jon and I read magazines. Loved it. For flight #2 Cohen was in my lap again after crying through the pre-flight announcements, which I am going to blame on no nap. The pilot/flight attendant was like, maybe just hold him, ok? Flights 3 and 4 were awesome thanks to the iPad.
- We stayed in the same cottages we stayed at last year in Cavendish. I can't imagine wanting to try anywhere else, because these have everything you would want, namely a pool and lots of shade during the day. My sister and her family stayed with us for the first few days as they did last year, and it was so fun to do meals together. Especially nice since they get up super early with their 1-year-old, so we were all having coffee at 7 am.
- It worked out that my sister and I both had weddings to attend the same weekend, so we both dropped our kids off to our parent's house for the weekend. My parents loved it, and so did we. Jon and I even snuck out and did a little shopping a few times. So great. Grandparents are the best.
- Jon was doing wedding activities during the day, so I was pretty thrilled to go get my hair done. It's been since November, and I always forget how good it feels to have freshly highlighted hair. But it took 3.5 hours, so I remembered why I only do it twice a year.
- Since I attended high school in the same town where my parents currently live, I actually have a handful of close friends in the area that I love to see when I am home. But it's hard!! Before Cohen, much easier. Now, I am lucky to grab a coffee with my high school bff. This time, I saw no one but family. Do other people find that hard?

Family Selfie at Sandspit

I'm finding it kind of hard to get back in to the rhythm of normal life after vacation! I think Cohen is too. He keeps asking to go to the airport, and he still wants to forgo real meals in favor of snacks. Me too. I'm just organizing my pics, which are actually few and far between.

Back from vacation

We just got back from our summer vacation to Cavendish Beach. We were gone for two weeks, which felt so necessary to actually let go of work and everyday stresses. It's so nice to be back to our usual routine though. I am getting used to not eating ice cream every night, and reading magazines every morning.

(from last year's trip)

More pics to come, of course.