Lots more books

Beartown by Fredrick Backman: Jon read this one first, and liked it, and so I read it after him. I felt pretty reluctant to get into the style of writing. Lots of the sentences are super short. I found it hard to get used to. And then at the end everything gets wrapped up in a pretty bow, which is something I used to love when I was a teenaged reader, but now I'm not so into. This book dealt with a lot of stereotypes and also rape. In the end I really did enjoy it, and I really want to read his other bestseller, A man called ove. 

When things fall apart by Pema Chodron. Oh my gosh. This one is amazing. I first heard about Pema on the Oprah podcast (my true fav). I can't gush enough about this book and this author. This book talks a lot about leaning into hard things. That just resonates so hard for me as someone who loves to avoid difficult decisions. I will probably read this book again in a few months. Also, we should all be meditating. 

To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han. Now I need to check out the Netflix movie. This was a really light easy read, and I loved it. I have always wanted to write about teenaged love because it can feel so intense, and I feel like this author nailed it. 

The book of longings by Sue Monk Kidd. So this book was pretty intense. It is the story of Jesus's wife if he had a wife. I had to keep looking stuff up to see what was fiction and what was true. I know VERY little about Jesus, so I feel like I learned a lot from reading this book and then looking up parts from the book. I loved talking to Jon, who went to Sunday school every week as a child, about this book. Now I wonder if Jesus actually did have a wife. I always love this author's writing, and this book was no different. 

Rainbow shag cake and Will's 3rd birthday

I don't think about almost giving Will up every day anymore, but the memories were creeping in as Will's third birthday approached. Three years later, what sticks in my mind are those last five minutes or so before they reversed the diagnosis, and also the conversations we had with the higher ups at the hospital months later. The head of OBGYN at our local hospital was so condescending and dismissive, and sometimes I wish I had had better words to tell her how she could help us instead of what she actually said, which was so unhelpful. Sometimes I think about the geneticist who was rubbing her super pregnant belly the whole time she was telling me how hopeless the fetus in my belly was. I am clearly not over it completely, and maybe I never will be fully. 

But when my mind goes through all these moments, I always end with the very last meeting we had with the head of the hospital and the head of radiation. The result of that last meeting was that our hospital agreed to permanently change their practices so no one had to go through what we did. I felt so heard and understood, and I felt like these two super educated and busy and strong women were so compassionate. I learned a lot about how to listen in that meeting from these two doctors. So grateful. 

Anyways, this cake!! Will had been asking for a "paw patrol mission paw lookout cake" over and over again. And I wanted to try a shag cake. So I made this cake, Jon printed out a lookout tower, and we stuck it on top. Will loved it, though he later asked me where his real cake was. The shag icing was super easy to do. I just bought a two dollar grass tip, and kept changing the colour in my icing bag. 

If I'm honest, the cake didn't taste great. I find if the colours of the icing are bright like this, all you really taste is the food dye. And the shag made the icing extra crusty, which I found pretty unappealing. But I'm glad I tried it for sure. 

Will at three:

- He just started preschool three mornings a week. He never seems that excited to go, but then he goes right in with no tears. I think he likes it! 

- The potty training is happening. I would guess we are averaging one accident a day. For us, that feels pretty good. 

- He asked for a Barbie food truck for his birthday, and loves playing with it with his dragons and other toys.

- He answers many questions with "kinda." Like, did you have fun at school today? Kinda. Are you hungry? Kinda. Was Grace at school today? Kinda. 

- He loves eating tons of fruit. He can eat so many peaches, oranges, apples, pears. He is significantly less interested in supper. 

An overnight in Fundy with kids

This is the year to visit all the spots in New Brunswick that we have never seen. Jon and I are lucky that our friends sometimes let us piggyback on to their day trips. They grew up visiting Fundy (they are both from the Moncton area), so they know all the cool hikes and spots to see around Fundy with kids. I know you can google a lot of this stuff, but really, I have found it hard to find really good info about local stuff. For example: the pump bike track in Fundy. I had never even heard of it. And Cohen LOVED it. It's this little dirt track that has all these small hills you ride your bike on. So cool. 

We have only done this twice, but both times my friend and I each took either lunch or supper, and were completely in charge of it. On this day I was in charge of lunch, and we did mini-quiches, pesto pasta salad, and pumpkin scones. My friend had supper, and she did chicken sandwiches and potato salad. The six kids all ate everything. I really think giving kids less choices can be better sometimes. The only thing I would do differently in the future is to buy a huge insulated cooler just for ice water. By the end of the day we were all running low on water, and the water we had was warm. I predict that we will be doing more road trips and day trips in the next few years, so investing in a nice huge insulated water thermos seems smart. 

Will is almost three, and he has never been into being carried in a backpack type thing or even riding in a stroller. So when we were doing more challenging hikes, Jon and I would just take turns being one-on-one with him. It's a lot slower, but he loved it. Sometimes on easier parts of the hikes he would ride on Jon's shoulders or mine. 



We stayed in Alma for the night after one last over supper hike with our friends. The hotel was totally fine. In the morning we walked around on the little main street in Alma. The sticky bun bakery usually has a huge line to get in, but at 8 am, we were able to stroll in and grab sticky buns, donuts, milk, and coffee. We ate back in our hotel room looking out at the ocean. Perfect breakfast. 



We didn't have a real plan, but we figured we might as well visit the hopewell rocks. The low tide was conveniently at around 10 AM. Wow, the flowerpot rocks were amazing. There was no line, so we strolled right in and did the 15 minute walk that leads to the stairs that take you down onto the ocean floor. I am so glad we did it. 

Three nights on PEI

I feel like I've said this so many times, but our summer ended up being completely different from what we had planned. For the last 5 or so years, we have done a week in Cavendish with Jon's entire family (his parents, his three siblings and their families, and also extended family of spouses). So this year no one from out of province could come, so we cancelled everything. Later when we found out about the Maritime bubble, we opted to go for three nights to a quiet part of the island, and just see Jon's parents and brother. We ended up at an airbnb in Canoe Cove. 

Canoe Cove was so pretty. It was a lot closer to the bridge than we are used to, so less driving was a plus. Once we arrived, we did a lot of relaxing. This was our day: check for when the tide is low. For sure go to the beach and explore during low tide. Eat meals and snacks. Read. Play cards. Let the boys have screen time while we have another coffee. That's it. It was super relaxing. I probably wouldn't have wanted to do it for much longer, but it was perfect for a last minute 2020 vacation. 

The beach was perfect for searching for jellyfish, making sandcastles, taking long walks with water up to your ankles. The beach was no good for swimming or laying on a towel in the sun. This was an exploring beach. 

This beach was covered in jellyfish in some areas. The boys loved it. We also found tons of shells and a starfish. I am so amazed by how much kids love being outside. We brought no snacks, toys, or anything at all to this beach. We would walk barefoot with nothing at all to the beach and be there for a few hours. We loved it. 

The one little outing we did was a small easy hike at Fort Amherst. I had no idea the history of Acadians being pushed off the island at this site. Many acadians died on boats that were not equipped properly for their journey. I loved/hated reading copies of the real letters that were being sent back and forth about the acadians and indigenous people in the area. So interesting. 

The airbnb we stayed in was filled with stuff. Every drawer and cupboard and flat surface was crammed with objects. The boys loved looking at all the stuff, and it was nice to have board games and books to check out. In the times of Covid, I for sure feel more interested in how everything is cleaned, so that would be my only real issue with this particular cottage. It would be pretty hard to disinfect every little knick-knack sitting on every single shelf. Oh, and a huge highlight for the boys was the outdoor shower. The indoor shower was super duper small, so the boys and I ended up using the outdoor shower exclusively, and man, outdoor showers are amazing. 
 

Two nights in Moncton

Like everyone else, we had to completely change our summer vacation plans this year. We usually do two weeks off work, spending one in Cavendish with Jon's family, and another doing something else with just us. This year it was going to be Niagara Falls. Last year it was Halifax. This year, we ended up only being able to take one week off from work, so we did a few nights on PEI with Jon's parents, then a couple nights in Moncton. We opted to stay in an Airbnb that looked kind of like a castle. The boys loved it. 

We love to have a little down time at the apartment where the boys can use their screens while Jon and I chat and split a beer or a kombucha. This place was kind of fancy, but in such a great location in Moncton. We were able to walk to take out restaurants, and I also ran out to grab coffee and croissants each morning. 

Our main goal was to check out Parlee beach. Jon and I hadn't been there since long before we met. We LOVED it. We want to go back soon. The beach was really pretty empty for a Friday, and so clean. We saw lots of staff cleaning up and also lots of lifeguards. The water was a perfect temperature, and the waves weren't too big. 

For meals, our main goal was to stay outside. We did a few patios including a sushi restaurant right on main street. The boys hadn't been to a restaurant since February, so they were very very excited to be eating out. We also did some drive thru meals and grocery store meals. As for sushi, our boys can eat so much avocado maki. They love it. 

We also squeezed in a trip to the zoo with my sister and her kiddos. The zoo felt like such a great activity to do in Covid times since we were outside the whole time. The kids fully loved it. I think also our kids were just thrilled to be out and about doing stuff. We have kept to ourselves since March 13th, and I don't know if we even realized how much we missed going out and doing things. 

On our way out of Moncton on our way home we did the magnetic hill. Jon was amazed! We absolutely got a little thrill out of it, and the little wharf village is just as cute as when I used to work there 18 years ago. We love Moncton so much!