Four (Five?) Fs

I can sum up our trip to Ontario in four Fs:  Food, Family, Friends, and Fun (in that order).

Food - This F comes first, no question.  I don't think I ever actually gave myself the chance to be hungry while we were away.  I just ate and ate and ate.  And ate.  I shoved more calories into my face than I care to think about, and after polluting my body for almost two weeks, I am in need of some serious detox.

Mmmmmm, s'mores!!!

Lilah's cousin C getting every last drop of chocolate

No corn is better than Ontario Peaches 'n' Cream in August.  Lilah will attest.

We did eat the occasional green veggie.

Family - Seven adults and four kids living together makes for an ineresting week to say the least!  It was wonderful to see my family again, and to finally meet my 10-month-old niece, who also happens to be the cousin who is closest to Lilah in age.  I think they hit it off!

Partners in crime

Cousin bonding on the beach

My niece and nephew take the plunge together.

Friends - We had the honour of attending the beautiful wedding of some long-time friends of ours and meeting up with several old friends.  The Hubs was a groomsman (you may recall a certain Vegas bachelor party that just happened to take place the very same weekend that our apartment was transformed into Casa de Puke).  He looked quite dashing in his tux. 

Lilah: "Which one's my daddy?  They all look the same!"

Friend Tim with 20-month-old daughter A.

We also made a quick lunch stop in Toronto to meet up with a friend and her son before getting on our flight back to Vancouver.  The funny thing is, I consider this woman a "good friend," and our babies were born only 6 days apart, but we'd never actually met in person!  We have "known" each other since before our babies were even concieved and have spent hundreds of hours sending emails back and forth that probably number in the thousands (if not more).

Lilah fawns over cutie R in his sweet ride

Fun - Don't get me wrong, we did have a wonderful time.  Unfortunately, our fun was dampered slightly by Lilah's difficulty with the time change and a severe case of mommy-itis.  She seemed overwhelmed by the constant presence of so many people and other kids.  Which is strange because at home she is quite the social butterfly.  I guess she's like her mama in that she needs a good amount of down time.  She seemed to be struggling with some kind of inner conflict that went something like this: "Put me down, I want to explore.  No, no, pick me up, I want to be held!  I want that, give me that!  No, no, not that, that!  THAT, THAT, I WANT THAT!  NOWWWWWW!!!!"  She has reached that stage of extreme frustration because she knows exactly what she wants but does not yet have the words to express it.  She also perfected the art of the scream-cry while we were away.  (Sidenote: my sincerest apologies to the Air Canada flight 108 passengers whose eardrums will never be the same.)  I couldn't help but think it was a shame that family and friends didn't get a chance to see Lilah at her best.  But we did manage to have a fantastic time nonetheless and I am so glad we made the trip.  It was truly worth it.

Playing "toss the baby"

Water balloon fight!

Sisters!
*I'm flattered to report that my friend Lisa liked this series of jumping photos
so much that she and her sister recently spent some quality time recreating them.

**The fifth F?  Fotos!  Hmmm... I guess that only works if you say it with a Spanish accent.  But pictures were certainly a theme of the trip, and I really got a chance to flex my (kinda puny but apparently growing) photography muscles.  I knew I had taken a lot of photos, but I didn't realize just how many until I uploaded them.  Between the two cameras, there were over 800!   Which is what I'm going to use as my excuse for why this post was such a long time coming.  My rule of thumb: when you're feeling lazy and disorganized, blame technology!