Prince Edward Island

 Today we took a road trip to Prince Edward Island. We booked a hotel for the night so that we could spend an extra day, see some of the sights, and spend time together. Some of the main things on the agenda were to get a good look at Confederation Bridge, check out some souvenir shops and hit up the beach at Cavendish. All were accomplished, including a very humorous dinner, but I'm going to split it up to save the picture overload. The car that we rented this time had a sun roof. It made traveling a lot of fun, and a lot cooler. It was an awesome little red car and I adored sitting next to Mr. Stannix in the front seat! Sometimes as we were driving along he would reach over and grab my hand in his for a little while. Other times he would lift up my hand and kiss it. I love when he does that, it makes me feel like we're dating again.

One thing I love about the maritime provinces is how quickly you can get from one to the other.  It didn't take us very long to get to Confederation bridge at all! We pulled off at the rest stop and walked with the kids to the lookout to grab a few pictures. We were lucky to have a clear day and a good view! Camilla hid behind Mike in the first pictures to stay away from the "Mozzie's". She is deathly afraid of mosquitoes as of late and needed to sit on the railing. The kiddos weren't entirely cooperative, but what can ya do? I'm looking forward to bringing them back someday when they are older and more interested in the bridge.

 

It's such a neat bridge. It took forever to drive across it. It was built in 1997 and is almost 13km long! I've heard that before the bridge there was a three hour ferry ride across to the island. I for one am glad for the 5 minute car ride. When we actually crossed I was slightly disappointed by the high edges on the bridge. If I sat up super tall in the car I could just see over them. It was cool when we got to the middle and all you could see on both sides was never ending blue ocean. It even twisted and had a bit of a hill as we drove along.

 

Just on the other side is the Gateway Village. We stopped there to check it out and grab some souvenirs before meeting up with everyone at the beach. I must say that I love Prince Edward Island so far! The way of life, the farm land, the red dirt, and the back roads. More to come from the red sand beaches!

Centennial Park

Today we decided to hit up Centennial Park. As we came outside to get into the car this morning Camilla said to me, "Watch out for the Mozzie's mum!" Auntie Sue calls Mosquitoes 'Mozzies' and Camilla picked up on it super fast. Cutest thing ever. The park is located in the center of the city of Moncton and consists of 230 acres to enjoy. We only hit up Centennial Beach to cool off. There wasn't too many people there and the water was really nice!  We picked up some Oreos and fruit to snack on for the afternoon. Hyrum has never had an Oreo cookie before, so I giggled when he ate his first one the right way! He took it apart and licked the icing, then ate the cookie. That's my boy. 

When we finally got changed into our swim gear we found a nice spot on the sand to park. Hyrum played in the sand for a while and Camilla splashed her toes in the water.

 

The kids were so excited to swim. Hyrum has become such a water baby. He would hardly let me hold onto him while he waded in, even if he was about to fall over. I'm sure if I left him he would keep walking in until the water was well over his head. He enjoyed going to the shore and plowing into the water as fast as he could and falling into his Daddy's arms. His little giggles are so contagious! I love how confident he's become and how his love for water is growing.

Camilla was miss independent and played mostly on her own. Sometimes she would piggy back out into the water with one of us to cool off and swim. She made a few little friends along the way. It's so fun watching her socialize. It was nice and relaxing and the water was perfect to cool off on such a hot day!

 Hyrum started shivering from the cool water and with a little convincing came in for a quick snack. This kid could eat a whole carton of blueberries on his own I'm sure! He stuffed his cheeks with them for a good five minutes.

Camilla had a lot of fun playing with her Daddy while Hyrum munched away. She thought it was pretty fun to be covered up in sand. Every time she giggled the sand would slide down and Daddy would have to dump another bucket on. 

Dinner time came too soon! We could have stayed and played all day long. The beach started to clear out pretty quickly once 6:00pm hit. We decided it was time to get the kiddos some dinner and headed out for Chinese! 

Bed Time Moments

Bed time can sometimes be tricky business when you're away from home. Our kiddos have such an awesome routine at home and go to sleep in a snap! Because we are all sharing a room, we have to make sure each kid is asleep before we leave the room. Usually we start with Hyrum because he is the most tired, and then Camilla comes up a little while later. The other night when I was putting Camilla to sleep she asked if we could cuddle in our big bed instead of her cozy floor bed. I scooted Hyrum over and layed with my girl until she fell asleep. I rubbed her back, scratched her arms (seriously feels good, try it), ran my fingers through her hair and drew all over her face with my fingers until her eyes got heavy and then rolled over to let her fall asleep. After I rolled over I felt a tiny hand on my arm. Camilla scratched my arm and rubbed my back for a few moments. Soon my eyes started feeling heavy. She finished off by running her tiny fingers through the stray strands of hair that had fallen from my pony tail. I got a little squeeze and then she fell asleep a few minutes later.

The second sweet moment was a couple nights later with Hyrum. The room was dark and it was later than usual. He tossed and turned on the big bed rubbing his face with his favorite fuzzy blanket from his Great Gramma Hudkins. He rolled over into me and his cold little cheeks pressed against my arm. Those long eye lashes of his tickled my arm as he slowly blinked. It wasn't long before they were still and his eyes shut. His breathing became heavy and his body sank into mine as he fell into a deep sleep. Not long after the baby in my belly started to kick at it's big brother. A moment I never want to forget.

With my babies getting so big, these moments are few. I was grateful that I was able to take a few minutes out of my day to snuggle them to sleep!

Hopewell Rocks

Today we took a drive to The Bay of Fundy. We went to a place called Hopewell Rocks where the tides are the fastest changing in the world. There's a bit of a hike to get down to the ocean floor and since we knew there was a few stairs we left the stroller in the car and let the kids burn some energy. By this time they were so sick of the stroller anyways that walking and exploring was fun for them. Camilla collected a whole bunch of rocks and carried them almost the whole way down. Hyrum would stop every couple of steps to poke at a tree or pick up a rock. I'm sure it took us twice the time it should have to walk all the way there.

We finally made it to the lookout and the stairs. Just before you go down there's a sign that says "To avoid being trapped by the rising tide YOU MUST return to the stairs by the time shown here". I thought it was pretty funny. I think the tide changes every 6 hours or so and it comes in quick! My scared face didn't turn out so hot, so just check out the sign!

I wasn't really sure what to expect, so the red clay and water was a bit of a shock. It was messy stuff and Hyrum just wanted to go swimming the whole time we were there. It was hard to keep him away from the mud and the waters edge. He had a nice little melt down that was eventually calmed with a granola bar and juice box. It was a long walk along the shore and so neat to see all of the rock formations.

 In order to get a family picture where Hyrum wasn't crying or complaining, we had to let him keep playing with his juice box. He's such a funny kid when he gets an idea into his mind.

  

It was pretty neat seeing the seaweed everywhere and knowing that the tide actually reaches that high. It blows my mind that the water levels can change that much in the ocean. Camilla had fun poking at stuff, slipping on the muddy ocean floor and collecting rocks. Hyrum had fun poking the straw in and out of his juice box.

It was hard to get super awesome pictures because the place was loaded with tourists such as ourselves. It really is a beautiful place to see though!

 When it was time to go back Hyrum was super tired and done with walking so Mr. Stannix carried him back and up the stairs while I walked with Camilla. She's such a funny girl and the things she says totally crack me up!

We then climbed the bazillion stairs to the top and rinsed our feet at the little hose station. Since neither us or the kids were looking forward to the hike back to the top, we opted to pay the $2.00 and take the shuttle. Quick and easy. At the top we played at the park for a while, hit up the bathrooms and roamed the gift shop before taking off. Camilla thought she'd be funny like Daddy was this morning and wear her hat sideways. She requested a picture and gave me the cutest grins ever. I love that girl.

Parlee Beach

 This afternoon we packed up a cooler of water, drinks and snacks and took off to the beach for the afternoon. Parlee beach is pretty well known and it didn't fail to impress! I love the beach and was thrilled to be spending the afternoon at the Ocean. Mike's Aunt and cousins joined us for some fun on the beach, it was great to have everyone together for the afternoon.

We had picked up some sand buckets from Dollarama and the kids had a blast with them! Hyrum was so stinkin' cute with his little hat and suit. As he posed for me on the beach a few girls walked by and said, "Look at the little model". I giggled pretty hard. I love that kid. The water was great and the kids had a blast swimming around. Hyrum loved going out deep and swimming with Daddy. Camilla even went under the water, but mostly enjoyed sitting near the shore with the little waves rushing over her legs.

Eventually everyone got a little tired. Hyrum hung out on the towels with Daddy for a bit and soon it was time for an afternoon bottle. The sand that was stuck to his face showed the fun time he had swimming and playing all afternoon.

He was pretty tuckered but didn't want to sleep. Instead he just layed on the towels watching the waves and the people until it was time to go. He was so cute with his little hat and bum in the air.

An afternoon well spent I'd say!

 

Time with Nana

A big reason for our trip to the East coast was to see Mike's Nana. She is 89 years old and so so sweet. I had talked to her on the phone a lot before actually meeting her and already felt like I knew her well, but it has been so great to finally meet her in person! The kids didn't take long to warm up and Nana gets cute little Hyrum smooches every night before I take him up to bed. He's so sweet about it. We've had fun visiting, reading books and hearing stories. She has so many fun stories about Mr. Stannix and it's been great to listen to that great story-telling voice of hers! Looking forward to the rest of our visit with everyone!

The Parade of Sails

On Sunday at church somebody let us know about The Parade of Sails that was going to happen Monday afternoon. In all of our research and prep for this trip we somehow missed this event! I was so glad to find out about it, it was AMAZING! It's one thing to see the ships docked in the harbour but it's quite another to see them actually sail and fire their canons. We walked downtown and checked out some little shops and then headed to the harbour nice and early for some good seats. We couldn't have asked for a better view! We occupied Camilla with a lollipop (which she calls a "loo-dee-pop") and Hyrum fell asleep in my arms walking the dock.

The whole parade started out with the U.S. Coast Guard and everyone else followed. At first they just circled around the little island and went over to the toll bridges on the other side of the harbour and then made their way back with their sails out. I took a million pictures of each ship and had to pick and choose some of the best for this post. 



Our favortie ship was The Bounty. It was just so old and piratey looking. I loved the green color and the dirty sails. It moved pretty good!

 Eventually Camilla decided to go back in the stroller for some shade. Hyrum was still fast asleep in his own seat, so Mr. Stannix and I got a chance to snuggle and watch the ships sail by. It was a beautiful day to be at the harbour (I even have the sunburnt knees to prove it)!

 Mr. Stannix got some awesome video and even caught a canon being loaded, lit, and fired. He was the only one aware of it and let me know so that I could get a picture. Everyone around us jumped at the loud noise (and I prayed it wouldn't wake my tired baby in the stroller). It was so cool to watch and listen to. The ships that had canons would shoot them off as they passed by, and the crowd would "ooh" and "ahhh" and cheer. The newer ships would sound their horns and cheer as they sailed by.

Each ship was so different and unique looking. It was fun to see. Camilla was more fascinated with the "ducklings" just off the dock that kept diving under the water for food and grubs. Her little voice made everyone giggle and the sweet lady beside us told me that she "could listen to her voice all day".

Soon all of the ships had come through the harbour and lined up way out in the ocean to get ready to go. I was able to zoom in with my telephoto and grab a shot of a few of them waiting. Hyrum woke up just at the end on the last canon blast, but fell asleep again as soon as we started walking.

The whole thing was such a fun experience and we were there for the perfect amount of time. Any longer than just a couple of days would have been too long. It was fun to see everything and super fun to catch the end and see the parade of sails. I have a whole new appreciation for ships and how amazing they are. I think before this I had only ever seen something like this in movies, and it was neat to see it in real life!  I think we may come again when the kids are all older just so they can see it and enjoy it. Now we are visiting Mike's Nana and family the rest of the week and checking out some awesome beaches!