Last Summer Swim Lessons

Arabella had her last Summer swim lessons a week ago, I can't believe how quickly they went by. Since Grammie was here, Arabella was able to show her what she has learned over the Summer. She also got to wear the new bathing suit that Grammie got for her, it is so pretty and it looks adorable on her, Thanks Grammie! She is almost swimming on her own - she is a great kicker, loves to blow bubbles, is starting to try and float on her back and is getting more daring jumping from the side of the pool. After her lessons, they even spent some time playing in the pool. It was perfect weather, by Grammie, having had her blood thinned by living in Florida, thought it was a little chilly. But they had fun anyway!

Thursday's Thoughts

Hearing: A few new songs I downloaded from iTunes...Teenage Dream by Katy Perry, Airplanes by B.o.B., Learning to Fly by Lady Antebellum, Perfect by Hedley, Ghost by FeFe Dobson and some Gaga!

Tasting: Homemade eggplant parm that I am making for dinner.

Seeing: All the photos that I have taken over the past month, and there are a lot!

Smelling: The beautiful Fall mum plants that Arabella and I (and Mom) purchased today at Costco for $9.99.



Feeling: Sad that Mom had to go home, each time Arabella asks for Grammie, I just want to cry. We miss her so much and she hasn't been back home for 24 hours yet!

Funny Ha Ha

The looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg drive home from PEI was uneventful. We made an overnight stop in New Brunswick which helped to break up the drive. On Monday we got up early to hit the road and get home in time for Grammie's visit. We did see one comical thing on the ride back....



Seriously, how can you have a city or town name with Ha Ha in it???

Prince Edward Island

We had a great time on Prince Edward Island. Jay had to visit dealers while we were there, so Arabella and I made our own fun at the hotel bu swimming in the pool and trying out the hot tub, which wasn't all that hot. It reminds me a lot of Cape Cod, the landscape is the same, the beaches are beautiful with the bluffs, small towns with little shops and restaurants, a little "touristy" in places, all the things that make it a wonderful place to visit. We had dinner each evening outside and Jay ate as much seafood as he could get! We had perfect weather, but it did get a little chilly at night, good thing we brought fleece jackets.









One afternoon, we spent time in Charlottetown, walking around, checking out the boats, enjoying ice cream and Arabella got to pick up a starfish, see crabs and lobsters (which she was afraid of).









The rest of our days were spent at the beach! I was happy about that and so was Arabella. Poor Jay, having 2 beach girls and he the beach is not his favorite place. Good thing we have a good sun shade for him to take refuge in and so he can check his email. Arabella loved digging holes, searching for crabs and shells, checking out the sand bars and playing in the water. She had fun running all over the beach and chasing sea gulls and just taking it all in. The beaches really reminded me of the ones in Westbrook and it made me realize that at the time, we had no idea how good we had it. While in PEI, each morning I had to think of every possible thing that we might need or want at the beach and pack it up, we then got in the car and drove to the beach, paid to park, and then trek everything to the beach and set up...it was so much simpler when we were younger just to run out the front door, cross the street and have our feet in the sand! But we had a great time and spent as much time as we could there. Arabella wouldn't take a nap since she didn't want to miss out on a second of the sunshine and sand.









































It was a very fun time and hopefully we will be able to go back...just next time, I think I might want to take a plane...

Road Trip To Prince Edward Island

Bright and early the day after getting home from my mom's weekend, we loaded up the car and headed out for a very long road trip to Prince Edward Island. Jay had to visit a number of his dealers in Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island so Arabella and I decided to make the road trip with him. Now, I am not one to enjoy road trips, actually, any car ride longer than 3 hours, so this was a challenge for me. It helped that we had to stop in towns along the way, but it was a very long trip, about 14 hours each way in the car. Sure I have taken longer road trips, like when Mike moved From Connecticut to Boca Raton and I drove down with him, but we drove until we got there and we made it in record time! And the roads in northern Quebec and New Brunswick are not like highways that we are used to. In places they are just one lane in each direction so if you get stuck behind some slow poke, you could be there for a while. I will admit, it was nice to see parts of Canada that we would not ordinarily see Arabella was so good in the car, such a little trooper and she hardly asked to watch her DVDs!

Here are a few shots of some of the scenery along the way...





So first stop was Rimouski, Quebec. Rimouski is farther north than Quebec City. It was beautiful and as soon as we stepped out of the car at the hotel, which was right across the road from the St. Lawrence River, it reminded me of the beach. It smelled like the beach growing up, the wind seemed the same and it made me think of how I belong near the ocean.







The next morning we got up and traveled farther north to Mont-Joli and visited a Les Jardins des Metis. Along the way, we stopped in a small town to check out the coast and it was low tide. I had to take Arabella out of the car and we explored the sand bars, just like I used to do at the beach when I was little. She loved playing in the tide pools, picking up seashells and looking for crabs. We had fun!









Then we were back in the car to head to Les Jardins (http://www.jardinsdemetis.com/francais/). They were beautiful. It was so quiet and serene and there were a lot of people there. We had a nice lunch after walking around the gardens and then we got back in the car to make the trip east to Bathurst, New Brunswick, our next stop.













Jay had to visit the dealer and Bathurst, so Arabella and I hung out in the hotel while we waited for him to finish his work. While waiting Arabella, had fun making coffee for me!



Once he was done, we loaded up the car and to make the final leg of our trip to Prince Edward Island! Along the way we looked for moose and Arabella snoozed. And before we made it to the Island, we had to cross Confederation Bridge, which is 12.9 kilometers (or 8 miles)long, the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water (although there wasn't any ice when we crossed it)!













And after a little more driving once we crossed the bridge, we had made it! And I (and Arabella, too) was so very happy to be out of the car and into the hotel!