2025

 As I sit here enjoying big fluffy snow outside I'm thinking of 2025 and all that we have to be grateful for this year. I'm on call this New Year's Eve so I thought I'd try to get my Top Ten done early this year.

10) Manigotagan Trip 

This year we did a tried and true trip - our 3rd trip down the Manigotagan River. This time we took our oldest boys on our adventure. It was a new thing to have 2 boats and more gear as well as more responsibility for two other lives. The water levels were particularly low so there was stuff we certainly couldn't run but we had fun running the stuff that we could and checking out new campsites because we didn't quite cover our usual distances. It was lovely to see Charles again - the wonderful river steward who gave us big hugs as we left an we arrived back at his house. 

9) Spongebob Squarepants

Em was the lead in Spongebob Squarepants and she held her own with a lot of dialogue for the hour long show. We were so lucky to have lots of folks come out to support her including Uncle Paul, Auntie Karen and Morgan. So proud of how she continues to push herself. 

8) Our Stay Together Ride 

My little Suzuki has been with us since 2010 (almost as long as Cian) and it has been beyond reliable. With the exception of some brake pads and the alternator last year she never fails me. People mock her duct tape but I think that just gives her character. This summer we were altogether when her mileage turned over to 100,000 kilometres. I had seen a beautiful poem about being together in the big moments many years ago and how this kid's family was together in the car when it reached 100,000 and I wanted to all be together for the Suzuki too. It was lots of fun to roll down the windows, blast music and celebrate that milestone together. 

7) Great Outdoors Comedy Show with Mark and Leslie 

A year in advance Mark and Leslie got tickets to see an outdoor comedy show in Edmonton and gave us first dibs to come. It was perfect cause we were coming to Edmonton and happy to come hang out with them. The comics were hilarious and the weather was beautiful. We enjoyed each other's company and the show ended JUST before the rainstorm. It was a really lovely night.

6) Alice in Wonderland Halloween 

Sam and I have been working through the "classics" on Disney plus with Swiss Family Robinson, Jungle Book, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. He loved the White Rabbit and wanted to do Alice in Wonderland this Halloween. Em and I also enjoyed that theme with our Alice in Wonderland afternoon tea in London. I enjoyed making all the costumes again including our very accommodating Queen of Hearts (despite his terrible fever on the day). Cian made his Mad Hatter Hat have 6/7 on it - a great way to incorporate that piece of pop culture. I also enjoyed decorating the house and it's fun to have little kids coming up to the house already guessing the theme. Halloween is my favourite. 

5) Folk Fest 

This year I volunteered for First Aid at Folk Fest. That was more of a misadventure than I planned with having to do a resuscitation on the forest floor when the ambulance took 25 minutes to get there. I've had to unpack that a few times as I don't think Folk Fest has what it needs from a medical perspective for a group that big. But despite that I did think my first aid crew was amazing - I loved working with them. It was a new experience for me and also a fun way to care for people with a lot less paperwork. It was also Sam's first Folk Fest which was a lot of fun - he loved it just as much as his sister because ALL of us his friends from school were there including one of his great loves, his kindergarten teacher, Vanessa. Our family is still big Folk Fest converts - we are hoping to take Keith next year - Sam thinks we can bribe him with beer. 

4) Rob and Rachel's Wedding 

Rob and Rachel planned a wedding where they could really incorporate their friends and their friend's kids and those kids (especially mine) felt all the love coming in their direction. They spent days preparing with decorating the hall, pedicures, hanging out as girls the night before and getting ready together. They had a dance mostly for Sam as he had been practicing in the kitchen all year. They had a brunch ceremony outside and reception inside the hall. Rachel kept telling us things were "not a big deal" and then we would find out from Rob that things like speeches were happening. We went up for an impromptu speech but it's not hard to speak from the heart when you see your friend be loved so deeply. We spent the whole day with them - preparing, eating, BBQing, talking and dancing. By the time Rachel carried Sam to the van we were all exhausted. My kids were so overwhelmed with happiness that they clutched their floral centrepieces and cried. It was a beautiful. day. 

3) Morrivardson Punta Cana!

In February we went with our friends on an all-inclusive adventure to Punta Cana. We stayed at a beautiful resort and had countless meals, swim up bar drinks, shows and activities. Cian and I went on a fishing trip where we caught no fish but the waves were so big that the only people that didn't throw up was me, Cian and the Navy Seal that was with us. The dads took Abby and Emily surfing and had an incredible time. We all went to see the monkeys that crawled all over you. We had beautiful weather and I fell in love with passionfruit mojitos. We are so grateful to have great friends that like to do these trips with us and are looking forward to our next adventure. 

2) The Girl Trip 

In October I spent two weeks with Em exploring London and Paris. I collated a scrapbook of advice from the women in her life that turned out beautifully and then the two of us went on this girl trip. We navigated the Underground, the Paris metro, a Seine river cruise, countless croissants, many many streets of both cities and saw beautiful historic places. We walked 170, 200 steps and all of them were full of memories and fun with this magical time with my girl.

1) Cosy Christmas 

This Christmas we were interested in staying home and cocooning after a fall (and winter) full of illness. Between the blizzard on December 18th and the continued snowfall it was really nice to be able to not have to go anywhere. We were very grateful that Emily started to finally feel better after Prednisone, antibiotics and 2.5 weeks of rest in her room from the respiratory illness that seems to be plaguing everyone this year. We were still able to have our annual traditions and mostly slow down and regroup for the year ahead. Hoping for a peaceful 2026 full of adventure but also times enjoying home together. 

The Girl Trip

 In October Emily and I went on a very special trip together to celebrate her adolescence. I wanted to do something to mark this time with her and originally we planned to go to New York but seeing as how the US is a bit terrifying at the moment we decided to pivot. Truthfully I think this was a massive upgrade because we decided to go to London since it's the other big spot for musical theatre and while we were there Emily asked if we could go to Paris and seeing as how the Chunnel gets you right there- why not? We took 10 days and had a little adventure. 

We arrived in London and took the underground to our little hotel called the Judd hotel. It was an adorable place with black and white checkerboard floors and friendly staff. We were up on the 3rd floor so it was like staying in Mary Poppins attic. Breakfast was in the basement so we always had a good meal to start our days. Em was certainly in love with the European appreciation of Nutella. 

The first night I got sick and was so worried I was going to scare Em in a new country where her mom was sick but she took it in stride and went down to breakfast by herself. I rallied by noon and was able to take in a show so we went to Hercules and really enjoyed that show at one of the most beautiful theatres I've ever been in. We had a muffin on Drury Lane and explored the theatre district. 

The following day we started our love affair with a hop on/hop off bus and was able to see loads of the London sights. We had grilled cheese at Borough market (Em says her dad's are better) and went over Tower and London bridge. We had enough time to take in the Alice in Wonderland tea party. I'm not sure who can get through that amount of food in an afternoon but we had several takeout boxes. 

The only thing we had planned was our tickets to Les Miserables. I think I cried from start to finish. Initially Em was enjoying it but it was similar to when she saw Hamilton - the first act was the set up and she didn't totally see the fuss. Then in the second act she cried through the whole thing too. They did a magnificent job. 

Our hotel was close to Kings Cross so we were able to walk to Pancreas station for the train to Paris. It was lots of fun to travel by train. You don't even realize you are under the English Channel.

We got to Paris and made our way to the 15e arrondissement. We had this sweet little room with a balcony off our bedroom and another little one in the bathroom - it felt very Parisian. Of course after dropping off our luggage our first stop was dinner and the Eiffel Tower. Paris is magic. I thought I would like it but I didn't realize how much I would love it. The lazy dinners and the outdoor cafes - it's so beautiful. We had dinner at Le Piquet and then headed to the Champs du Mars to see the Eiffel Tower. We got there as the sun was setting so it was beautiful to see it in the sun and then to see it sparkle! What a beautiful place. We went back the following day for a picnic. I think we saw the Eiffel Tower most days that we were there. 

The next day we went to the Luxembourg Gardens and Em wanted to bring our watercolour pens so we were able to sit and enjoy the gardens. We got our picnic from le Grand Epicurie and then headed to the Champs du Mars. We also enjoyed a hop on/hop off bus in Paris so that we could get around to see all the sites including the Notre Dame cathedral, the Louvre and the Champs d'Elessay. We walked A LOT. In fact we realized that Em can do almost anything for gelato. 

We definitely knew that we wanted to go to DISNEYLAND PARIS and that was an amazing day. We were getting good at navigating the Paris Metro (really the trick is confidence - we talk a lot now about boldly moving forward "PARISIAN CONFIDENCE") but that day we also had to navigate a regional train which we also managed to do and that got us right to the gates. It's a beautiful park. Very relaxed and easy to navigate but it's a bit surreal to wear coats at a theme park. Our knowledge of French kicked in about halfway through the line for Hyperspace mountain and we realized we were going upside down on this roller coaster in the dark but we were already almost at the ride soooo... Parisian confidence! We had a lot of fun and actually it was our last ride of the night too. We had crepes at the park with Nutella (because we  could) and tried to make sure we hit the rides only available in DISNEYLAND PARIS. We saw Mickey while in line for Haunted Mansion, we saw a big parade that was beautiful, we did the tea cups and Crush's coaster with spinning turtle shells. As this trips straddles childhood and adolescence it was a magical day to include. I think we will always love a good Disney day.

Our last day in Paris we enjoyed the Louvre before it was broken into. The museum is overwhelming but we saw a few of the key pieces. We walked in the Toulieres and explored and finished our whole trip off with a night cruise down the Seine river with the sparkling Eiffel Tower in the background. 

Em navigated our adventure with ease and my hope is that these 10 days showed her that the world is big but also small and full of a lot of beautiful people (like the ones in Pigalle who helped us when she had a nosebleed near Moulin Rouge). The world is navigatable and beautiful and you are just at the start of all your adventures kiddo. I'm so glad I got to go on this one with you.