Surprise, RI!!!

When we learned that my cousin Erin was coming into RI with her kids, we thought it would be fun to surprise everyone and show up as well, seeing as how our family has not been in the same room together for like...who knows how many years! I talked to Kathy and Erin about it, and they were on board with keeping it a secret. What stunk about it was that Bobby's on-campus job was starting shortly after Erin got there, bummer! Since it's us, we have to get out of the country at least once a year, we decided to head up early, hit up Canada, and then come in the day Erin gets there and hang out in RI for a couple of  days. Here is our adventure. *Warning Long Post Ahead*

 AUGUST 2, 2013

We left for our adventure today! We drove off to the Charlotte airport today. They have direct flights to RI, which is WONDERFUL!!!

 Of course, airports are always stressful with kids, especially busy ones, but we survived. 

Our flight got us into RI at like 1030/11pm, which was kind of awful, but that's the luck of the draw. Then we rented our car and had to get a car seat for Bianca...which was an AWFUL experience!!! The guy gave us an infant seat at first, then one that was too big. I ended up having to go to the back room with him to choose one for her. It was still slightly big for her, but we put towels/clothes in there to make it safer. Ugh, I hate traveling without carseats. I love that Cam is still an infant in his infant seat, so easy to install!

August 3, 3013

We woke up early today and started our drive to St. John, Canada (eh!). It was really funny to be in RI and not have anyone know, even if it was just for the night. We stopped in New Hampshire as a pit stop, since that's the only state east of OK that Bianca has not been to! We have a picture as proof.

We drove the rest of the way to our first stop, Portland, Maine! We went to the children's museum first so the kids could get there energy out after the drive. It was a pretty awesome museum. Here are the photo highlights!

                                                           Wrong milk, Cameron!

So much fun! We hated to leave, but we were starving by that time! We decided to go to a small diner nearby that had some...Maine LOBSTAH ROLLS!!! SCORE! Bianca has been obsessed with french fries lately, so she was pleased (we shall eat lots and lots of veggies when we get home lol) and I got my yummy lobster roll, which was fantastic!

 We walked around for a little more before heading to our hotel for a nap. When nap time was over, we drove to a neat lighthouse nearby! We explored it and then headed off to our hotel for the night. We were going to Canada tomorrow, hooray!

August 4, 2013

We left pretty early for Canada. It was a pretty drive, but not on a highway. Yeah. The only thing to eat around lunch time was this crappy little diner, which we went to, but the wait staff was awful and didn't seat us or take our order for a long time, which makes Cameron an unhappy little boy. It was alright, but we were NOT going to go there on the way back, THAT'S for sure.

 We got over the boarder and got to St. John in good time. The good news of it all? Bobby got "Guest of the Day", which means that we got free wifi for our stay, woohoo! SO proud of my hubby! ;) We checked into our hotel and walked around!  It was really pretty over there, especially since we were near the water. Plus they had fun statues to take silly pictures with. ;) There wasn't much to eat since it was a Sunday, but we had some (expensive) Pizza Hut. Oh well. The next day would bring fun adventures...

 

 

 

 

 August 5, 2013

The weather looked like it may have been a bit crummy for our whale watching tour today. We just hoped for the best, dressed warmly (even though it's AUGUST!!!), and prayed it wouldn't rain like crazy. We got some Tim Horton's for breakfast and headed out for St. Andrews, where the whale watching tour was taking place. It was going to be on a pirate ship, which made the whole experience even cooler. 

We thought we were going to be late since parking is AWFUL down where the boat was going to take off, but we found a spot downtown and were able to walk to the place successfully! When you arrive at the ticket office, little kids can dress up as a pirate, which Bianca LOVED!!! She picked out the perfect outfit, of course, and then we waited for the boat to come in. 

It was chilly on the boat, but once I fed him, Cam fell asleep for a little bit! They had face painting on the boat, so Bianca got a cute starfish on her face (which she was obsessed with). While Cam was sleeping, she went downstairs again with Daddy and got to color a bit with the other kids on board.

Cam woke up right in time to see the seals! There was a tiny island full of seals, so cute!

The rest of the ride was pretty good. We got to see some whales, from a distance. Our pictures did not do it justice, but I swear they were there and we did see them! We took turns keeping Cameron warm (he got a bit cranky because he hates the cold) and taking Bianca downstairs to play/color. 

We got to see an eagle in its nest in a tree, which was really beautiful. They handed out some Pirate Soup after that, which was basically chicken noodle soup, so Bobby couldn't have any, but I did! And it was pretty darn good! Then they had some sea critters for the kids to hold. Bianca bravely held the starfish, which I was super surprised about! Go Bianca! Then the kids could take turns steering the ship, which she also loved. They even gave her a little certificate! At the end of the boat ride, we crammed downstairs because it started to rain like crazy. I'm glad we took the earlier tour, unlike what we were originally thinking. We had a great boat ride and were so happy we were able to do it!

It was POURING when we got back to shore, so walking to the car was not fun (especially because Miss Bianca doesn't like to walk that fast, even in the rain, silly girl), but we survived. Barely. (Plus Cam pooped through his diaper. So that was fun too). That night we just went out to eat (at an American Italian restaurant, yes it said AMERICAN-Italian haha), took baths, and slept. Tomorrow was going to be another exciting day!!!

 August 6, 2013

We were leaving Canada today, sad. We had a lot of fun our couple of days here though! It took forever to get over the boarder. Guess America cares more about letting people in than Canada. 

We drove all the way to Boston today! One of our friends from Edmond, Jenn, used to live in Boston and has some friends in the area who said they could watch our little ones while we go to the temple, yay!!! They were so awesome! We got to the temple a little bit early, so we got to take some pictures.

It was nice to get some mommy and daddy time, that's for sure. We picked them up and poor Cameron was sad. Really, it was his first time being watched by strangers. They said he didn't do bad, just started crying a little bit ago, so hopefully he was ok. Bianca had tons of fun of course. We were so thankful we were able to do that! It was great!

 



August 7, 2013

Today was the big surprise day! Erin got in first that day, so we took our time getting ready to leave Boston for RI. Check out these cute Cam pics I got that morning ;)

We left and got lunch at Panera on the way. When we were almost there, we texted Kathy, who just so happened to be home on lunch break! She said everyone was there and to pull right in and surprise everyone. I really wanted to capture the moment on video, and I wish we did, but it was HILARIOUS! We pulled in and everyone was like "who is that...IS THAT ERIKA?!?!?!" hahahaha! It was great. Everyone was like "what are you doing here....?"  So we told them of our planning and our adventure. It was priceless! We weren't the only surprise though. Erin's husband, Mike, surprised everyone by showing up! This is the only time we've all been under the same roof ever. Crazy! We hung out that day with the family. Bianca loved playing with her cousins, Elizabeth and Michael and hanging out with Nana, Gram, and everyone.

Everyone was pretty tired that first day since it was everyone's first day in RI, so my mom took us out to eat and then we went to the hotel to rest a bit and for Bobby to do some work on the computer.

 After Bobby was able to do the computer things he needed to do at the hotel, we went back to what I affectionally call "The Compound" (Nana and Kathy live next door to My mom and Aunt Barbara) and hung out for the rest of the night, letting the little ones play and have fun.

August 8, 2013

Today we decided to go somewhere fun, the Providence Children's Museum! We've never been before. It was just Erin's family, us and my mom that went, but it was still a lot of fun! The kids played and did their own thing. They had tons of fun (even Cam got to roll around a bit on some stuff, although he slept and/or ate the whole time). Here's our children's museum photo log. 

 After the museum, we went our separate ways for lunch. We chose Chili's, yum!! Then we went back to the compound to hang out for the rest of the night. The kids played baseball (Bianca tried, bless her heart). It was a lot of fun, even though we just hung out all night. We left at bedtime, tired from a fun day with family!

August 9, 2013

Today was our last day. :( Bobby has to start work soon, so we weren't able to stay for too long overlapping Erin's trip, but at least we got everyone together for a couple of days! It was pouring that morning, so that prevented us from coming as soon as we would have liked. We hung out at the compound for the morning and then my mom took us out to eat at Newport Creamery, yum! When we got back, we got the kids together to take a group pic, and with kids, it was pretty hilarious. Here's the best ones we got.

 Love it! The stupid rain prevented us from seeing Manda and her family. Ugh! At least we got to see them last time, but still! We stayed at Kathy's until it was time to head off to the airport. We got there just fine and got into Charlotte just fine as well. But our adventure was not done yet...

Ausust 10, 2013

Today we decided to spend the day in Charlotte because we could! The birthday party Bianca was supposed to go to was canceled because of sickness, so we decided to go to The Charlotte Nature Museum. It was really pretty and Bianca had fun (she didn't like the snakes though). We saw the butterflies and turtles. We also went on a nature trail and played outside for a bit. Here's our pictures!

 After the museum, we went to a really nice part of Charlotte and ate some yummy Mexican food. After that, we were exhausted and finally went home! It was a lovely time indeed!