Our Alaskan Adventure: Vancouver

Okay, so NOW begins our last week in the house. Got a lot done this weekend. Still a lot to do, but we're making good progress. I keep telling myself, "If we can just make it to Sunday..." But, in the grand scheme of things, it's just moving stuff. No biggie, right. RIGHT? 

Totes agree with you guys about Hunger Games. If I were to write a story, it would be like, "Mary Sue was a nice girl who met a nice guy, Joe, and the worst thing that ever happened to either of them is that Mary Sue's hair got singed at a bonfire and she had to cut it, but she liked it short even better, and one of Joe's shoestrings broke and he had to buy a new pair. And they lived happily ever after. The end." I'm predicting it would sell about 4 copies...3 of which would be bought my my Mom...but it would be a happy story with no stressful or tense moments. But, HG is a good set of books, I will admit. Very captivating and they really make you root for the characters. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the 2nd book now and it's like COME ON!!!!! President Snow can kiss it. 

Anyways. 

Guess what? I have a few pictures!! Starting with Vancouver. 

That Wednesday morning, we were up at 3:30 and left the house at 4:00 in order to get to the airport about 4:40. Our flight left at 6:00 on the dot, so we thought we had pleeeenty of time. The Birmingham airport is an international airport, but it's not a huge airport and I mean, how many people are flying out at 6:00 a.m. on a Wednesday, right? Apparently, everybody. We've left tons of time super early in the morning and literally walked right through security. Wednesdays seem to be a pretty popular day. Took us about 5 seconds to check our bags and get our tickets. Then about 100 hours to get through security. I'm not kidding when I say the line went back 1/2 mile. So serious. Actually, it moved pretty quickly and we got to the gate about 15 minutes before they started boarding, which is about 30 minutes before they actually leave, so we had plenty of time. But, it scared me for a second.  

By the time we laid-over in Houston and then got to Denver, I was starving and all I could think about was pizza and ice cream and little Hugsy found me some. 

From Denver to Vancouver, I thought, I'm gonna get a cup of decaf coffee. Remember when they used to give you tons of free stuff on airplanes? Cookies, peanuts, granola bars, drinks, etc. Now they just barely give you a small cup of coke or coffee. So, I was getting my free coffee. The lady said, "It's instant. Is that okay?" I've had instant coffee before. Sure, that's fine. No big deal. Now, I was expecting Starbucks Via or anything, but HOLY COW...this was the worst thing ever. I have never drank (drunk?) anything so repulsive. It tasted like a porta-potty smells. 

Finally made it to Vancouver! BEAUTIFUL city. We got a taxi from the airport to the hotel downtown and it was such a nice drive. The houses are beautiful. There are flowering gardens everywhere. It's so lush and green and surrounded by snow-peaked mountains. It's a perfect city, really. And so clean and it smelled so nice. Canadians are healthy, y'all. Like, crazy healthy. Even the McDonald's commercials touted the fact that they use free-range, organic chicken with no chemical processing for their chicken sandwiches and nuggets. We ate at a fabulous little diner for breakfast both mornings, Joe's Grill.  Everything was organic. The best bacon I've ever had. The freshest strawberry crepes with creme. Even the waffles were free-range. It was goooood. 

19 weeks with baby boy

Excited to head out for the day!

View from our room.

Our room at the ClubIntrawest. 

Creepiest artwork ever.

They had Gilchrist and Soames bath products in the bathroom. I've never used their stuff before. It was tough going back to my Pantene. It just smelled so amazing. 

We had a telescope in our bedroom. Tried to spy on the office building across from us, but nothing sinister happened. Just people working. Lame. 

On Thursday, we met up with Rebecca and Richard, who were staying at a B&B not too far from us, rented some bikes and headed to Stanley Park. It's about a 6 mile trip around the entire park on the Seawall and Richard figured we'd cover more ground and see more by riding. Such a good idea. The weather was perfect and the ride was so nice. This is the marina.

 

We finished with our ride earlier than we thought we would and decided to walk from Stanley Park to Canada Place and then Gastown.

 Canada Place

We stopped by a chocolatier called Leonidas. Soooo good. I got chocolate...

 And David got macarons.

 Gastown

The steam clock

It's like a mini Flatiron Building.

That evening, David and I went to The Urban Tea Merchant. Okay, yes yes yes, I made my husband go have tea with me. He wasn't thrilled with the idea at first, but warmed up to it. And when we got there, he was more than happy to eat what they served us, which was AMAZING. It was one of the most fun and entertaining dining experiences I've ever had. And you can ask him yourself if he'd do it again. I think he enjoyed it as much as I did. 

It was such a formal, fancy presentation. It was kind of funny, because we're not used to that kind of stuff. We walk in and I made us a reservation, so it was all such a show how they welcomed us and showed us to our table. We were in jeans and I asked the server, in his tuxedo, if we were dressed okay. He said, "This is Vancouver, the most casual place in the world. You're dressed perfectly." So, even though it seemed super formal, it was really inviting and relaxing. 

We chose what type of service we wanted and it came with our own pots of tea. They had over 150 types to choose from. One pot, a Japanese tea, was $75. We forwent that one and each chose something we could pronounce. I got a decaf Chai Rooibos and David got a Black Vanilla Tea. All of their teas were prepared the "right" way. Apparently, tea bags dilute the flavor. You're supposed to just use straight up leaves and herbs and what not and it has to steep for an eternity or something. But, yeah, who has the time, right. But, you could definitely taste the difference. I've had rooibos before, but this was like rooibawesome. 

But, let me tell you about David's vanilla tea. I took a swig just to try it. You guys...I can never drink tea again. This stuff ruined me. It was like drinking hot melted ice cream straight from a Tahitian vanilla plant. It was unreal. We bought a bag in the store downstairs for after I get unpregnant and can have loads of caffeine again.

After a few sips of team, the server brought us champagne classes filled with straight up chilled white tea, the purest form of tea. Nothing else in it. It was supposed to be a palette cleanser. It was awful. That's harsh...let me rephrase. It was AWFUL. I didn't want to hurt their feelings by not drinking it, so I thought, "I'll add some of this raw sugar to it and maybe that'll help." It did not help and then I had huge chunks of sugar in my glass that wouldn't dissolve because of the extremely cold beverage. So, sweet David saved me and swigged it all down for me so it looked like I drank it.

Then, they brought us our food.

Here we have a tier of chocolate-dipped madeleine, gooseberry fruit, petit-four, ganache truffle, tea-infused macaroni, chocolate strawberry, and fruit (with some tea-infued rhubarb).

The second tier was two four-cheese mini quiches and a raisin scone, cream, and jam.

Third tier was egg salad sandwich, cucumber sandwich with tea-infused wasabi spread, beef carpaccio with something foam, smoked salmon on rye, shrimp and green apple spoon, olives and mini pickles, and tea-infused chicken salad in waffle cone. It was all much more fancy sounding and had more ingredients that I can't remember when they explained it to us. The girl who brought it and went through everything had a fabulous French accent, so I couldn't understand most of it anyway.

We ordered a second service that was a smaller version of the first one just to make sure we had enough. We definitely had enough, but we ate everything.

I feel like I'm cheating on Canoe in Atlanta, but I have to say it because it's true. This is the best food I've ever eaten. David agreed. It was such a neat experience and the people were so friendly and welcoming and the food was freaking awesome. And the tea...ooooooh, the tea. I miss the tea. If you're ever in Vancouver, save 90 minutes and go do this. Seriously. 

The Sheraton Wall Center. ClubIntrawest is on the 28th-30th floors.

Friday morning, we had breakfast with Richard and Rebecca, went shopping and then headed back to Canada Place to board our ship! Could not have been more wonderful weather. Actually, several crew members told us they hadn't had this good of weather since the Alaskan season began. It had been overcast and rainy, but the sun came out for us.

Right under the line of trees is the Stanley Park Seawall where we rode the day before. Same bridge I took a picture of.

 You can see the Seawall here again.

 That night at dinner, our waiter, Lyndon, asked me what I wanted for dessert and said, "Nothing." (There actually was nothing that I just had to have and I was already so full.) And he said, "Nothing?!" And I replied with, "Nothing." So, he brought me nothing.

 

Shocker!

Well, whaddaya know? They changed the closing date to next Thursday. Yaaaaaay. I say that sarcastically, but it ended up actually being a good thing. I was actually surprised they hadn't changed the date sooner or more times by now. I heard that frequently changing close dates was all the rage in the home buying industry. But, like I said, it ended up being a blessing.

Just coming back from vacay had us all out of wonk and we still had a lot to do, so this gave us more time and a-whole-nother weekend, which is very nice. But another great thing was, way back when, we decided to leave the washer and dryer with the house. #1 to maybe help it sell and #2 those are the two heaviest things in our house probably and it sure would be nice to not have to move them. We said if the buyers didn't want them, of course we'd take them. But, they did want them, so we were okay with that. But, me and my brilliant decisions...I didn't think about the fact that we would need a washer/dryer at the apartment while the house was being built. I kept thinking, oh, yeah, they'll just install the new set in the house and voila! Oh, Ruth. We're (hopefully) moving into the apartment next Saturday and Mama needs a washer/dryer. Fine, fine, I'll get the new set for the apartment and we'll just move those to the house.

I ordered a set that I was super happy with, but they were on backorder and the earliest they could deliver them was June 21. UHHH...what? The apartment complex has a coin laundry there, but I do laundry during the day and no way I can take the girls every afternoon for almost two weeks and hang out at a laundromat for a couple of hours in a small room. These kids are crazy and I would go crazy. David offered to do it at night, but that's my time with him, so no. But, now with the closing date moved and us moving in a week later, that leaves us without a washer/dryer for 4 days...we can manage that. And a new washer and dryer, squeeeeee!! I love how girls get excited about stuff like that. New kitchen equipment, vacuum, Swiffer supplies. We whine about doing household things, but secretly we love it.

This is turning out to be the most long, drawn-out story ever. Anyways. Closing next Thursday, happy for the extra time. Done. The builder is getting us the final plans back hopefully today. I'll have to scan them in and show you guys. I'm so pumped.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Hunger Games book 2 (I'm almost done with The Help, Mom! I'll get it back to you!) and I am not a happy camper. Before I started reading the series, I asked sister Sara if they ended well because I wasn't going to invest that time and then be really mad at the end. She said (verbatim), "Oh, yeah, they end great! I mean, the characters go through some really hard times, but it ends really well and justice is served." So, in my mind, I take that as, "Gale and Katniss get married and have kids. Peeta finds the love of his life. The Capitol is overthrown and President Snow is put in a prison arena with muttations and mockingjays and the yellow jacket things. Nobody is ever hungry again and the districts all live in peace and happiness." But, apparently, that's not the case. I finished Book 1 and was like, "Man, that was crazy, but at least they're done now and can all be happy." And I was talking to my buddies Kelly and Ashley (who have read the trilogy) about it and they both were like, "Uhm...well...uh...it ends with some justice and you really should read it, it's a good ending, but it's not wrapped up neatly with a pretty little bow." WHAT?! That's what I was wanting! I want picture-perfect endings. I'm not a realist. I like to live in the clouds. So...apparently, Sara is a liar. SARA! Ugh, and now I have to finish the books and they just keep getting sadder and sadder.

Okay, that's all I have. Since we have this whole weekend now, I can work on some Alaska posts! David got the best pictures of the whole trip.

Sun and Popsicles

I haven't had a chance to do the Alaska pictures yet, so here's some of the girls I took the week before we left. They love playing in water. Like their Uncle Noah (Hoop) says, "They're part fish." And they love popsicles. 

I may look sweet, but there's mischief in these eyes. An unquenchable mischief. The kind that will cause my mother to gray early.

Pondering life's biggest questions. And also when lunch is.

Our favorite hobby of all time...coloring on cardboard boxes.

I'm not OCD. My crayons don't HAVE to be lined up perfectly. See, they're a bit crooked and I'm oka-...oh okay, uh, I need to fix that. Stop moving them! Stop staring at me! 

I'm not too close. I'm not too close, I know. I know these things.

"Purple fish purple fish purple fish BIIIIIG purple fish. Mama draw a purple fish."

The correct way to enter a pool.

Creepy Uncle Hoop up to no good.

But, I have weapons of my own.

Did I leave the pretend Fisher Price oven on?

If you looked up "ham" in the dictionary, you wouldn't find a picture of a spiral cut of delicious holiday meat. You'd find a picture of me.

I'm totally smiling. Right. I'm totally doing it.

Uncle Hoop teaching us all kinds of useful things. Like how to "fark" with your hands.

Taking Red Fish (Piper Lee's new "safety" item) for a swim.

I'm off to go do something devious now.

Just a head in a pool.

Uncle Hoop put my swimsuit on and put the bottoms on backwards. It totally fits okay, though, right?

Is-a my cream rouge still in-a place? I am look perfection, no?

WHOA. YOW. This 'sicle's got a little kick to it. 

Zombie toddler devours popsicle's brains...tonight at 10. 

What do you mean look in the direction of the oncoming frisbee? I prefer to attack it from an angle. 

Ready for the Ultimate league. 

Popsicle, why are you crying all over my hand? I thought you liked the sun. 

I eat you now!! 

Uh, yeah, you...with the hat. Move the 38" reflector to the left a tad. I need the lighting to be as glamorous as possible for my close-up. And fetch me some coffee. Half-caf, no foam. Nutmeg? Sure.

Señora Rut Es Mucho Loco

Let me tell you a little bit about our week...

First, Canada/Alaska was AMAZING. Oh my word, we had such a good time. SUCH. A. GOOD. TIME. It was a very nice break. The weather was perfect. A teensy bit cooler than Alabama's temp. We saw sea lions and otters and whales and Dall's porpoises and a moose and bears and puffins and other people. And, of course, beautiful scenery. It was just a great vacation. And I have a gazillion pictures. Buuut, I don't think I'll be able to get to them until next week. Because...

...this week, we are finishing packing using every spare second we have after work and at night, canceling all of our home services (power, water, etc.) and transferring them to the apartment, closing on the house on Friday, moving out on Saturday, handing over the keys on Sunday, working our regular full-time jobs, and taking care of the kiddos. So, if you see me in person and my eyes are kind of glazed over and I'm drooling a little bit, you'll know why. And we haven't slept in three days because one night was spent on an airplane and two nights were spent up with sick baby girls. I know, I know, we just got back from an awesome vacation and I'm whining already. But, I'm sleepy and hormonal and a little bit crazy right now.

But God is good and we're really excited about everything happening. And we have the most amazing people in the world helping us move on Saturday, which is such a blessing.

And so begins our last week ever in this house. In the grand scheme of things, seven years in a house isn't that long, but this was our first house and has so many memories. I'm already missing it.

We will SURVIVEzzzzzzzzzzz...

Going North...

Well, Hugs and I are leaving at the nudie crack of dawn in the morning to catch a jet plane to Vancouver. We'll be hanging out in Vannycou for a couple of days...hiking in Stanley Park, having high tea at the Urban Tea Merchant (girly, I know), touring around Canada Place and Gastown, and eating at some coolio restaurants. 

On Friday afternoon, we will head to the bay and catch a cruise ship to Alaska. It was David's turn to pick and he wanted to go somewhere cold. Not that I'm complaining. I'm stoked! Just, I mean...I had Fiji picked out before he reminded me it was his year. But, he let me plan all of our excursions. You know how I love to plan. I've been to Alaska once before when I was 15. That's the year Peter got lost on the cruise ship, I got drunk off the orange juice/vodka cocktails left in our rooms as a welcoming gift, and Dad got so mad at us kids one night that he told us to "Get ready for supper! Go wash your hands, wash your face, and wash your feet!.............Yes, I heard what I said. Don't laugh." That was a fun trip (really). 

And I'm excited to experience the wonders of Alaska with Davey Pooh. We'll have wi-fi in Vancouver and we should have full cell signal in Alaska, so I'll try to load pictures on Twitter and keep you updated on our goings on, eh. 

Here's our Alaskan itinerary...

First day is cruising up the Inside Passage. Which means I will be sleeping, eating, and sitting on the balcony. David will probably do the same and will most likely be attached to his Kindle.

Second day is Ketchikan. That morning, we're taking a sea plane to go look at the Misty Fjords and some glaciers by air. The afternoon, we're going kayaking around the Tatoosh Islands.

Third day is Icy Strait Point. We're doing a whales, wildlife, and brown bear search. Basically, a whale watching, otter, and sea lion boat trip and then hiking through a forest to look for bears?? I'm kind of vague on the details. I'm hoping it's more like we watch them from a safe distance.

Fourth day is Juneau. I grew up saying Hoo-no, but now they're telling us it's Joo-no. Who-knows. That morning we're hiking on the Mendenhall Glacier and doing another boat ride to watch whales. But this one only has a group of 7 people and we'll be in a tiny boat getting really close to the whales. Now, that I think about it, I'm not so sure about this excursion. That afternoon, we're visiting an Alaska sled dog camp to take a sled ride and play with the puppies. That one might get cancelled because the first excursion that morning is alllll day and I feel like we (me) will be wiped out. Even though I REALLY want to play with the puppies.

Fifth day is Skagway. We're taking a train ride into the Yukon on the White Pass Railway. And then hiking a little bit in the Yukon and seeing those emerald lakes that are up there.

Sixth day is cruising around the Hubbard Glacier. More sleep.

Seventh day is Seward. We are doing a fjords cruise (fast boat that takes you up into the fjords and surrounding cliffs and visiting the Seward Sealife Center (we get to pet puffins!). Then, a bus will take us to the airport in Anchorage.

And that's about it. David's sister, Rebecca, and bro-in-law, Richard, will be traveling with us! We have a room right next to each other. I'm thinking secret knocks, you guys! We have a table together at dinner, but they're doing slightly different excursions. By slightly, I mean, they're going rock climbing and zip lining and whale riding. My doc said no whale riding. :( Becs and I have a spa day planned, so I'm very much looking forward to that, eh.

My wonderful parents and brothers and sweet cousin Drew and family friends have offered to take care of the girls while we're gone. It takes a village to keep twins for 12 days. No, really. And we are eternally grateful to all of them. Mom, you can do it! I owe you big time. I'll name this kid Sandro.

(Y'all pray for my parents.)

I'll be back sometime in June with pictures! Eh! Maple syrup!

Last Week

Last Sunday, before bed, David and I prayed for a "good news" week. We got GREAT news all around. 

Guys, we finally sold the house. YAY!!!!! I say "finally" like it's been 100 years. I know it takes longer than it took us in many cases, but it felt like an eternity. It was the most stressful experience we've ever been through. I think it was mainly so crappy because I work from home and I have the girls with me, so having a showing is a huge inconvenience. And it's hard to keep a house "show-worthy" with two crazies running around. So often the showing window would be 2-3 hours and I wasn't going to leave for that long, so I'd just sit and wait until they got here and herd the girls outside in the yard. But, sometimes, the people would come right at the beginning of the window, which was great. Or sometimes, they'd come right at the end, which meant I had to work and keep the house perfect while the girls were inside just in case they came at anytime. And sometimes, the people wouldn't show at all. The folks who ended up getting it was the original couple who made the contingency back in February. We had another offer, but it was CRAZY. Like, laughable. Which makes me sound like a snob, but in this price range, uh, yeah, it was ridiculous. We countered and they countered, but it was getting nowhere. And the next day, the originals lifted the contingency because they sold their house and we were like "See ya, suckahs!" Our agent said they were not happy at all when they found out, but I'm like, "Dude, don't be so cheap." The other people offered us asking price. I mean...duh. Anyways. 

The inspection was done two weeks ago and we got word that we passed! The appraisal was done last Wednesday and we got word on Friday that it was awesome! So, we are in the clear. I mean, there's always the chance that the folks could back out at the last minute and we understand that, but I think they're in it for good. Our close date is set for June 8. We move out on June 9. And we hand over the keys on June 10. I'm actually kind of sad now. Yay for selling the house, but we've been here for 7 years and there are so many memories. I know I'll get homesick for it here and there. We're moving into an apartment for 3-4 months and building our dream home. I mean "dream home" in the sense that it will be the perfect house for us and our family. Not "dream home" in the sense that it's on a private Caribbean island with a waterfall in the foyer and koi pond in the living room and jet skis going to and from the mainland. Dream home in the realistic sense and we're so grateful. Yeah, we're cutting it close...timing it just when baby will be getting here. 

Speaking of baby, we prayed last Sunday for good news concerning Baby #3 and just wanted all-around good report on Friday. We got a great report. Baby could not be looking any better, says the ultrasound tech. 

And we also got some extra special, extra surprising news...IT'S A BOY! What the what?!?! I was completely shocked. I "knew" it was a boy, which made me think it was a girl the whole time. David's been saying this whole time it was a boy, but I was like, "Oh okay." We didn't care at all, but I was just flabbergasted. I made the tech show me the parts twice because I couldn't believe it. When she centered over the bottom, I was like, "That's definitely not a girl," but it didn't sink in until she said, "You guys are having a boy!" Sweet sister Sara came to the appointment with us and we were all like, "WHAT?!" Well, "we" as in me and Sara. David just stood there smiling and said, "Told you." 

Little crossed feetsies. 

ALIEN! 

And now that I know it's a boy, he looks like a boy! With a little Whoville nose. 

We are just crazy excited. I don't know what to do with a boy. I guess you feed and change them, too, right? I know we've gotta be extra careful in the diaper changing times, too. Lots of surprise sprays, from what I hear. The twins already love him. Mostly. They've been saying "baby brudder" this weekend and touching my tummy, but I can tell a kitty would have been the bee's knees for them. It's weird saying "he" and "him." We're just so thankful for this little guy.

Baby brother Noah just finished his masters at Ole Miss and graciously offered to come and stay with us a little last week through this coming Tuesday. We desperately needed his help with packing and moving and he more than offered that. We got SO much done this weekend. I can't even tell you. David and I have been slowly packing over the last several weeks, but we rented a storage unit and the boys took load after load to it yesterday. The whole attic, which was my biggest stress factor, is completely empty. I never thought that would happen. Ever. And the garage is almost empty. So, when we actually move, it won't be quite so crazy. The storage unit will hold stuff that we'll take to the house with us, but is not coming to the apartment. The apartment will only have the bare essentials. Maybe the twins, too. Noah and David were pulling boxes down yesterday and said, "Ruth, we found your childhood." Apparently, I had some boxes up there with trophies and certificates and what not. I hoard sentimental stuff and a few times yesterday, I had to envision being on Hoarders and make the decision to give something up. Like, these awesome antique chairs I got years ago. You can't really sit in them, but they're so cute! David has been begging me to give them up for awhile now. I said yesterday, "Ooh! What if we drill a big hole in the seat and put a potted plant in them! No, no...that's what a hoarder would do." So, I gave them up. See, I'm growing. But, he tried to get me to get rid of childhood stuff. I told him I'd get rid of the trophies if he got rid of half of his books. He almost cried. So, heh, that's never gonna happen. The trophies are with us forever. As are the books. Sigh.

It was just a really busy, but really great week. God is so good. And we are so blessed.