Safe Arrival

After our two-day odyssey, we arrived safely in Perth around midnight last night. Pictures and stories to follow in the coming weeks!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Today is the day. We're leaving for the airport in just about an hour and our bags are nearly packed. Peter is upstairs enjoying a nap and Eliot is playing cars with Spencer. Our time in Edmonton has gone by as quickly as our time in Milwaukee and Toronto and we're not long for the Northern Hemisphere. We've enjoyed spending a little extra time with family and friends over the past couple of months. Stay tuned for updates and photos. Thanks for all of the support and love.

Love to you all!

Spencer, Nora, Eliot and Peter

And The Little One Said..."Roll Over!"

What began as an occasional accident a few weeks ago has grown into a full-blown hey-look-at-what-I-can-do stunt. Little Peter is rolling over. Won't Eliot be surprised!

Our two little guys enjoying some Tummy Time together.

Up North at the Cottage

At the beginning of July we took a trip to Quebec, to a little cottage on a lake. The cottage has been in the family of Spencer's step-father, Robert Bennett, for several generations. We spent a week there with Spencer's mother and step-father and it was heavenly. We took a day to drive in to Montreal and bum around the city a bit (which included a sampling of their famous smoked meat sandwiches).

A trip to Montreal wouldn't have been complete without a visit to a certain famous bagel shop. Bagel sandwiches on the porch that evening was the perfect way to end the day.

Eliot loved the lake and insisted on going for a dip. It's especially fun when you can splash as much as you please.

We took a trip to Saint Sauveur where we tried some delicious Quebecois cheese.

Peter taking a nap in his make-shift bed.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada Day was, of course, on July 1. Why, then, am I blogging about it on July 8? One simple reason: we have been on the road for the past week. We were heading up to a cottage that has been in Spencer's stepfather's family for a number of generations (more on that in a future post) and stopped in Ottawa on our way to visit our friends, the Backstroms (who actually live just across the Ontario/Quebec border), and witness the Canada Day festivities in the nation's capital. The city's excitement was heightened by the arrival of a certain Duke and Duchess.

Eliot fell head over heels in love with the big trampoline in the Backstrom's backyard. If you ever needed to find Eliot your best bet was to look out the back window and there he'd be.

I love his look of total concentration.

We also took a trip to the Ottawa River where Eliot played in the water with the Backstom children and Peter enjoyed the shade with Daddy.

Off to the next adventure!

Rissie's Visit

Last week my sister, Rissie, came to visit us for a week. Eliot, Peter and I devoted ourselves to showing her Toronto, especially now that Toronto is leafed out in all its summertime glory.

We took a trip to the St. Lawrence Market,

hunted for dinosaur bones at the ROM,

and, of course, put some time in at our favorite park. It was an exhausting, fun, and wonderful week.

Our New Horizon

Today it became official. Come September, our little family will move to Perth, Australia where we will be installed for the next three years. Even though it's been on my mind for a while, the reality of it all is still sinking in. Fortunately we don't have a lot of stuff, but any amount seems like a lot when you're trying to move it to the other side of the globe. Whenever I feel the walls of red tape and logistics closing in on me I look up Perth in Google images and soak in pictures like the one above. A beautiful cityscape reflected in still water, the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean lapping at unspoiled beaches. Adventure is exciting and fun, but it's also a lot of hard work and can involve a lot of stress, even loss. This will certainly be an adventure, a once in a life-time opportunity, and one that our little family is ready to face together.