When it Rains it Pours ...

... I think that's how the saying goes. Last weekend the Lil' Man and Hubby were in a wedding party. Here's a little sneak peak.

 

 

Don't they look cute in their skirts. Hopefully the wonderful and talented Nat Caron from Nat Caron Photography was able to snap some photos of the wee Lil' Man who is always on the go. Can't wait to see them!

We managed to squeeze in a family photo {insert super excited face}.

Working his magical powers lol.

 

If I said this day was a breeze, boy would I be lying. It has been one of my most challenging days as a Mom. It was a really hot day and as a result the Lil' Man wanted nothing to do with wearing his warm outfit. Thank goodness for his orange socks that his awesome Aunt R picked up for him in Europe. I seriously think they saved the day. The ceremony took  place at two-thirty in the afternoon, which meant he wasn't able to have a nap. If you have been around a child who is tired and has not had a nap you know how that ends. Long story short, the Lil' Man was not himself this day. We dealt with eye rolls and "shhhshhh" for the first time (which made me feel so wonderful ... NOT). I thought it was because he was tired but it turns out he was getting the beginning of a nasty virus {insert extremely sad face}. The day after the wedding he woke up with a high fever (the highest he's ever had) and a nasty rash all over his body. It was not a good week. If I knew what I know now, I would not have put him through that {I feel like a horrible mother}.

 

I of course did not have a crystal ball and had everything sitting at home to make salsa the following Monday. If you have made salsa before you know how much work that involves. Now throw a sick child into that mix.

My family braved being around the Lil' Man when he was sick and I some how managed to get it all done. It has been a crazy week around here. Maybe one of these days I will get caught up on blog posts ... we'll see.

A Little Sneak Peak

There are a lot of parties happening lately. This past weekend we celebrated Oma & Opa's 40 years of marriage.  Here's a little sneak peak (photos taken with my cell. I have not had a chance yet to dump the photos off the camera. It's been a little crazy). The Lil' Man loved his mini ketchup bottles and of course the ice cream buffet.

[Designed by Feito By Tania]

 

 

Hope everyone is having a lovely week.

Archibald Microbrewery Restaurant

Byron came back a bit earlier than I was expecting all sunburned and exhausted from all the walking he did at MSA. This meant we were able to head out  to dinner earlier and possibly go to Old Quebec City after dinner if the rain held off. He had a good time, which made me happy and he took lots of pictures

While in Quebec City we enjoyed a delicious meal at Archibald Microbrewery Restaurant.

 



Once you step into the restaurant you are greeted by this guy ...

... which instantly sets the mode for the restaurant ... a traditional Quebec cottage feel with a rustic décor  throughout.

 



 

 

While we were looking over the menu and trying to decide what to order our waitress brought us some marinated olives which were served hot.

 

 

 

We started our meal with a delicious poutine appetizer. When in QC, one must have poutine, Right? Well that is what we did.  It was practically a meal on it's own. 

 





 

 

I think it's safe to say it's the best poutine we have ever enjoyed complete with real cheese curds (smoky ones), braised beef and delicious hot gravy. My mouth is watering just thinking about it as I write this post.

 

Following we each enjoyed a tasty steak dinner ...

 

 

 

I ordered a 6oz beef tenderloin which was served with mashed potatoes and veggies. Even the corn tasted so yummy.

 

Hubby ordered a sirloin steak which was served with French fries and veggies. Both meals were very enjoyable.

 

To drink with our dinner Hubby enjoyed their Chipie beer and I thoroughly enjoyed a glass of Malbec which went perfect with my meal choice. What can I say, my Hubby knows his wines!

 

We did feel a little rushed during dinner because they asked us if we would be done our dinner by 5 p.m. when we arrived, just before they took us to our seats, which we found a little odd. I guess they want to keep the flow moving as it appears to be a popular place to eat. Once we were seated, they did not rush us at all. Our food came out at a reasonable pace.

 

If you get a chance to visit this restaurant while in Quebec City, we would highly recommend it. We arrived early, just after 4 p.m. which was good because it was packed by the time we left about an hour later just after 5 p.m..

 

 





Road Trip (Continued)

I just wanted to share a little more about our drive to Quebec City, hopefully we remember these details for the next time we visit.  Must remember to pack a lot of snacks.

For some reason when we went to Pennsylvania last fall we didn't think to bring snacks and the 5 hour drive seemed to drag.

As we crossed over into the province of Quebec we quickly remembered what their rest stops are like. They only have a few bathrooms and an outdoor picnic area.  There are no restaurants or gas stations.  If you need any of these services you have to get off the highway.  They also did not state how many km away the next rest stop is. We are honestly spoiled in Ontario with the Onroute service centers.

Our first stop once we passed threw Montreal was lunch  from St.  Hubert.

 

 I've been anxiously awaiting the day I could bite into one of their delicious club house sandwiches. It's been over three years! Once we went to order our lunch I was sadly disappointed when I noticed the club house sandwich was no longer on their menu board. We ordered wraps instead and figured they probably didn't have it at that location because it was an Express one ... Not to worry they should have it at other locations ... right?

The drive between Montreal and Quebec City is very boring.  Not much to look at as most of it is just greenery.  This stretch of the drive seems to always drag so much. This road trip we noticed a lot of camping trailers,  it was crazy.  We figure for every 10 vehicles we saw there was probably 1 camping trailer. You could tell we were definitely traveling during camping season.

As we neared the hotel we quickly located an SAQ and picked up some vinho (aka happy juice).

 

this location was opened 22hrs

I can not believe how nice it was not to have to worry about what was for dinner for a couple days.  I know for some I probably sound odd writing this, but it has gotten kind of difficult planning meals when you have a picky eater on your hands who refuses to try anything new and decides what he loves eating one week tastes yucky the following week and refuses to eat it.  Oh the joys of being a parent! Difficult and frustrating at times but so fulfilling and I would not trade it for the world.  As we approached our hotel Friday evening we could smell the smoky smell from the Archibald Microbrewery Restaurant. It smelled like yummy food was in the making.  It was another place on our to do list.  We decided ahead of time we wanted to try out this restaurant and Byron wanted to try their beer. I will leave this post for another day,  but I will say it is definitely worth a visit as it did not disappoint and the food was delicious and the service was good.

 

 

For this mini vacation we stayed here ...



Overall the hotel we stayed at was nice. It was clean,  the room was bright,  and it felt roomy which was really nice since I hung out there the majority of the day on Saturday while Byron was out taking in the sounds and sights of World Cup at MSA. I know it is sad but I even got some work done... the one problem of owning a laptop,  depending how you look at it. We were even able to get some discounts off some meals  with our "VIP CLUB" card from the hotel. The staff was friendly and changed over to English when we said we didn't speak French. Their bottled water was EXPENSIVE though ...

For this trip we decided to be practical and not spend a large fortune on our hotel room.  Initially when we started planning the trip we were planning on camping but quickly realized it would n0t work out as I was staying behind on the Saturday instead of going with Byron out to the mountain and if it was raining that would not be a very pleasant day. We talked about it and figured we could go with a room with a queen bed and a Jacuzzi tub was not worth the extra money. Lets just say we are spoiled at home with our King bed and quickly realized in future we MUST splurge the little bit of extra $$ for a King bed.

It was really nice to enjoy something as simple as a bubble bath while listening to music of my choice without any interruptions and a barking dog.  Bubble baths become a thing of the past once you have kids. At least that has been the case for me.

Breakfast was included each morning.

It was nothing fancy, but it kept our bellies full until lunch time. 

Once we arrived, we ordered in our usual Friday night dinner and enjoyed some wine with it (Portuguese style) ...

 

... and stayed in for the evening, which was really nice. We were exhausted. We usually ask at the front desk where to order pizza from, and usually it doesn't disappoint as the locals usually know best. This time, however,  it was a bit of a disappointment. They didn't cut our pizzas. Once we finally found cutlery and cut into it,  the pizza was difficult to eat as it was very flimsy and Byron's was really soggy {insert disappointed face}. Note to self ...  when we return to QC don't order from Normandin Pizza, very generous with toppings and tasted ok BUT not our style of pizza.

The next two weeks are extremely busy for us. I am not too sure how much time I will have to blog. But more posts will pop up sooner rather than later.
 

 

Road Trip

This past weekend we travelled just under 1000km on a weekend road trip to Quebec City so Hubby could attend the World Cup Mountain Bike races.  It's  been on his to do list for a few years now, so it was really nice to finally cross it off his list. I tagged along and had a great time.
 

We left bright and early (5 am) in hopes that we would miss rush hour in all the major cities we were traveling through as the estimated travel time was 9 hours. Kind of a long drive but a perfect opportunity to get caught up on blog posts.

 

The sunrise was beautiful...

 

 

As we were approximately 10km away from our destination our 9 hour drive quickly turned into a 12 hour drive.
 

We were held up by a minor accident and construction which resulted in us being stuck in major rush hour traffic and congestion  for 3 hours. I realized that this small town girl is not a fan of rush hour traffic delays. At least I was able to work on my tan.

While in QC I was able to visit Old Quebec City not once but twice ...

It's so beautiful.

Clearly we had to take a selfie in front of Chateau Frontinac.

 

That's it for now.  More blog posts to come once I get a chance to dump all the pictures we took.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!