Back home but not for long

Wow, speaking of being behind, I just realized that I never even mentioned the fact that we moved 2,745 miles across the country from Seattle back to our current home in upstate NY. So, yes we did.

Unpacking was a treat because prior to leaving we threw (some literally) our personal belongings in one bedroom so that we could sublet our apartment for the summer, and the mountain of belongings was so large that we could barely close the door. After a couple days we decided to ditch the unpacking in favor of a road trip.

Our first stop: Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a beautiful city, and felt perhaps more foreign than I expected which made the trip seem like a real getaway.

Perhaps the greatest highlight was spending time with Joe's childhood friend Will Butler, his wife Jenny, and their adorable son Alex. Will is an actual rock star which makes him an unusually interesting person to me, but both he and his wife are incredibly down to earth and super nice.  We all walked around Mount Royal Park and dined at Aux Vivres, which is the kind of cool, vegan restaurant that I eat at all the time in my dreams where I am an actual cool person.

Other Montreal activities included:

The Biodome

Seeing a huge catfish which Jack loved

Sampling poutine--to my knowledge, the most famous local cuisine. French fries + cheese curds +gravy.

 Visiting St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal

Looking over the city at sunset

Strolling around the city, admiring the graffitied walls

 And buying some delicious berries at Atwater Market, the "Pike's Place" of Montreal

After Montreal, we spent a night in Lake Placid which has something of a Jackson Hole meets New England kind of vibe--a very happy place for me. Our priceline motel had the name "Motor" in the title--that tells you everything you need to know about the room we slept in, but the motel also had free kayaks and paddle boats to take out on Mirror Lake. This we loved!

Jack loved dragging his hand through the water as Joe paddled 

Maggie loved paddling which means we also did a lot of floating

We finished up the trip by taking in a 360 view of the Adirondacks with a hike up Owl's head mountain. Then we called our trip a success.

How did I get so far behind and family pictures?

I swear, I don't know what is going on, but I can't get anything done. I feel like I am behind on my entire life. The only thing I can boast is that my kids are still alive, healthy (except for Jack's snotty nose), and that we have been squeezing in lots of fun stuff. I guess if you have enough fun, eventually you run out of time to write about it? At least that is how I am trying to console myself. We did play outside twice today--Maggie got to ride her trike, play on the monkey bars, climb a tree, Jack ate some apples and some mud. I guess a person must have priorities, and lately this blog has not been one of mine. However, I love having record of our family, so I am going to hopefully do some catching up.

Here are some pictures from our recent family photo shoot. Thanks to the fabulous Jen Kelly! I know this is a lot of pictures, but can you narrow it down?

This is Joe's favorite. I think besides the obviously cute baby, it is funny that he is totally sprawled out in Pioneer Square. For those who know Seattle, Pioneer Square is not exactly the place a baby should be sprawling out on the ground. Also, this picture reminds me just how quickly time passes because Jack wasn't even walking yet. He certainly is now . . .