Epic trip... and happy belated father's day!

I had meant to do a father's day post (even just a short one, to acknowledge the day). I had meant to have our whole trip up long before now. But I've just been so. very. tired. Exhausted. Unable to do much else with my evenings or Juniper's naps than just sit catatonic or crawl into bed. But I realized that this blog is just one of those things that i really have to keep on top of, so here you go: a VERY quick and dirty highlights reel of our epic road trip.

1. Halifax-Fredericton.
We stay one day.

Highlight: Juniper finally meets her great uncle Bill! (My dad's brother - can you tell?)


2. Fredericton-Montreal.
Longest drive of the trip. Despite having the trip made especially lengthy due to getting stuck for and hour and a half in Montreal rush-hour/construction madness, Juniper is a trooper. We only stop twice. The first time in Edmunston for a picnic; the second time just for a gas stop outside of Quebec city. Here we are picnicking:



We were in Montreal so that I could present at a Folklore conference. It was definitely a different experience for me having Clark and Juniper in tow, but I was very glad we did it.

Highlight #1: Juniper goes swimming for the first time!


Highlight #2: Juniper gets to meet our friends Erika, Tick and Thom, who were very gracious to host us. I think Thom (a robust 2 year old) was a big inspiration for Juniper taking her first steps!
Also, Thom and juniper became VERY good friends! :



Highlight #3: Juniper takes her first metro!


3. Montreal - Ottawa:

We were in Ottawa for almost a week, while Clark presented a poster at an Ocean Sciences conference. We stayed at a hotel by the Byward market, and got in a huge amount of visiting!

Highlight #1: Lots of Jane time! We were lucky to see Jane a bunch while we were in Ottawa, and she even gave us a tour of her current workplace (ie, the Supreme Court of Canada). Somehow, the Chief Justice of Canada, The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, happened to wander into the clerk's office while we were there, and Juniper completely won her over.
Here is a picture of Jane and Juniper in Jane's lovely sun room - I know it's blurry, but I liked it enough to post it anyway.


Highlight #2: Erin, Mish and Zack. The happy family had us over for dinner, and Mish got to meet Juniper for the very first time!


Zack and Juniper got pretty intimate towards the end of the evening...


Highlight #3: Amy, Lauren and Scott. Our old friend Amy moved to Ottawa a long time ago, and has, in the meantime, had two beautiful children. Obviously, it's been awhile since we've seen each other, but we had a fabulous morning with the three of them. We missed meeting Amy's husband, John - hopefully we'll get to meet him next time! Little Scott is only a few weeks younger than Juniper.



Highlight #4: Allison and Faris!
We were very excited to meet our friends' Allison and Ramzi's new little son Faris while we were in Ottawa. Only 2 months old, Faris was not only adorable, but a perfect host as well (despite Juniper tired grumpiness while we were there).



Highlight #5: Christian. Another old Fredericton friend now living in Ottawa is Christian Maillet. We met him for lunch on one of our last days there.




4. Ottawa - Toronto

Finally done with our respective conferences, our next stop was to visit our dear friends Zsofi and Will in Toronto. We had not yet been to their new place, and I was especially anxious to see Zsofi, as she is well into her second trimester of a twin pregnancy! We decided that Juniper and I would take the train, and then Clark would drive up later that evening after his conference was done. That was Juniper's first train ride - 5 full hours on a very crowded train. Not ideal, but she was at least happy to be able to walk up and down the aisle and smile at everyone a whole bunch of times.

Here's Will trying his hand at baby carrying:


And here is the gang in Zsofi and Will's beatiful sunny dining room:



Besides spending some wonderful time with Zsofi and Will, we also got to spend an afternoon with Clark's aunt Barb, who got to meet Juniper for the very first time! Ironically, we also spent the afternoon with Theresa, as she and Andrew were also in Toronto at that point.



5. Toronto - Fredericton

We decided when we were planning this trip that really the only sane option was for Juniper and I to fly back to Fredericton, and have Clark drive back and meet us there. This made sense on a number of different levels - Juniper would spend an hour and a half on the plane (her first plane ride!), rather than 18 hours in the car. Also, it meant Clark could spend a day with some colleagues in Rimouski, QC on the way. To sweeten the deal, Zsofi decided to fly back with us, so that she could get in one last Fredericton trip before she was too pregnant to go anywhere :)



Highlight #1: Zsofi's baby shower! My mom organized a baby shower when she learned that Zsofi would be coming home, and hosted it in my parent's living room. Here is a nice shot of Zsofi and mom:


Highlight #2: Juniper is introduced to the world of bubbles!


Highlight #3: Hangout time with my (pregnant!) cousin Claire and her adorable two-year-old, Evan. Evan spend most of the time running away from Juniper, who would try to kiss him and take his toys. Here, however, was a rare moment where they were peacefully chilling:



6. Fredericton - Halifax.

And now we're home. We've been home for just over a week, and as I said at the beginning of this post, I am 100% exhausted. A three week road trip with a 10 month old is quite an endeavour, if I do say so myself! That, and sleep has been at a real premium lately. This is something we are going to have to figure out, because you can only function for so long with consecutive terrible night's sleeps. Maybe I'll do a sleep post at some point.

(Juniper sporting an early birthday gift from Claire)

This weekend, Clark is starting two weeks of Shad Valley - that means two weeks of 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk. I'm more than a little nervous. Luckily my mom will be here for the first week... the plan is to let me get some thesis work done, but I might spend the first few days just sleeping.
Which is what I should be doing right now. So I shall sign off. But there are a couple of videos I want to post, so stay tuned - I'll do that in a couple of days. I'll leave you with Juniper eating her new favourite thing: homemade smoothie popsicles.