bookhou at home

it's hard not to go to ottawa and not feel proud to be canadian

the last time we were there was six years ago to drop off artwork at galerie st. laurent (I need to work on more work for them, I'm always embarrassed when they call and I say I don't have anything for them).  I remember that trip because it was the first time I drove in a few years and I was a bit nervous to get on the highway (there was also a crazy storm driving there) and since I was driving with j and lliam at 9 mths old.  so we took it slow and spent the night in kingston and when we were walking to dinner it was the first time lliam had a big belly laugh and we kept poking him hoping he would do more.

this time the trip was to go to my cousin bea's wedding (bea's mom is my mom's older sister , who passed away 15 years ago from cancer) we went up a day early to go and check out a few sights and walked around the downtown area.  we were lucky to get a huge hotel room - it was two bedrooms with a kitchen, living and dining area, all the hotel rooms were suites. the kids loved all the space.

my siblings and mom arrived later on friday evening and the next day we had brunch and walked around some more and headed back to the hotel for a nap before heading to the wedding.  the location was in the glebe area of ottawa and was only 10 mins from our hotel. the venue was beautiful and huge.  my cousin had the ceremony off to the side where the dance floor was and it was beautiful and touching ceremony, I had a hard time keeping my eyes dry.  in their program on the last page it was a dedication page to her mother and I read it before the ceremony began and had a hard time keeping my emotions inside.

bea's brother and friend told a great story of the journey between ian and bea only using song titles, I couldn't stop laughing and instead of clinking your glasses to get them to kiss you had to stand up and sing a song from either the 80's or 90's. the dinner was lovely and not fussy and the kids had so much fun dancing - lliam is particularly shy and at the beginning of the dancing he would stand off to the side dancing and was to shy to join the group, but when the "gangham style" song (his favourite) came on he was a different boy - he ran towards the group and bust out all his moves and everyone cheered him on and he came out of his shell.  when we were waiting our turn at the photo booth all the adults came by telling him how great he was and the rest of evening he was dancing the night away.

it was great to catch up with everyone and it was great to getaway and not think about work, I decided to change our brick and mortar hours so that sunday and monday we are closed, so that we can have more day trips and weekend adventures.