Bluebird's Nest

Ok, I’ll admit it – I haven’t blogged in AGES. But I’m feeling inspired to put together what happened for us this year in photos as I did last year.

Robin at Farewell Stranger has inspired me yet again to sweep away the bloggy cob webs and start anew. Nothing like trying to win a contest while you’re at it.

January

We came home from Switzerland after being gone for one month across Canada and then 5 months in Switzerland. My baby turned one, back to work for me, a new daycare for the wee babe, half way through grade 7 for the tweenager, and a new job for the hubby.

First steps are always really cool (and I shed a tear) so I think that this will be my memory for January.

February

February is a big month for birthdays in my family – mine included. My highlight was the Murdery/Mystery party my husband threw for me. It was flapper themed and so damn cool!

I don’t really like the photos of me that were taken so I’m going to post one of the two handsome blokes from the party. The guy on the left is mine. Hands off ladies.

March

March we were settled back into life around here. And the drab drab weather that the Wet Coast is here. When looking back on the photos I took in March, I found one wonderful day that I took some photos of my girls around Easter. This photo makes me smile.

April

Once again my tween competed in the Concours d’art oratoire and this time she won it in her age group! Definitely the highlight of my month.

May

We can’t have mind blowing things happen to us every month. So this month we just began to enjoy outside a little more and partake in welcoming in Spring.

June

I started a new job. I was freaked out, excited, nervous, elated, joyous, and thinking I was downright loco. A little like a new born goat. We visited goats during this month, so this photo is appropriate.

July

Two largish things happened in July so I can’t just post one photo.

My 20 year grad reunion happened. I got pretty drunk at the dinner cuz that’s what you’re supposed to do at a grad reunion party right? (sshhhh… don’t tell anyone) and then the next day we had a big family BBQ at Beckwith Park. I don’t look a day over 17 if I do say so myself.

AND… my in-laws and my husband’s aunt and uncle came from France and Switzerland. We ventured to Parksville where the weather was crap. The stayed for only 10 short days… I hope they stay longer next time.

August

In August we travelled down to the States to visit with all of our cousins. After a cold trip to Parksville, it was beyond hot in Seattle. But we had a great time visiting all our family down south.

September

In September I was bound and determined to get my baby on the front cover of Island Parent by winning the baby contest at the baby fair. Unfortunately, she didn’t win but don’t you think this is the cutest pic ever and that she should have won? We’re just waiting for someone to “find” her and make her famous. She’s not just a pretty face people. She knows two languages. Any day now….

October

In October we headed to Pender Island for a get away. Another rainy get away. Oh well, we had a great time. We also headed to the pumpkin patch to take some anual photos with the fall colours. I couldn’t resist putting in two family shots for this month. The first is a photo on the Pender Island Disk Golf Course.

November

At the tail end of October was my hubby’s birthday and at the very beginning of November the Tweenager turned into a teen. I can hardly believe my once little sweet pea is now moving into her next stage. I love this photo.

December

Welcome to the end of the year. We took some nice photos of the girls but I’ll put the Christmas card photo of the teenager in here as I just love the colours of her hat. Joyeux Noel and Bon Annee tout le monde!

The wee babe started walking the day AFTER the big birthday party here, so January 22, 2012. That makes 12 months and 18 days.

It was a fantastic moment for our family. All of us just happened to be hanging out in the living room. We had a CD playing that our friends Kelly and Sarah made for her for her birthday the day before and it just happened to be a Bob Marley song playing.

She was holding two small board books – one in each hand – that our friends Jeffery and Lisa had given to her at her birthday the day before.

She took 3 steps.

My hubby and I cried.

We had a moment – our baby was growing up right before our eyes.

What were your baby’s first steps like? Did you miss it? Did you cry?

I’m really happy to have my tweenager here to guest blog about her experiences in Switzerland and what it’s like for her now that she’s back. Over to you JJ!

My guestblogger: the tweenager

1. What do you miss about Switzerland and why?
   I miss my friends and family in Switzerland most because everyone in Switzerland is so nice and I miss them so much.
2. Do you think you will ever go back to live and why?
   I definitely want to go back but I’m not sure about living there because I missed everyone here so much!
3. What was one thing that you were dying to see/have/eat from here that they didn’t have there?
   Flamencuch, a sort of pizza with heavy cream instead of tomato sauce, onions instead of cheese and bacon instead of pepperoni… yumm!
4. What’s are some differences between here and there?
   Everything in town is within walking distance.
   FOOOOOD
   Building style (older, prettier…)
5. What’s the best memory you have from this 5 month trip and why?
   Just being at school every day was so cool for me because of the difference between school systems and peoples personalities.
6. What’s the worst memory you have and why?
   NOTHING WAS BAD WHY WOULD YOU PUT THIS QUESTION?!?!?!
   But if I had to answer I would say being away from everyone here.
7. What do you wish you could have done more of?
   Skiing in the Alps! It’s so pretty and fun and SNOWY!!!!!!
8. Who would you take back with you if you could and why?
   If I could take anyone from Canada to Switzerland I would take Phil, my grandpa because he hasn’t had the chance to see Switzerland yet and I hope that one day he will.
   If I could take anyone from Switzerland to Canada I would take Anita my BFF there because she’s EPIC and I want her to see my country and city <3
9. Where was your most favorite place to visit and why?
   See question 7.
10. Where would you recommend people go and why?
    See question 7… again.
11. How do you think this trip changed you?
    I’m not sure if it was the trip or just me that changed but I guess my self-confidence and the fact that I feel like I know better who I am.
12. Did your friends forget about you while you were gone? Were you a stranger to them when you got back?
    Well I wouldn’t say  a stranger, lets face it, in this age group friendships go in and out and that’s just the way it is, your still trying to find out who your true friends are. Some of my friends weren’t used to me the way I am now for say so it took a while to re-kindle our friendship then there was the friends that just plain didn’t wan to talk to me anymore, the friends who it was like I was never gone and even some people I feel closer to now that I’m back… I guess that everyone reacts a different way to this, I just try and think about what everyone else might be thinking. All I want is that everyone is happy (including myself) even if it means losing some friends along the way because being friends with them doesn’t make me or them happy.
13. What was your favourite meal?
    Fondue or Flamencuch (see question 3.)
14. Favorite restaurant?
    PIZZA TAXI=YUMMY
15. What did you do for your birthday?
    I went to PIZZA TAXI with some friends.
16. How do you feel about being back now that you’ve been back for about 3 months?
    I feel really happy and happy to have lots of friends who stayed with despite all my stories about Switzerland… <3 u guys!

Thanks JJ – I really appreciate you answering my questions today. You’re EPIC!

I know, it’s spring now. But I haven’t had a chance to record what our incredible, memorable Christmas season was all about. There was food, new traditions, food, family, food, crafts, presents and more food.

First up: Chirstmas crafts.

Since we didn’t have a lot of money near the end of our trip (isn’t Christmas always the most expensive time of the year?) I decided that I wanted to make crafts for presents. You read how well the cookie episode went, thankfully the wreaths that me and the tweenager made went a lot better then the cookies.

Here are some photos of our “couronnes”.

Christmas

Then there was Christmas. I gotta give my mother-in-law a big shout out for all the wonderful food she prepared for Christmas eve, Christmas day and boxing day. Honorable mentions go out to my father-in-law, sister-in-law and Luc’s aunt and boyfriend. The following are photos that we took through out those 3 days.

Traditions

There are many traditions that the Swiss have that I had never heard of. I don’t think I mentioned yet the day of Saint Nickolaus. This falls on the 6th of December. You put your shoes outside so that St. Nick can come by with candies, oranges, peanuts and little treats.

There is also the Couronne de l’advent. This is a wreath that is placed like a plate and four candles are placed on it. The 4 Sundays before Christmas, one candle is lit each week until on the last Sunday all four candles are lit. It’s really quite quaint.

Most people open their gifts on the night of the 24th. And when I say the night, I mean like 11pm! I had to put my Canadian hoof down with the girls… The tweenager would never be able to stay up until then and the wee babe would just cry. I was told that the girls could come down in the morning and open the gifts without us (as we would have opened them all the night before) but for me, Christmas morning is about sitting around the tree with family and watching everyone open presents.

Candles on the Christmas tree. You heard me right. I think I might have mentioned that I was pretty excited to see real candles on the tree. As well, maybe my apprehension that our whole house might come burning down with this tradition. I made sure that the tweenager and I knew where our closest fire exits were in all situations. I would like to tell you that it all went off without a hitch – except when my mother-in-law was bending over to pick up a present, she caught her blouse on fire. She was pretty lucky as her hair wasn’t that far away… We laughed but come on people! Can you say fire hazard? Below is a photo of my mother-in-law with a little corner of her blouse missing.

Oysters… I never would have thought that oysters (in a land locked country) were such a delicacy at Christmas time.

Disclaimer

Robin at Farewell Stranger had a wonderful idea. Write a blog capturing the moments from last year by using one photo from each month. Since I take a lot of photos and I had a pretty memorable year, I thought this was a splendid idea.

January

Well, January definitely didn’t go unnoticed with the birth of our beautiful baby, Violette. It was a hard delivery (C-section) but our family was so ready to welcome her into our family and our hearts.

February

Even though February is FULL of birthdays (even mine), I could only find photos of Violette as we were well into getting to know our wee babe. (Yes those are bags of bread on either side of her head) and we had a freak Victoria snow dump as well.

March

In March we headed down to Seattle to spend some time with all the cousins on the Howe side of the family. Ok, not all of them were there but we had a great time introducing Vivi and also getting to know my cousin’s new baby, Ashleigh, who was only born 2 weeks after Violette.

April

In April I started this blog!! I had meant to start it when Violette was born to capture all the thoughts and feelings that I had been having as a ‘new’ mom (ok, I’m not new but after 11 years, I was definitely rusty). We also went on a hike up bear hill and managed to snap some great photos of my girls.

We also went up to Cowichan to spend Easter with one of our favourite families. Definitely a time to remember.

May

In May we took a trip off the island to Vancouver for the tweenager to participate in the “Concours”. Her speech was on bottled water (and delivered all in French) and she did a wonderful job. She says that next year if she makes it to the semi-finals again, she will do her speech on Switzerland!

June

We were madly getting ready for our big trip across Canada. One of the things we needed to do was plant a tree that the hubby had received when it was just a little sapling. It was now big and in a pot that was too small so he wanted to plant it somewhere memorable. We took him to the spot where we got married in East Sooke Park and named him Xavier. One of the things I want to do when we get home is visit Xavier and see how he’s doing.

July

Wow, July is an entire month filled with photos of our trip across Canada. How ever will I pick just one? I think we only have one photo of us all together so I’m chosing this one. We were on the beach on PEI watching the beautiful sunset. PEI is an amazingly beautiful place (dare I say the most beautiful place that we saw?) so I think it’s right to have this photo depict our journey.

August

August was no slouch either for getting out and about. We started our 5 month adventure in Switzerland at the very end of July so we tried to pack in as much as possible for the one summer month we had before the tweenager started school. We journeyed to the Mont Blanc in France, Valbella in Switzerland, Zurich, Thun, and to the Gewürztraminer area of France, Alsace.

Again, hard to pick just one, but this photo really speaks to me. We were in Zurich and it was so freakin’ hot. There is a really cool ground-fountain thing (I don’t know how else to explain it) but it’s jets of water that come up from the ground and you never know where it’s going to spurt up next. We were so relieved to have the water falling down on us.

September

We spent the majority of September getting to know our new digs and our new Ville, Vevey. We explored around the town, walked Jaedyn to and from school twice, sometimes three time a day and spent a few evening (and days) at the lake enjoying the afternoon sun, having dinner lakeside. This is a photo of Violette on one of these afternoons.

October

October was filled with a much anticipated visit from my mommy from Canada for 10 days and a lifelong wish to tour around Egypt. When my mom was here we walked to Montreux and enjoyed a traditional Swiss event, Desalpes.

November

In November we celebrated Luc and Jaedyn’s birthdays in addtion to Luc’s sisters. Luc had a crazy dance party and Jaedyn had some friends to our favourite restaurant, Pizza Taxi. We also visited with friends. The highlight of our month was spent during a weekend away in Bretaye, high in the Swiss mountains eating crepes and raclette. It was deliciously wonderful.

December

We were in full swing Christmas mode during the month of December making crafts, baking, checking out the festivities in Vevey (JJ skated at the local skating rink), and visiting Santa in Rocher de Naye. We spent Christmas with Luc’s family and then heading back up to Valbella to ring in the New Year under a lot of beautifully falling snow.

I loved being able to recap the year in photos. It sure was hard to pick the one that represented the month the best since our months were filled chock-o-block fullness.

Looking back on the year of 2011, we had an amazing year filled with some of the most memorable experiences I will ever have.

My hubby and I went on a walk about yesterday around Vevey (we also had to pay for the wine we devoured yesterday). Here are a few photos we snapped along the way.

St. Martin in a ray of sunshine against a looming rain storm. This is the church near our apartment.

Some interesting artwork beside the lake

We stopped by an exhibition of les creches (nativity scenes). There were about 50 of them all up in a bookstore all from around the world.

Une creche

Une creche

Une creche

Une creche

Peekaboo!

The hubby's favourite

Une creche

Une creche

My favourite

Une creche

Une couronne de l'avent

We continued on our walkabout…

La vigneronne

L'etoile

Is that Santa I see?

Or is that Santa?

Oh no Santa!

No walkabout would be complete without some wine tasting to finish it off in the caves of the city of Vevey. This is where they make the wine for the city.

The casks holding all of the city's wine

I’m getting excited about Christmas! Not unlike Robin at Farewell Stranger, I’m one of those people who frowns on seeing Christmas post December 1st. I shake my head at the decorations that go up more than a month in advance and the commercialism that surrounds us way before it’s needed.

But something is different this year. Maybe it’s because I’m on maternity leave and I just want to celebrate something. Maybe it’s because it’s my wee babe’s first Christmas. Or maybe it’s because we’ve come all the way to the other side of the world to my hubby’s native land to see just what it’s like over here at Christmas time. Whatever it is, I’m digging it this year.

Last year we didn’t even put up a tree. I think the tweenager was a little disappointed but I was hugely pregnant and I just couldn’t fathom taking down a tree right after giving birth. This year we aren’t going to have a tree either although, I would really like to get a little decorative tree with lights that we could put on a table to admire through the holiday evenings. It has to sit on a table to get far enough away from the destructive reaches of the wee babe.

I am thrilled that we actually have REAL mistletoe hanging in our hallway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen real mistletoe! And my hubby and I take advantage of it whenever we can.

I understand that December 6th is a special day in Switzerland. I hope that my hubby is going to do something traditional on this day for the tweenager and the wee babe (hint hint hubby).

There are decorations throughout the streets of our town and the neighbouring towns. There are craft markets happening everywhere. The sweet smell of cinnamon and nutmeg linger in the air. We will be visiting Santa on top of Rochers de Naye AND he will be arriving in Vevey by helicopter on the 21st.

There’s so much to see and do here and it’s all within walking distance which makes it really cool to check out without having to plan a whole day around things.

I’m not really a big Christmas baker but I was thinking of doing up a few oldies but goodies to get us even more in the holiday mood and remind me a little bit of back home (cheese sticks sans orange cheese, ginger bread men and maybe some shortbread).

I’ve heard some Christmas music in the malls and I’m really looking forward to hearing some Swiss Christmas carols (do they call them that?) that I’m not familiar with. I have yet to turn on the Christmas iTunes but it’s not far away I assure you.

Me thinks me and the tweenager should do up some Christmas crafts that we could normally hang on a tree and decorate the apartment with them to make things a little more festive at home.

I’m a little sad that I don’t get to make hand-made Christmas cards this year since all my craft supplies are back in Canada but we’re going to try it electronically this year and we’re going to have a little fun with it! I hope our family and friends enjoy it. I’ll post it up on the blog when we release it.

What’s in store for us on Christmas eve and Christmas day? I’m not really sure yet but I’m sure that we will be spending it with family. It’s been 7/8 years since my hubby has been home for Christmas and I’m positive that he’s going to want to spend it traditionally with his family.

What I’m the MOST excited for is seeing a real Christmas tree decorated with REAL candles! Every year the hubby turns up his nose at our twinkling lights strung around the tree, and reminisces about holidays past where there has been real candles on the tree. I always admonish him about the dangers of fire on an evergreen but he ensures me, it is fine. This is the year, my friends, that I get to see this in action – and I can wait!

Regardless, I’m really looking forward to the memories that we make this holiday season with friends and family and new Swiss traditions that we hopefully can take a little bit back to Canada with us (maybe not the the candles in the tree though ).

And then once we’re back in Canada we get to do it all over again with my family! Two Christmas’s is not too shabby!

What traditions are you looking forward to this year?

So we don’t have a car. Which makes getting around a little tricky. Luckily, the weather here in Switzerland is downright amazing. Coming from the wet coast where I understand it’s snowing as I write this… I look out my living room windows to the gorgeous mountains facing me, blue lake, cloudless sky and dread just a little bit to return to Victoria. I’ll have to get the sun to send me a postcard when I leave here.

Anyway, back to the no transportation. In order to take advantage of the beautiful weather and scenery, we walk around the area.

When my mom came to visit 2 months ago, we walked to Montreux. We also did a photo shoot around Vevey. She’s as big into taking photos as I am (maybe even a bit more!). It was a peaceful, warm sun filled day, both days.

Additionally, our family caught a bus to Chateau de Chillon and then walked back beside the lake – it was stunning. Although, I think I can’t take any credit for the photos on our walk from Chateau de Chillon – I’m pretty sure it was all the hubby’s handiwork behind the camera.

And there you have it, three photo galleries for 3 amazing days. Enjoy

Montreux

Vevey

Chateau de Chillon

We were fortunate, recently, to be invited high into the Swiss mountains to a place called Bretaye. Bretaye is a quaint little mountain village about 1850 meters above sea level. It’s more of a skiing village. Before the snow comes, you can drive into your chalet but once the snow comes, the only way up is by train.

It is forbidden to do any additions to the chalets due to strict building regulations. It seems the Swiss like to keep their chalets and buildings as typical as can be. Additionally, they are also very strict on who can drive up to Bretaye with one very windy road that is only really fit for one car and you must register the cars that can have access to Bretaye.

The friends that invited us have a chalet up there so we headed up there Friday evening. During the drive, the wee babe didn’t really enjoy all the twists and turns and puked her guts out all over the car seat. I was a little nervous since I’ve never seen her puke so much all at once.

Once we arrived, it was dark and quiet. Just exactly how my hubby had described the area. You can see all the stars and not hear a single thing save for the wind whispering through the trees. The chalet was old and wonderful. Our friend’s grandfather bought it for $80 years ago.

Let me back up a bit. When we were organizing the trip up, my hubby told me that there is only one heater in the place and they turn if off at night. I asked what the temperature was in the chalet at night and he said 5 degrees. 5 degrees! He said, we travelled across Canada and now we can do anything. I begged to differ. Actually, I was really quite stressed about how the wee babe was going to do in that temperature and if I was going to have to sleep with her all night long. I hate sleeping with her. I chatted with our friend the next day and all was good, there was an electric heater in the room that stays on all night long so there was no need for me to worry. Thanks hubby.

When we arrived there were balloons for the hubby and the tweenager’s birthday, the fire was going in the kitchen, the gas furnace in the living room and the electric heater in the bedroom. It was cozy. We settled into crepes all around the table. It was delicious!! Shortly after that we ate birthday cake and after that the kids headed to bed.

The bedroom was small but we all fit so cozy. Bunk beds, single beds, and we brought the playpen/bed for the wee babe. The adults chatted for a little while and then we tucked ourselves in for the night.

The sleep that night was pretty good. A little early but all in all a good sleep. We had breakfast and got ready for the day. When I asked our friend before we left if we would be going for a walk, she said that her 4 year old wouldn’t last longer than about 20 mins so we could but it would be short. Well, let’s just say the plans changed significantly. I hadn’t brought appropriate footwear so I had to borrow some hiking shoes. We set out. It was supposedly a 2.5 hour hike up to the top of the mountain and then back down again. Eeep!

It was straight up. I don’t know if I’ve ever climbed anything that was ever so steep. It was almost impossible to climb it without falling backwards. The hubby was carrying the wee babe on his front thank goodness for me. It was like climbing Mt. Finlayson only harder I think. After getting to the first top, we negotiated along the top with drop offs on either side of us. It was a little nerve wracking. The tweenager said that she was shaking it was so scary. I was just trying not to think about it. Let’s not forget about the 4 year old that walked the whole thing by himself. I think if I was his mom I would have been freaking out. The Swiss start young here that’s for sure.

But the top was amazing. A beautiful view of the valley, lake, mountains… Simply stunning. Check out the photos and video to see what I’m talking about.

The walk down was through a cow field. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

We had lunch when we got back and then I took a snooze while the rest played Uno and frisbee.

Then it was dinner. My favourite – Raclette!! The only problem was our friends thought that there was a boneified raclette machine in the chalet but it wasn’t so. So they started calling around to the family and friends and as luck would have it, a light came on in the restaurant that was there and there just happened to be some people there fixing a computer and then just happened to have a raclette machine! Pure genious. It was by far the BEST raclette I’ve ever had.

After our bellies were full, the kids went to bed and the adults stayed up and played some Yahtzee. I lost horribly.

Another good night of sleeping and a low key breakfast. It was our last day in Bretaye so we went for a little hike around the lake and had some lunch. Then we were homeward bound.

Many thanks to our friends Alexandra, Mike, Adrien and Roxanne for inviting us to your little piece of heaven in Switzerland. We had an amazingly memorable time!!

Our family just came back from a trip to Egypt. Not a destination you would think of to bring a 9 month old baby but if you notice my Life List I can easily knock of the “Visit to Egypt” and “Visit to Africa” in one blow. Although, I think I’ll keep up my visit to Africa up there though as my intentions are more to see some wild African animals and to experience the African culture.

When I say our “family” went, I wasn’t kidding. It was my hubby, the tweenager, the wee babe, my sister-in-law, and my parents-in-law. 7 all together.

We took two cars to the airport and had to be there for 4:30am. Yikes. The airport was not really too interesting and then we boarded our 4 hour flight. Arriving at the airport was when things took on an Egyptian flare.

We had decided to wait to get our Visa’s until we arrived at the airport as they were cheaper there. After a short bus ride from the airplane to the terminal we were greeted with many men yelling and strongly urging us to go in their queue to purchase a Visa. As the in-law’s were already ahead of us I said no that I wanted to stay with them. The man continued to reassure me that it was ok, I could go with him. I continued to say no. The tweenager was looking at us with freaked out eyes wondering what was about to transpire. Finally I pretty much yelled “NO!” and he finally walked away. We walked up to the rest of our family a little worse for wear after our first encounter.

We got our Visa’s ($15 Euros each) and then headed into our next queue. There must have been 400+ people waiting to get their Visa’s stamped. And get this, only 3 windows open to all the people. I think we must have waited about a half hour until we finally got our Visa stamped.

Then onto picking up our luggage. Yep, they were the last suitcases turning around. I hate that. Anybody can come in and get your luggage if they want. We had checked in my mother-in-law’s stroller and a little attachable bag on the back of it had gone missing.

Then there was either 2 or 3 more check points you needed to get through and you had to show your Visa at every stop along the way. Imagine a huge bottle neck with your kids and your luggage and trying to show 4 passports. I needed my Rescue Remedy badly. After finally pushing through them all we arrived outside into the hot Egyptian air. It was about 10am.

Next task: getting a taxi. So the first thing you need to know about Egypt is that everything is a negotiation. A game if you will. My sister-in-law is well versed in playing this game so we left it up to her to get us a good price. She spoke with one guy who we negotiated the price of the taxi (for 7 people and all our luggage) to be 8 euros. He ushered us off to another guy and once we got to his van we asked again to make sure that this was his price as well. He said “absolutely not”. Something about how many people there were, how much luggage we had… My sister-in-law continued to stand her ground and before you know it the guy was yelling at her and some other Egyptian taxi drivers who had come up.

For me at this point I was just interested in getting to the hotel. If you’re feeling this way, you’re bound to get ripped off. But to be honest, I didn’t really care. After the stressful airport, I was ready to be at the hotel getting situated in our room and with the 3:00 am wake up call we had had, I was already feeling a bit tired.

The price was finally negotiated to be 15 euros to get us to our hotel (Pyramisa Blue Lagoon) which is only about 8mins away. From what I understand, we didn’t get ripped off but I think we could have shaved a couple of extra euros off the price if we were even more persistent (if you’re reading this and thinking of going to Egypt with 7 people, keep this in mind.)

So with the luggage strapped to the top of the van, the baby seat belted in (we brought her car seat), we set off for our hotel.

This was my first taste of the desert and the garbage of Hurghada, Egypt. There are palm trees there but it’s also very dry and desertish. And there’s garbage all over the side of the road.

We arrived at the hotel. It was beautiful. The staff were amazing. Very accommodating. We got checked in. My hubby’s family heading off to a place close to the pool (with stairs) and us over to another area of the resort (with an elevator). The room was great. Big king size bed (hard but good), a mini-fridge to keep your water cold (every day you would get 3 free big bottles of water), a bidet (that we once gave the wee babe a shower in), 2 TV’s, a porch, and a living room area. The tweenager got the short end of the stick on the bed though. It was a cot that totally sagged in the middle. We put two mattresses on it but it still was pretty pathetic. As for the wee babe, we had to ask 2-3 times for them to bring us a bed for her. The first bed that was brought was intended for a baby who couldn’t roll over or crawl or stand up. The second one was better but it had a hole in the back of it for her to crawl right out of if she wanted to. There was no other options, so we had to take this one. We pushed it up against the wall and draped an extra sheet over it to try and block the hole. On the opposite side of the hole the other end of the playpen was falling down so the hubby mickey moused the side of it by putting a table on it’s side and propping it up. It wasn’t too bad but we would find out the next day that the wee babe would hit her eye on one of the table legs jutting into the bed and cut herself. Sigh.

We headed down for lunch. This was an all inclusive resort so food was supplied as was free drinks. The food was buffet style and for the first day was pretty good! Ask me by the 7th day and I would say, ugh… it’s the same every day. It was Egyptian fare so rice, potatoes, steamed or fried veggies, some sort of meat in a sauce. There was a whole salad bar that I steered clear of. DON’T eat the salad in Egypt, you’ll get sick. An entire table of different kinds of bread and another whole table of different kinds of deserts.

As for the free drinks. The rose wine was disgusting. The white wasn’t much better. I never tried the red. The beer was good. The spirits all tasted the same. What we realized afterwards from talking to some of the staff is that over in Europe and North America, we let our spirits age (rum, whiskey, vodka, etc…) for years before serving them. In Egypt, they don’t, so they all have a kind of odd same taste to them. Instead of Gordon’s gin it’s Gordoon’s. After 3 days of drinking 3-4 of these cocktails a day, I couldn’t take it anymore and just drank a few glasses of beer.

After lunch, I went back to the room with the wee babe for a little sleep and the tweenager went swimming with my sister-in-law and hubby. It was crazy windy and the temperature was probably around 28 degrees.

Then down for dinner where we sat outside around the pool. It was an early night for the hubby, tweenager and wee babe. For me I stayed up with the rest of the family and watched a dance show put on by the animation team. It was pretty good.

Tomorrow we head to the beach and the next day on a snorkeling trip….