Winter Storm Warning

I have never seen a winter storm warning like the one they currently have posted on Environment Canada's weather warnings. Here is the text from it. I am thinking that we will be housebound today as I do not want to get stuck in the storm with a 4-month old. Not a good idea...

Ottawa North - Kanata - Orléans
5:47 AM EST Sunday 16 December 2007
Winter storm warning for
Ottawa North - Kanata - Orléans continued

A crippling Major winter storm with heavy snow and blowing snow as well as some ice pellets is moving in right on schedule this morning.

This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.



A massive winter storm has begun over southern Ontario and the stage is set for this dangerous storm to kick into high gear over the entire forecast district today with near record snowfall amounts.

Latest analyses show a rapidly deepening low pressure centre now over northern Ohio just southwest of Cleveland this morning. This low is preceeded by an expanding area of heavy snow with some freezing rain and ice pellets having mixed in at times as far north as the Windsor London Kitchener and Toronto areas.

There have been several reports from the OPP of freezing rain and low to almost nil visibility in heavy snow over southern Ontario earlier this morning.

This intensifying winter storm centre will move towards Lake Erie then northeast across western and then northern New York state to New England by this evening. This storm track is placing southern and eastern Ontario directly under the brunt of heavy snow. A few claps of thunder along with bursts of very heavy snow are also likely and have already been reported over southeastern Michigan and possibly southwestern Ontario early this morning.

The main snow event has moved into southwestern Ontario now and will rapidly expand and envelop all regions east to Ottawa this morning. Copious amounts of snow as well as strong winds causing blowing snow are expected. The snow will be mixed at times with ice pellets and freezing rain along and south of a line from grand through the greater Toronto area to Kingston and then along the St Lawrence river Valley to Cornwall.

Widespread snowfall accumulations of 20 to 30 cm are expected in most areas by this evening. Some local amounts of 40 to 50 cm or more are quite likely in a few areas..Especially from the west end of Lake Ontario and eastwards into far eastern Ontario. Snowfall rates of 2 to 4 cm an hour are expected with low to nil visibility in sustained bursts of heavy snow likely.

Significant blowing snow is expected to accompany the heavy snow due to strong northeast winds gusting to 70 km/h whipping up the freshly fallen snow and causing whiteout conditions.

This is a dangerous winter storm. It is strongly recommended to avoid unnecessary travel during this storm. This massive snow storm has the potential to cause paralyzing conditions as road travel on any unplowed streets becomes next to impossible today. All motorists who must travel are urgently advised to use extreme caution and plan for much extra time to reach their destination.

There remains a high degree of certainty with this storm as the the latest computer model and observed trends continue to forecast this potential record setting winter storm.

The storm is expected to move out over southern Ontario by this evening with the heavy snow moving out of eastern Ontario by Monday morning as the storm centre moves away over New England into the Maritimes. However snowsqualls may form tonight to the Lee of Lake Huron resulting in a continuation of locally dangerous winter travelling conditions throughout the night.

Connor's 4th Month

Time does fly when you are having fun, or is it because I am so tired? This month seems to have gone by in such a blur. I blame it all on ultimate and the late nights that are associated with playing indoor. I think that I have to stop scheduling things for Thursday mornings because it is tough getting out of bed after playing late on Wednesday night (which is not always the case, but I always seem to get to bed later on Wednesdays). It is great fun playing ultimate again even though I feel completely out of shape. My team is now 0-4 and we are just hoping that next week will mark our first win. When I play in the earlier timeslots, Geofford and Connor try and make it out to watch, although they seem to be more interested in chatting with people than with watching me :) Connor and I try and make it out to watch Geofford play on Thursdays, but sometimes it is just nice to stay home when I am still tired from playing on Wednesday. We hope to make it out more in the new year though.

Connor had a busy month as usual. We went to Mike Laporte's 30th birthday party and celebrated his birthday and we were able to congratulate him on the newest addition to the Laporte family who will be making his/her debut in Spring 2008. I guess we are coming to that age when people are getting married and starting families. It's so exciting :)

Connor also got to visit with his paternal grandparents when they came to visit for his Baptism. Connor's Baptism was on November 17th at Good Shepherd Parish. It was an exciting event as Good Shepherd has full immersion baptisms. Connor got dunked three times in the baptismal font and he did not enjoy it one bit. As he was the third baby to get baptised, I think he knew something was up because he started crying even before he got dunked in the water. Poor dude.

After the baptism, we had a small gathering with family to celebrate his baptism. I think that it is funny that everyone is looking at the camera except Connor who is fascinated by the dining room chandelier.


Geofford and I also got a few evenings out without Connor when we went to a couple Sens games. Unfortunately the Sens lost both games that we attended, but I think my parents had a fun time babysitting Connor while we were out.

Connor also had the opportunity to meet another new friend who was also born on Damian's birthday - Lucas Frederick Lai. Lucas and his family were here in Ottawa for a short visit from Halifax. It was nice seeing Fred and Liz and meeting Lucas. Unfortunately we didn't bring our camera to the meeting, but I know that Fred (Lucas' father) did take many pictures. We will add a link to those pictures once we receive it.

The holiday season started with a bang for us. Starting on the 1st of December we were busy with many activities. We celebrated Shay Thibert's 2nd birthday at a party at his house. He was a wonderful host and although he was really good at ripping the paper off his gifts, I think he was a little upset that he couldn't play with all of his new toys right away because there were more gifts to open. I wonder how he is going to handle this Christmas?

We also attended a few cookie exchanges, so now I only a have a bit more Christmas baking to do thanks to the exchanges. Although, we ate most of the cookies from the 1st exchange because I was less organized and didn't freeze them all right away. I learned for the next two though :)

Connor is currently coping through his first cold. He caught it from me, who caught it from someone at ultimate last week when I mistakenly took a drink out of someone else's bottle thinking it was mine. He is quite stuffed up, but we have found the humidifier has been a great help during the night. On top of that, Connor had to endure his second round of immunizations today. I think that he did quite well, but he is definitely getting pampered by me today. At his appointment, he weighed 6.69 kg (14 lbs 12 oz) and measured 64 cm (25.2 in). He is in the 50th percentile for weight and just over 50th percentile in height, so he is one super cute average baby :)

We tried to do a holiday photo shoot for Connor at home so we could have a great holiday picture of him. Anyone who is ever tried to take pictures of babies can attest how difficult this could be. Below is one of the pictures where Connor was more interested in the tree and lights than he was posing for the camera. If you click on the picture, you can see more pictures from the shoot on my flickr site.


We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and for those who don't celebrate Christmas - Happy Holidays!

Connor Smiling

Connor has been smiling for a while now, but I finally managed to capture it on video. Enjoy!

Connor's 3rd Month

Wow, it is hard to believe that Connor is already three months. I finally got him weighed today and he weighs 6.1 kg (13 lbs 7 oz), so he has gained just under 3 kg! The last time we measured him, he was approximately 60 cm (approximately because he wouldn't stay still for us to measure him).

This month has been fairly busy with many visits with new friends. John Francis Rootham's christening was this month, so we were able to celebrate with him at his open house. Although John slept for most of the visit, Connor was actually alert and was interacting with people at the open house. Connor also met some of our ultimate friends when we attended Emily Chen's Open House for her m chen wears collection. Geofford and I both bought one of her limited edition first printing t-shirts. We are hoping that Emily will soon put out a baby or kids line so that Connor can also sport some m chen wears.

Connor and I finally got to meet Tristan Xavier Hodgson who was born the same day as Damian. Geofford has yet to meet Tristan, but we are hoping that this will happen soon. This is a picture that Maria (Tristan's mom) took when we went over to their house for a visit.


We also got to meet Kahlea when she and Rachel came to Ottawa for a visit. It was so nice seeing Rachel and it was fun meeting Kahlea. Now we just have to convince them to move back to Ottawa so that we can seem them more often. If you click on the picture of the two of them, you can see the rest of the pictures that I posted on flickr.


Connor also had the opportunity to visit with his grandfather one afternoon when I wrote a test for a competition for a Human Factors Specialist with the government. Hopefully I did well enough on the test to get to the next phase of the competition. This job would be ideal as it matches my skill set to my interests. If I do get a job, Connor and Geofford will get to spend the rest of Connor's 1st year together. I know that Geofford is quite excited about this prospect.

Halloween

Connor was Winnie the Pooh this year. I think that he was pretty cute. We only went to three neighbours homes this year and he managed to get mom and dad some twix bars :)

Connor's 2nd Month

Connor's 2nd month has been a busy one, so it is hard to believe that our little man is already two months old! We are starting to develop a schedule, which is great because now I have a little bit of time to work on chores and also the thank you notes. For those of you who have given Connor gifts over the past two months, thank you! The thank you notes are on their way :) Hopefully I'll have them done before I have to start on our Christmas cards...

Connor attended his first ultimate tournament on September 15th. Although it was a cool day, we went out to Hornet's Nest to watch Geofford, Uncle Damian and the rest of the Bytown Flatball Club compete at Spirit. Although Connor couldn't stay to cheer on the team in the final at the fields, BFC was in the final which was televised on Rogers, so Connor was able to watch BFC win from the comfort of his own bouncer a few weeks later.

Connor also had his first weekend away from home. When Geofford went to Ithaca with the rest of BFC for UPA Mixed NorthEast Upstate NY Sectionals, Connor and I went to stay with his grandparents (my parents) for the weekend. BFC ended up winning the tournament putting them one step closer to competing at the UPA Championships in Sarasota, FL at the end of October. The next step would be to place top 3 at Regionals in Devens, MA Thanksgiving weekend. Geofford would be unable to attend this tournament as he was busy with more important plans - he was a groomsman at Drew and Otia's wedding, but more on that later.

On September 29th, we opened up our house for a Meet Connor Open House. It was nice to visit with people we haven't seen in a while and I think that Connor had a good time as well because that night he didn't have any problems falling back asleep after feedings, which was great for me.

Connor attended his first wedding on October 6th. Our friends Drew and Otia got married at the Rockliffe Pavillion. Geofford was one of the groomsmen, but fortunately for me Torch and Michèle were around, so they could help me out. As it was cold and raining, they took Connor for the outdoor ceremony and then he joined us at e18thteen for the reception. It was a beautiful wedding and a great reception. Click on the picture below to see the pictures that we took during the wedding.


As this was Thanksgiving weekend, we had three dinners to attend. Drew and Otia's wedding was on Saturday morning/early afternoon, so we were able to fit in three dinners. On Saturday evening, we went to Brooke Valley (just outside of Perth) to have dinner with Geofford's extended family. It was a great opportunity for them to meet Connor as most of them haven't met him yet. It was a great dinner, but Geofford was a little tired due to the wedding festivities so he disappeared for most of the evening. The next day, we went to the Smith's house for our annual Thanksgiving dinner with the friends. Amy, Ewan and Ella were fantastic hosts and we tried something a little new this year (this is the first year that I didn't have to cook the dinner!) and Ewan had roasted the turkey on the BBQ. It was delicious and I think I may have to try this out for Christmas dinner. Stephan took the group picture on the right, but you can see the rest of our pictures by clicking on the picture. Our final Thanksgiving dinner was with my family at my parents house. Again, a yummy meal and we were exhausted following this weekend of eating and visiting with friends and family. Good thing we have a month before Connor's baptism so that we can recover ;)

As Geofford was busy here in Ottawa, he couldn't participate in the NorthEast Regionals tournament with the rest of BFC. The results from this tournament would determine who would represent the NorthEast at the UPA Championships. Unfortunately, the team failed to qualify, which put an end to Geofford's outdoor ultimate season for 2007. Now we are going to start training hard so that he will be in tip-top condition for 2008.

Although we had such a wonderful weekend, Thanksgiving weekend also had its low points. Const. Christopher John Worden was killed in the line of duty in Hay River, NWT on October 6th. Chris was a wonderful person and a great RCMP officer. Although I never knew him as a mountie, I did know him in high school where he was a great football player, actor and friend. He always had a smile on his face and could light up a room just by being there. I got to know him a lot better the summer after Gr 12 when we started playing ultimate together on Strange Brew. I also knew his wife, Jodie, as I played powderpuff football with her during the winters at Waterloo. Our deepest condolences to Jodie, her 8-month old daughter Alexis and the rest of the Worden and Lamers families. Geofford, Connor and I attended Chris' funeral on October 15th at Notre Dame Cathedral here in Ottawa to pay our respects and to say good-bye to a wonderful person.

We have also had the opportunity to welcome a new addition to the Thibert family this month. Marin Angèle Thibert was born October 18th at 1:11am to Lisa and Stephan. She weighed 7lbs 7oz and has a ton of hair. I had the opportunity to visit her on her birth day at the hospital, but Geofford and Connor have yet to meet the little girl.

At Connor's two-month check-up on October 18th, we found out that he is still a healthy little boy and growing steadily. He now weighs 11lbs15oz (5.414kg), measures 57.5cm (22.64 inches) long and his head circumference is still 36.0cm. He also had his first immunizations: Pentacel which immunizes against Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio and Heamophilus Influenza, and Prevnar which immunizes against pneumococcal disease. As usual, we do update Geofford's flickr site with many pictures, but I will post one here and you can click on the picture for the rest of the shots of Connor.

Connor's 1st Month

It is hard to believe that Connor has been in our lives for 5 weeks. Although it is tough waking up every three hours during the night to feed him, it is definitely worth it to see him open up his eyes and smile (or is it just gas?).

This past month has its ups and downs. The downs were mostly caused by his feedings and his weight. For the first couple of weeks we were constantly at the doctor's office for weighings as he was not gaining as much weight as the doctor would have liked. One of the weighings turned out to be a lot more stressful than it should have because the nurse miscalculated the conversion from lbs to kg. With this miscalculation, it looked like Connor was less than his birth weight after he was gaining steadily. Fortunately, it was just a miscalculation and he was actually gaining weight. Phew... It's hard to believe how much he has grown. At his one-month checkup Connor weighed in at 9lbs 1oz (4.11kg) and measured 22.1 inches (56.2cm). He is also starting to grow into most of his clothes. That is also quite reassuring as he only fit into a couple of outfits when he first came home.

To celebrate his 1-month birthday, his Aunt Jaclyn and I took him to get a passport picture taken. As you can see below, he is one serious little dude. He cooperated nicely and we got a great mugshot of him. Hopefully the passport people will accept the photo as I don't know if he can sit still like that for another sitting :)


Another major milestone is that Connor drank out of his first bottle yesterday, which is great for me! This means that I can get Geofford to do the first feeding of the night, which means that I will hopefully get a little more sleep. We are still waiting for the little guy to start sleeping 4-5 hours, but I hear that takes time. Right now, I am still able to cope with 1-2 hour sleeps throughout the night. Lately, Connor has been doing really well with only waking every 3-4 hours, but he is not always so good at going back to sleep following the feed. We are down to one fussy feeding like that, so it's definitely getting there.

I am starting to feel a lot better now. I am definitely walking much better. We have been walking around the block (which is about 1km) and last week it took me 45min (and I was exhausted) and this week it only took me 30min. So I am definitely improving. I'm not sure if I can run yet, but I guess baby steps. Hopefully I will be ready for the winter ultimate season which starts at the end of November. As I missed out on the summer season, Geofford has decided to sit out the winter season so that I can play. :)

Anywho, now that he is getting a little older, hopefully I will have a little more time to post. As usual, Geofford is continually posting pictures on the flickr account, so keep checking back for more pictures.

Introducing Connor Seaborn!

Connor (middle name pending) Seaborn was born at the Civic Hospital on August 11, 2007 at 14:31. He weighed 7lbs4oz and measured 19.7in.

As Connor's father was competing at the Canadian Ultimate Championships from Aug 9-12th in Toronto, we had to call him back early Friday morning (~2am) when my water broke. Labour was induced after a few consults with cardiology/family medecine and obstetrics at about 7pm on August 10th. After a long night of labour, it was determined that a C-section would be necessary to bring Baby Seaborn into the world. It was a long journey, but definitely worth it as Connor is super cute and a welcome addition to our family. Unfortunately for Geofford, his team lost in the finals on Aug 12th, but he was definitely there in spirit.

Connor and I were discharged from the hospital on August 14th and now we begin the next phase of growing :)

Geofford has posted photos on his Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/insidoubt/sets/72157601392913057/

Five and Half Weeks Left...

I can't believe that we are only 5.5 weeks away from the baby's due date. For Geofford and my parents' sake, I hope the baby arrives after August 14th ;) For my sanity, I hope the baby arrives in August because we are getting carpet put in July 24/25th, and I figure I can put together the baby's room in a week if I need to, but it would be nice to have more time.

As the due date comes closer, I am getting my labour bag and the baby's bag ready. We were trying to figure out what size clothes to pack to bring to the hospital. Do you think that this onesie will fit?


I have also been feeling some weird heartbeats and when I spoke with Doctor about it, he suggested that I should get this checked out by doing a Holter Monitor Test. I went to the Heart Institute this morning and now I have seven electrodes strapped to my chest and a little fancy machine that monitors my heart rate. Hopefully everything is okay and this is just a precautionary measure, but I guess we will find out in a couple weeks!


I feel the baby kicking all the time, which is a very good indication that he/she is doing okay. I can't wait to meet him/her...

It is hot outside and inside.

I didn't think that heat would be such an issue during the pregnancy as I have been generally quite cold so far. As the temperature has been gradually increasing, I have been becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Unfortunately we have not been able to install an air conditioner in our room yet, so getting to sleep is quite difficult. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy having an air conditioner in our room because I find I get a little too cold with a/c. Even now, with the window open and the fan on, I find I am searching for the duvet at about 4am because I am a little bit chilly but I know that won't happen on humid nights.

I think it might also be smart to install an air conditioner in one of the other rooms so that I can deal with the heat during the day, which is probably more of a problem. I find I can't even move because I am so hot. I have discovered that the library in Manotick is air conditioned so I will probably be spending the super humid days there. If anyone else has any suggestions (besides going to the mall - as I will be super tempted to buy baby clothes - but I will probably go as a last resort), please let me know.

Getting bigger!

It's hard to believe that I am into my third trimester. It just seems like yesterday I just found out that I was pregnant. My belly is definitely getting bigger, but I do have a lot more energy nowadays, so that's good. August 23rd is coming quickly and hopefully Geofford and I will be able to get everything ready before the baby arrives.

Sad

People have been wondering why I have been sad for the past few days and I really haven't known what to say. Monday, Geofford and I found out that one of our friends Nick Hamilton passed away last week in Japan. Although I only met him a few times, I know what he meant to Geofford and his friends. He was a great guy and it was always exciting to read about his adventures on the other side of the world. Whenever Geofford and I talked about our big plans to travel to Asia (which we keep putting off...) we always planned on stopping in on Nick wherever he was. Although we aren't sure when we will make it to the other side of the world, we will definitely have to visit some of the sights in Japan.

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here! We had a brief glimpse of spring earlier this April, but then it got cold again here in Ottawa. I had planned a trip to Thunder Bay to visit Rachel and Clayton and spring was definitely in full force there. It was really nice to be outside and take walks with Rachel. It was a really nice visit as I haven't seen Rachel since my wedding last September and I haven't seen Clayton since their wedding in Mexico. Below is a picture of Rachel and I at the Terry Fox lookout. There are other pictures from the trip if you click on the photo.


With spring comes many things including tryouts for ultimate. Unfortunately (or is it fortunately), I have been unable to participate in ultimate tryouts this year, but I did go out and watch the last two tryouts. They were on beautiful sunny days, so I got quite the interesting tan. I can't believe that I already have tan lines and it is not even the middle of May yet. Here is my favourite picture from tryouts. To see some other pictures, you can click on the picture.


Geofford and Damian have both made the Coed A team, which is super exciting. It looks to be quite the good team, so hopefully they will do well this summer :)

Week 22

After a couple of ultrasounds and many doctor's visits, we now have an updated due date of August 23, 2007. This puts me at week 22, which is a little over half way. This is pretty scary and exciting because it means that we are that much closer to meeting Baby Seaborn. :)

My pregnancy is so much better now. As mentioned before I was quite nauseous during the first part of the pregnancy and I didn't really have that nice transition into the 2nd trimester because I caught a bad cold. I have been fighting this cold for about a month and I think that I am finally winning. I was able to recover slightly when I passed the cold to Geofford, but then I got it back during Easter weekend. Due to my sickness, I wasn't able to fully enjoy our weekend at Cawaja beach. We were finally able to meet Ellis Seaborn Allard, but I wasn't able to hold him because I didn't want to pass on my nasty cold. Hopefully during the Victoria Day weekend, I will feel a lot better and be able to hold him. I think that we scared Geofford a little bit as we tried to get him to change one of Ellis' diapers. I am a little worried that Geofford will not want to get close to another diaper, but he's going to have to deal.

The next big milestone that I am waiting for is to feel the baby kicking. I think it will be a weird feeling having someone inside of you moving around, but I will feel alot better about knowing that the baby is alive if s/he is kicking.

Here is a picture of the 2nd ultrasound. The baby was quite uncooperative and refused to pose for us. We were also told that the baby was quite active and we were able to watch him/her try to squirm/kick/punch the ultrasound paddle thing. It was quite amusing.

Our Honeymoon, Part 3

Well, it turns out we didn't just bring souvenirs home from Hawaii, we also brought home a third life. :) We found out on Francis' birthday that we will be expecting a baby in August. This was a little bit of surprise since we were not planning on having children so early in our married lives, but we are still very excited. The baby is due August 19, but I think that the doctors are off, so I think the baby will actually come in September. Geofford also hopes that the baby will be late because although Nationals are early this year (August 9-12), I think that's still a little too close for comfort. Fortunately, Nationals are in Toronto, so if I do go into labour, he can always drive back.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the pregnancy has not been as smooth as one would have liked. I have been quite nauseous and exhausted. Now that I am into my second trimester, I feel less nauseous, but there are still some bad days. Right now, I am just looking forward to the weather warming up so that I can spend more time outside. But then again, I hear that summers are particularly uncomfortable for pregnant women, so maybe I should enjoy this freezing cold temperature while I still have it :)

Here is a picture from our first ultrasound on February 5, 2007. The baby was 4.74cm long and I was 12 weeks pregnant (according to the doctor). I think that we may get a revised due date on our next ultrasound on March 27.

Our Honeymoon in Hawaii, Part 2

Pictures from our honeymoon can be viewed here. Enjoy!

Putting everything into perspective, despite our travel problems, we were in Hawaii, so that was a lot of fun. And things could only get better from this point. All of a sudden, I woke up to hear this great big booming noise, like cannons were going off. As I was still tired from the channels, I looked at the clock (it was 5am) and hoped that this booming noise wouldn't happen every day. Turns out, it was just fireworks to indicate the start of the Honolulu marathon. At one point Lisa and were contemplating running in that marathon (well we hoped there would be a 1/2 marathon part), but when I heard that noise, and I later saw a lot of the participants, I'm glad that I didn't run.

When we woke up Sunday morning, I immediately turned on the TV so that I could find the weather channel. Turns out, there is no weather channel in Hawaii...(maybe because the weather is just hot, hotter, or rainy). Instead I found football. I was quite confused because the clock said 8:30am, but there it was on tv - NFL football. Well, turns out that due to the time change Geofford and I would have to get used to watching sports at earlier times in the day. We ended up going to breakfast at Moose McGillycuddy's restaurant, which is kind of a sports bar. I was surprised to see the number of people having beers with their breakfasts...but I guess it's part of watching football? I was finally able to tear Geofford away from the TV so that we could get our bearings and do some grocery shopping so that we would have food for breakfasts and lunches. It really turns out that Waikiki is not a very big place and you can walk everywhere. We ended up meeting with Stephan, Lisa and Shay and we all went to dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory. I keep forgetting how big the portions are and even though I just had a salad, I had to take my cheesecake to go.

The next morning, we got up very early and met up with Stephan, Lisa and Shay so that we could go to Hanauma Bay. I think we were there for the 2nd movie (you had to see a brief film about the preservation of the area before you could go to the beach), and we got to the beach around 8:30 after walking down a steep incline. We went snorkeling for a while, and I saw a turtle. But at the time, I had lost Geofford and Stephan and I felt like the reef was super close to me, so I just tried swimming towards what I thought was Geofford. Turns out it was just a buoy, but it was deeper at this area, and the boys ended up finding me. When we were swimming back to shore, Stephan saw a snake in the water and was trying to call out to me, fortunately I didn't hear him and just continued swimming to shore. That evening, we were invited to Stephan's parents condo for dinner, so we decided to accept because it is really nice to have a home cooked meal when you are away on vacation. It was a really enjoyable evening, but we were so stuffed that we couldn't even walk along the beach.

Tuesday morning, we again woke up early and met Stephan and Lisa (Phil and Diane took care of Shay this morning), so that we could hike up Diamond Head. It was quite a nice walk, the first part was paved, then it was gravels and rocks, and eventually it led up to stairs, then a spiral staircase, and then more stairs before we got to the top. It was quite suprising to see some tourists doing the hike in flip flop sandals. We ended up picking a great time because it was in between tour groups and we didn't have to share the summit with a busload of tourists.

Wednesday, the gang (Stephan, Lisa, Shay, Geofford and I) piled back in their vehicle and headed up to the North Shore. We decided to hit a few beaches before meeting Lisa's parents and their friends at Turtle Bay Resort. We arrived at Pipeline and saw that there was a competition going on. We easily found a parking spot, which was an indication that something was up, and when we arrived, it turned out that the competition was on hold because the waves were not big enough. We got to see a few waves, and Shay was quite tired, so while he napped on the beach, the adults got to watch the waves and the surfers. It was quite impressive. After Shay woke up, we got back in the car and drove up to Turtle Bay Resort. It is quite the nice resort and I think that if we are ever to return to Oahu, it would be nice to stay there. We had lunch with Lisa's parents at a restaurant overlooking a beach at the resort. On our way back to Waikiki, we stopped at the Dole plantation to have some Dole Whips and have our pictures taken as pineapples. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the pictures of Geofford and I, but there are some fun pictures of Lisa, Stephan and Shay.

Thursday, I babysat Shay in the morning so that Stephan and Lisa could go get their marriage licenses. During this trip, I learned that there is a lot more planning when you have a baby with you. We had a pretty good morning, but I learned that a lot of fruit from the day before can make a pretty fun diaper for you the next day :) After Steph and Lisa got back, Lisa and went to the Outrigger pool and just hung out. I was surprised that the pool wasn't more busy, but I guess that is the advantage of coming before the crowds. That night, we went to a restaurant at the Ala Moana mall with Lisa's friend Chris. It was a crazy big mall, and the stores were very nice, but we really didn't have the money to go into some of the stores - Fendi, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo. But it was fun to walk around and check out the stores.

Friday morning, Geofford and I joined the Stars and Stripes Tour through Robert's Hawaii. We were on a mini-bus, I believe that there were 10 of us total on the tour - that took us to Pearl Harbour, we got on the 2nd shuttle out to the Arizona Memorial and were able to check out the Pearl Harbour Museum. This was an incredible visit because it was really hard to believe all of the chaos that happened that December 7, 1941 in the very spots that we were walking. I think that these tours are really important because it really gives you a chance to remember how lucky we really are. We also got a guided tour of the Mighty Mo', which is the battleship where the declaration of surrendar was signed for WWII by the Japanese. I think that it is really nice that the Arizona and the Mo are bow to bow in Pearl Harbour. Following our trip to Pearl Harbour, we received a guided tour of Punchbowl National Cemetary by a legion veteran. It was really insightful to get personal accounts of what he experienced the day that pearl harbour was bombed even if he was just a small child. Overall, I'm glad that we took the tour, but next time it would be nice to go on our own so that we could spend a little more time at the museum and on the Mo. That evening, Geofford and I went to the Ocean House, a restaurant at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach, which was right next to our hotel. It was a really nice restaurant, and it was right on the beach and we actually witnessed a wedding. We also got to see fireworks, so that was quite exciting.

Saturday, we went down to the beach in front of our hotel. It was fun to watch Shay in the water. We ended up having lunch at the ShoreBird, which is another restaurant at the Outrigger Reef. We all tried to order drinks, but since we came straight from the beach, and none of us had ID, we were all turned down. Fortunately, Stephan had his on the beach, and Geofford just ran up to our hotel room to grab our ID, so it all worked out well. That night we went to Germaine's Luau, which was a ton of fun. The food was yummy, and the show was really cool. Geofford, Stephan, Phil, Diane and Jim all upsized their drinks, so they got doubles with their drink tickets. I also got 3 free drinks when I went up for a drink, so we ended up definitely getting our money's worth :)

Sunday, the gang (minus Shay) went back to the North Shore and we had lunch at a place in Haleiwa before going to Waimea Bay to hang out at the beach. This turned out to be the best beach that we visited as it was completely sandy. We had a lot of fun playing in the water and just sitting on the beach. Geofford was quite disappointed when we left because it was such a nice beach. We ended up going to Costco on our way back to get golf balls for the boys' golf game on Monday and to get gas because it is 20 cents a gallon cheaper at costco than anywhere else. I asked at the counter where the gas station, and was again mistaken for a local and was told that it was where it always was. Being the polite Canadian, I explained that I was from Canada and didn't know where the usual place was. It was pretty funny. That night, there was a reception at the Imperial (where the majority of people were staying) for everyone to meet up before the wedding. It was nice to see everyone and there was a ton of food.

Monday, Geofford and Stephan went to play golf with Steph's parents (Phil and Diane), Lisa's father (Pat), Steph's uncle (Jim), and Lisa's parents' friends (Neil and Laura). There was a small bet going on to see which "team" east or west would win. There was quite a bit of trash talk, so it was quite amusing. Before Geofford and Steph could play golf they needed to buy a golf shirt as neither of them brough one, so they bought matching shirts at Macy's...awwww. Lisa and I met up with Lisa's aunt and cousin for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. This being only my 3rd ever trip to the Cheesecake factory, I ended up ordering the same sandwhich that I had in Vegas - forgetting that I didn't like the bread because it was fried. Oh well, everything else about it was super yummy. After lunch, we headed to the mall, to get pedicures and manicures and to get me a dress for the wedding and a tie for Stephan for the wedding. The wedding was the next day :) Unfortunately we didn't find anything, but we had some good ideas and we had pretty finger and toenails. That night, we ended up just having dinner with everyone again, this time Pierre (the best man) and his girlfriend Vero joined us. Lisa's mom cooked a nice pork roast and it was quite yummy.

Tuesday, the wedding day. I went to the mall to purchase Stephan's tie, which turned out to work out quite well. I learned once (by a rude salesperson at the Moore's in Orleans), that it is quite important to purchase a tie that pulls together an outfit. Well, this tie was silver with black and white dots, which pulled together the black suit and the white shirt. It was actually one of the first ties that Lisa liked when we were shopping on Monday, but we wanted to get a pocket square, but Macy's didn't have one. Oh well...it all worked out in the end. Lisa and I had makeup appoints at MAC, and got our make-up done. Then we had a quick lunch, actually we had room service delivered up, but it didn't come in time before we had to go to our hair appointments. We were able to get everything done in time to meet the bridal party and the parents' for pictures. The pictures in the hotel (The Hyatt) were a lot of fun, but when we went down to the beach, it got a little chaotic. As it was the middle of the afternoon, there were a ton of people on Waikiki beach, so hopefully the photographer got some shots of just Lisa and Stephan. The wedding was beautiful and the dinner was also quite nice. It was a restaurant named Ciao Mein, and it was an Italian-Chinese Fusion restaurant. After the cake cutting, the newlyweds went off, and everyone else went back to Lisa's parents' room for some post-wedding partying.

Wednesday morning, the newlyweds gave us a call and asked if we wanted to go to Waimea Bay again. Geofford and I of course responded in the positive as it was so much fun the first time. Well, this time was insane. The waves were much bigger and they were tons of fun. Geofford was so excited to get into the water that he neglected to put sunscreen on at all, and paid the price for the next few days. We don't have pictures from this yet, as we still have to develop the underwater camera, but it was a lot of fun. I only got thrashed by two waves, and that was enough for me...but Geofford, Stephan and Pierre seemed to never get out of the water. They were like little kids. That evening, we had our last dinner in Waikiki at....the Cheesecake factory. It's funny, our first and last at the same restaurant, but the food was quite yummy. Shay was quite sick that day (had quite the fever), so we didn't get to see much of him or Lisa. Fortunately he got much better and was in fine spirits for his travel day to Kaui.

Thursday morning, we said our goodbyes to everyone and did some last minute shopping, as we had to get some souvenirs from our trip. It is hard to believe that our honeymoon was over, but we were looking forward to getting home, to see some snow. Our trip home was quite uneventful, but we were sad to get home and see that there was no snow on the ground.

Oh well, our honeymoon is over and now we were back to reality...I will post the pictures from Lisa and Stephan's wedding soon.

Our Honeymoon in Hawaii, part 1

So it has been awhile since I have wrote, but one of my excuses is that I was on my honeymoon with Geofford in Hawaii! Overall, the honeymoon was a lot of fun, but it started really poorly. Read on if you are interested. If not, I will post our pictures soon.

We had booked our whole package through expedia and this included both our flight and our accomodations. In hindsight, I am going to try and fly Air Canada whenever I can because then you actually know what you are going to get. We were scheduled to fly on American Airlines from Ottawa to Chicago and then from Chicago straight to Honolulu arriving at 2:30 local time. Seems pretty easy right? Well, we had a 6am flight out of the Ottawa airport, so we dutifully arrived at 4am, after not sleeping all night, because there was no real point. As we arrived to the gate, my cell phone rang. It was American Airlines informing me that the 6am flight to Chicago was CANCELLED (please look at the photo to the left, which is a photo of the departures at 4:03am which states that the 6:00am flight to Chicago was on time), and we were booked on the 12:30 flight to Chicago instead, and since we weren't going to make our connection to Honolulu, they changed our connection to go to Los Angeles and then to Honolulu, putting us in Honolulu for 9:55 local time. Obviously we were very disappointed and confused because neither of us had sleep since the night before, so we went to ask the ticketing agent, and she was really rude and said that there was nothing that she could do because we were on the 12:30 flight. Meanwhile, other people in line seemed to be able to do something because they were able to go through customs. We called expedia to see if we could be reimbursed if we took a cab home and then back because part of our package included travel insurance which included trip delay, if your trip was delayed more than 6 hours, which our trip was. After a few hangups on the other end, we finally got through to an agent who put us through to the insurance people, who told us that we may not be able to get reimbursed, because the delay has to be out of province or something like that. What?!? I think that the agent felt sorry for us because she did open a claim for us, but did insist that we may not be reimbursed for our expenses. As we were already spending a lot for this trip, we decided to stay at the airport, as would only be another 4 hours before we get through the gate, which at the time didn't seem that bad.

As the line had dwindled at American, we decided to ask why other people were able to go through customs, and just to see if we could do. The lady there was super rude and just explained that we couldn't go through because of US Customs rules that you couldn't wait in the waiting room for more than 2 hours. Fine...so we just sat on a bench at the exciting Ottawa airport and took turns napping. Finally at 10:30am, we got back into line and were able to go through customs and get rid of half of our luggage as it was checked in. Now all we had was our carry-on, which included Lisa's wedding dress (part of our honeymoon was attending Lisa and Stephan's wedding) as I was the matron of honour. After a while, I just pretended the dress was mine, because it was too much trouble explaining that I was bringing the dress for someone else.

So once we got through and into the waiting area, we learned that the 12:30pm flight was delayed to 1:15 and we finally boarded the plane at 1:30. Yay! We were on our way to Hawaii, finally.... The only other travel problem that we encountered was due to the delay in Ottawa, we missed our connection to LAX by literally 10 minutes (we watched the plane push away as we got to the gate...O'Hare is a big airport, we had to move from Gsomething to Ksomething...), so I had to call American and get them to reroute us, again. Fortunately there was one last flight out of LAX to Honolulu putting us there at 12:55am local time, almost 11 hours later than we were supposed to arrive. We were also thinking at this point and called the Hotel and our shuttle to inform them that we would be late. When we called the hotel, they were very happy that we called because Honolulu was packed that night because Pearl Jam was opening for U2 that night, and the Honolulu marathon was the next day. So it was... a little busy.

We fortunately had no more problems getting to Honolulu, the shuttle driver found us, we got lei'd, and got a nice tour of Honolulu/Waikiki since a lot of roads were closed for the marathon. Fun...but at least we were finally here. When we checked into the hotel, the Outrigger Waikiki Shore, we were informed that we could only get a room with two twin beds because we were checking in so late, but I was too exhausted (after travelling 27 hours and being awake almost 48) to complain. Fortunately, the bed was made up as a king size when we got to the room, so it wasn't so bad.

But in the end, we made it to Hawaii, and our honeymoon could begin. I'll try and write more soon...