Babies DraPeres: Hello to Nova Scotia

And so we left Maine after a wonderfully relaxing week, packed up the car, and headed north to Saint John, NB, to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia. The kids were ensconced in the back seat with portable DVD players, toys, snacks and, of course, Isaac had his susus. (This is actually the last picture ever taken of Isaac with a pacifier - he gave them up a couple of weeks after we came back from the holiday, in exchange for a couple of remote-controlled cars. It seems bribery works wonders on our kids.)

We thought we were being smart taking the ferry, as it is supposed to cut driving time by several hours. Of course, it doesn't actually cut overall travel time very much, and it definitely isn't cheaper, but we thought maybe we'd see a whale or two as we cruised through the Northumberland Strait. We didn't, of course, but we could have, and so that knowledge is worth the price of passage alone.

It was actually pretty cold and windy out there on deck, so the kids spent alot of time whining to go inside.

After doing some yoga on deck...

Nice downward-facing dog. I'd kill to get my heels on the ground like that.

And cobra - nice form.

We were thrilled to get to Halifax. The kids love their cousins and Isaac just loves being picked up.

How is it that Halifax has an H&M (with kids' department!!) and Ottawa doesn't? I'm going to write a letter to my parliamentarian. In any event, a visit to a mall wouldn't be complete without a couple of loonies being fed into these rides.

I love hanging out with these curly-haired people. They've picked up all kinds of crazy local ways, such as having campfires on rocky crags. As a former Montrealer who now lives in a government town, it baffles my mind to believe that you can just pull over on the side of the road and have a fire. Without a permit. In an undesignated zone. Just baffling.

I love the classic shot of the men making fire. Ben watches on, learning the ways of men.

Even Amelia gets into this totally non-ironic activity.

While Carolyn shows the kids the magical qualities of Nova Scotian water.

And Amelia and Gabrielle do a curl-meld.

Isaac pulled his smore apart and just ate the graham cracker. You're too darn picky, Isaac.

Lots of activities: Amos swinging the kids in a responsible manner.

And Ben has become such a cool dude.

And an amazing sportsman. He can even levitate a ball.

We went down to the wharf thing downtown for Buskerfest - a festival I used to avoid like the plague when I lived in Halifax. Now that I'm old and have kids, it doesn't seem so bad.

Here we are watching the show, not knowing that in a few moments...

...Mark will be brought up on stage! What are the chances? He ended up being up there for around 45 minutes, during which time Gabrielle had several attacks of tears, as she watched her father dance around, wear a turban, carry a woman, and even have his shirt ripped off. Not at all a traumatizing experience for a four year old.