Ottawa, we love you (to visit)

We went to Ottawa this weekend, sans kids.

I thought it would feel exhilarating to live life for a few days without the exhausting weight of responsibility on our shoulders.

The most surprising part was that it mostly just felt normal.

We slept in, ate entire meals uninterrupted (not only did we NOT have to get up 50 times, we could actually start and finish sentences!), and spent quality time with friends.

During this time, I learned that things are not that different from when we left, except that not drinking for 3 years can result in 1) a very low tolerance for alcohol, and 2) a surprisingly painful hangover for someone who only had 4 drinks.

It was awesome, though.

And the kids had a fabulous time without us. They went to the "yake" (lake) with Nana and Papa and got to eat all kinds of crap food that I would normally ban. Hooray for grandparents and sugar highs (I know, Andrew, but really - you should see her after eating cake!).

They showed no real signs of having overly missed us. I have to admit, I was surprised at how much I missed them, though. Apparently, I'm all talk: I yearn for free time but then constantly think of them when they're gone.

I'm the Patty Hearst of motherhood.

I didn't take many pics, since we were so busy enjoying our freedom, but here are a few random shots:

Shhh, someone's sleeping: Check out the teeth on my boy!Mela's favourite new way to eat: muffin tin! All the food is separated, it's PERFECT! The Chris's play some music: Relaxed, with some surrogate babies: Back in the city of our meeting (although the Firestation is gone now!) This made me miss Mela, since it reminded me of a face and wouldn't she think that was funny? Jeff and Sarah, still partying after all these years: And if you're a grandparent, here's a video of Nate's favourite new past-time (other than cruising and climbing the stairs): "throwing" a ball. Who knew that the second child could even do stuff like that yet?!: