Day 21/30 - Our Honeymoon...

We decided on going to Niagara Falls for our honeymoon. I really wanted to go on a cruise/someplace warm or a cross Canada trip via train but my fear of flying and the crazy expense to travel cross Canada on a train was so not in our budget that it didn't really leave us with too many options. I had never been to Niagara Falls before so it was definitely exciting for me. It also seems to be a popular honeymoon destination so why the heck not :) The drive up there was pretty boring but that is to be expected when all you see is long stretches of highway.

We finally got there, got our room keys and took a ride up to our floor on the elevator. I am normally not scared of elevators but when they zoom up about 60 some odd floors I tend to get a bit nervous. We were soooo HIGH up. I really was afraid that that would be the week that the building decides to snap in two, with us still in it. The hotel we stayed at had just built the new tower that we were staying in so yeah it snapping in two in my mind really wasn't that impossible. (LOL)

We had a pretty good view of both the American and Canadian falls. It was actually beautiful and after the initial look out the window wall (the outside wall was in fact just a window from floor to ceiling and wall to wall) I stayed the heck as far away from it as possible. We were HIGH and I couldn't help but envision myself hurdling to the ground each time I looked out and down. ~shudder. But we did have some amazing views! At night it was breath taking as well. We also had prime seats for the light show on the American Falls AND for the firework displays that happened once or twice that week.

The Horse Shoe Falls.

You can see that we are right across from one of the casinos. We did go in there one night and spent an hour or so blowing $20 bucks total on the penny and 5 cent machine and that was enough for me. I have never been to a casino before so it was fun in that aspect but meh. It was all electronic so it's not like you pull a lever (well you still could) and you would have your winnings come rushing out the bottom. It was a piece of paper that you fed into the next machine you wanted to play. WOOOOO fun....not.

American Falls

The Sky Wheel at night.

The Casino at night.

American Falls at night

We decided to take a trip behind the falls first. I literally couldn't stop snapping photos of the falls. They just kept turning out so beautiful. It was super loud to and really misty but it was so worth it. We got to wear these nifty garbage bag like rain coat things they give you. You can see how thrilled I am by this picture.

So awesomely amazing!

This I believe is directly behind the falls, so the water is rushing down in front of the opening.

We then trekked down along the river snapping photos because how could you not resist take a million pictures of the same falls over and over again. It really is amazing to see in person. You see that tiny teeny boat in the picture? Yep we went on that too (Maid of the Mist). That was a little scary and since we just made the boat we got stuck on the bottom level but I think that was a good thing since it sheltered us a bit from getting soaked. It was a pretty bumpy ride.

We eventually made it to the White Water Walk, where we took more photos of the water. It was soo loud here and had some interesting photo opportunities including this gem that I couldn't resist snapping. No we didn't add to it because that is sort of gross, but it was interesting none the less.

Lots of bits of gum stuck to the rocks.

The whole week went by pretty fast and I don't think I have ever done so much walking in my life. There were some pretty steep hills going to and from the hotel which got to be tiring after awhile. By the end of the week we were pretty dead on our feet. Other random things we did that week were:

We went to one of the wax museums where we saw all sorts of stars and scenes from movies. We even saw the Simpsons and unfortunately for me ET. Seriously TAM he is CREEPY!!! There is nothing cute about him (especially here depicted in wax). You can see by my face how thrilled I am that Chris made me stand in front of him for a picture. I had nightmares after my sister brought me to see ET at the movies as a child. I still can picture ET standing at the bottom of my bed when my mom turned the lights out point at me with his glowy finger. I haven't watched that movie since, well that isn't true. Over Christmas Space had ET on and I sort of half watched it. The only part where ET is even remotely "cute" is when Drew Barrymore comes in and sees him for the first time and screams, which makes him scream and everyone else scream. That is the only cute part!

We also went to Ripley's Believe It or Not where we rubbed the belly of the 'good luck statue' which according to the sign " is a statue made out of 3 million macerated US dollars. Gamblers in China believe that rubbing the belly of  symbol of good fortune, will bring them good luck." How could you not rub it's belly! Who doesn't need good luck! 

seriously I don't know why my eyes are always red in photos ;)

We also had fun running through the spinning tunnel at the end which wow made you feel completely hammered since there was no possible way to walk to the end without almost falling on your bum! Then as we were leaving the building we decided to hold hands and get a hot wax molding of them. We added our wedding date and little tiny rings to the hands and voila we had a super neat token of our wedding and honeymoon.

At some point we also went on the giant Sky Wheel. In theory I was excited to go on this since I thought it would be fun. That is until we got closer to it and I saw just how high it would go. I still managed to gather enough courage to go on it and was relieved when we got our own compartment. I was fearing we would get stuck with people that would think it was super fun to rock the compartment back and forth. If you haven't guess already I don't do well with heights. It was alright until we got near the top and then I started to freak. Chris not only took a few photos of me but also took a video of me freaking out!! I didn't know he was taking a video either until after. When I was safely on the ground and back home and watched said video it was actually pretty hilarious, but then again I am braver on the ground and was very far away from it by then.

Me trying to wear a brave face.

I also must be a sucker for punishment because I convinced myself that we needed to also go back on it when it was dark out to see everything all lit up at night. Now that I think about it I really don't know why since we could see the same views but higher from our hotel room window. None the less we went on it again, and again I freaked out when we got to the top. Although after we got off we took what is probably my most favorite picture of our whole trip! The wheel looked so cool at night all lit up.

Near the end of the week we went to visit the floral clock which was pretty impressive and also took a tour of the power plant that was near by. Then it was off to the butterfly conservatory. I doubt I will ever go back in there if we ever go to Niagara falls again because while I love the beautiful patterns and colours on butterfly's I.DO.NOT.WANT.THEM to touch me EVER. Seriously they creep me out! There were hundreds of these things flying around. No where was safe. Thankfully none actually landed on me or I don't know what I would have done. I seriously probably would have ran out of there screaming (well maybe I am being a bit dramatic here, more like I probably would have freaked out, swatted at it and squashed the poor thing). In all seriousness though, I was actually really scared that I would do just that and I am sure that sort of thing is frowned upon. They had these plates of oranges with a bunch of them feeding off of it and that was enough to creep me out. We left pretty quickly lol. Chris thought it was funny as well. Nice eh!

These are just the highlights from our trip since we did a lot more that I mentioned. There is so much to do there that we didn't really feel like we scratched the surface. By the end of the week we were so exhausted from all the walking around we got lazy and stayed as close to the hotel as we could. Then it was the long drive back to reality. I'm glad that we got a week away from everything though! Hopefully sometime we will go back again and see more then what we were able to the last time. I actually think it would be neat to see it in the winter time, just to see how different it is.

What did you do for your honeymoon? Or what is your dream honeymoon?

Monkey's first Christmas

Monkey's first Christmas was great. I don't think she really had a clue what was happening but she sure did have fun tearing the wrapping paper off of stuff, tearing the tissue paper to pieces and of course playing with the empty wrapping paper tube. But I guess I can't really blame her since all of her presents where still tightly sealed in their own boxes and what fun is that? It was pretty fun seeing her opening her stuff and eventually playing with it.

It was a quick morning though, we pretty much had to get ready to go soon after she was done opening stuff. We had about an hour drive before we got back to where our families live. My family always has their holiday dinners at noon, which is sort of nice because then we don't have to choose which dinner to go to. This way we can go to both! Not so fun on the tummies though since there is always soooo much food, but it's all sooo very good it's hard not to over eat.

Monkey had a good time seeing both families and we were pleasantly surprised that she was okay at both gatherings. There are a lot of people she really didn't see very often we were afraid she might make strange but she didn't. In fact she never stopped "talking" the whole time! That is pretty much like 8+ hours of jibber jabbering. It was pretty cute though :) For some reason we didn't take hardly any pictures that day which was sort of dumb on our part but we did get some the next day.

She got to show off her sitting up all by herself skills and her semi crawling on hands and knees a lot the second day since there was no fear that she would get stepped on. She surprised me the week before Christmas when she just plunked herself backwards, sat on her bum and just looked at me and continued playing with her toys. It's so crazy how babies just learn to do things like that.

She was pretty tuckered out by the time we got back to Chris's parents house in the afternoon that she stayed asleep when we took her out of her seat. It was pretty cute that Oz jumped up on the couch and went to sleep to. Usually he gets jealous when she is around and growls and barks at her. I guess when she is not moving and in a dead sleep he can pretend she isn't there?

The weekend went by way to fast. I wish that we could have seen everyone more and visited more but we were glad for the time we had. We also wanted to get back home in the daylight so since it gets dark at 5pm it really didn't leave to much time for visiting the second day. I can't believe that Christmas was here and gone, although it's a relief because I hate shopping for Christmas presents the last week before. We can never seem to get it done before hand. We didn't have a white Christmas this year but the day after we got back to our home it snowed enough to make up for it. I think this weekend we might take Monkey out in the backyard and take her for her first toboggan ride. That should be fun (we got her a wooden sled for Christmas).

I hope that everyone had just as good of a time for Christmas as we did. :)

Monkey meets Santa Claus

I honestly really really thought she would throw a fit and start crying when she met the big guy, especially since by the time she was on his knee it was an hour past her nap time. She surprised us though, she was all giggles and jibber jabbering to him. I have no idea what she asked him for though (We don't speak baby anymore but hopefully she will like what Santa, Mommy and Daddy give her.) There was a bit of a delay after they took a few photos for some reason. It felt like eternity before they were ready again. They snapped a few and she said goodbye as only babies can and even managed to pull his beard. He just laughed as he straightened it again and gave her back to Chris. Thankfully this Santa was one that had a real beard otherwise there might have been a bunch of really confused kids in the lineup.

The lineup wasn't to bad for the middle of a Saturday even though I think every spot in the parking lot was full. I really hate crowds so I was a bit relieved. I'm sure we were in the lineup itself for a while but with all the cute little kids taking photos with Santa the time passed pretty quickly. I was a bit shocked to see a few groups of people in their 20's getting their photo with Santa. I mean really? That was a bit odd. All in all a good day, even though we managed to check off a bunch of things off our to do list, and yet manage to not get one-single-christmas-gift! Gah! Time is running out! I guess we will once again be last minute shoppers like we are every freakin year!

Now my only question is will we have snow for Christmas! I hate winter and snow since it's a pain to shovel and drive in but Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without snow!

Christmas decorating!

I have been pretty much been picking at decorating the house for Christmas this past week. I also realized I really don't have to many surfaces to put things on and the few that I do I'm sure the cats will knock over or break. We have an area at the top of our stairs to the main floor that overlooks the stairs to the basement which would be the perfect place for some decorations...except the cats love running down the hall at full speed then jumping up on it. That really only leaves me the coffee table and the TV stand. At least they are to fat to climb up INTO the Christmas tree now. :)

Last year we bought a wreath for the front door and a wreath hanger to put it on but do you think I can find the darned thing! I finally just went and purchased a new one since we both looked everywhere we could possible think it might be and a few places that seemed so ridiculous but we checked anyways. Nothing. It still drives me nuts especially since I KNOW it was down on top of the Christmas totes. I'm sure I will find it somewhere else and be like 'oh yah I guess I did move it there so I could find it easier.' lol.

Monkey even helped out a bit...er well if knocking the boxes all over the place counts. At least it kept her occupied while decorated the tree without having to chase her every two seconds. 

Before

After

When we moved into our own place many years ago mum gave me my ornaments and some of the stuff that she used to use on her tree. Along with that came some red and green garland that she always kept in this box. Seriously does anyone remember get in shape girl?' It was like this 'fitness program for today's young girl'. HA I remember doing this all the time. It came with lightweight dumbells, a sweat band, 'fashionable legwarmers', instruction poster and a 30 min exercise casette tape.  Ahh everytime I see that box it brings back memories from my childhood. 

Also just for fun here is an old picture of me working out to said tape.

A couple years ago my sister-in-law made this awesome christmas decoration! I love it! So unique and creative! She made it out of just a random piece of bark.

She also made me 6 mini santa clause ornaments for the tree. I love them!

Last but not least our christmas tree. Well without the angel on it. I tried to get a photo of it at night with the lights on but the pictures didn't do it justice. Our tree is one of those ones that has the lights already in the tree so no need to put any on every year. That is my kind of tree!  I also didn't really put to many ornaments on it either, I spent a lot of time doing it last year and I just didn't want to again this year. I think pulling all the branches apart last year alone I must have spent an hour or more. Not again! I think I might get some candy canes though and add them to it. I think it looks alright. 

Monkey surprisingly hasn't pulled it down on top of herself yet, but then again it's probably because I don't give her a chance to get to close to it. :) She did however like feeling the lower branches when Daddy was with her. I'm so excited for Christmas morning so she can open up her presents....and I fully expect her to play with the wrapping paper and boxes more then the toys. lol :)

I'm sure each year I will keep adding stuff. There are a few other things around, like red garland on the curtains and a Christmas mouse I made sitting on the water cooler. I got the tree up though and that is the main thing :)

where did the last few months go?

I haven't really been blogging/journaling to much this past month or so. I've been trying to catch up a little bit and back dating a few posts that I should have added way before now. They are mainly just Monkey's first food posts though. I also still have 10 days left I think of the 30 days about me. I really can't wait till that is over! I feel like it is bumping any posts that I want to make since I don't really want to be posting like 20 times a day. Not that I have time to post 20 times a day, but you know what I mean.

I usually do my postings when Monkey is napping or after Chris gets home from work/after Monkey goes to bed. Unfortunately for any regular readers I have been gaming for the last little while, which eats up any free time of mine. :) I go through my phases, so I guess right now it is gaming. I think I have set a record on how many games I have actually played through these past two months since I have a REALLY bad habit of playing a game almost to the very end then losing interest. It's so annoying because once I go back to it I basically have to start over again because I forget what happened or what I was doing. Maybe that is why I like Warcraft so much. It is never ending! We purchased Dragon Age 2 not too long ago, it's an amazing, AMAZING RPG if you like those kind of games. The first game was awesome to! I have already beat DA 2 twice! Yep twice! We literally just bought it like 3-4 weeks ago. (I had to try a different class lol) Then Steam was having a super mega sale everyday in November and I picked up 3 games for less then $5 bucks each. I beat Mass Effect already and am currently playing Mass Effect 2, which I think I am almost done. This was my first ever sci-fi RPG. I usually like the medieval type RPG with swords, bows, magic, and auto targeting. (I may be a gamer but I really am not the greatest at it.) So this was different. Plus I really suck at first person shooting which is basically how the fighting goes in the Mass Effect games. I can at least pause though to get my bearings. I've gotten better but I still suck at aiming! I miss auto targeting! LOL! After that I have another RPG that seems interesting called 'The witcher', it was less then $5 so I thought couldn't hurt. Chris is currently playing Skyrim, the newest Elder Scrolls game, which looks good as well. I'm sure I will probably play that one at some point as well. Maybe once he is done with it.

Games suck up a lot of time! Even though they are fun to play. Mixed into that I have been reading any other chance I can get. I'm almost done the Eye of The World by Robert Jordan and there are like 13 more books in the series? I'm looking forward to finally knowing what happens because I think I only ever got to the 6 or 7th book. I'm sure by the time I get to the end of the ones I have the last book in the series should be out! As always I have a long list of other books I want to read. It really is never ending! To much to do, so little time. The above doesn't really even include all the craft projects I have floating around in my head, nor the stories I want to write (I totally failed at nanowrimo again this year) or working on my chain mail stuff. Then Christmas is coming faster then I would like! Time sure freaking flies by way to fast!

I definitely have some ideas for blog posts that are more then what monkey tried for the first time because I feel like that is all I ever write about anymore. Although I always fill them with tons of cute photos of monkey! :) Hopefully I will get to them soon.

As for me and monkey we haven't really been up to to much, just hanging out in the house. I have been actively trying to lose the last bit of baby weight from monkey but it is harder then I thought it was going to be. Tomorrow is weigh in again and I am scared. I sort of screwed up this past week and I don't want to see a gain! I've lost about 5lbs so far but still lots to go! Plus I have been really lazy about working out the last week or so. Seriously the sun goes down and it is pitch black outside by 5pm and with that goes any motivation of mine to do anything. Monkey has been crawling around to but more of an army crawl then the typical crawl. She is super fast as well! I have to guard the cat food dish, the computer area and now the Christmas tree. She hasn't actually bothered that to much but it is not decorated yet so I guess it's too boring at the moment. Other then that it is the daily routine. Not really that interesting. :)

Monkey's first foods: A bit of orange

Today Chris gave Monkey a tiny piece of the orange he was eating. She seemed pretty interested at first, that was of course until she actually tasted it and the following are what you would expect. She is so cute. We definitely won't be trying oranges again for a long while.

First bite.

First taste.

'Definitely not what I thought it would taste like'

'I don't like it!'

'Daddy I am not impressed!'

Monkey's first foods: Rice Rusks

Today we gave monkey a rice husk for the first time. They are long skinny flat wafer like things that melt in your mouth. She had a good time chomping on that, she is getting to be such a big girl that she likes trying to feed herself. The only downfall to these things are that by the time it was mostly gone the rest was mush in her hand and all over her face and it was sooo sticky that it was super hard to get off! At least she had fun eating it though by the grin on her face. :)

First bite.

"hmm this is really good!?' I love this expression :)

LOL we laughed so hard at these since we jokingly called them her teeth! I know we are mean.. she still looks cute though!

"I think I like them"

I guess we need to start letting her feed herself or 'try' to feed herself more. I just cringe every time I think of the mess she will make. Then I also cringe at the thought of having a 6 year old that I still have to feed because I never let her make a mess in figuring out how to do it herself. lol. ;)