We took a little mini vacation to visit my cousins a bit north of Toronto and we left on Monday afternoon. The drive was suppose to be about two and a half hours, which was the longest Valeria has ever been in the car.
We figured leaving mid afternoon we would miss all the traffic, for a Monday we weren’t expecting much to begin with. Well….we were so wrong! We hit major traffic twice on the way, first was due to some construction on the highway – seems they are fixing or possibly widening the highway and the other was because people are too nosey for their own good and wanted to slow down to watch a cop deal with a multiple car collision. Thankfully that one didn’t seem bad, but still unnecessary to slow down to spectate. In the end it took about three and a half hours to get there. Thankfully Valeria was a little angel and didn’t really fuss at all on the drive, we were so fortunate.
We got there and my cousin Antoinette (who is a trained chef) made about six pizzas, all kinds of varieties and oh man were they absolutely delicious! My favourite was the arugula prosciutto pizza with a balsamic reduction drizzle….MUAH chef’s kiss! We also celebrated my zia’s birthday with her favourite ice cream cake. We sat around talking and just catching up. It was such a nice evening. Sadly my zia and zio had to work the next day so it was an early night for them, Valeria was exhausted so Anthony went to be with her and my other cousin Gaetano was pretty tired and went up to be not long after every one else. Antoinette and I stayed up talking on the couch about everything and anything until nearly five in the morning. We couldn’t help it, we needed to catch up in person….though we do talk every day through texts, that’s not the point!
Once we got some rest, though Valeria had other plans extremely early that morning, we all got ready for the day and headed to the mall. Just something to do on a very gloomy day and just to get Valeria out of the house. The parking lot looked packed, but the mall was pretty quiet with customers. We bought a few things; I got a brown cowboy hat, a summer hat, sunglasses and some crystals. My cousin Antoinette pretty much got the same, and we also had to grab coffee, a necessity with how little we really slept.
It was funny at one point my husband turned to us and laughed “You two are so scary similar it’s hilarious, you are holding your coffee and shopping bags literally the same way. You are two peas in a pod!” We looked at each other and he was right, we laughed and she said “Well, we are family.” Valeria was smiling and laughing as we walked around, people watching as Anthony carried her in the chest carrier. She was loving life and man she kept having people smile and wave to her, it was so cute. She is very much like me, she loves to people watch.
After a few hours, we headed home and had some Japanese food for dinner at home. Valeria tried rice for the first time, along with some cheese and potato with butter. We didn’t have any meat for her to have really but she wasn’t overly interested in food. She was pretty exhausted. We all played with her after dinner and then McFussem came out (her I’m exhausted alter ego) and we knew to put her down for the night. Anthony put her to bed and stayed with her and again everyone went to bed fairly early. Ant and I stayed up chatting and when her mom got home from work, well let’s just say we didn’t get to bed until four in the morning. We were just having a blast sitting around the table chatting, telling stories and snackin.
Once again, we all got a bit of sleep and than up for the day. Thankfully my zia didn’t have to work, but unfortunately Antoinette had to go in for Noon. We spent some time with my cousin and my zia, everyone else had to work early, but we made sure to say our goodbyes the night before. Eventually we had to say our goodbyes that morning and headed out. We dropped my cousin off at work, stopping in quickly to grab some pastries from her.
The drive was pretty good, we had to make a pit-stop for Valeria’s diaper change and we made it home in two and a half hours exactly. When we got home, we unloaded the car and Valeria and I took a very much needed nap. We both slept for hours, it was glorious.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and unwinding, but I missed them as soon as we left. But we will make the trip a few times I think this summer. I love them so much and so glad we reconnected.
I’m going to end it here and I apologize for the lengthy post, but this was only a small portion of the last two days. Hope you enjoyed and I will have more adventures to come!
Ciao!!
Mama on the Move 