How was your weekend? I spent Friday night here:
which is to say I had a pretty fabulous weekend. My parents stayed at our house and took care of the children, and I will say this: I always fret a little about leaving them, even for one night, and they always wish that I stayed away longer. Hum. It’s nice to have time with just my husband and not be completely distracted by the kids, as I often am. A friend’s mother was talking to me about when her girls left home and she found herself sitting across the table from her husband, just the two of them; how strange it was and how important it is to cultivate that relationship. Not that I’m panicking about the empty nest just yet, but still. Another friend, who is a pharmacist working with cancer patients, told me that incidences of the human papillomavirus spike in teenagers AND in women in their fifties – empty nesters who leave their husbands and engage in promiscuous activity. Where am I going with this? IT’S IMPORTANT TO CULTIVATE THE RELATIONSHIP, PEOPLE. And so I had a great time in Banff. We walked to downtown Banff for dinner and met up with an elk on the way:
Cute! It’s not so common to see elk in the townsite anymore, and so I got my picture taken with it.
Look, he’s showing his bum.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and hung out in the lounge, getting drunk, listening to a fabulous blues guitarist, and meeting people at the bar. That’s always fun. We met a couple from Boston who were also Patriots fans, so there was much “Gooooo Pats!” talk and more drinking. I stayed up until – wait for it – MIDNIGHT. I had the teensiest bit of a headache the next day.
I had made a full recovery by Sunday and was persuaded by the children to put up all the Halloween decorations and carve pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is one of those family fun activities that actually end up being NOT SO MUCH family fun. I mean, the end result is fun. The ideas about what the pumpkins should look like, that’s fun too. But the actual carving? My husband gets the glory of using a very sharp tool that’s designed to cut drywall. I get stuck cleaning the goop out of the pumpkins and trying to save the seeds for roasting, which only I eat anyway. The kids refuse to assist in the cleaning process, and only wish they could assist in the cutting process, and so pumpkin carving is really not much of a family fun project. They turned out well though:
Banff! That is one of the many lovely Canadian locales I wrote about when I worked at Travelago.com despite, you know, NEVER HAVING BEEN THERE. Wonder why our travel dotcom went belly up? It’s a mystery.
Yeah. Nobody wants to see a cougar with papilloma virus. Cultivate your relationships, people.
Your hair looks awesome. And now I want pumpking seeds.
Frickin’ pumpkin carving. I hate it. It’s like decorating the Christmas tree. At first everyone is all “this is so much fun! this is awesome!” and then about five minutes into it they’re all “ho hum” and then they leave and it’s me doing it alone.
Which is why I don’t feel bad about putting one on my head and going into the boys’ rooms in the middle of the night to scare the crap out of them.
I mean, not really….but wouldn’t THAT be awesome?
Time away from the kids is always great when you get it.
Pumpkin carving really never does end up being a family activity as much as we would like it to be.
That does look like Gru! How awesome.
Where IS that hotel? Gorgeous.
Carving pumpkins is not my most favourite thing to do. Have you SMELLED the inside of a pumpkin? Gag. It’s amazing that they taste so good.
PS. I love Banff. It’s too bad it’s so freaking far.
I totally agree about cultivating the relationship. We have taken trips, short ones, but all the same they have been a blast and remind us why we got together in the first place. This summer we started cheese and crackers Sunday dinners. The kids fended for themselves(mine are a little older than yours) and my husband and I sat out on our deck and ate apps and drank wine for most of the evening. So much fun! Also so cool that you ran into some Boston people while you were on your trip, we are pretty cool if I say so myself. Go Pats!
I love carving the pumpkin, but good point about it not being a family affair. My guy hates the goop, too. How sad. I love the last pumkin.
LisaDay