The Harrison-Helins: October 2010

Sunday, October 31

The many faces of Ethan

Saturday, October 30

“Relax, take it e-e-easy, there is nothing that you can’t do!”

After a hectic few months we finally ‘have the weekend off’ to chill, relax and recharge our batteries. Well, not entirely true. We have been invited to a few things this weekend and last night was Maeghan and Reg’s leaving party. A whole bunch of people met up at the ‘Ghille Dhu’ for a few drinks, some good banter and a Ceilidh. The two of them are ditching Scotland for greener pastures in Canada and we are of course going to miss them dearly!

Today we are having a lazy day, just hanging out and with no immediate plans to leave the flat, or even get dressed for that matter! It is only when you decide to stay at home and take a break from running around you remember to appreciate the little things. So, today Ethan has been policing the flat in his police cruiser, we've been playing, snacking and we’ve blown and popped soap bubbles. Oh, and Ethan beat his old record and took 4 steps this morning! We've even had time to mop the floors and dust the picture frames in between play-time, snack-time and nap-time! (The fact that I am actually getting excited about that accomplishment; does that mean that I am getting old?)

We are in an interesting phase in our lives right now with a lot going on and a lot of opportunities and good things on the horizon but also a lot of things that we need to figure out in the near future. It is all good things though so we are not worried. If it is one thing we are good at, it is 'to roll with the punches' and make lemonade when we are given lemons. Don’t want to reveal too much just now so let me just leave you with a cliff-hanger and say: “When we know more, you’ll know more!” :)

This guy is 16 months today:

Happy Halloween!

From:

'Ethan The Mountaineering Dragon' and his keepers.

Wednesday, October 20

We are so 2000-and-late… with our blog updates!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to drop a quick line and let you know that we have not forgotten about you, or the blog for that matter! Facebook helps us remember your birthdays and the mobile phone address book helps us remember your names when you are calling us… ;) No but seriously; September and October have been two very, very hectic months for us and lots of exciting things have happened (and continue to happen!) Lately, we’ve mostly updated the blog with photos but we figured you’d probably be mostly interested in following our photo trail around Europe anyway.

The three of us are back in Edinburgh for the next two months and are (hopefully) doing great trying to juggle work, play dates, baby groups, birthday parties, visits, nights out, our new (and blossoming) website business, and much more. As you know, we love having tons on the go so no complaints there!

Next up on the list of things to plan and do is to get Shaena’s passport sorted and then start planning for our next trip across the water: 'The Harrison-Helin Wisconsin Christmas With a Capital 'C'’! Very much looking forward to that too!

Saturday, October 16

Euro trip photos: Menorca

Quad-couple weekend in Elie & St Andrews

Wednesday, October 13

Lets recap

The past few weeks have been full of sightings, outings, comings, goings, eatings, sleeping, partying and finally resting! Ethan has been awarded the super-de-dooper traveller award and mom and dad get honorable mentions. I really do think we should have trophies for the challenges we had to do and overcome. For example, trying to navigate the metro system in Paris and asking the police men if this stop has "rein du stairs" only to find out that once helped inside we have about 3 more flights randomly throughout the station! GOLD STAR!
Fun things we've discovered that aren't in any tour guides:

Ethan and I found out that you get front of the line access to the Louvre and the bathrooms there are free so if you are ever in Paris and need to pee, take a kid and a stroller and go!
You may get early access to your hotel room cause who wants a mom and baby sitting in the lobby crawling around trying to kill time!
You may avoid extra fees or penalty fees if you miss your trains or have too much baggage.

This past weekend was finally our couples weekend at Jen and Mike's place in Elie which is about 20 min outside of St. Andrews. Orlaith, Nicky, Maeghan, Reg, Peter, Ethan, Sarah (Maeghans' friend) and I made our way into town on the Saturday morning to go "celebrity spotting". Rumoured to be at this event was Hugh Grant (my Hugh-bo!), Samuel L. Jackson, Huey Lewis, Michael Flatley and other stars. Unfortunately for us, we were sold a lemon and anyone that we might know were playing at the subsequent golf course located a 40 min drive from St. Andrews. The cheek! I really think it was Jen's way of luring us to Elie so Mike could go watch the tournament and she'd have some company. No, really, we were just going for some good old fashioned board game fun and time to hang with good friends.

Funny story though...

We were at Tesco's on the Saturday trying to restock the wine cabinet for our games night in. Jen and I found a great deal so we stood in the endless queue and when we finally got to the checkout it turns out she didn't have her ID. Their policy is that whomever is at the till must present valid ID. So we scoffed with the guy for a bit as I was sure I could present mine and they finally let us slide so Jen went to the car to get my ID and came back with an empty wallet as I remembered there and then that I've sent mine off with my passport application. Now he was sure not to let us through and the line seemed to glare at us even more as we had been bargaining with the clerk for about 5 minutes now. As I was explaining the reason I didn't have valid ID on me, I said, "look, I have my son's ID" and he said "fine, let me see it" and he let us go on that! Can you believe it? Not like an underage kid could have a kid? Anyway, we had a nice glass of wine with dinner and that was that!

So Ethan and I are just counting down the days till my passport is back from processing and then we can book our USA getaway!
We finally have our ZOO membership so we're hoping to go there at least twice a week and eventually make it to the viewpoint.

I'll add a picture when we do!