Road Trip

This year Ranz and I decided to take a much deserved vacation... and long overdue honeymoon.  This was our very first trip without the kids and to make it interesting we decided to start it off with a road trip (the overpriced March break airline ticket cost also helped with that decision... $900 bucks each round trip to Florida... forget that!).

How long is a road trip from Ottawa to Florida you might ask?!  26 hours give or take...  the trip down was definitely GIVE.

We started our road trip adventure on a Thursday night... around 5pm.

Our before selfie... 5:11pm Thursday

A road trip might sound fun and adventurous but in actuality it's really not... so here's a brief summery of our drive...

We decided to play Russian roulette radio to see what tunes each city radio station had to offer.  Here's the list before I crashed out on Ranz (I did that a lot to him!).

All Star

I Touch Myself

Can't Fight This Feeling 

I Would Do Anything For Love

It's My Life

Mysterious Ways

That's All

I Want Rock and Roll

What If God Was One Of Us

Big Girls Don't Cry

Free Falling

She's A Killer

Go Your Own Way

Flying High Again

Runaway Train

... This is where I get super sleepy and forget to finish our road trip playlist :(

What else do you do in a car to kill time...

Take numerous State stop selfies

A quick manicure... I think I did pretty good considering the sharp turns and all!

US Gas prices rock!!!  $150 all the way to Florida!

This is me attempting to take pics of anything interesting along the way... 

This is Daryl... He's ready to help us fight zombies when that day comes... oh and it's coming!

We arrived at our destination at 12 midnight... 30 hours... we did however stop for 4 hours midway.

And the way back...not so fun.  

Goodbye palm trees :'(

Hello... Mexico?! 

Our cruise ported Saturday... we left Florida around 12:30 pm.  I had to be back to work Monday morning so it was a quick trip North to say the least.  To top it off, Ranz wasn't feeling the greatest so I did most of the driving and I definitely needed the rest of the week to recuperate... so exhausting!  We made it home in 25 hours!!!

Ranz

I haven't blogged in quite a while.  Not because I have nothing to blog about.  Simply because where does the time go?  Finding time to sit down with my laptop is proving to be a challenge these days.

Today I'm making time...

This post is dedicated to my loving husband who has made one of the biggest sacrifices I can imagine... and that is moving to the coldest place on earth!!!  Well, it sure feels like it lately.

On January 29th Ranz flew into Ogdensburg NY...on a Cessna... and got to fly up front for a bit.  How fun :) 

World's smallest International Airport... OGS NY... you blink you miss it... and we did lol

This is 'not' your captain speaking

We decided on Ogdensburg because you can't beat the ticket prices and the hour drive across the border to pick him up was a breeze... driving Ranz into Canada now that was a different story.  

We were asked to pull over and come inside.  Even with the time it took to look over all our immigration papers, the endless questions and our sleepy toddler to deal with, it was still well worth it... Ranz was given a year visitors visa!  

Ranz is now with me permanently!!  I'm not letting him go back without me anymore.  We've lived apart for too long to ever consider it again.  Are times tight without him working?!... yes!! But that really doesn't bother me so much... I would live in a cardboard box if it meant having him with me forever!

So we wait... for Imigration Canada to process his paperwork.  What is he doing in the meantime?!  Freezing... that's what!!  Leave it to Canada to dish out one of the coldest winters we've ever had during his whole process.  Poor Ranz everyone says... lol

Here's some fun stuff we've done since his arrival, to try to make the best of the cold...

Jace getting some skating lessons

Cold enough?!

Rideau Canal

Family selfie time!

Visit to Thailand on our long weekend...ok maybe not... looks convincing tho ;)

These were taken at IKEA... they're oversized wall art... kodak moments are awesome!!

Thanks bu for moving to my little frozen part of the world... I can't say you don't love me... you have definitely proven it!!  Love you! xoxox

Elf on the Shelf - Jank 2012

Last year we had a house guest from the North Pole surprise us in December.

He's a very naughty little elf that likes to cause havoc in our home.


Meet Jank... 

Immigration

There's a time in your life when you reach a fork in the road and you think, where do I go?!  My hubby and I are have been at this fork for a while now.  

Last weekend we decided it was time to move forward... and take a whole new direction.

Ranz is moving to Canada!

As bittersweet as it is, I can't help but be a bit excited... ok a lot excited!!!!

It's definitely not our forever plan... but California won't be going anywhere anytime soon and what's a few more ice storms and blizzards anyway?!!

So what now?!  IMMIGRATION... ugh.  Way to rain on my parade Mr. Canadian Government.  You would think my husband is coming from the planet Pluto and he has to prove that it's actually still a planet!!  Yes, I still consider Pluto a planet... just because you're small doesn't mean you have to get kicked out of the planet club... geez talk about universal bullying... sorry I'm way off track here.  My point here, (if you're still with me) is that Immigration Canada isn't what I thought it would be.

13 Forms!!!  And that's not even the hard part... very time consuming though.

Questions like...

 

Number of persons included in box #3 of the Generic Application 

Form for Canada (IMM 0008), under section Application Details?

  

Ummm... they lost me with that one!

 

 I loved this question...

Did you give your wife any gifts at your first meeting?

 

How is this a bad thing??? I like gifts lol   

 

Ok so I (almost) understand all the questions... just wish 

they weren't so repetitive.

 

Now that my half is done it just leaves Ranz's half to do... 

and boy do I not envy him right now.

• medical check up... for him and the kids from an assigned doctor at the other end of the world!
• FBI clearence
• fingerprints
• photos
• nursing exam
• documents documents documents
• fees fees feeeees ugh

I hope the kids know that Santa is broke this year 

because wow what a pricey venture this is.

 

Bad news... it could take up to 22 months to process!!! 

That's a sad thought :(

Good news... he could still work here on a VISA if he 

gets a job first.

 

Immigration also asks for pics of us, our family and 

some trips we have been on together.  I thought it 

would be fun to sum up the last 5 years in a collage :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Los Angeles Zoo

This year we spent my birthday at the Zoo!  Jace loved it... everything he saw was an Elephant... lol.

This guy was just chillin... watching the crowd go by.

Flamingo

Mohawk bird

Seals

Tortoise... this guy was huge.

This one made me laugh... now that's grooming! Silly monkeys.

After Jace insisted everything in the zoo was an Elephant... we had to show him what a real Elephant looked like.

I love this pic!

Jace getting the best seat in the house.

Rhino...or Hippo... really what's the difference?!

Giraffe

More Giraffes...

Chimpanzees... these were awesome to watch.

This Chimp was swinging a log with his feet.

Chimp chillin...

More chillin!

A selfie.

Love love this pic of my boys!

Now it's our turn to chill... Jace loves his chocolate... insisted that he eat my whole ice cream by himself... were still working on the sharing thing... lol

Family selfie!

Overall I had a perfect day!  The weather was amazing and the animals were fun to watch.  My favourite was the Chimpanzee exhibit.  We could watch them all day.  So intelligent, one Chimp was eating a cucumber and (like my kids) didn't like the peel.  He managed to remove the peel with his teeth in complete strips like he was using a knife.  Now that's skills right there!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone... feels great to be 25 ;)

P.S...

While my beautiful mama was visiting she treated me to a mani pedi for an early birthday present... arn't they pretty?!! Thanks mom... you're the best!

My nails

Mom's nails