Christmas afternoon and evening was filled with family, food and gifts. I can't believe I don't have any photos of all the food we ate! Babcia & Ciocia Natalya made some really wonderful goodies!Wujek Daniel played Santa this year, and handed out the gifts that he found under the tree. Everyone was amazed at how much Lukasz had grown and he was whisked away to be cuddled and played with as soon as we got in the door. Being the happy, outgoing baby that he is, he had no problem with all the attention!
Ciocia Marta helped him open his gifts: And then helped Lily put together a big puzzle she got from Santa. (Nice hair cut, Lily. :) Babcia got some perfume, which she's encouraging me to smell here:
Lukasz got a Steve Zissou hat!
A BIG card from Babcia & Dziadek:
This picture makes me laugh: Lukasz got a ride-on airplane car, and it's Tomek and I in the photo looking excited about it! We inevitably ate too much and went for a walk with Babcia and Lily to help our tummys.
Babcia & Dziadek's house all decorated:
Flop!
This picture makes me laugh, too. Lukasz is such a good sport!
That's better!
Me & 50lbs of kids right there.
Lily loves to walk up Tatus and then flip over. I remember doing this, but I think I was a lot older. Like maybe 5 or 6.
Today we headed out to Lonsdale Quay to have a nice lunch and to search for rain suits for Lily and Lukasz. I fully intend for them to get fresh air every day even when it's raining. I don't mind getting wet, and Lily doesn't seem to either. But it would be nice if they stayed as dry as possible while we were out.
We didn't have any luck in the rain suit department, but the sun came out sporadically so we had a fun time on the Quay.
Lily was fascinated by the fountain and insisted on walking all around on the wall:The bottom of it is all one big mosaic:There was also this starfish-shaped bench, also covered in a mosaic,
that Lily had fun walking on... unsuspecting...
as Tatus snuck up on her!We had a great view of big ships and downtown Vancouver:
And we got lots of nice photos with the kids:
He still needs a hand, but he loves to stand now. He's wearing little corduroy pants. I love them. They are adorable. :) Babcia & Dziadek brought him that cute puppy sweater.
And here's me with 50 pounds of kid in my arms. I'm so lucky. :)
There was some live music while we were there, really beautiful flute music and other instruments as well. Lily and Lukasz both danced to it, and I got it on video. :)
Thursday night was the start of our big surprise. The four of us piled into Babcia & Dziadek's Ford Excursion, along with Babcia & Dziadek, and we drove the 1200 kilometers to Edmonton to surprise Ciocia Natalya and Wujek Daniel with a visit. They knew Babcia & Dziadek were coming, but they didn't know the four of us were. It was quite a surprise for them!
We left at 10 p.m. and luckily Lily and Lukasz slept through the night in their car seats. What awesome kids. Even when they woke up, they didn't complain. We stopped for breakfast and to stretch our legs at a Tim Hortons just past Jasper. I woke up when we were still in Jasper. So beautiful. Towards the end of the drive Lily got restless, so we popped some Polish cartoons into Babcia & Dziadek's built-in DVD player and she was happy. TVs and DVDs are great for times like that (but not much else, really).
We arrived Friday afternoon and Ciocia Natalya cooked us a delicious dinner of salmon, halibut, asparagus and potatoes. Then we went for a walk and saw their neighbourhood, watched the amazing lightning storms...
...and chatted until it was time for bed...
On Saturday they took us to the West Edmonton Mall. Holy Cow. What a mall.Roller coasters whizzing right over our heads as we walked through the amusement park part.
Loop-de-loop-de-loop and a half! And a crazy drop ride. You couldn't PAY me to go on that!
Dziadek and his wnuczek (vnoo-check... sounds like a Dr. Suess character to me :)
Awesome looking merry-go-round!!!
We didn't go on it. I'm too cheap. That mall is expensive.
Wild swing ride. Erk.
HUGE water slides and one side of a....
... very large pool. The pillar in the centre of the deep end is for bungy jumping.Free sea lion show (as seen from just above Lily's head). She loved watching this. I think he's taking a bow in this one.
And in this one.
Gorgeous make-a-wish boat.
Enormous clamshell just under the...
Ship! In the mall. Bizarre.
This dragon was so neat... unfortunately it scared Lily. Kinda scared me, too. This music comes on, lights flash, it starts moving and then it shoots fire out of its mouth! Twice! It was hot. We were standing right in front of it though. My face got toasty. Ciocia Natalya took Lily farther away so I could do my tourist thing and get a video. :) Can you believe this dragon does this every 15 minutes?
Awww.. we took Lily to this pet store and right in front was this little guy, snoozing away: In the evening Natalya cooked us another amazing meal of chicken and roasted vegetables. Yum! Then we all watched The Bee Movie. Pretty cute. Lily thoroughly enjoyed it. And stayed up waaaaaaaaay past her bedtime. Oh well. It was a treat.
Wujek Daniel played Santa this year, and handed out the gifts that he found under the tree.
Everyone was amazed at how much Lukasz had grown and he was whisked away to be cuddled and played with as soon as we got in the door. Being the happy, outgoing baby that he is, he had no problem with all the attention!
And then helped Lily put together a big puzzle she got from Santa. (Nice hair cut, Lily. :)
Babcia got some perfume, which she's encouraging me to smell here:
Lukasz got a Steve Zissou hat!
A BIG card from Babcia & Dziadek:
We inevitably ate too much and went for a walk with Babcia and Lily to help our tummys.
Babcia & Dziadek's house all decorated:
Flop!
This picture makes me laugh, too. Lukasz is such a good sport!
That's better!
Me & 50lbs of kids right there.
Lily loves to walk up Tatus and then flip over. I remember doing this, but I think I was a lot older. Like maybe 5 or 6.
