family vacation

all smiles with daddy in old montreal

ken and i took an extended weekend last week and went on a family road trip with nathan. for the last three years, we've gone on a vacation around ken's birthday and, of course, he did not want to break with tradition. this year we opted for quebec city. ken figures it's the closest he can get to europe right now. last year around this time we took our first family road trip to pittsburgh when nathan was only 4.5 months old. and it was torture. he screamed the whole way home and that was only a 5 hour car ride. quebec city is about 8.5 hours away. i was nervous. thankfully, now that he's a year older, he's more tolerant of lengthy car rides. we had hoped that his usual 2.5-3 hour nap would segue into the car, but the longest he was able to nap on the road was just under 2 hours. we basically stopped every couple hours or one of us would sit in the back and entertain nathan. or he would entertain himself (see video).

looking out over the boardwalk in quebec city

entering through the vip entrance @ benjo (toy store)

he had the best time playing in this $60 cardboard house and daddy would have bought it for him too if it weren't for the size and not being able to transport it home

yummers! poutine @ frites alors

one last pitstop on the way home: our old alma mater!