Another Big Fat Greek Wedding...

Hey lovelies! Sorry for the lack of posting, we've been in Greece for about a week now on our annual summer vacation. The kids are finally over their jet-lag (thank God) because waking up at 4:30 am everyday for a whole week is less than awesome. We went to a huge wedding (almost 400 people) in the small town of Astros and had a great time with all our fam and friends. In fact almost 100 people came from Canada alone for the wedding...nothing like a 9 hour time change to bring home-town friends together!

 One of these kids is not like the others... Mama's too tall and in need of a tan!

 Up "the mountain" at the brides family home, starting off with some traditional dancing before heading down to the church for the ceremony

 The tradition of walking the bride to the church to meet her groom

 Arriving at the church

 Joining the rest of the guest waiting for the wedding to begin

 Inside the church during the ceremony

 Waiting for the couple to exit the church, not all the guest "fit" inside the church so they waited outside!

 The happy couple...they're married!

 The get-away (Smart) car

 At the reception dinner, traditional Greek desserts and candy coated Jordan almonds called" Boubounaries"

 Mama feeling good after a few glasses of wine

 The couple arrived to the party by boat!

 The reception was outside by the water..dinner for 400!

 The bride got the dancing started at around 1:00 am

The groom busted a move, dancing the traditional Zeibekiko dance

The wedding was a blast and of course we didn't make it back to our hotel until almost 6:00 am and the band was still playing...

More updates will be coming but our internet is a bit sketchy and I'm not sure how often I'll post... tho I'll try to keep you kids updated as much as possible!

Hope your July has been fun in the sun, where ever you are!

...and we're back!

The wait is over kids, Mama and the crew are back from the sunny hot beaches of broke-ass Greece!!  We had a fabulous time (as always) but of course I'm so so soooooo glad to be back! Five weeks away from home is always a long time, no matter how great the place you go to is....

Don't be fooled by this pic of calm family togetherness. This has NOT been an easy trip. Traveling with a 2 and 5 year old (boys) is almost like asking for a big plate of "pain" with a side of "why did I ever leave my house in the first place?"

We loved the trip overall but I'll be sure to fill you all in on our ups (great nightlife) and downs (2 year old waking up everyday at 5 am).

Let's begin with our fresh hell plane ride over the 'pond'..

Kid #2 started the traveling day with his first, official, all out, no holds barred TANTRUM of the century while we were waiting to board the plane. Never mind that I'm trying to juggle passports, sippy cups and stollers, he decides this is a great time to go ape-shit and try and take us all down with him.  It was not a good omen for the rest of the flight.  He then proceeds to "unload some of his own baggage" just as we're about to take our seats. Why why WHY do kids insist of pooping at the most inconvenient times??

I deserve a prize for changing the nasty diaper in the tiniest airplane bathroom on earth. Just saying. 

We then had the pleasure of having our seats directly above the wings of the plane. The low, loud, vibrations from the engines did NOT act to sooth us to sleep but instead drove us close insanity because I could feel the rattling right through to my teeth.  Must be similar to living above a subway line??!

Kid #2 went on to yell/hit/cry for most of the flight (10 1/2 hours thanks to a mechanical delay) and decided that one and half hours of sleep (waking up 4 times to wail) is more than enough "sleep" during the whole flight. Guaranteed the people sitting around us wanted Kid #2 dead. 

All the while Mama is having kittens because I was fairly positive we would miss our connecting flight to Athens thanks to the delay. Once we touched ground in Frankfurt I literally whipped and dragged the kids (and Husband) through security, passport control and finally made it to our gate....and by the Grace of God we were on time for our next 3 hour flight. 

 

{Note Kid #2's pained expression. This was his look while on the plane for 10 1/2 hours. The ENTIRE time}

When we arrived at our home outside of Athens we were greeted by 22 people over for dinner at OUR house. YES, 22 people. No I didn't have to cook, and as much as I loved seeing many of our relatives as soon as we arrived, after over 15 hours of travel time I was not in the mood to entertain and do dishes. But that's what we got...  This was the beginning of many huge family dinners at our house.

Last night here at home I cooked dinner for (only) 4 people. It was awesome. 

Summer's a comin'!

Summer is coming and that means that soon we'll be off to Greece for our yearly summer holiday. Husband is from Athens originally but we have a place just outside of the city on the sea.  I've got tones to do to prepare for the trip and apparently now we're only "allowed" by the airline to take 1 bag/person.  Have they gone crazy? How am I supposed to travel to the other side of the world with ONE suitcase for myself? Do they not know that we're going to Europe, where people actually dress really well like ALL the time?   I guess Kid #1 and #2 will be sharing a suitcase this year to free up another bag for Mama. Obviously.

{Only 1 bag. Say whaaat?}

We're heading to our summer home for a little over a month. That's right, I'm going to our home, which means I need to bring STUFF for the home. Like lots of stuff.
One suitcase only Air Canada? REALLY?
So somehow I'm supposed to defy the laws of physics and stuff three suitcases worth of things into one.  Already this trip is stressing me.

I've got lots to do to get ready and one of the main things I need to do is brush up on my Greek.  I've talked about the mission impossible challenges of learning this language before here.
I've taken classes but I finally broke down and bought  the Rosetta Stone Language Program (you know, the language CD's they're selling by late-nite infomercial.) So basically I'm trying to teach myself Greek. I had a good base of understanding and I'm not a complete Muppet but dang is it hard...

{Box should read: Contains mind bending-ly difficult language lessons. Morons need not attempt}

{Learn Greek you say?}

So now, instead of reading blogs all day I'll be trying to spend my time practicing Greek. Why is nothing ever easy?

Sooo I'm back

Alohaaaaaaaaa Mama's back!!!
Wow-za, what an amazing holiday we had, Hawaii is beautiful!! It's not my first time there, but I was younger on my last trip and def. didn't appreciate it like I did this time.  We stayed in Honolulu at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach...totally gorgeous!

{Koi pond at the hotel}

Hawaii is seriously a little gem that barely feels like it's part of the U.S..  It has all the benefits of being part of the states, but definitely has it's own Hawaiian culture that is a big mix of native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. Hawaiians are totally laid back and friendly...not really moving any faster than they need to, but it's a hot climate right?  But not too hot, perfect actually. Why the freak do I live in a place with snow? I absolutely LURVE the sun...let's just say that Mama's Vitamin D levels are allll topped up.
And of course we lurved the food, Poke (raw Ahi Tuna marinated in soya sauce), Kalua Pork (like BBQ pulled pork) and Lomilomi salmon (raw chopped salmon mixed with tomatoes, onions and seasoning) mixed with Poi (boiled taro root). Honestly it's all way more yummy then it sounds. We chowed down at a Luau...Hawaiian stylezzz!

Waikiki is a great beach,  you can swim safely (sans sharks and killa waves) and you can still look for Nemo while you snorkel along the reefs.

We did a dive in a submarine off shore from Waikiki...saw tonnes of underwater sea-life. Sea turtles, white tipped sharks, rays, Nemo.

 We rented a car and drove around the island, stopping at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and of course headed to the North Shore and Sunset beach to check out the massive waves.  Can't actually swim there...the thrill is in letting the waves reach you while you're standing on the beach.  They'll knock u down!!

{Ser-i-ously, no swimming allowed. But surfing is ok?!}

Just got home but I'm wanting to go back...home is where the heart is, yeah, blah blah blah. Hawaii is where the fun in the sun is!  If it weren't for the painful 7 hour flight to get there (traveling with young kids blows, FYI), I'd probably go every winter. It's also tres expensive. Obviously b/c it's an island in the middle of the South Pacific. Everything has to be flown in... $5 for a quart of milk?!!  Yeah, it's basically a Volcano-made-chunk-of-earth in the middle of nowhere. But it has palm trees...and I LURVE palm trees!! And the sunsets are krazy!

{Hawaiian sunsets are A-mazing}

{Mama VS. the Volcano}

We swam, we ate amazing food (I even had some Pineapple my least fave food in the world, strange, I know), we drank (soooo many Mai Tai's, Daiquiri's and Blue Hawaiians), we tanned, we luau-ed, we explored, we dove, we relaxed. Fabulous! 

Oh, and I shopped. But's that's a whole other post....

Aloha Bitches!

We're off for 11 days of FUN-IN-THE-SUN!   There will be multiple fruity drinks consumed and plenty of seafood and fruit. Bring it on Hawaii! 

I'll be bloggin' as soon as we're back.... 
Miss me!