It has been a long time since I hopped on this blog to write about what has been happening with our family over the summer, but it’s just been so busy! Between our family moving, driving out west in an epic road trip, moving in and getting ready for a new school year, I have found it really difficult to find the time to sit down and write. I have been wanting to share how our road trip went though, so now, nearly two months later, I am finally putting a pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard…you know how it goes).

First of all, let me just express how much moving sucks. It really, REALLY sucks but I’m sure most of you already knew that. We decided instead of hiring movers we would get a big shipping container that we could pack ourselves, in our own time. This may have been a mistake. Between the three kids always being at home with us and my husband trying to finish up some last minute renovations before listing our home, we did NOT really have the time to pack up everything ourselves. There is a reason why there are professionals for this. Fitting everything in properly is an art. It took way longer than we thought to fully pack up and when we were finally moved out and ready to hit the road it was a whole week later than we had planned on.

It was very emotional to say goodbye to our home and neighbourhood, not to mention our friends who had made Ottawa such a wonderful place to live. But we had to get moving! Leo started his new job in a matter of days and we had a lot of ground to cover. I also realized as we got in the car to start our cross Canada road trip that we were not prepared for the drive. We had spent so much energy packing up and getting the house ready that we hadn’t given much thought to how this drive would go, especially during a pandemic! No hotels were booked ahead of time, our itinerary was having to change as our timeline had gotten shorter and honestly we didn’t know how our 14 month old would handle that much time in the car.

Sure enough, Ellie started wailing about five minutes into our trip. We were forced to pull over and take our first rest stop just one hour outside of Ottawa. Leo actually looked at me as we sat at that rest stop and asked, “Is this crazy? We can call the whole thing off now and just book flights.” Instead, we got back in the car and just kept going. We didn’t make it as far as we had hoped that first day. We rolled into a Sudbury hotel around 10 pm (we had booked it online from our phone about an hour before). Unfortunately that meant our next day of driving had to be reeeeally long as we aimed for Thunder Bay.

Stopping for food along the way wasn’t the easiest thanks to covid restrictions. At that point there was no in-restaurant dining available. We did A LOT of picnicking out of the trunk of our van. It also wasn’t always the easiest to find healthy take-out options, especially driving through small towns where it was Tim Hortons or nothing. I did my best to run into grocery stores and stock up on cut veggies and fruit whenever possible.

After a rough start, Ellie received the Most Improved Traveller award on day 2 as she napped like a champ and was just overall a joy in the car despite how long we drove for. Thank goodness, because we hit some seriously sketchy weather en route to Thunder Bay with thick fog and driving rain. I swear I was gripping the wheel with white knuckles for at least an hour as I could barely see a few metres in front of the car.

We got into our Thunder Bay hotel super late, carrying three sleeping (and super heavy) kids from the car into our room. The next morning we made a point of visiting the Terry Fox memorial site where he had to stop his journey. Lucas had learned a lot about Terry and his heroic journey in school, so making that visit was a highlight for him. Then it was back on the road again! Next stop…Winnipeg!

Getting out of Ontario is no easy feat. What a beast! It’s half the journey, honestly. Our last stop in Ontario before crossing the border into Manitoba was Kenora. Kenora is a gorgeous little town, surrounded by a bunch of lakes. As we pulled in I did a quick google search to find the best beach for kids and we ended up at a lovely spot. After so much driving it felt really good to jump out of the van, have a picnic dinner and all cool off in the lake. Pro tip: I made sure to pack our swimsuits and towels separately and keep them very accessible in the car for any impromptu swims like that one!

Once we hit the prairies it felt like we were flying! We crossed one province per day after that. Flat, straight, with some epic sunsets to welcome us into Winnipeg one night and then Saskatoon after that. In Saskatoon we got to stay with one of my best friends and her family. It felt pretty amazing to have a home cooked meal and let the kids play around with friends after three straight nights of hotels and fast food. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long with our friends. We had to hit the road and get to Edmonton as quickly as we could.

As much as we were on a tight schedule, we did try to squeeze in some fun stops. We made sure to pull over in Vegreville, Alberta to get an up close look at the world’s largest Easter egg. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that? We also made sure to make some important ice cream stops. Ice cream is always a priority in our family

Edmonton is my husband’s hometown, so we were able to stay at my in- laws home and get a family visit in. However, by that point we had run out of time. Leo had to start his new job and couldn’t finish the road trip with us. I would continue on driving the rest of the way to Vancouver alone with the kids, while he would fly out to the coast. That meant another 12 hours or so of driving for just me, but I felt pretty good about it because the kids had been doing amazingly well on the road trip.

After two nights in Edmonton, I packed up and hit the road with the kids. We were headed to Kamloops, BC (about an 8 hour drive). Kamloops is where my father is from and our family now owns what was once his childhood home. It is a beautiful property in the country and on a lovely creek. It’s a special place for me and my kids, so we had that to look forward to and it really felt like we were in the home stretch.

If you’ve never driven through the Rocky Mountains, I can’t recommend it enough. It is stunning. We had the most scenic drive through Jasper National Park where we got to see the mountains, glacier rivers and lakes, and even a bear and some elk along the side of the road. It helped make that leg of the trip very memorable.

That evening we got to pull up to the Kamloops house with such a sense of relief and coming home. We had finally made it to BC! The kids ran up to the home hoping to see their grandparents, but unfortunately my parents weren’t there to greet us (due to covid they had stayed in Vancouver). However, they had visited the house the week before and stocked the fridge for us and left a few new toys and activity books for the kids to enjoy.

The next day we headed for Vancouver – the final leg of our trip! It would feel short, only a four hour drive, compared to what we had accomplished already. In total we had covered more than 4500 kilometres over one week of driving. The kids had truly been amazing. True, Lucas and Rowan ended up watching A LOT of movies en route and probably missed some of the scenery because of it, but I never even heard one “are we there yet?” from them. And yes, Ellie did eat A LOT of snacks, way more than I would normally be comfortable giving her, but she too, was generally a delight in the car (pretty amazing given her age).

Now that we are in Vancouver it still hasn’t totally sunk in that we are here for good. I still feel like we will somehow be returning to our Ottawa house (even though it quickly sold to new owners). Coming back to Vancouver during a pandemic has made this homecoming different than I had imagined. A lot of reunions just haven’t even happened yet, and most of the reunions we have had, have been from a distance and without those “welcome home” hugs we so crave. However, we are slowly making this our home again and starting to feel settled. After a month and a half, a lot of our stuff is still in boxes but we are chipping away at it in our free minutes. The kids are about to start their new school, we are getting to know our new neighbourhood, Leo is getting comfortable working in a new hospital and most importantly we have been soaking up the time with our family here on the west coast.

I have missed connecting with you all over the blog! The site is still live for now and hopefully it can continue to be a resource through the archived posts, to help you with tips for apple orchards, family hikes, pumpkin patches and more. As I get a little more settled in Vancouver I hope to eventually start another blog out here. Perhaps it will help or inspire some of you Ottawa readers to take a family vacation out west. So stay tuned!