Family Vacation – 9 days in Okanagan
We just went to Penticton for 9 days and I can tell you it was good!! The trip with 3 kids is long because instead of taking 4.5 hours, we took 7 hours to arrive (same amount of time on the way back!). Why? Because we needed to take the girls out every 2 hours! They were good but they were happy to take a break!! They also needed to eat! So on the way, we stopped at Hope for almost 1.5 hours (time flies too fast) and then a quick stop in the middle of no where between Merritt and West Kelowna. (by the way, there is not one area where you can stop to pee or it is way too far from the highway!). Okay okay you will tell me, who stops? Us and I am sure we are not alone! All the families with kids….
We finally arrived and the weather was good and hot (not too hot though!). We rented a house in Penticton and I can tell you it was nice and it was big (3br upstairs, a big living room and dining room with an open kitchen and a basement full of toys!
Oh oh Mateo was so happy with all these toys! He tries on every costume he could find (pirate, Darth Vader, The Mighty Thor, a Ninja, …)!! Enough space for everybody! And you know what I really really like? It is that the girls have their own room! Oh ya that was good!!! I think they were happy too because we put the playpens together so they could see each other and interact!!! What I also liked was that in the morning, Andrew was going with the girls and Mateo in the basement to play and I was able to snooze without hearing anything! Oh ya it was the one hour of nirvana!!
The girls had their first nap in their room without mommy and they were also able to fall asleep without a lot of help and without a lot of cries! At night it was a different story. Unfortunately they still woke up a lot during the night! They took turns actually! One day Miya was waking up every hour and the next it was Maeva! They still slept a lot in our bed but with the king size they didn’t bother us!! And I could sleep a straight 2-3 hours! I think their teeth is bothering them at night (Maeva is working on her fourth and Miya on her third!)
It was a good house for us. We ate outside almost every day (the only day we didn’t eat it was due to the weather (thunder storm) but we still did a BBQ for every lunch and dinner!! I can tell you we ate so much red meat that we will not eat any red meat for a minimum of a month!!! This house was good and it is a little hard to come back here to Vancouver in our 950 sf with the girls back to our room!!!
Penticton is a city that I really like. It reminds me of the South of France. I always say that Penticton is my little France!!! We rented the house from Friday to Saturday and you know why? You will never guess actually! It was because I would be able to go to the farmers market on Saturday morning twice!! I love this market! It is like a South of France market and it is full of veggies and fruits for cheap (even the organic ones!!). And each time I buy a plant! Last time was a tomatoe tree (which made some tomatoes!) and this time some basil (everyday when I give it some water, I think of Penticton!)
The weather was okay but we didn’t have 40 degrees celcius as expected. It was no more than 27-30 max with 1.5 days of rain 🙁
We went to the lake every day. And everyday at a different beach. We preferred to go in the morning so that it was less hot for the girls. I didn’t swim a lot because it is difficult to manage three kids but I had 2 nice swims (one in Naramata and one at the OK Falls). Andrew swam everyday.
We had ice cream cones (too big!).
On another day we had crepes made by French girls (they were delicious) and I recommend them to everybody. They are there only in the summer and they are situated near the Museum in the boat. The crepe stand is called ouh la la !!
And of course we went for a wine tasting (I didn’t drink 🙁 as I still breastfeed the girls but we bought a bottle that I will taste one of these nights after the girls are in bed!!).
I baked a clafouti (it is a french cherry cake). It didn’t last very long! In 2 shots, it was gone!
It was a good vacation. I wish we could have stayed longer. Mateo was very happy and the girls too! It was nice to be away from our routine!!
I have to tell you that I would love to move there! So if you hear of some good opportunities (for Andrew and I), let me know and you will make a very happy French girl! I think it is a city that kids can grow up without too much worries (we will be always). We would be able to afford a house and the life is way cheaper there!! I would go every Saturday to the market to buy local produce! I am sure everybody would know me at the market!!!
We came back home on Saturday with 12 pounds of apricots, 5 pounds of cherries, 10 pounds of peaches, 10 pounds of tomatoes and some egg plants and zucchinni! I can tell you we all eat a lot of fruit right now! Mateo and the girls love them! I am doing some apricot jam and tomorrow I will do some peach jam! Yum yum for our tum tums!!
