Pictures from Turks and Caicos 2018

Turks week 2 couple

The kids left and was honestly a really good week . So relaxing and just chilling with us

Felt very odd though not to have bear with us !

With Cassie however they were still three though so didn’t notice it as much

As soon as everyone left we were very eager to FaceTime bear ( only did one short time with kids as felt like was mean to him to see us all having fun on vacation without him )

So Sunday night at sunset on beach we FaceTime a ans him and Sandrine were having a romantic weekend at cottage so not sure how much he missed us ! Was so cute to see them sending pics of fancy dinners they made together ( salmon tartar and Brie ) and cuddled near the fire trying to delay their Sunday night departure as much as possible

I love that our kids seem to also have the cottage bug ( especially when we are not there ! ) and love the coziness and nature of it all . They spent a good part of day hiking up the ski mountain and back down .jacuzzi , watching movies , studying . A cute couple for sure .

Here in Turks we are still sick and Hubby lung infection and 2 eye infections . Now 3 days before going home although both lots of meds and horrible cough still ( for me has been 21 days !! ) we at least function ans have some energy

We love love love it here . Could easily live here . Love the pace of our days and reading and sleeping and watching movies and snuggling up ( when we are not coughing all over each other )

So nice to take a break from the crazy 8 month marathon of work we have just been though

And realizing that it did not serve us well to do that to our lives and bodies clearly . Not something I would do again to work every night and every weekend . That is for sure . This new career better provide us the balance we need and have demanded and fought for all our lives

I have spent a good part of my vacay thinking and planning out stage 2 ( the marketing stage ) and feeling good about things . I needed a step back for a few weeks after launch to just breathe and let it all settle in and now ready to get to work again

Although feel cheated to be on vacay so sick and with hubby now ever sicker as hard to fully enjoy like this - I feel blessed too . So blessed that we have each other , are still very much in love and life partners after 22 yrs of marrriage - and that our kids are old enough now to largely take care of themselves while we are away ( my mom is there about 4 nights making meals and keeping them company and driving beauty places but such a different ballgame than before leaving older teens than kids or younger teens )

I feel blessed we can Afford this beautiful vacation and have endless opportunities before us to work hard and create ans market and do this again year after year I am hoping

It’s like home to us and we adore it with our heart and souls

I love the disconnecting of it all too . Love it

Besides checking my email and texts for 24 hrs mid week and social media and then having a text chat with savvy last night and a couple of very few and far between texts with kids about logistics we take a total mental break and give our kids ones too

It refuels us in a way you cannot understand unless you have ever tried disconnecting before ( and have a very demanding career where you are connected to your phone all day long and need the break

Turks 2018 with Beauty Cassie and Chase!

Just ending the first week of Turks with three teens !

Beginning our second week as a couple

We invited beauty and Cassie to come for first week at the condo ( as both boys had school and girls as week off )and two weeks before we left chase said could come as only two classes . Yay !

Sadly bear could not come as in mid terms and we missed him . Beauty and chase especially sang his praises many times during the vacation ( both saying they wished was him instead of each other that was on trip !! )

We were initially a little scared to share with three teens this downtime as had such a crazy work year all we could imagine doing was sleeping for 2 weeks . That being said we quickly realized that being with these three was actually very relaxing

This age is awesome as we all just like pretty much doing the same thing all the time : namely relaxing on beach , eating , swimming , reading . Going out to lunch or dinner . All 5 on the same rythm especially that with us both sick we were not needing a lot of activity going on

One thing that has to be said : Hubby and I are sick as dogs :((( like the worst broncitis have ever had that just won’t go away . I was sick 10 days straight before coming here and finally felt a little better and came back full on when arrived here . Hubby slightly sick as arrived here and two days in got so so sk sick again and tomorrow will have to go to a medical clinic to see if pneumonia . So this has been hard and trying not to let it ruin anything for the kids so laying low but both coughing all day and all night every moment , fall asleep anywhere and everywhere , can barely hold a conversation as too much energy . You get the picture . Sick sick sick

Dépite that however we are having an amazing time . No way are we spending this kind of money and staying only in bed .

Our routine with the kids

Get up around 9am

All out to beach by about 10:45 or 11am

All relax all day

Go in ocean many times a day

Make lunch or dinner at condo every day and out the other meal

Have long loud meals outside in screened in porch with lots of laughs

Watch sunsets everyday on beach and come into condo at 6:30

Have relaxed dinners in or out and lots of laughs

Fall asleep with doors open of condo and hearing the ocean steps away from our bed

Highlights :

The speed bumps !!!!

The swirves to scare us !!

Hubby getting mad and taking Cassie ans beauty phones away ans Cassie being shocked

Chase telling us that he has no more iCloud space because he has saved every single message from his mom and dad since 12yrs old and refuses to erase them for sentimental reasons :))

Beauty is really tan for first time of her life !!

Cassie’s laugh on speed bumps

The girls taking 750 sexy fake photos of themselves every day

The girls looking for likes on those 750 photographs a day

Chase falling asleep on the beach all the time and especially right at sunset

Cards in the screened in porch

The excursion was amazing and me being called mama by long eyelash black guy

Realizing beauty will very likely be marrying a black guy

Cooking crew and cleanup crew after meals

Beauty lining snorkelling finally

ChAse always keeping us entertained and laughing

Frozen yogurt out

Guessing the prices of meals ans groceries and it always being twice as expensive as we hoped

Not wasting any morsel of food ever

Hubby showing his white bum

The girls camera faces

Me reading half a book in a hour

Massages on the beach for Halloween

Coughing coughing coughing and more coughing . Lots of peeing pants

The girls dressing like twins

The girls dressing in very scarce clothing and no energy to care

Reading my teen books and going on archaeological digs in their brains

Chase talking to us about his future on the beach and asking our input and really working as a trio team

Water slides and diving board on the boat

Not being able to

Believe that in a few months our daughters perfect body is going to be surgically altered

Me and hubby being so high on meds we could not snorkel and were super sea sick and getting back on boat wanting to throw up ( we are both mermaids usually )

The card game night of no laughter

Fancy night out at bace on the beautiful pier

Stand up paddle and seeing jojo the dolphin

Frozen yogurt with candies

Walking the doggies gin and fleury . Realizing not necessarily dog people

Being treated like queens and kings at the palms

Eating in the pool

My first vlog . A total fail

FaceTiming bear ans breaking the code

Not being connected on email or social media

Chase arriving on beach when I was napping and my heart being so full of love

Me realizing some ( very scarce ) advantages of being so sick on vacation :

Me being silent and shutting up is a huge advantage for me family

Me not tasting I eat less sugar

Me peeing all my clothes coughing I don’t care to take pics to annoy people less

Me having to energy to think makes me very much in the simple present

Me bs hubby both being so sick we have zero expectations of each other for cuddles conversations or living . Very equal partnership !

Even thought beauty can be ( really ) challenging which can make day(s) hard .- I saw a new side emerge of her this holiday . An older version of herself and more communicative ( and rebellious ! ) and coming into her own . She is one tough cookie to raise and each day I manage to do it with grace I pat myself on the back

Hubbys star parenting moment

The condo is so awesome

The beach is so beautiful

Bringing frozen Costco meals smartest thing ever done

Us all cooking and cleaning together

Realizing how fun this kind of holiday would be as a family on a condo on the beach with all three of our kids and planning it out

seeing some good bonding going on with chase and beauty which I am thankful for

Realizing how much all kids really value our advice at this stage of their lives which feels like a gift in so many ways and proud of this

Realizing how messy and complicated and awesome and wonderful having older teens is . How crazy hard and how relaxing and amazing it truly is . It’s a true paradox raising kids this age

summer 2108

My mom turned 68 ( she is so young I know ! ) and we had a little party for her at home with our family and our good friends Cheryl and Melissa whom she knows very well too as Mélissa does some work with here when she is unwell

It was a super night of laughing and socializing and being outside in the warm air . I bought candles that said 58 by mistake and so I lessened her age by a decade and she was thrilled !

My mom and her friends spent their traditional 5 days at Trent alone and had amazing weather

We went home during our cottage stay for a night to drop Beauty off at a party and we spent the evening with our boys at Hasu ( all you can eat Thai and sushi ) and went to see mama Mia 2 ! The couple behind us could not believe that 2 teenage boys would go see this ( one of Them groaned a lot each time a song came on but the other one happily sang along after the movie ! )

Walking out of the theatre with one boys around my waist and the other boys arms around his dads shoulders towards the car - I felt so happy and so very proud of these boys and this close connection we share . They are really not embarrassed of us at all ! And happy to indulge our desire to see this movie :)

We shared some fun nights with Beauty’s friends . Cassie came on boat our friend generously lent us for an evening and we went swimming and sunning and our to dinner the four of us and had a super time . Then charlotte came to Trent for a couple of days and we ended up meeting her mom for dinner when we dropped her off and had some more great laughs . Love seeing these girls together since kindergarten:)

Two more of Beauty friends arriving for 4 days soon and excited to share cottage life with them

We went to regatta of course ( has been a decade do this the last Saturday of July at Holiday House ) there were about 35 people and half teens . Had all three of my kids there but Matthieu of course ! Was a great day and evening for all . We are so blessed to have such friendships with so many year after years traditions we share with our families

We were having one weekend as a family all summer for 48 hrs ( all the other weekends friends here of 1 or 2 of kids only )

Five mins before the boys were driving up to come we get a text from bear

“ mom can Matthieu Come Up too “

“ no . Only family weekend and already discussed this “

“ please mom . Matthieu is our best friend and he is like your son “

• “ok that is true !”

He is truly like our adopted son since kindergarten and pretty much lives and breathes every member of our family ( minus grade 6 where he dumped chase ). He has always been chase bff to the point everyone thinks they are a gay couple , now he has Also become bears bff ( and his manager too at the pool ! ) and he is the first person beauty goes and cries on literally when she has boy issues .

So along he came ( as usual ) and of course we all had a blast at regatta and then the next day at Trent all day and evening . Them surfing on the Neighbors boat and us just happy they are here sharing this slice of heaven with us . It’s so satisfying to see them love the cottage life too . I love that it is engrained in them

Beauty seems to have perked up a bit too since their arrival as had been a tough few days with her alone on vacation with us with  the break up  . She has been a bit of a disaster to be honest but things are getting better everyday . Plus have been talking to a bunch of moms and they all say their own teenage kids ( especially daughters ) would rather die than be alone at a cottage with their parents for an extended time ( or even a day )

I guess we have high expectations of our kids and always have when it comes to time with us . Was never an issue with boys so guess we got a little spoiled . True she is last child so alone with us more but boys often were too and never an issue . With Beauty it clearly is !! But will empathize more but won’t change it as think an amazing experience for kids to connect in nature with their parents alone ... and can see Day by day she warms up to

Us more especially when we ban the phone for an afternoon and she has no other options :)

Was good to talk to some other moms though and get some valuable perspectives .

The Sunday all kids were here had such an awesome day . Was perfect . Tons of boating and napping on boat and eating and kids surfing on neighbor boat . Then it rained and all three boys came running off the dock and dove into the lake ! They called our names to join them and we all went into the lake in the pouring rain and then the hot tub and sang French Kid songs . Was so fun . When chase left that night he squeezed me hard and said “ we had the best time ever thanks so much mom “ it’s moments and days like this that I truly love for . Gives me a glimpse and hope of the future and life with adult kids . Just hope they all have spouses as nice and cool as their friends !!

Hubby and I Celebrated 22 yrs of marriage !!! It’s a big accomplishment ! I feel like we are heading into a whole new part of our couplehood together especially this year for many reasons . Will be fun to take the journey and see where it leads us ! He continues to be a massive support to be as I run my current company and launch my second . I truly could never do this without his physical support and mental and emotional support . We truly are life partners

The boys and all their Friends continue to nap all together at our house and cottage whenever and wherever they can . There preference is always in the same bed all cuddled up ! I know might sound wierd but that’s who they are and they are all damn proud of it

Many days of the week at home bear and chase and Matthieu her home from Work and go up to

Sleep in bears bed ( chase room way to messy to find the bed !! ) and sleep all together . They are very odd as boys often would never do this ( girls do ! ) but they love it and tell everyone :) I love that they are themselves !

Lots of big events coming up . Bear driving 7 friends to Toronto for 4 days music festival . Staying on hotels and they spent a Fortune in the tickets

Chase ending his Pharma onco internship in 2.5 weeks and heading to a business leadership camp for 4 days in Ottawa bc of his student government role

And my Bebe beauty is heading in 6 days to ecadour on a humanitarian trip !!! To build a school ! All alone and knows nobody ! Only huge fear she has is spiders ! This will for sure deserve a post or it’s own and will get one when she comes back !!!!!

Very proud of her . Kinda forced her since no camp to do something away 2 weeks and this is what she chose . So can’t say she is excited but I think will end up being an amazing experience for her especially since no phones for 2 weeks yay ! A parents dream

That’s is for now ! Only blog 1-2 times a month on this blog now as switching over to my new website which will include a blog there too

This is more of a record keeping now for our family and bffs :)

Fall 2018

Hmmmmm this blog is really really taking a hit lately . Using it only for recording keeping purposes until beauty graduates from highschool this year in June 2019 so can record her prom and her big surgery and be able to publish her at grad on top of a printed blog book like her brothers had . It’s only fair our beautiful girl gets that too !

Recap of what is going on this fall of 2018 as there is lots )

Chase in second year jmsb ans in case comp which he loves . Very very entrepreneurial guy and lots of talks about his future etc and trusting him to do what is right for him while strongly strongly pushing university and finishing . He will I am sure but a bit of a battle lately . Will be interesting to see where all ends up and i bet in the perfect place . Have so much confidence and trust in this guy to make the decisions that are good for his life

Working also on him being a good roommate as a 20 yr old living at home . Gets worse and then better and then worse and better . Overall he makes us so happy and all works out but hard letting go ! No more family dinners as courses all evening of the week ! New thing is having a thing with Spanish girls ! Taught himself full Spanish this summer and looking for opportunities To practice verbal and non verbal o guess !

Bear - loving second year cégep and did some great volenteering for big  TED . Waiting to hear answer for awesome trip to Belize for marina bio course . Uni applications this year . Huge year for him !!! This kid is sooooo organized . As chase likes to say “ he has his shit together this boy ! “

He totally does . Becoming easier and easier to live with and less stubborn and really finding our way at this age that can be tough to navigate as parents . And bear is in love since sept 2018 wish a lovely girl sandrine he met a year ago . She is a sweetie and they seem very happy to have made a decision to move forward with their relationship

Beauty

Ah beauty ... hard hard hard her growing up . Hard on family life . She is a tough teen . Listens and obeys rules for sure thank god but doesn’t show us love which makes me want to cry all the time ( and often I do )

I don’t give up . I know she is worth fighting for and I will but man she does not make this easy

In solo compétions and will do 3 before surgery we hope .

Teaches hip hop at h4l . Takes jazz tech

Studies more and more as opted for high math and sciences and struggles but persists a lot ( and complains a lot )

Over Simon thank god ! Seeing a new guy and goes on dates

Surgery is around Week of March 25 and will have medical exemption for last semester . Some big stuff coming up for her and cégep applications too

She and Cassie coming to Turks with us in 3 weeks !!

Us - work work work

Have never ever ever done this on our lives . Together we work mornings weekends and evenings all the time . Together . All new . 10 month some . 6 months a lot . 4 months massively intensely .

Book is launched and got the title of more than could have hoped for 1 international bestseller ! Worth every effort !

Company launches on a few days oct 10 and website is amazing

Sweat tears and massive amounts of work

If I could guess ? My end of 2020 ( 2021 ) at latest this will be a millionaire dollar company :))

I work to get what I want and this will be no exception

Hubby and I in a good place ! He is stinging on many very visible events for choir ( televised , Justin Trudeau coming etc ) and we spend tons of time alone at cottage which is quite fun ! Miss kids sometimes but usually have Friday night dinners and some good times planned out carefully . A new stage and a good one and far better than thought what would be . We are doing a slow withdrawal from family life so empty nest won’t be such a shock !

That’s it for now . Signing off to read be copy have in my hands of my book ! So very very proud

Beauty Humanitarian trip !!

There are some things in life you just know will be good for your child or teen and you “ strongly encourage “ ( aka force ) them to it

A humanitarian trip where beauty was on her own and did not go with someone she knows beside her was one of them

So we gave her a choice this summer 1- to work part of summer and go a month away to do a certification in becoming a camp Counselor for sleepaway camp 2 - work most the summer and take 2 weeks and choose a humanitarian trip far away and serve others and learn about social justice ( which is something I wished my parents would have forced on me !! )

She chose the trip and was very anxious about this experience especially spider and tarantulas in the Amazon forest and also not being able toRelate to a group she was convinced would be very different from her

The weeks heading up to the trip we kept her very busy on vacation at cottage with many friends up her tubing and dancing and hanging out . The night before her trip she went to ocaheaga huge outdoors concert until 2:30am and we left to drop her airport for her first flight to Toronto FL meet group at 5am !!

In between those few hrs she was so nervous and tired she threw up and got in fight with me and her brother . It was awful !! I was sure she would not be able to get on flight

But she did !!!! And the resilient strong girl she is was all good the next day . Within 7 mins of meeting her group ( she was only one not from Toronto with a connecting flight even !! ) and within 7 mins she told me she had 4 bffs and liked all the 18 in groups ! That’s my girl :))

We had no contact for 13 days etc from me to we updated every 2 days and was soooo excited to get those emails and pics !!

When she came to airport back from trip we brought her bff as a surprise and beauty used her tracking app and saw she was 3 mins away from her in airport !!!

She walked out with her huge huge knapsack and 15 handwoven bracelets and ecadour knitted pants and a totally casual relaxed demenor and no joke none of 3 of us recognized her at all ! We even said “ that girl looks so much like beauty ! “

No joke

5 mins later we realized was her . New dememor . Spent 30 mins in airport getting demos of how she gets her backpack on back ( with huge scoliosis ! ) and heard the highlights of trip before we went to my moms for a kiss and hug and then she hit the sheets for 13 hrs !

Back to reality now and love hearing the stories that come up here and there when we are not asking for them :) she really loved this trip and made some amazing friendships with 5 specific girls ( who of course seemed to be the more rebels of the group )

She also truly made a bff in a man named Miguel who lives in ecadour and is 59 . Every single pic was of him and her and him crying as she left . He is a wonderful family man and helps out  and really bonded with beauty and her gang . She invited him to come to Canada to fish with her dad ( ps he doesn’t really even fish ! ) and is sending him her iPhone 4 and gifts for his grandkids

I loved seeing her :

Friends with spiders !!! Well maybe not friends but much more tolerant of them

I loved how happy she was in her pics and videos

Loved what she posted on Facebook that she never ever stopped smiling !

I love that she stretched herself and did something very hard

I love that when they called and did the  report they said she was by far the most confident 16 yr old girl they had ever met and also the funniest and that she was everyone’s fave in the group :))

She has magic this girl ! Just want more of the magic to myself , her dad and brothers more often pls !!

I could have done without :

Her dissing some of the leadership activities :(

Her and all her gang coming home with Lice !!!!

All in all when she showed the video with music she made to us also cried with tears of pride and joy . So glad I have the good sense to force what I know is needed while i still can !!

Beauty’s blog coming up soon !!

Happy Father's Day Honey Bunny!

A very late one to you!!!

I would say my hubbys biggest strength is the dad he is and has always been . Our three kids truly won the lottery with the dad that have . Jack of all trades , professional , domestic , smart , fixes anything , cooks anything , gorgeous

Most capable person I know

Great role model for our kids and deeply connected to them all

Calm as a cucumber and they all adore him

They have so much fun with him

I love how much they each adore him . I chose right:))

Was a special weekend as we just got back from Bali . We had all 3 at cottage for a gorgeous sunny sunny boating day and then a lobster dinner ( only so this every couple of years as expensive meal )

Was really special to have all three ( they made me cry as were too critical at one point but that’s another story ) we all feel deep asleep on the couches late at night

I was glad the next day was relaxed and even more special for Father’s Day

Bear had to leave in morning sadly to go home work but chase and beauty made their dad a great lunch and cleaned up and served it on the dock . Chase did all the grocery shopping for it last night too . Poutine and BLTs :) was so yummy and so nice to eat it with the summer wind and being surrounded by water . Chase took us on a relaxing boat ride too

Beauty and chase each made him a little movie with pics and music and very cute . He looks so handsome in his new shirt I got him too :)

It’s cool how this year we started handing over mothers and Father’s Day and thé kids have done a great job ( always a little scary to hand things over in case they forget ! )

They do it their own way with some great meals and specialness and really nice to see . Chase was so so incredibly helpful this weekend to . Helping cook and clean constantly and doing groceries . Bear doing the lawn . So many great conversations Just older guys - so nice . Beauty had to study all weekend poor her ! One of those weekends you never want to end . And one of those times you want to freeze in time

Our kids younger were like three little cubs and so so close . Beauty now doesn't want that and often saddens her brothers and her parents . Hopefully this teen distance phase will end on day and she will come back to being one of the three cubs 

The two boys on the other hand are the best of friends and was fun this weekend to see them in action . Has been years now so close and tight and literally share all their friends and interchange them !  ( and all their clothes and everything in their lives )Next weekend chase is having 4 of bears friends to cottage while bear works ! Day we got back from bali bear spent the day at chase bff house without chase ! So cool  I love it and makes me so happy for them . 

What would make it perfect is when beauty joins back in the fun again . Crossing fingers for maturity and phase to end one day soon for her sake!

I am making my popular homemade pesto pasta tonight , ànd  César salad and bear getting a special dessert . We ate at 10:30pm with bear and proud to say I cooked a delicious dinner and we had so much fun at the table . Bear's card and gift to his dad were so cute and thoughtful

Last night was our first night of normal sleep ! Felt good although I was still up by 6:30 am .

Happy Father’s Day !! It really felt like the best Father’s Day ever . So was this Mother’s Day . Is it possible our kids are growing up and making holidays super special for their parents ? Yay !!

Last Bali Pics (captions will come next week when more time)