Grow, My Pretties!

There is something incredibly satisfying about growing your own food. We had a thriving raspberry bush when I was a kid, but my dad didn't start his vegetable garden until I had long moved out and he had retired. When we were in our condo there was no opportunity for a garden either, so now that we are in our house, a garden seemed like a grand idea.

We planted yellow wax beans, turnips and carrots. A late addition,  with six remaining seeds from my dad's garden, was zucchini.

I love zucchini!  I have a great recipes for zucchini fries, and zucchini also goes well in baking,  so I sneak it in to muffins for Lacey.

The zucchini plants were some of the first in our garden to germinate. Five of the six seeds made it! 

Zucchini seedlings.

I didn't have the foresight to take any mid-growth photos, but it really seemed like this plant turned into a monster over night! 

Monster zucchini plant

The blossoms exploded on this plant. I was a bit worried, because there didn't seem to be any bees around. How would we get zucchinis if there were no flowers? 

Zucchini blossoms.

At one point, there were probably 40 blossoms on the plant. They were everywhere! 

And seriously, who knew that zucchini flowers were so beautiful? Not this girl!

And then one day, a zucchini appeared.

The start of a zucchini.

Just the thickening of a stem! But you could see it forming. And within a week, it was almost a full-blown squash.

Almost full-grown zucchini.

And then another formed, and another, and another. Overall, we've gotten about nine good-sized zucchinis from the plant. We've grilled them, and including them in baking.

I made sure to take a photo of our first full-grown zucchini. It's a beauty!

Our first zucchini.

We will definitely include zucchini in our garden next year, it was a definite success!

Recent Memories of Being a Couple

Since Lacey entered our lives 16 months ago, our old lifestyle went out the window. Getting Lacey through her infancy meant we didn't often stray far from home. And since Lacey was born, I have literally seen her every day of her life. Our last trip as a childless couple was in November of 2015. So finally, for the first time in 20 months, Tom and I went on a weekend getaway, just the two of us! Lacey stayed at home with her grandma and grandpa (and apparently didn't miss us at all!), while Tom and I headed to Moraine Lake Lodge.

Moraine Lake.

So this post is --shockingly-- not about Lacey!

What did we get up to at Moraine Lake?

Moraine Lake Lodge

Moraine Lake Lodge could not be situated in a more beautiful location. I read once that Moraine Lake is the most photographed lake in Canada, and from the photo above, it's not hard to see why. The Lodge itself is about 20 years old, and there are separate cabins along the water edge, or a main lodge with a more hotel-style setup. Tom and I stayed in a separate cabin.

There were three things we wanted to do on this getaway.

1) Sleep

2) Eat 

3) Hike

And most importantly, we wanted to do those three things on our own schedule. No worrying about nap times, no carrying around a change of clothes, diapers, wipes, sippy cups... No singing Old McDonald in the car, no squeeze pouches of food...We just wanted to think about ourselves, and nothing else.

Of course, that didn't really happen. We probably spent half of our time talking about Lacey and how much we missed her! But we still got through our list of things to do, anyway.

Sleep! Our first night, went to sleep at 11pm, and woke up at a glorious 8:40am! There was a time when 8:40am would have seemed early to me, but now it seems like a glorious luxury. Can you image, NINE continuous hours of sleep!? That never happens any more!

We ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed out to Lake Louise to hike the Plain of Six Glaciers trail, to the teahouse. The Plain of Six Glaciers hike is about 12km round trip-- a perfect distance!

It's been a really long time since we've hiked, and it was good to be active. The trailhead was a hive of activity. So much so that we couldn't find a parking spot at Lake Louise, and had to drive 10km to the overflow parking lot and then take a shuttle to the trailhead. THAT added an extra hour round trip on our day-- but without a toddler  with us, it was no big deal.

Chateau Lake Louise.

The trail starts along the lakeshore of Lake Louise. This was packed with tourists, but once we reached the end of the lake, the crowds started to thin out. We headed away from the lake, and up into the valley.

We did see a helicopter while we were making our way up the valley, but we weren't exactly sure what was going on. We heard some people saying that a rock climber fell off a cliff, and they were med-evacuating them. But someone else also told us they thought they were moving produce up to the teahouse. A medical evacuation certainly seems more exciting than moving groceries, but we're not sure!

Up in the valley, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. There was one sketchy section of trail that was very slushy and slippery.

It eventually afforded us some very nice glacier views. 

And after one final tranche of switchbacks, we finally made it to the teahouse. The teahouse was crawling with people! At first we didn't think we'd be able to get a table, but it turned out a lot of people had brought their own food with us, and we were able to find a seat without any problem. Tom had a hummus sandwich, and I had vegetarian chili. We both had some refreshing lemonade, and Tom had some apple cake for dessert. 

Apparently the staff at the teahouse hikes in and out in one week shifts. They live on-site on and off during the summer-- what an interesting summer job to have on your resume!

While Tom and I were enjoying our lunch, we heard a couple small avalanches in the distance. I read online that during the early summer months, sometimes the staff will hear avalanches every hour in the surrounding valley!

Tom and I headed back down after lunch, and went back to the hotel to relax. We walked up the "rock pile" beside Moraine Lake so we could take some photos.

A view from the Rock Pile.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the hotel, and then another lovely, uninterrupted sleep. 

Yes, I definitely recommend being a couple every once in a while. It was a nice chance for us to recharge!

Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for watching Lacey for us!