The Three Province Vacation: BC's Sunshine Coast

We flew from Montreal back to Vancouver early Friday morning. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed three hours, which eliminated our tentative plans for enjoying a nice lunch in the city. But much more importantly, we still made our ferry to the sunshine coast, where we were headed for a cousin's wedding, with plenty of time to spare. Once we arrived on the coast, we made a quick stop for groceries (diapers!), checked into the resort, had dinner with my parents, tucked our exhausted children into bed, and caught the tail end of a very beautiful sunset.

The girls were up at 5:00 the next morning. That pesky three hour time difference plaguing us again. We immediately thought if we piled everyone in the car still in their pajamas and drove to Tim Hortons for breakfast, they might fall back asleep. That was a definite failure, but, hey, at least we got doughnuts. We explored the resort, made a picnic lunch, and got ready for the beach. This time, all three girls did fall asleep in the car, so we just drove aimlessly around for a while.

Once everyone woke up, we had a great time at the beach and then rushed back to the resort to get cleaned up for the wedding.







I made their matching sundresses, using the Tea Party pattern from Oliver + S.





It was such a beautiful wedding! The first one we've been to outside. The bride, Sarah, is my age. Pictured above is her younger sister, Jess, who is the same age as Allison.







The mother of the bride, my Aunt Patty, taking Betsy for a spin on the dance floor. My favorite part of the evening was the bride and groom's choreographed first dance. They just looked they were having so much fun! Weddings are the best.







After a delicious breakfast at the resort (Belgian waffles with chocolate ganache, bananas, and pecans - amazing!) , we took the ferry back to Vancouver, crossed the border without too much of a wait, stopped for a picnic lunch and Mallard Ice Cream in Bellingham, went to a 5:00 Mass in Everett, grabbed pizza for dinner, and finally made it home.

Our first trip with three kids, all under age five, was pretty adventurous but went very well. Mostly thanks to have my sister with us, so we still had a one to one adult to kid ratio. She was so, so helpful and, of course, we all love her company!

The more kids you have, the more expensive traveling (especially flying and renting a car) becomes. We used air miles for this trip - we have a United card that we put all of our bills on. Because we spent this trip in Canada and the Canadian dollar is worth $0.75 compared to the American dollar, we got a 25% discount on our accommodations and rental car. That definitely helped offset the expense of getting two rooms at the Montreal airport and renting a minivan.

We've always had great experiences using Airbnb and we really think they're the way to go when traveling with kids. First of all, multiple bedrooms for the same price as a tiny hotel room! Second, your own kitchen, which means you can save money and the stress of eating out with your children for every meal. And, lastly, access to a washer and dryer, which means you can pack less clothes. A huge bonus when you're packing for five people in one suitcase because you have to schlep three car seats and a pack-n-play through the airport.

Here's a post with my tips for traveling with an active baby. Basically favorite board books + snacks + toys that move across the tray table (cars, tops, wind-up toys, etc). And here's a post with what I pack in the big girls' backpacks. Basically our routine is play for half the flight + snack break + potty break + watch a movie. Our biggest worry of the trip was that Claire and Maggie would have to share a double bed the whole time. They've shared a room for over a year now, but never a bed. Adam put them to sleep every night and except for a rough first night adjusting to eastern time, it went off without a hitch.