Last week we took a mini-family vacation up to Charlevoix, Quebec and stayed in la Malbaie! For those who have asked, Charlevoix is one of Quebec's most beautiful areas - it's cottage country and is around two hours from Quebec City. This part of Quebec is where the St. Lawrence river becomes the St. Lawrence Seaway, so the brackish water almost like being in the ocean, except inland! It's so cool!
Our Airbnb was so beautiful with tons of natural light, total privacy (needed with all those windows!), and a hot tub. We put the hot tub down to 92 degrees (with the help of many buckets of water, lol) and the kids played in there for hours. I read over half of Anne of Windy Poplars (trying to read all eight before our trip to PEI in August!) and soaked up the hot sun.
There was no humidity at all - just hot sunny days and crisp cool nights. Basically perfection. The kids ate cheese curds on the beach and I marveled at how gorgeous Quebec is. Such a diverse province with mountains, lakes, rivers, woods, cities, not to mention the culture and history here. I could seriously never leave this province and be quite satisfied. I had to laugh when I realized that I only packed all black suits for me and the kids. Monochrome family! Mine is from la Vie en Rose a Quebec-baded company that I'm thrilled to be working with this summer. Oli's is from Kortni Jeane from a previous collaboration, and the girl's are thrifted :)
The tide was way out at the beginning of our time at the beach and there were little pools everywhere. By the time we left, three hours later, the tide was back in and all of this area where we were playing was totally covered, including the big rock Lily and I were frolicking on! Water is just so amazing.
At one point we had a big old family nap in the living room - something that screams VACATION in my mind. One hiccup was when our Oliboy woke up with a sore tummy and proceeded to throw up a few times that day, with several happy hours of perfect in between. It's like it came in waves but they were really spaced out. So he'd be sick, everything would stop, but then he'd feel great for 2-4 hours so we'd sneak in hot tub time and family hikes, and then he'd be sick again. He's the world's greatest sick kid and never complained and was so sweet the whole time.
During one of Oli's stretches of feelin' good we drove out to a national park that has a huge salmon reserve and beautiful water falls. It was so dreamy and we were the only ones there. Hiking at 5pm is probably not the wisest decision during black fly season and at mosquito-o-clock, but we made the best of it and had so much fun. Yes, we were covered with bites at the end, but we had a blast! Most of the pictures are blurry, because iPhone, dusk, and moving kids... but still worth posting, I think :)
Lets talk kids clothes for a minute. Lily's grey tank is from Wildly Co (made in the USA) and her blue hoody, as well as the striped tops on Oli and Chloe are from Montreal merino wool company, Luv Mother (also they have 40% off right now!). My favourite thing you'll see in these pictures is Chloe's Tilley hat. It was a gift to me from my Pa (my grandpa who died when I was in highschool), and all of our kids have worn it in recent summers. Now it's Chloe's turn and it warms my heart so much to see our littlest wearing my childhood hat - a hat that I've always associated with my dear Pa, who wore his Tilley hat every summer for my entire life. Annnnnd just like that, a family vacation post has me in tears.
If you've never used Airbnb, I highly highly recommend. You can use this link for $30 off your first stay anywhere in the world! And if you're interested in our exact Airbnb (I have had a few requests already!), feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you the link. We'll be using Airbnbs in Europe this summer (we leave in mid-July!) and this trip definitely got us excited for a longer, bigger adventure!
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| (my swimsuit is from a collaboration I did with La Vie En Rose and I love it!) |
Our Airbnb was so beautiful with tons of natural light, total privacy (needed with all those windows!), and a hot tub. We put the hot tub down to 92 degrees (with the help of many buckets of water, lol) and the kids played in there for hours. I read over half of Anne of Windy Poplars (trying to read all eight before our trip to PEI in August!) and soaked up the hot sun.
There was no humidity at all - just hot sunny days and crisp cool nights. Basically perfection. The kids ate cheese curds on the beach and I marveled at how gorgeous Quebec is. Such a diverse province with mountains, lakes, rivers, woods, cities, not to mention the culture and history here. I could seriously never leave this province and be quite satisfied. I had to laugh when I realized that I only packed all black suits for me and the kids. Monochrome family! Mine is from la Vie en Rose a Quebec-baded company that I'm thrilled to be working with this summer. Oli's is from Kortni Jeane from a previous collaboration, and the girl's are thrifted :)
The tide was way out at the beginning of our time at the beach and there were little pools everywhere. By the time we left, three hours later, the tide was back in and all of this area where we were playing was totally covered, including the big rock Lily and I were frolicking on! Water is just so amazing.
At one point we had a big old family nap in the living room - something that screams VACATION in my mind. One hiccup was when our Oliboy woke up with a sore tummy and proceeded to throw up a few times that day, with several happy hours of perfect in between. It's like it came in waves but they were really spaced out. So he'd be sick, everything would stop, but then he'd feel great for 2-4 hours so we'd sneak in hot tub time and family hikes, and then he'd be sick again. He's the world's greatest sick kid and never complained and was so sweet the whole time.
During one of Oli's stretches of feelin' good we drove out to a national park that has a huge salmon reserve and beautiful water falls. It was so dreamy and we were the only ones there. Hiking at 5pm is probably not the wisest decision during black fly season and at mosquito-o-clock, but we made the best of it and had so much fun. Yes, we were covered with bites at the end, but we had a blast! Most of the pictures are blurry, because iPhone, dusk, and moving kids... but still worth posting, I think :)
Lets talk kids clothes for a minute. Lily's grey tank is from Wildly Co (made in the USA) and her blue hoody, as well as the striped tops on Oli and Chloe are from Montreal merino wool company, Luv Mother (also they have 40% off right now!). My favourite thing you'll see in these pictures is Chloe's Tilley hat. It was a gift to me from my Pa (my grandpa who died when I was in highschool), and all of our kids have worn it in recent summers. Now it's Chloe's turn and it warms my heart so much to see our littlest wearing my childhood hat - a hat that I've always associated with my dear Pa, who wore his Tilley hat every summer for my entire life. Annnnnd just like that, a family vacation post has me in tears.
If you've never used Airbnb, I highly highly recommend. You can use this link for $30 off your first stay anywhere in the world! And if you're interested in our exact Airbnb (I have had a few requests already!), feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you the link. We'll be using Airbnbs in Europe this summer (we leave in mid-July!) and this trip definitely got us excited for a longer, bigger adventure!
This looks like so much fun!!
ReplyDeletehow beautiful!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove these photos Em, such sweet little moments <3
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! Where is Lily's lemon hat from, trying to find an adjustable ball cap for my girls!
ReplyDelete