Canada Here We Come

Today we got the girls their first passports - and it was bloody expensive!!! $280 later. Apparently the new travel requirements for anyone flying to Mexico, Canada, etc. have astronomically increased the number of people applying for passports. There is currently a 14 week wait to receive your passport. Because of this delay, they changed the rules a bit and if you are only going to Canada, Mexico, etc. you can just show your receipt that you've applied for the meantime...unfortunately the passport employees told us...not everyone gets a recepit. If there are any problems with your application/processing, they will not send you an official recepit, but instead you will get your application back with instructions on what corrections need to be made! So the only way to ensure you have a passport in a timely matter is to pay the "rush fee" of an additional $60 per passport. Although we were tempted to just keep our fingers crossed, we decided we'd be pretty sad to miss Alex's brother's wedding simply because we wanted to save $120.

The girls' passport pictures aren't their most adorable looks. Addison's photo is mildly pleasant, but Jasmine has red eyes and a mad looking face since she had just stopped wailing! Lucky for them, we get to apply for new passports for them every 5 years until they are 16 years old - then they are stuck with their pictures for 10 years at a time. My lovely passport photo was taken 9 years ago and I had just finished swimming in a lake - hoping my next photo looks a bit more polished - want the customs agents to think the best of me! : )

The girls are sleeping well - and as a result so are we! We are attempting to inch up their bedtime to 8ish to get a bit more time to ourselves in the evening. So far so good - but whenever you think you've got something good going, they'll throw you for a loop - so we try not to sing our praises too soon or too loudly!

Next week, Alex turns 31 and I turn 28 (we have the same birthday for those of you who don't know)! Feels nice to still be a good two years away from the big 30 - not that it is that scary - but I do love teasing Alex that I'm still in my 20's! Our friend, Laura, has bravely agreed to watch our girls while we go on a date to celebrate, hopefully with some sushi!