Well we had a great time at my parents home in Nova Scotia. I have so many pictures and after all it was two weeks, I had a hard time narrowing them down so be forewarned this post is a whole lot of pictures.
Sunday was our first day in Canada and we spent it lazing around Grandma's house. Finally we ventured out to see the Mission Office - I don't think the kids were too impressed. Brynlee kept asking to see all of it, she already had. Chaz wanted to find something to play with and tried to use the dry erase board but his dad would have none of that. Needless to say we didn't stay long. We were going to some beautiful gardens for a sunday stroll, but Grandpa got lost. He then kept saying Margy aren't we near that really neat park. After some lucky turns we actually drove straight into that "really neat park" It was a forest of pathways that lead to the ocean. It was very fun. The picture on the rocks looking for sea shells is from that really cool park and we collected our first sea shells, found our first crab shell, and saw our first star fish (which was alive). What a perfect first day in Halifax!
The next day we headed out to Peggy's cove to see the rocks and the lighthouse. Amazing. This view was worth all the planes we had to ride to get there. This cove is the most photographed place in Eastern Canada and now we know why. Beautiful!
Grandma and Grandpa's house was very fun to be at. First of all because Grandma and Grandpa were there. Second because it was across the street from a lake which had sandy beaches. The first pictures is literally out the front door. The girls loved this and Ben loved it because there was a running path aruond it that you could actually take to the harbour and over this huge bridge into downtown Halifax. Needless to say I didn't run it and neither did my parents so Ben was the only one to enjoy that experience.
Our Nova Scotia hat picture in Grandma's front yard.
Jill learned to go up the stairs and is now obsessed. It took her one day at home with my full attention and now she also goes down. She learned lots of tricks on our trip - clapping, "uh oh", waving. She's getting so big, three weeks she'll be one!
The Halifax harbor was very fun - we saw our first cruise ships and man are they large. We got to go on Canada's famous "Theodore Tugboat" a children's cartoon. I must say I didn't care too much for Theodore but the tour of the harbor was very fun.
My parent's were so sweet and gave Ben and I two days to ourselves. We drove along a coastal rode and enjoyed all the little old fishing villages, eating sea food, going sailing, shopping, the red sand beach, and our first bed and breakfast experience. It was all very fun but the best part was not having kids for a couple days and knowing they were not annoying their babysitter.
My parents also took our family to the Bay of Fundy to see the Hopewell rock formations where in a four hour span you can watch the tide go out and come back in. We got there just after low tide and stayed two hours so we got to see it coming in, the kids didn't last to see it completely come back up but it was neat to walk around on the ocean floor and see all the rock formations.
Chaz here is crying cause a "squito" is near him.
Here he is crying cause his dad was showing him the seaweed. Definitely not a real macho boy.
Our family really enjoyed Prince Edward Island. The girls got to buy stuffed Anne and Diane dolls and Grandpa also bought them each a Porceline Anne of Green Gables doll. We loved the red beaches, meeting some of our parent's friends, trying our first lobster and our first muscles.
The following picture is the Confederation bridge which connects Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick the bridge is like 7 miles (?) it was long and amazing.
This picture is of one of the overgrown dirt roads on the island. It is a good capture of how red and beautiful the dirt on the island is.
Brynlee was hillarious dressed up as Anne and Chaz so wanted to dress up to but I just couldn't put him in a dress so he found a boys hat. Cute!
Well we were all worn out on the way home. This picture is of both girls - do you spot Autumn's forehead. She has on her dad's sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over her and they are both holding on tight to the Build a Bear's Grandpa took them to do while mom and dad were away. The first flight home Brynlee was three rows ahead of me and the planeride was 3 hours. She didn't move so when we got off I asked her if she slept and she said nope she just sat and held her bear cause she loves it so much. I would love to have heard what she was thinking about for 3 hours.
We miss our Grandparents but we are glad they are serving the Lord and that they are somewhere so beautiful and safe. Some of these mssions are in such scary places with guarded homes, so I am so glad my parents are somewhere we can visit and see a bit of their lives. We had so much fun and wish we could go back one more time - they still have two years so we just might make it one more time. Thanks mom and dad for all the memories we had so much fun!
Jill is hard to capture a photo of since she started walking but here is my best try. Isn't she a cute butterfly.
We had fun at a pumpkin patch where we not only got to pick a pumpkin but also spent an hour picking raspberries - yum!
We don't have any family nearby but we don't want to miss out on the family halloween parties so we always have one by ourselves - and I must say we have lots of fun. Brynlee planned it this year and we played lots of relay races, a cake walk, pumpkin carving, costumes (She even made one for her dad, doesn't he make a disgusting bag a trash. Mine was simple too - a stick of pink bubble gum wrapped in my silver packaging.) Ben's birthday was on Monday so his party was incorporated in to the Halloween festivities, so we also had birthday cake, singing and presents. We really had fun celebrating Halloween, kids just make holidays so much fun.
