PEI trip (part 4 and final post)

 The sunsets in PEI were truly beautiful.

 playing on the beach on the north shore of PEI

 We took a boat tour around Charlottetown, the capital of PEI, and learned about lobster and how they catch them.

PEI trip (part 3)

Star fish, star fish, wonder what you are fish

Time and tide go washing by, and you don't even care.

 Peaceful creature, come and be my teacher

Flotsam, jetsam swish and swirl

and you don't even care.

No, you don't even care.

Sara Groves

The boys had lots of fun exploring on the red sands of the PEI shoreline.  Because of the traumatic changes in tides, it was easy to find different sea creatures at low tide.  Starfish, crabs, muscles, and razor clams were some of their finds.

PEI trip (part 2)

It was great to spend the week with Nana and Grandpa Sam.  One of the drawbacks of living in Canada is we are much further from our family, so we had not seen my mom since Christmas.  It was great just to be together relaxing, sitting by the campfire after dinner, going on walks in the morning, and exploring the island.

 We celebrated my mom's birthday together.

out for ice cream (one of our favorite activities for the week)

PEI trip (part 1)

Since our time in Canada is limited, we are trying to see as much as possible of this beautiful country. This summer, we had an adventure driving twenty hours to reach Prince Edward Island.  PEI is an island in the eastern part of Canada sandwiched between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  We decided to break up the trip and spend a few nights in Quebec City and a night in New Brunswick.  To add to the adventure, we brought along our pop-up camper and camped in it along the way.  My mom and her husband met us in PEI.  Included in this post are the pictures from our journey through Quebec and New Brunswick.

 Our first stop was in Quebec City, the country's oldest city.  It has a strong European flavor, and we enjoyed walking around the downtown area.

 Quebec City

 our cozy pop-up camper

 In New Brunswick, we camped at Fundy National Park and saw a bit of the extreme tidal patterns.  The Bay of Fundy has the world's largest tides.

 exploring on the rocks during low tide

Close to Fundy is Hopewell Rocks.  This area has the same extreme tides, and unique rock formations have been chiseled out as the tide brings the water back and forth daily.  The picture here is taken at high tide.

Wesley is five!!

Click below to see Wesley's birthday video.

My Animoto Video

Graham's Teacher

We love her!!  I think she may have been Graham's favorite part of first grade.

Canada Day

According to Wikipedia, Canada Day is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, 1867, which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire.

We celebrated the day with some friends from our church small group.  We met at a great park that had a shady creek and lots of space for the kids to play.  They enjoyed looking for critters in the creek, and some of the kids, including Graham, enjoyed swimming in it.  It was so nice to spend the day with friends.

the three cutest Americans in Canada (according to their mom)

Camping

There is just something special about camping.  Okay, maybe you are not a fan of bugs, bears, or sleeping on the ground.  For my family, we don't mind a few of the drawbacks because we really enjoy being together outdoors.  From waking up in the morning to a duck quacking outside of our tent, to eating all of our meals outside, to enjoying sitting around a campfire and watching the sun go down, we had a great time.  Our Canadian friends, Alison and Mark, invited us to join their family this past weekend in the area called 1000 Islands.  It's a beautiful area close to the St. Lawrence River about 4 hours east of Toronto.  We actually didn't "rough it" too much because we stayed at a KOA campground that had nice bathrooms and two heated pools.  Our friends have a camper so we ate most of our meals with them.  That's my kind of camping!  Part of what made it such a great weekend was how much we love these friends.  They have been such a blessing from the first day we moved to Canada, and all of our children get along so well.

I've heard a statistic about camping and families.  I don't remember all the details but it basically said that the one thing a group of healthy families had in common was that they all went camping.  I don't think there's anything magical about camping itself but it does get you away from a lot of distractions and is a fun thing to do together.

Sometimes, we just need to get away.  Away from routines and hurrying.  Away from TV and computers.   Away from responsibilities and stress.  Playing with the kids and roasting marshmallows were about the extent of Tim's duties this weekend.  The kids spent the weekend playing, swimming, and getting dirty.  I think that's the definition of a perfect weekend.  Hooray for camping and healthy families!  I think we just may be getting a pop-up camper and doing this more often.

Graham and Victoria on the boat

Lidiyanna with her "little mommies"

me and Wesley

Lidiyanna and my sweet friend, Alison

Wesley with his best buddy, Harrison

Lidiyanna can put on quite a show.

a castle and some houses we saw on our boat tour of the 1000 Island area

The St. Lawrence River borders the US and Canada.  This bridge is the shortest bridge between the US (the island pictured here) and Canada

We give camping 2 thumbs up!!