September 2, 2016

Part 2 of our recent adventures...

So Friday we awoke and had breakfast with Nana Phillips. The kids enjoyed spending time with their great-grandmother. Nana gave all of the kids books and gave Hannah a full size quilt for when she gets a big girl bed. It's beautiful with pinks and purples. Mid-morning, the Texas crew drove over and rode on the OKA ferry toward downtown Montreal. The kids thought it was cool that we were able to drive the car onto the boat and ride across. It is pretty cool actually. We then made the journey up to Mont Royal. We played at a park and then drove up to a lookout and took pictures. We had lunch in old town Montreal on the pier. The air was a little warm, but seeing the people and scenery more than made up for it. We all decided to go do a maze on the pier called SOS Labyrinth. We split into two teams: Frankie's dad, Cyndy, Abby and William on one team and Francis, Robert, Hannah and me on the other. If you know how deficient my spatial abilities are,  you can guess who won. They won by like 20 minutes. I had to front carry Hannah the whole time and by the end my left leg was hurting pretty bad. When we got done Cyndy wanted to do the bike powered trailers to o around town but I just wasn't up for it. So she, her dad, Abby, William and Robert took off on a biking adventure while Francis, Hannah and I wandered around, shopped and eventually found a nice cool place to sit. Montreal is one of the oldest cities s in North America and sitting in the walking streets feels like you are in Europe. It did my heart good to just sit and watch and take it all in. When we all reconvened, we went and bought souvenirs then had dinner at a local crepe restaurant. Then more beaver tail for dessert. Yum and double yum.  We made it back to the house late, but that didn't stop the adults from talking into the night.

Saturday I woke up and left calf was bruised all along the back. That explained the hurt the day before. Thankfully we spent the day in St. Lazare with the family just swimming, laughing and having fun. We had smoked meat pizza and then did a cookout for dinner. Sarah and her husband Jeremy joined the gang (along with Aunt Melo, Uncle Vic, Nana Phillips and us). A happier group you will seldom find. Sunday morning early, Cyndy and Abby headed to the airport, but those of us left headed to church. Francis's grandfather helped to found a church in Montreal and so many people there still remember him as well as Francis and his father. We were introduced around and thanks to Nana Phillips, nearly everyone recognized my children. It was a sweet time in the body of Christ. Even though the lesson was in French, the boys wanted to go to class and came out knowing the lesson was about Noah. They told their teacher what a good time they had as they were leaving and everyone was so kind to them! I went with Hannah to the nursery where she played and I was able to speak to the other ladies in there. I am thankful that most of the people in the church speak good English because although I can understand what's going on, my production of French is very limited. We had lunch at St. Huberts per the kid's request for "clown ice cream" and then Francis, his dad, the kids and I all went to drop off Francis at his hotel so he could check in and check in for the conference the following week. All 6 of us then took a tour of underground Montreal as it was raining very hard outside. We saw some of my father-in-laws old haunts as he used to work there and then had dinner at the Old Spagehtti Warehouse (or something like that in French). At this point we said goodbye to Francis and the 5 of us left headed back to St Lazare. The next morning we packed up, spent the morning with Nana, Aunt Melo and Uncle Vic and then drove to the airport. I am so glad Francis's dad was with me, because by the time I made it to my bed in Dallas, I had been up 24 hours. When we arrived, our first flight was already delayed so we were rerouted to Miami. That flight was also delayed as was our connection. We did have a delightful time at the AmEx club in Miami, but in general it was just not my day. The kids were good and we finally made it back, but it was a crazy trip!

Stay tuned for our week in Dallas!