Tag: family

On June 16 we started our big international trip. First time leaving the country for Jess, Heather, and Corinne.

Our original plan was to visit Montreal, but upon investigation (after being unable to find a hotel room for less than $800/night) the Canadian F1 Grand Prix was being held in Montreal that weekend and we wanted nothing to do with that insanity. So I redesigned our trip for Quebec City.

We started by driving up through Vermont and stopping at the Ben & Jerry's factory. We visited the flavor graveyard and played on the playground. They had just soft-reopened for factory tours, but this information wasn't available anywhere on line a priori and we didn't have time to hang around for the next tour. So we grabbed some ice cream before heading on our way. Corinne crunched on something hard in her ice cream which I jokingly suggested was one of her loose teeth--I was right--eep.

Not far down the road we stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for apple cider donuts and, of course, cider. Grandma and the girls played a game of corn hole.

Then it was back in the van and off to the border. I'll note that while crossing into Canada we were asked about things like drugs and firearms. When crossing back into the U.S. we were asked about things like fruits and vegetables. Differing priorities....

Having the most familiarity with French I did all the driving in Canada. It started fine, then about 30 minutes in a fierce thunderstorm rolled in. Driving in a downpour with lightning and thunder on unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar vehicle where all the signs are in French was a rather stressful welcome. But we arrived at Hotel Le President in Sherbrooke successfully for our first night. Mom and I ventured out to a local burger chain, Harvey's, to pick up dinner and take it back to the hotel.

Between Erin's Birthday Adventure and our big trip up north was mostly downtime in Cromwell. We celebrated my birthday with pizza, cake, and presents.

As another way to keep kids entertained I ran another treasure-hunt kind of event for Erin's kids. I took pictures throughout the house and then placed a pirate coin near the location from which the picture was taken. I divided them up into easy (wide angle shots with obvious landmarks), medium ("natural" focal distance shots, less obvious landmarks), and hard (telephoto shots with more obscure landmarks). The most difficult, in my opinion, being the one taken zoomed-in through a mirror.

I had the pictures printed at CVS and bought candy for prizes. Working from the pictures, finding each coin earned you a piece of candy and points (2 for easy, 3 for medium, 4 for hard). Whomever got the most points won a pack of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. This was apparently a big motivator for Sawyer who took the grand prize.

On Saturday (6/11) Jess and the girls arrived to bump the cousin count into overdrive.

On Sunday (6/12) I had old high-school friends over to have lunch and hang out for a bit, but took no pictures. Got to see Chris, Bhupal, Matt, and associated families.

And a trip to the splash pad at Watrous Park:

Heather and Corinne had been asking about revisiting Kid City. We thought perhaps they'd grown out of that environment, but with the addition of cousins to play with it was great success.

And, of course, more time playing around Grandma-and-Grandpa's house:

Which included a talent show:

After this, Erin's family returned to Utah and we were geared up for Jess' first international trip!