Happy Birthday Emma

Another birthday in the month of April, last one I think... Happy Birthday Emma!! Have a great birthday party, make sure you have lots of kids come to it, and lots of boys...

Carrie is Home!

The Quebec exchange finished this past weekend, and we picked Carrie up at the airport in Saint John on Saturday. We are glad to have her home. This is the last of 4 exchanges that our girls have all participated in. Here she is with Danielle, a fellow student that was at a different school in Quebec.

Jessica and Jennifer came with us to pick up Carrie, and Carrie wanted her first stop to be MacDonalds, as she hadn't been to one since leaving NB. Carrie learned healthy choices in Quebec, so she went in to buy a water and chicken snack wrap. Carrie forgot healthy choices quickly, and came out with a Big Mac meal.

Tanya and Stacy were hosting a baby shower at the house Saturday night too. Stacy had made dresses for the girls. They all looked so cute dressed alike.

Bradford needs a vest or something, and Hailey figured there was no sense waking up for the picture as she didn't have a matching dress.

Seeing as we all were away on Easter, the Easter bunny must have waited for us, and we got to have an Easter Egg hunt Sunday morning.

Happy Birthday Sarah

Look who is having a birthday! 2 years old!!

Party at My Place Tonight

Ok..We bottled some wine. Maria only wants 60 bottles of white for her wedding and there are 150 here. So the more we drink the less we have to cork. Hic. So let's get corked. Hic. And then go gather eggs. Hic.

Hailey's First Visit

Victoria and Brad brought Hailey down for a visit today, and Stacy brought Kara and Bradford over to meet her. They were pretty excited to see their new cousin.

Kara got to hold her.

And so did Bradford, with some help from his Mom.

Everyone stayed for supper, then like all good grandchildren, they went home. A nice day.
We also did herd health today, Jesse's golden arm got 6 more cows pregnant, so that went well. I got the manure pit pretty much mixed up, this must be the earliest in years.
The snowmobile club is having its landowner appreciation breakfast tomorrow morning, so there goes the diet for another day.

Hailey Lynn

We stopped on our way home, and yes, it is true, we did have a new grand daughter... Congratulations to proud parents, Victoria and Brad, from your proud Grandparents!

For the record, we logged 18,109 kilometers. The farm is still standing, and although I was expecting a big stack of mail after 32 days, I surely wasn't expecting it to be neatly sorted and stacked. Thank you Jesse, for allowing us this terrific chance to drive across this great country of ours. I still can't believe that the weather allowed us such an enjoyable drive as it did. Oh, Sarah was happy to see the cats!!

Almost Home

I was told that it was important to drive on Daytona Beach, so before we left Friday morning we turned in there. There was a booth and the attendant wanted 5 bucks, but I not only talked him out of that, I also got him to take our picture.

We then found Route 95 for our long journey north.

We found our college friends, Pat and Glenda, in Prosperity, South Carolina. We spent 2 nights with them, and had a great time catching up, and also enjoyed a wonderful cruise on the lake behind their house. It was here that we were all awoken in the middle of the night, by Tanya, to hear about the birth of Victoria's daughter, Hailey! I knew as soon as I heard the phone ring in the middle of the night that it was one of my children.

Leaving there on Sunday, we headed north again, and although it was not our intentions, our GPS decided that we should see downtown Washington, DC. It was great, as we saw the Pentagon, The Capital Building and Washington monument etc.

And then we got to drive on the beautiful Washington-Baltimore Parkway, and enjoy some nice traffic.

Tomorrow we should be home, to see if all the animals are as small as this one that Jesse sent a picture of.

But first we will try and stop and visit Victoria and Brad, and of course Hailey Lynn.

Daytona Beach, Florida

I thought there was alot of people in Orlando last night, but you should have seen the traffic this morning as we went by Disney World. Crazy. Now we are in Daytona Beach, in a hotel right on the beach, with a view of the beach from our room.

We spent some time on the beach, and the water was great!

We need a few more days down here to get the right look....Jesse??

There was also a heated pool that Sarah enjoyed more.

And now downstairs for cocktail hour!

Loisianna, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida

Yes, that was a long day. And our first day of really HOT weather. And you just don't understand how much more fuel the air conditioning uses. I thought I had a leak in my gas tank, as my "kilometers to empty" was dropping twice as fast as my "kilometers to destination". We were pretty impressed with the raised interstates over the bayous and ocean. Never saw any alligators though.

This is the Gulf of Mexico.

We stayed Monday night in Crestview, Florida. Tuesday morning we tried driving without the air conditioning for a bit, but that wasn't the plan either. A nice drive down route 19, stopped at a Kmart for shorts, and then found Donnie and Elsie in Tarpon Springs and had supper. We went into Clearwater for the night. The first room they gave us had faulty air conditioning, so he gave me keys to a suite. Upon entering that room, I noticed some luggage, and then looked over to the open bathroom door and realized someone was in the shower! I quickly backed out of there, and got keys to an even nicer suite. No, it wasn't a girl in the shower. Our next room had a "Sleep Number" bed, so I had fun inflating and deflating it for awhile.

Then back to spend the day with Donnie and Elsie. We had a great tour of Tarpon Springs, an enjoyable afternoon on the beach, and a great chance to catch up with our neighbours, which never seems to happen when you are at home.

Wednesday night found us just outside of Orlando. This place is a zoo! People, people and more people...

Meteor Crater, New Mexico and Texas

We stayed the night in Flagstaff, Arizona and were up bright and early Saturday morning. Just east of Flagstaff is a meteor crater that was made about 50,000 years ago. Huge.

To get an idea of how big it was, they have a cut out of a 6 ft. astronaut holding a flag on the bottom. It was really hard to see,and you missed it if you didn,t know it was there.

It brought back memories when you read the names of the early astronauts that we remembered from years ago.

Then on into New Mexico, and lots to look at there.

We took side trips on old Route 66 in both Arizona and New Mexico.

Saw this sign, but not sure...

And then into Texas, with cows, open highways and Montgomery County.

We spent the night in Buffalo, Texas, pretty much had the motel to ourselves.