Family Visit - Part 2

Saturday was a big day - off to the Zoo.  We were there for nearly nine hours and walked 9.2 kilometers according to Mike's phone.  We were totally wiped by the end of the day.  There was a special panda exhibit with baby pandas (nearly 2 years old).  We saw lots of animals, birds and all kinds of critters.

Sunday was a quiet day with time spent at Church.  After Church, we went for a walk around the temple.

Monday was our last day of adventure, and we went to the Aquarium.  It is in downtown Toronto right beside the CN Tower.  Barbara loved the jellyfish.

We ended their trip with a BANG!  It was a fun day.  Tuesday morning they headed back to Calgary and we headed back to the Mission Office.  It was a sad morning.  We so enjoyed their visit and were sad to see them go.

Visit fro Heather, Bryan, Barbara and Hope! - Part 1

Tuesday, July 4th was an exciting day for us, here in Brampton.  Heather, Bryan, Barbara and Hope arrived from Calgary.  They got to their hotel just as we got home from the Mission Office.  We went to dinner at a restaurant right across the way from their hotel, Heritage Fish and Chips.  We then took them to our apartment (less than 5 minutes from their hotel) and gave them the penny tour - it is small.  We went for a walk around the small lake by our apartment.  We saw lots of ducks and geese.  There was a lady feeding the geese and she gave some bread to the girls so they could feed them too.  After the walk, the girls played at the playgrounds that are in our area.

Wednesday was a visit to Downey's Family Farm.  The girls had a fabulous time playing, running, riding and laughing.  There were also a lot of animals to pet and we enjoyed a wagon ride around the farm.  

http://www.downeysfarm.com/  There are lots of things to do there for most of the year.  You can pick berries right now and corn and pumpkins in the fall.

After the farm, we dropped the girls off at Brother and Sister Hodder's home.  The girls made some new friends.  We took Heather and Bryan to the Toronto Temple for a session and then to dinner.  When we picked the girls up, Barbara wanted to know when she could have a play date there again.

Thursday we were off to Niagara Falls.  We went to the Botanical Gardens and the Butterfly Conservatory that are in Niagara First.  We did the wagon ride around the gardens.  The girls liked the horse.  There were a lot more flowers in bloom from when Mike and I were there a couple of months ago.

Off to the falls.  It is so awe inspiring to see the majesty of Niagara Falls.  We took the tour behind the falls which was amazing.  We ended up on a platform very close to the falls.  WOW!!!

Friday, we were exhausted, so we went into the Mission Office for a couple of hours to tend to mission business.  We went there for a rest.  Keeping with a five year old, a three year old and their Dad really wears grandparents out!   LOL  Mom was OK.  In the afternoon we went to Chingaucousy Park - three minutes from our place.  It is huge with lots of fun things to do.  The girls enjoyed the merry-go-round, swings and the splash pad.

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!

Canada Day - Proud to be a Canadian

We had a tender mercy the other day.  I was doing some family history on Mike's family and found his grandparents, his dad and two of his dad's siblings in the 1911 Danish Census.  There were a lot of extras on the census that I could read as I don't speak Danish.  I sent John (Mike's brother) and e-mail asking him to take a look at it and let us know what else was there.  He speaks Danish as he served his mission in Denmark many years ago.  He e-mailed back and said he would look at it later as they were leaving that day for Utah to start their mission.  We didn't think they were leaving till August 1st.  We called them from the mission office and had a good visit with them.  They will be serving in the Adriatic North Mission as Welfare Specialists for 23 months.  It was so good to visit with them.  

Canada Day started out with a breakfast for the couples that we work with in the office and the couple that trained us:  Elder and Sister Cannon, Elder and Sister Wolfley, and Elder and Sister Youngberg.  We were missing our family tradition that we started a few years ago.  We feasted on pancakes, sausages and our special hash-browns.  We have lots of left overs, so we will feast again tomorrow morning.  We all had a good time and a good visit.

Late afternoon there was a pot luck dinner at the home of Ed and Sheila Ludlow. They host dinners for the senior missionary couples every month.  There were about 40 people (senior couples, young elders and others) there in total.  We dined on all kinds of salads, pickles, chips and back bacon on a bun.  Then we rolled up to the dessert table to top off our already full tummies.  Sheila goes all out for her dinners.  We all got small Canadian flags and pins to take home with us.  We ended the day by singing all four verses of O Canada and the Star Spangled Banner (in honor of the many Americans that were there).

We chatted with Elders Bybee and Payne who started teaching Chuck earlier that day.  Remember him from last week's post??  He called the mission office wanting to know how to join the church.  At his first discussion yesterday, he asked to set a date for his baptism.  It is July 29th.  We are looking forward to being there.

It was a quiet week at the mission office, last week.  Wednesday was really bad as all the computer programs that we all use, were down (US and Canada).  We all went home early.  This week we will be gearing up for transfer week which is in two weeks.

We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of Heather, Bryan and the girls on Tuesday.  We will be able to take a few days off to do things with them.