Pictures taken by Brittney

from her trip...

Click pics to enlarge....

She's Back too!

Brittney stayed on in Ontario for 3.5 weeks after we left for home. She has a good friend there (they've been friends since grade one) and wanted to spend some time with her and her family. Brittney had an awesome time and did many interesting things.

One such thing was to meet a couple of celebrities...Mitchel Musso from the TV show Hannah Montana and Kreesha Turner (a singer).

Here are a couple pics of her taken with each of the celebs....







But....after 3.5 weeks, she boarded a plane in Toronto and headed for home. The plane was delayed by 1.5 hours....but just after midnight her plane landed.

It's great to have her back! Everything feels back to normal now.

The Whales are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness. Larry called me to the back lookout this morning to see the whales.

What a show they put on!! There were several groups (hmmm....I *think* a group of whales is called a pod..but I'm not sure...so I'm calling them a group for now lol) of them...one group must have had 10. They jumped and spouted and had a grand ole' time. Amazing.

Here are some pics...click to enlarge. My whale picture taking skills have improved a little bit over last year....but not enough. The whale jumps, I snap the pic but before the camera goes off...the whale has gone down. (I tried yelling, "Hold that pose" to the whale while he was in mid air...silly whale did not co-operate ;) I have several pics of the ocean....not a whale in sight. Oh well...here are a few of not too bad ones. Don't forget to click to enlarge them, it does show a bit more detail.

Three of them playing together....



Caught his tail...



Some spouting shots...notice how small the fishing boats appear...

The rest of the visit

to Ontario centred all around the same area....Port Perry, Oshawa, Whitby and Scarborough.

It seemed to be a whirlwind of visiting....we didn't realize there were so many people to see! Most days we had four different directions we could have been going in since the kids all had their friends they wanted to see as well. Not that we are complaining....it was great to be back and see everyone again. We were also surprised so many people wanted to see us!

Below are pics of various visits and events during our stay in southern Ontario


My brother, his wife and our two nieces had a bbq while we were there. It was a gorgeous day and they have a backyard pool! I even managed to get in for a little bit...which is a bonus for me. We all had a lot of fun....except we got a bit too much sun. This is my Dad with Larry and I.



The kids, grandpa and grandma love playing cards and this was one of the first games. Crazy Eights seemed to be the game of choice on this visit.




J.J. and Jake....We've been friends with J.J.'s family since the kids were really little. Tyler is good friends with the brother Chris and Brittney with Natasha. They both had sleepovers at their house.


J.J's parents....Colleen and Todd


Brittney, along with J.J.'s two sisters Natasha and Tamara


Tyler and Chris


We also enjoyed Canada Day Fire Works at friends of Grandpa and Grandma. It was a beautiful display.

We also got together with Larry's sisters and their husbands, cousins, niece, her husband and their son. Sorry...no pics of these days as I did not have my camera.


Larry, Jake and my Dad down by the water front on Lake Scugog. We had french fries and ice cream....mmmm...junk food! (We hardly ever eat junk food...so it was a treat for everyone)



One thing we miss here in Newfoundland, is the great restaurants....great restaurants with great prices (read: good food for a cheap price). There were a few restaurants in particular we missed and wanted to visit (at least once!) One such place was Yellow House Pizza....they have fantastic pizza at a great price. This was high on Larry's list (actually it was number one)...so we got one or two and headed to the park. It was raining that day....which didn't matter to Larry...it was Yellow House Pizza...and it's been two years. Here he is....just about ready to dig in... mmmmmmmmm....



All gone! Ahhh...that's better




More card games ...






This family were our gracious hosts for the two weeks. We displaced their boys from their bedrooms so we could move in. They boys slept in the living room. We were very thankful for their hospitality. Thanks Larry, Kathy, Jacob and Joey!! (yes...they have a dad named Larry and a son named Jake too...just like us!). They have two gorgeous Shelties one named Trevor and the other Ginger. The kitty is Patches.




Jake horsing around with Joey and Jacob...





Jake and Trevor....or is it Ginger?





By this point our visit is coming to an end. Brittney is staying on in Ontario with a good friend of hers and this was after we dropped her off. We stopped off at Grandpa and Grandma's house for a visit before heading off to Teddys (another wonderful restaurant we miss). Grandpa and Grandma treated us (one of many, many, meals they treated us to during our visit) Some pics taken from our last day there.














My brother and his family were heading off for camping, so Grandpa and Grandma treated us all to breakfast before they left. We had breakfast, posed for some family pictures and then said our good-byes. Good-byes are hard.

The next day was our last day, so Grandpa and Grandma again treated us to breakfast. Here they are with the boys in the restaurant.



Outside, before we left for home. Yes...good-byes are very difficult.