Yesterday we headed up to one of Sox’s friends near Montreal. It was a nice drive across some very flat, straight highway’s. Nothing like driving in BC. At one point the traffic slowed down to a crawl, and I couldn’t figure out why. As we rounded one long corner, I saw the reason. Two snowplows were working in tandem clearing snow from both shoulders of the highway. For the first time ever I was held up by a snowplow.

When we got close to Kirkland, the snow started flying and the wind picked up. It was chilly, but still beautiful. We met up with our friend and got our stuff in her house when I heard a tractor working. Turned out the driveway clearing service was coming by. They sign up by the month for a service and whenever it snows they come by with a snow blower and clear the driveway for you. Things I never thought existed when I was stuck on the west coast. This means I actually got to see a snow blower work too!

The kids had fun on our overnight trip. The kids of Sox’s friend played really well with Amy and Elliot which made us feel totally at home. Elliot got to experience his deepest snow ever too. Very fun for him.

Today we came back to Ottawa. It was sunny and blue sky in Kirkland, but as soon as we got back into Ottawa, the snow was falling pretty hard. We got back to Sox’s sisters house and got in side. I loved watching the snow fall. It just looked beautiful.

Elliot played this evening with his cousin while dinner was made. After dinner most of the adults took off to watch Cats while I got Amy and Elliot ready for bed. Now for me to relax a little bit.

Another beautiful day. Lightly snowing all day, but fairly mild. The agenda today was the ice slides just across the border in Quebec. We did them last year but it was very busy. This morning we got there a little earlier than last year, but not as early as we had wanted.

We managed to get a couples slides in before the crowds of school kids got there and all the kids had fun on them. Amy was a little hesitant, but the last slide I took her on she said she really enjoyed it.

Back at the house we had some lunch, the headed out to the canal for a little skating. I strapped on my new skates for a skate for the very first time. I have to admit that it is pretty cool that I own skates now.

Elliot doesn’t skate yet, so he got pulled along on a sled. Wow, what a workout that was. I pulled Elliot most of the way and the times I took a break I felt like I flew along the ice. I use My Tracks to keep a total of what I had done. I started recording late, but what I did record was pretty amazing. 4.6 Kilometres, average moving speed of 10 KM/H, and a max speed of 18.9 KM/H (that would be without the sled)! We stopped for a beavertail along the way too. Yum.

Somewhere along the way Amy fell asleep. She did that last year too. She never sleeps in the stroller, yet, once we hit the ice, she is out like a light.

Our first real day in ottawa was pretty nice. The weather is warm (hovering around 0) and we were a little tired still so we decided to take it easy. The big thing on the horizon was the winter festival down at the community park. Snow games, cup cakes, hot dogs, sleigh rides, hockey games, and more.

The best part was the sledding down the hill though. Amy and Elliot had a great time with that. Amy didn’t like going with anyone,and preferred sledding by herslef (all three times she went down the hill).

Elliot spent several hours outside, some in the backyard and some down at the festival. He definitely likes playing in the snow and colder temperatures. By the end of it though he was tired out. Elliot and his cousin get along famously too. They have similar likes for things to play with, and always seem to pick up where they left off when they meet up again.

The funniest part of the day is when I was putting Amy to bed. She got into her PJ’s, got cozy in her sleeping area, and I started reading. After two books I told her it was the last one and she agreed. When I finished the last one I told her I was going to sing to her, then it would be bedtime. She was silent. I looked over at her and she was asleep. I can’t remember her ever falling asleep while I read.

Travelling yesterday was an adventure. The plan for Elliot and I was to fly to Vancouver, have a layover for a couple hours, then fly on to Winnipeg. Another layover in Winnipeg, then on to Ottawa.

This was not to be.

We got to the Victoria airport way too early, so we waited. Elliot was so excited to get on a plane that waiting was very hard. The flight to Vancouver was short and easy. In Vancouver we got some lunch there and started our wait for the 1:15 flight. Around 12:30 we went to the bathroom and while we were in there, I heard my name being paged. For some reason I though we were going to get an upgrade. Sadly no.

I learned that the flight we were going to fly on to Winnipeg was delayed meaning we would have missed our connection to Ottawa. Instead they were moving us to a later flight direct from Vancouver to Ottawa. The bad part was that our new flight left at 5:30. We arrived in Vancouver at 10:30am and weren’t leaving until 5:30pm. Yikes.

Poor Elliot just wanted to get on a plane. We did whatever we could to keep his mind off the plane. We played tag, ate snacks, read books, played puzzles. Elliot even played with some other kids. Still, he really wanted to get on a plane.

Finally they called the flight and we boarded. Woohoo. Wait, we still had a 4 hour+ flight. *sigh*

The flight went well though. Elliot watched a lot of TV, I watched a movie and a couple TV shows. Oh, and I also had a couple drinks too 😉

Once we landed, we gathered our things, and Elliot cheerfully followed me down to the baggage area. Sue and her sister met us there, and Elliot was very happy to see them, and in great spirits considering how long of a day we had. We gathered our bags and headed back to the house. I ate a snack, helped get Elliot into bed, then went to bed myself at 2 am Ottawa time (11 Victoria time).

I didn’t mention that I was awake at 4:30 am. Long day, but we are here now and enjoying ourselves immensely.