Nova Scotia 2015

Yes, I am still alive. I realize I have been "off the grid" for at least five weeks but I've had good reason. We were in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Maine (campmeeting) for over a month. It is atypical that all this would happen on the same trip but we can blame our church leaders for it all. We are usually at campmeeting at the end of June and in Nova Scotia at the end of July/beginning of August. But due to the General Conference in San Antonio being scheduled during campmeeting, the leaders of the Northern New England Conference got the "bright" idea to move campmeeting all the way to August 7. We were all quite displeased with this decision but we are at their mercy. So, what normally would be two trips up to New England/Canada, turned into one big trip. My wallet may have been happy but that's about it.

Clearly I will be breaking this all up into at least two blog posts as I don't have the next seven hours free. Although...come to think of it, I could probably sum up the Nova Scotia part of the trip very quickly. It rained. And rained. And rained some more. There was a lot of mud and the kids got very dirty but had lots of fun. Okay, there you go. Done and done!

On a more serious note, we left home on Thursday, July 16 to fly to Providence (we will probably always fly into Providence now because we have the Southwest credit card and get miles for them. You absolutely can't beat the two free bags when you are buying five, soon to be, six tickets. Not to mention that Providence is SO much nicer than flying into Boston. Your bags are already waiting for you when you get to the baggage claim). Since Colby is not quite two, he still got to be a lap child. It occurred to me on the way to the airport that he may literally have to be a lap child if the plane was full which isn't THAT bad when he's a baby but at almost two, can be quite tiresome. I put him in the middle seat between Aubree and me and said silent prayer after silent prayer that the plane wasn't completely full and we lucked out. It was the last empty seat on the plane! The flight left at 7:15 pm and as I suspected, he didn't sleep a wink on the whole flight but I was able to keep him entertained pretty well...in between shooting daggers of jealousy over at Duncan who was sitting peacefully watching a movie on his device. Must be nice.

Four duffle bags, two suitcases, a garment bag, two boosters, two carseats, and a stroller. Yeah, a lot of stuff but we were going to be gone for more than a month. That was my rationalization.

We weren't leaving until Saturday night to drive to Nova Scotia but we like to go a day early so we have time to get groceries to take, etc. Even though the Canadian/US dollar exchange rate is more and more in our favor these days ($1 US Dollar = about $1.28 Canadian), when you add in the tax (like 17%!) it's still cheaper to bring as much food as possible. For example, a gallon of milk is now $8.10 up there! So Friday we used the day to get all the done. In addition, I helped my dad out by going into his radio studio and recording a 30-minute segment for his radio program on motherhood/homeschooling along with another lady/friend from his church. I thought it went well but I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to it yet. I hate hearing myself! It was fun to do though.

Had a picnic supper with the Rondinellis and Irrgangs at a beach near my parents' on Friday evening.

Had a picnic lunch with the Braintree church on Sabbath afternoon in Hingham. That is the Boston skyline way out in the distance.

Saw this bumper sticker on a car in the Target parking lot while getting groceries. For some reason, it made me laugh so hard. Not that this EVER happens in our family.

We left after sunset on Sabbath for the roughly 13-hour drive. My parents went in my dad's car and we were in their mini van. This is the first time in years that we've gone up at the same time as my dad. Usually he precedes us because he spends a week at campmeeting in Nova Scotia but because of the schedule changes, that would occur at the end of the trip rather than the beginning. It was special to be able to travel with him this time. The trip started out very poorly however. Within the first hour, three of the four kids were crying. Both Calleigh and Aubree couldn't get comfortable in their boosters. I think this is the first time they weren't in car seats for an overnight trip and boosters just aren't as comfortable as a reclined car seat. Not to mention that we had stuff on the floor which wasn't comfortable for their legs. Clearly we didn't realize how tall they've gotten and that they need more room! Anyway, I was a little worried that it was going to be a VERY long trip but once we got those issues worked out, it was pretty smooth sailing.

I wasn't the only one glad to have Papa with us on the trip! Here we are stopped for breakfast in Antigonish on Sunday morning - - about 1.5 hours from our destination.

Now, if you have a good memory, you may recall that last year, our big cabin in Nova Scotia burned to the ground. That was July 5 to be exact. Since that date, the G8, as they are affectionately called (this is my mom, her three sisters, and their husbands who all jointly own the property), have been working tirelessly with the insurance company and the builders to have a new house built in time for us this year. Honestly, if I had been a betting person, I would NEVER have bet that it would be done in time because it seems like things have one speed up there...SLOW. But the builders told us it would be done on July 2 which even gave a little wiggle room. We got pictures every week and as the weeks were winding down and it still looked like a lot was left to be done, some of us were getting pretty nervous. What would we do if it wasn't ready? Well, God is good because it was done just in time. My cousin David arrived there on the Friday morning, July 17, and that was literally the day it was completed. Amazing!

It was with very mixed emotions as we drove up the long driveway on Sunday morning. Such sadness knowing the old house was really and truly gone but with great anticipation as to the new and improved home that replaced it. We were not disappointed! The pictures didn't do it justice. The new place is almost double the size of the old one (once the basement is finished) at around 4500 - 4800 square feet (not sure the exact amount). Yes, that seems big, and it is, but there are now 46 of us if the whole entire family is there! The old house had the tiniest, itty bitty, kitchen you have ever been in and now we have a huge island, three refrigerators, two sinks, stoves, ovens and microwaves, and two dishwashers (none before). We had three bathrooms (but only two showers) in the old house and now there are six. The space is just amazing. Everything smells new and there aren't bugs everywhere. The fire was a terrible, terrible thing but the upside has been a big game changer. All of us were blown away by how great it all turned out. A prime example of something bad turning into something good. Thank you Lord!

From the back. The four windows on the top floor are the bedrooms of the four sisters. My parents' is the one to the far right.

The fabulous kitchen.

Dining room.

The view from the porch. The third cabin from the left is the one that Sean and Shannon built this year and the one on the far right in the one that David and Yully just built. They all worked really hard the whole vacation to get these done...often working in the rain. Only two more cabins to go!

Living room. This is before we finished the decorations for this year. We got 10 couches for free from a hotel that was remodeling. We were thrilled!

Upstairs sitting area outside of the bedrooms. The stairs down are at the far end of the picture.

My parents' room. Each of the four sisters have a bathroom in their room.

Their view. Would like a lot nicer on a sunny day!

The six little cabins that the cousins have built were spared so there was no problems there although ours did need to be shored up before our arrival as the blocks for the "foundation" were moving a bit. It was good to be in our little yellow cabin as it had been three years since we last were. Two years ago we weren't there because of Colby being born and then obviously last year. The bugs were atrocious but after some vigorous sweeping and vacuuming, we were good to go. The cabin is a decent size at 12 x 16 but with six of us, things got a little tight. Another upside of the fire was that Duncan and I were able to get a mattress brought up. We had been borrowing one out of one of the "spare" bedrooms in the old cabin each year because buying a mattress in Canada seemed costly and then we had to figure out how to get it to our property, etc. But since folks were making trips up to NS prior to our arrival to bring everything for the new house, we were able to send up a mattress and box spring on one of the trucks. So we had our new bed, the girls shared a blow up double mattress, Brady was on a cot, and Colby was in his pack and play. They were all right next to each other, pretty much in a line. Not a lot of spare room but it all worked out fine. The kids slept great although I would have to hang out with them each night until they fell asleep and then I had the monitor with me in the main cabin. A few of the nights, Colby would end up in bed with us at some point but fortunately, it wasn't every night. It was pretty cold though! The night time temps were in the mid-50's and in a place with no insulation, it's pretty much like camping. I had anticipated it though, and had gotten a bunch of "new" blankets at a thrift store in MA to bring up. For some reason, I didn't have any footed pajamas for Aubree so Camille had brought a couple of Camden's with her for Aubree to borrow. Aubree was quite perturbed about this and refused for anyone to see her in "boy" pajamas which complicated things a bit when she had to go to the bathroom. She would wear a second pair of pajamas underneath those and take off that top layer before she would go anywhere. Six year olds!! Fortunately, I found two pairs at a thrift store before went to campmeeting so we didn't run into the same problem there.

It gets even more crowded when Brady joins in.

Did I mention it rained? Did I mention that there is virtually no grass (the seed hadn't been planted yet) so when it rained, it turned into a big mud pit? I know a few years ago we had a big problem with lots of rain so I guess I can't say this was the worst year ever but it was right up there. I know we were there a few weeks earlier than usual but I don't know if I can blame it all on the timing. To be sure, it wouldn't rain the whole day, fortunately. But it was off and on most days. A few days it may not have rained but the sun didn't come out. Not until the evening before the morning we were to leave. Seriously! The temperatures weren't exactly warm either. I don't know if it ever got out of the 60's (it's hard to say for sure because all the weather reports I looked at were in Celsius) and when it's in the 60's and there's no sun, it's actually kind of chilly. The wet conditions did not get us down, however. Well, mostly. The kids spent many hours outside in the rain/mud doing what kids do best, getting dirty. Which brings me to the next topic...

The conditions didn't stop Papa from taking the kids for hikes down the driveway.

This is how it looked between our yellow cabin and the main house. Those extension cords are how we all got electricity to our little cabins.

The aftermath is not nearly as fun.

"No shoes on this." A constant battle to keep the mud at bay.

Since we were going to be gone for more than a month, this presented a challenge for packing. I figured campmeeting would be hot so I would need at least 10 changes of hot weather clothes for that (I do NOT do laundry while at campmeeting). But I also knew that I would certainly need some cold weather clothing by looking at the forecast for NS. With four children, this creates quite a bit of luggage. Duncan, of course, was playing the stereotypical husband and giving me a bit of grief as to how much I was packing. But kids often wear more than one outfit a day. They get stains on stuff. I know. I'm around them every day. I've been doing their laundry for 8+ years. Duncan reminds me that I can wash stuff there. My reply was that I was on vacation and I didn't feel like doing laundry while I was on it. Nevertheless, I was able to condense everything so that the four kids were packed into three duffle bags. I thought I had done quite admirably.

The first day we are there and we've arrived in the rain and I see that we are needing to change into new outfits after the first hour, I say something like "There's both a washer AND dryer here, right?" I mean, it's a brand new place and although this seems like a dumb question, I ask it just to be sure. "Nope," My mom says. "Neither." What and what??!! This is a big blow. It means I will have to go into town now to do laundry at the laundromat. That means probably a few hours out of my day. A few days go by and my Aunt Sherrie decides that she's going to go into town (about an eight minute drive) and do laundry. A little while later, she comes back and says "Well, the laundromat just closed down a few months ago." WHAT?!! Now this has REALLY gotten serious. Now to do laundry, we have to go about 30 minutes away. Ugh!!! Had I known this all ahead of time, Duncan and I would have bought a washer and dryer to send up and put one of those little money boxes on it. Ah well. It was definitely an inconvenience to be sure but I did feel a little bit smug that I should have packed MORE so I wouldn't have had to do any laundry. Right after we all left, some of the G8 went and got a used washer and dryer so it's now ready to go for next year. They also tried to get a second set but when they got it back (after driving over an hour and half away to get it) it didn't work. If you need a laugh, please have my Uncle Terry tell you that story.

One of the big things we did up there involved Colby. We had pretty much let his hair grow and grow with only a couple of small trims. I have always been a big fan of short hair on boys but for some reason, we just let Colby's keep going so that it basically was in his eyes. Both grandmothers loved it that way so I kept it. But, the last month or two, I was getting pretty fed up with how messy it would get because he loved to put food in it. Drove me nuts. Finally, after some pressure from some peers (aka, my brother) to cut it, I decided it was time. Since so much was going to be cut off, I wanted it to be done by a professional rather than Duncan (no offense). Plus, this way Duncan could take him and I didn't have to watch it. About the third or fourth day we were there, Duncan took him in and the deed was done. It was like a whole new kid! I'm loving it. Goodbye to surfer Colby! Probably never to be seen again. Well, at least as long as I have control of his hair.

Just after the hair cut.

Ta Da! My two boys. Their hair may be similar now but I don't think they actually look anything alike. At least not in this picture.

As far as who was there this year, it was everyone but Rick and Ana and then the Jonathan Wall family. Ricky started a new job as Boys' Dean at Bass Academy in Mississippi and had to report on July 1 (it was that early because it is the first year). There were 42 of us which was the G8, eight of the ten cousins and their spouses, Uncle Terry's mom, "Nanny," and then 16 children of the cousins plus Mia's cousin, Jack. Despite the large house, when kids are trapped in it because of rain, it can get pretty loud and crazy. Fortunately we all like each other (most of the time).

All the kids, whether happy or sad, with my mom's relative who lives in NS. The two missing kids are Zasha and Luccia. We hope they can come next year. Oh, and Kaitlyn doesn't appear to be in the picture either.

I'm going to let the pictures do the rest of the talking as I don't want to have to write what we did every day or anything.

Oh, actually, I do have an anecdote I wanted to add. We had noticed that on Wednesdays, a place in town was having a special event for kids aged 4 - 8. Perfect, since it was such crummy weather. They would do crafts, play games, etc. The first Wednesday they went, a lady who has a big organic garden nearby came and showed the kids a bunch of her vegetables, had them help wash and cut them, and so on. We were so impressed with it all that we decided to go visit her garden to see it for ourselves. Her partner (in more than one sense of the word) was there and showed us all around and we were now even more impressed. It was remarkable how she used every square inch of space and she knew SO much about all different vegetables. We just loved it and bought a bunch of stuff too. Anyway, at one point, Aubree says she has to go to the bathroom so I ask the lady if she wouldn't mind if we used her bathroom. She was very nice and led us into their rather old and eclectic house that was in the midst of some remodeling. When Aubs and I went into the bathroom, I kind of had to force the door closed because there was a cord in the way. When we were finished, I go to open the door and it won't open. It was completely stuck...probably because of the cord. The door had to be pushed to be opened but because it was so old, I was afraid that if I pushed too hard, it would break! Fortunately I had my phone (which we did get the Canada plan this year) so I tried calling Duncan. Of course, it's not always the best reception since we are sort of in the "middle of nowhere" up where we are. I don't know if it was that or what but Duncan, nor either of my parents were answering their phones. By now, Aubree is starting to panic and cry "We're going to be trapped in here forever!" There was a window but it was kind of high up and opened up into an enclosed greenhouse area so at worst, I knew I could get out there if I needed to. In the meantime, I opened the window and started yelling out of it but because it opened to the greenhouse, I must have been muffled because nobody heard me. I could see them off in the distance but they couldn't see me. After a bit, I tried calling everyone again and finally I think it was my Mom who answered and had the lady come "rescue" us. Yes, it does that sometimes, she says. Well, there you go. But we were saved and poor Aubree could breathe easy again.

Calleigh cutting a veggie in the class

The boys washing something. I thought it was funny that Brady was handling these vegetables considering he doesn't eat a SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

Viewing the garden. Just a beautiful piece of property.

The kids clowning around.

A new vegetable called "kohlrabi" that we discovered and the girls loved it. Had a bit of a radish taste but not as tart.

Colby absolutely loves him some Papa.

The door!

Okay, on to the rest of the pictures...

One of the best things about being in NS is the games. Here we are playing Mafia after all the kids went to bed. This is the game we play the most as a big group. For some reason, Aunt Lori and Devin would end up being mafia over and over again even though there were more than 20 of us playing. The only one to ever win was Camille. It came down at the end to Alison, Rad, and Camille and since the girls weren't going to vote for themselves it was up to Rad. He teetered back and forth but at the end, thought it was Alison. Wrong!!

Monopoly Deal was a game that got big for people last year. I was impressed that Aubree could play because I found it complicated the one and only time I played.

Playing "Head's Up"

Sequence

The Name Game. We love playing with the older generation because they are so funny when they have to do charades.

Winslow (16 months) and Colby had a good time together, getting into a lot of mischief.

Sneaking up to the second floor.

Winslow's favorite thing was to eat food off Colby's tray...even if she had just eaten herself.

Their other favorite thing was to steal stuff out of my cupboard which had all the snacks. Here they've stolen a bag of fish.

Aubree loves to hold the babies. Here's Kaitlyn who was only three weeks old.

Levi, 9 months

Duncan got these three fishing poles at Bass Pro Shops before the trip and they were very excited to try their hand at fishing.

All she caught was a clam but that didn't dampen their spirits. They kept wanting to fish again. Heath took his boys out on their little boat one evening around dusk and caught a ton of fish so we'll have to try that next year. He also used live worms.

Brady didn't fish but had fun! This was a typical look for Brady, wandering around outside in his rain gear. He spent loooonnggg periods of time with Gracie (the dog), just walking here and there by themselves.

Since the weather wasn't great, Duncan only got out once on a kayak on our lake. But it was beautiful.

Calleigh found a frog out in the yard.

One of the nights it wasn't raining, we went to a ballgame with my dad. When my generation was growing up, we went to many, many of these while in NS. The kids loved it!

Acadia wanted to know why there weren't any girls playing. We asked our friend, Eddie, who was umping the game about it and he said a girl did once back in 2004. (I say "girl" but these are all adults playing.)

The kids got several foul balls (you just throw them back) and thought that was pretty neat.

Spent some time at a playground.

To look at this, you would think the weather wasn't that bad. It was all a big farce. It always ended up being way worse than the forecast. I surmised that the weathermen were in cahoots with the Nova Scotia Board of Tourism.

This is hard to read but what it's telling you are all the rules for trash and recycling that MUST be followed. You have Blue Bag # 1, Blue Bag # 2, Trash (which goes in a clear bag), and then Compost. It's all a bit stressful and I would sometimes save my trash and take it somewhere (like a store) that hopefully would have a general trash can that I could sneak stuff into.

We usually go for a Sabbath afternoon hike here in Little Anse but when we got there, we discovered the tide was in so we couldn't get across.

Found an alternate spot and Calleigh discovered this bone. Anyone know of anyone missing on Isle Madame?!!

Kids sporting their Norway shirts that Papa and Gigi brought back from their Europe trip.

We took our usual day trip to Baddeck, my Dad's favorite spot on earth.

Sitting outside the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Bell had a home in Baddeck and thus they erected a museum in the town. I hadn't been in probably decades. The older kids enjoyed it and the younger ones enjoyed the big play area they had for kids.

Haha!

St. Peters, a nearby town, was having a festival going on for the week so we got in on this event for the kids. We had only been there like 15 minutes when they said they had to end it because of a water main break in the town.

Brady named his bunny "Gracie" after Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Kevin's dog, Gracie, that he took a big liking to.

We tried to take a group picture of our kids but then strangers thought it was a group photo and moved in on it. Ah, well!

Colby with the above mentioned Gracie. In addition to all the people, there were also five dogs.

Brady and Acadia hanging out.

You find fun wherever you can find it.

Brady seemed to develop a little crush on Mia.

Aunt Sherrie massaging Devin's neck. Devin was helping Sean build Sean's cottage and a beam fell on him.

So glad we got a fire place in the new one, like the old one.

As I said, fun wherever you can find it.

What would Nova Scotia be without some kind of road adventure? I made a scavenger hunt and we had about five teams who braved the elements. We didn't really have a winner, just calling it a "fun time." The teams were by family and here is my family taking a group photo in front of a ball field. The kids all had a great time and little Bode asked me the next day "Can we do another treasure hunt today?"