Phew. Back home.

We're back. We got home around 9:00 last night. I think. It's a bit of a blur.

The last two days were great. After John got home on Saturday, the rest of the day was spent playing outside - sprinklers, kiddie pool, mud pies ensued. On Sunday we all went off to Port Dalhousie. Okay, it's not much of a trek from John's mom's house - maybe a 15 minute drive. The kids all rode the carousel. The carousel is the reason to go to Port Dalhousie for us. Rides still cost 5 cents as they always have since it's establishment in the 192os. Last year Emily would not get off. At 20 months old she insisted on riding the up and down horses on her own. I expected more of the same this year. Of course, you know what that meant. She wouldn't ride the horses. She would only ride on the bench. So, I rode the horses with Hope on my back.

While in Port, I also went over to Anna Olson's bakery and spent too much money on products I could have bought elsewhere but at least I got to see the celebrity chef in action as she was chopping veggies or something behind the cash register.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around and playing outside. John's sister and her family went back to Cambridge that afternoon.

Monday was spent with my family and friends. We drove to Ridgeville (about 25 minutes from John's mom's house) and had a great lunch with my aunt and uncle. Emily explored their property, looked at the vegetable garden and climbed the treehouse. She threw out all the gourds that were stored in there from last year, swept it out and made soup. My Aunt Sharon and I went over to a small garden centre (typical to my hometown it was actually a bunch of plants for sale in someone's yard - someone I knew of course) and then went to the cemetery to plant them at my mum's plot. After that, John, Emily, Hope and I went just down the road (literally about 20 metres from my aunt's house) to my friend Julie's house for a great dinner.

Julie was my best friend throughout high school. I spent umpteen hours at her farm. The farm house is about 150 years old they think. It's a huge victorian house complete with lots of gingerbread and wrought iron. Julie's family has run it as a berry and fruit farm for years. It is finally for sale. I was so happy to spend one more afternoon there. The kids played so well together and the adults just relaxed and talked and had great food prepared by Mathieu, Julie's chef husband. After supper we all walked to the strawberry fields and filled baskets to take home. Brian, the guy currently farming the strawberries, forced some to ripen early and as they haven't been checking in on them, Julie and Mathieu help themselves. As did we and all the kids. It was so much fun and took me back to all the picking I did in high school. It will be sad not to go there anymore but hey, anybody wanna buy a farm?

From there it was back to John's mom's for the night, a quick jaunt to Happy Rolph's animal petting zoo place yesterday morning and then home yesterday afternoon and evening.

I've only included a few photos here. I took 169 of them during the week. I'll stick most of them on Flickr but not today. Today I'm unshowered, unpacked but happy to be home, too. And both kids are sleeping so the teapot is calling.