Niagara Falls

For two weeks in April we went 'home".

I know, I said that many times over, and I'm not sure why it comes out that way, but old habits die hard.

So, we (all six of us) went to Ontario.
Home away from Home, but still (a) home.  First time back after two and a half years.  

What a crazy, busy, fun, whirlwind of a trip.
Family from both sides to visit,  friends, old neighbors...cousins and Grandparents.

I'm still recovering.  ;) 

The reason for the trip was for Uncle Tim's wedding to his sweetheart Alyssa, and we were all glad for this wonderful reason to party and visit.   Due to the logistics of the van rental and Andy's shorter stay, we spent the first weekend in Elora with Andy's side of the family.  But due to the nature of picture organization, we are starting with our outings, first one to Niagara Falls and then to the Butterfly Conservatory.

We had a mid-morning flight out of Calgary and who should be at the Airport at the same time as us but,.. Uncle Anno!

Patiently waiting.

Here we are, Niagara Falls.  Seth was quite thrilled. He's a true son of his father, having researched exactly where we were going before leaving home he was duly impressed.  It was quite fun being tourists at 'home'.  :) 

 It was fun that Richard and Elora and gang, Natasha and her crew as well as Ruth-Ann and Asher and Mom all came along.  But it wasn't easy getting group pictures!  Did I mention it was cold?  Good thing this was Ontario, we could count on Tim Hortons being with-in eye sight, so stopping for coffee and Tim-bits was a must. 

  A few minutes down the road was the Butterfly Conservatory, which.... since we were in the area anyways.... we went to.  It was nice and a pleasant thing to do, although our kids weren't really into the butterflies and were more scared than anything if a butterfly flew into their personal space.  It was fun watching the kids faces as the butterflies floated literally everywhere.  I think Rowan thought the safest place to be was attached to Andy.

Aaron and family showed up for this too!

Abby, Kyrie and Asher.

 And because tourists buzz around and take all sorts of pictures of all sorts of interesting things we also stopped at the Whirlpool lookout. The Whirlpool is below the railing here, in essence it's a 45 degree turn in the Niagara River, creating a whirlpool effect in the corner.  

On the way back to my parents we took a slight detour Queenston Heights to see the home of Laura Secord since I had been reading a book aloud to Seth and Tristan about her.  I could see the boys minds exploding with wonder imagining the Red Coats climbing up the escarpment during the War of 1812.  We had Sydney with us and they all thought it was neat to see where Sir Isaac Brock died and the monument for him and his horse.  Canadian history comes alive! We had much more to see and do, too bad time was short.