Tim and Alyssa {married at last}

 ...it was a beautiful spring day on April 15, 2016 in Elora Ontario...

...a day we had all been eagerly waiting for.  Our brother Tim was marrying his bride Alyssa, my parents were losing another bird from the home nest, and we were all receiving another sister!  It was a day that very much reminded me of my own wedding, bright spring sun warming the earth and new life everywhere in nature seemingly making lovely promises for the future of this couple.  
Welcome to the family Alyssa, {we're glad that you have come} we know you will take very good care of Timothy, for he's a very special guy.  We are thrilled God brought you together and are so glad we could all celebrate it with you.  Even though we live far away and won't get to visit each other much we are confident the same God who looks after us will look after and sustain you in your marriage.  Thanks for the reason to party, dress up and revel in the goodness our heavenly Father.  Oh, and also for the reason to tease Tim unabashedly for an entire day about the other love of his life, John Deere. 

**Thanks to all who gave me their pictures as I was delinquent part of the day with my camera. Cell phone shots are also included, which explains the variations in quality of the above pictures.

Welland Canal Lock 3

The Welland Canal Sea Transit System is (according to some websites) one of the amazing man-made wonders of the world, and connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario thru a series of Locks, making a detour around Niagara Falls, by hoisting ships up (and down) the Niagara Escarpment.  Growing up, I'd seen this many times, so it was 'normal', but it had been many years since we were last there and Andy had never been there either. Lucky for us, the schedule had ships going thru right when we hoped to be there so we could see the locks in action.

And again... Ontario, which means Timmies everywhere... so lunch and snacks were in order :)   Abby didn't seem to mind at all. 

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.