We got to spend time with everyone back in Burlington this summer.
From the airport, we went straight to Helen's to find the house busy with Grade 8 Grad preparations.
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| Elegant 13-year-old Lucy. |
The first few days were busy with organizing back to Canada things ... and the inevitable problems! While using Helen's van to go to Service Canada for Health Cards and driving permits, out of nowhere, the drive shaft fell out of the van leaving us stranded and in need of a tow!
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| We thought we had been rear-ended when this heavy metal piece hit the ground! |
Luckily, we had secured a temporary permit to drive our car so we had transportation to get Helen's car back on the road! We also realized that our old Saturn was going to need too much work to make it roadworthy again so went in search of a new car.
Frustration was setting in quickly as we remembered the stress-free environment we had left behind. Trish picked us up and we spent the day in the garden at their place, finally relaxing with good food, a few drinks and met some new friends. Gayle and I took a nice walk along the river. We had a traditional Breakfast at Wally's Gayle drove us back home. That evening there was a great Page Street gathering and fireworks at Emerson Park. We were finally enjoying being back!
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| Said goodbye to this awesome car that was a great ride for 13 years ... |
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| ... and hello to this bad boy! |
Helen and the girls were heading off to Cambodia for a month during our visit so we were left in the lucky position of having their comfortable home for our use!
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| Pretty efficiently packed for a month! |
On the 9th, we continued the tradition of a birthday buffet for Connor's 13th.
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| Mandarin with Jackie. |
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| Chocolate covered bacon is still in the lineup! |
Connor also got to share cake again with his birthday twin, Iman (who is one year older).
We planned at least one visit with as many of our friends as we could. It is so nice to know that, even though you live far away, good friends always show you a warm welcome home. We had lovely catch-ups with Page neighbors, and were invited for many delicious meals and friends' homes.
By sheer coincidence, we got a surprise opportunity to meet up with friends, Liz and Mark and their kids (from England), who were in Niagara Falls for one night only and we managed to spend three bonus fun hours together.
We now had work to do in preparation for our move to Calgary and were lucky to have help loading our U-boxes for shipment. We were done in less than 4 hours!
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| Using every available square foot. |
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| Rediscovering stored treasures. |
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| Yup ... that looks about done! |
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| Well done team! |
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Heading back to the U-Haul self- storage.
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With everything organized, we said our final goodbyes and began our US road trip.
