Canada is Home…”

This is the new slogan for Roots “Canada” wear – we discovered it on t-shirts and sweatshirts as we were preparing for Canada Day and could not be more pleased about the opportune timing of this… We were ridiculously decked out in all things Canadian for Canada day to celebrate Canada’s 149^th birthday – and although it poured rained all day, nothing could dampen our spirits! Cool, windy wet weather may have kept many away from the fireworks hosted by The City of Barrie at the waterfront, as there was ample parking and space to set up our chairs to watch the show! About an hour before the fireworks began, the sky completely cleared and Mother Nature put on her own beautifully showy sunset… So happy to be here. Honestly, I’ve never felt so patriotic about my home country in my life.  It’s like I’ve been awakened to the wonderful awesomeness of Canada, something I’ve just taken for granted my whole life, and feeling so absolutely grateful to be of and from this fantastic country; the freshness of the air, the lush green forests, the vastness of the space and how here I am finally able to relax my tensed shoulders for the first time in months and just breathe in the freedom and ease of living here.   It’s been so lovely to reconnect with friends and family… to see the lake again and ultimately to be in an environment where things seem to make sense most of the time.  A lovely opportunity to recharge.

So happy to be here (have I mentioned this already..?  🙂  )  Made buttertarts, a quintessentially Canadian food that I have no trouble backing, and try to make them each year at this time to celebrate – I have a great recipe for Maple Pecan Buttertarts – and I was very determined to enjoy them on Canada’s Birthday (and many more times this summer… have to get our fill as I’m having issues with baking at the higher altitudes in MX… a continuing challenge for when I get back!)

I’m seeing what I’ve always known with new, appreciative eyes.

Nana and I took the kids to Ottawa for a little Canadian Social Studies field trip!!  We might have been the proudest Canadians on the hill that week!  Touring the city for four days we saw many museums and attractions, with a highlight being the Canadian Aviation and Space museum.  The seasoned “Trekkie” with us and the new star-fleet recruits enjoyed a Star Trek  themed exhibit, and Mansell got to try a real flight simulator, used to train real pilot candidates.  He was over the moon about the experience (or at least over Ottawa – he “flew” a plane over the whole city of Ottawa, and even weathered a storm!)  A highlight for Mom and I was seeing “The Famous Five” statue, something we’ve been hoping to see since it came into being.  It is such a lovely tribute to these determined, hard-working women who were instrumental in ensuring that women in Canada were seen as “persons” with all rights and responsibilities in the eyes of the law.  Hard to believe that it was as recently as October 18, 1926 that we were finally considered people!

Centre Block, Canadian Parliament

Double Decker bus tour – awesome “hop-on/hop-off” service to all the museums and attractions in Ottawa downtown core.   One of the most photographed views of the Canadian Parliament buildings – the library (the round building in the forefront) is my favourite one, inside and out!  The only original building remaining – the others were rebuilt after a fire in the early 1900’s.

At “The Big Apple” stop in Cobourg.  We noted that Daddy was 3,345 kms away in MX City and we are very excited to see him again soon for his vacation time.

While travelling to visit another long-missed friend, the boys were anticipating the summer ahead, namely that they are very excited to be back at sailing in just a short while. Caleigh listens patiently to their intense enthusiasm, then in a voice laced heavily with relief, simply says,”I’m just so happy to be here, I don’t care what we do this summer…”

Couldn’t agree more!  It’s just been SO lovely to be here again!

And One More Thing…While everyone had expected and normal moments of homesickness during our first six months in MX City, Hudson soothed his ache with “music-balm”… Hudson played the Hadfield brothers recording of “In Canada” (click song title to hear the song!) over and over and at Friday Fun Club (games and activities on Friday afternoons in his class) the children take turns requesting tunes to play.  Hudson always chose “In Canada” and one little classmate always rolled her eyes and protested vehemently, “ohhhh, not that country music again!”  Despite her disdain and obvious lack of awareness around the greatness of the song, the musicians and the country mentioned, Hudson continued to request it at school and played it ad nauseum at home!  Talk about major “ear worm!!”(a much more pleasant “bug” to encounter in our new place!)   😉