Tuesday, 10 October 2023

We had a sleepover!

 Yes, it was time. We could not remember the last time we were away for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful opportunity to visit the kids in Ottawa. The kids in Vancouver were at the cottage with friends, as were many other Canadians with the opportunity. We did the reverse, we drove from cottage country to the city!


We've had days of rain, which might have improved my drive-by shootings!


As we approached Ottawa, those dreaded traffic circles! JB just doesn't like them, I felt badly. We avoided them on the way home.

It is a lovely neighbourhood! Look at those trees.



Isabelle and I got a little silly! There was much love. It is wonderful being able to visit them. And to hear the words, "Gramma, you are awesome!" really warms my heart and soul.

The new kitchen, with the half wall, really open up the space. The renovations are amazing. 

Look at this! You can grab items from the pantry drawer. 

JL is an amazing cook, who loves to cook. He prepared a charcuterie board for us. This is all that was left, but you can see the wonderful markings.

Caitlin lit the candles. (It was a gift!)


I took a quick photo of all of us. It's tough getting everyone in the same room at once!


JL was given a painting done by a relative of his step-mother's, Alex F. Yaworski. You can read about the artist in a blog post by his son, Don Yaworski, in a blogpost. He was born in Odessa, lived in the US. It is a painting of the St. Regis Hotel, created on June 25th, 1972.


Josephine was doing some sewing in the basement. We interrupted her to watch a movie. Even Grampa smiled. It was fun entertainment.


Walkies in the rain for the men. 

Off we went home, after breakfast. What a terrific visit. 

There were quite a few people at the various trails, kids in toques and mitts, about to go walking. I am sure it is a family tradition, even though it was raining!


There many fields with geese, and several short skeins of geese over head. With the dull, cloudy, rainy day, photos were not great.

It is a shame to waste these old photos, so here are geese in person, in the flesh, in feather!


We came home through Richmond, with lots of new developments. 

The homes and tree colours were much more appealing.

This is one of my favourite backyards. You'll have to biggify it to see the water treatment, but it looks like Santa is waiting to be installed. Wow!

We had a quick Happy Thanksgiving phone call with our Vancouver family, Jesse and Bryony specifically, who were entertaining friends at the cottage. We were grateful Jesse took time to call!
The new week begins!

21 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

So glad you had such a great family celebration. Those walks following Thanksgiving dinner are obligatory in some places. I've many times taken them, and then (here at least) settled in to watch a movie (or with several sons, an American football game!) Love seeing the colors in your trees as you drove by.

Rajani Rehana said...

Beautiful blog

Rajani Rehana said...

Beautiful blog

Rajani Rehana said...

Beautiful blog

Olga said...

What a pleasant feel to your holiday get away. A change of scenery is a good thing from time to time.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

It looks like a great time was had by all. You are a few weeks ahead of us for fall. We are still running our air conditioning!!

After a long hiatus I decided to smoke chicken quarters on Sunday. Then I read that it was the Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday so I decided we were going to celebrate it as well. Is that Cultural Misappropriation? We should all be thankful all the time is what I think.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Delightful! All as it needed to be. Can't ask for more. YAM xx

KarenW said...

Could I please share your photo of the housing development in Richmond with my F.I.L.? He is originally from Richmond and I think he would be aghast.

RedPat said...

What a wonderful time. You are lucky.

Jenn Jilks said...

Absolutely, Karen, although it is discouraging.

Jeanie said...

I'm so glad you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It sounds just perfect. I loved that painting and the photo of the charcuterie tray was great -- that's just the way it should be!

carol l mckenna said...

Happy Tuesday to you too ~


Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days ~
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Elephant's Child said...

It looks and sounds wonderful. I am so glad you had this treat.

Christine said...

What a wonderful visit!

DeniseinVA said...

The sleepover looked like a lot of fun! You got great photos driving along. Traffic circles can be challenging depending how busy they are. Gorgeous trees in their Autumn colors. Sweet photos of you and your family. A lovely get together and true words spoken about gramma. It doesn’t get any better than that :)

Cloudia said...

How fun traveling about with you! Aloha Jenn

Anvilcloud said...

I'm with JB re. traffic circles. Ugh.

Glad you had a nice visit.

Red said...

I have not taken one goose photo this year. I guess I'll be taking them on the river If I don't soon hurry.

William Kendall said...

Chicken Run is a fun movie.

Divers and Sundry said...

Sounds like y'all had an enjoyable trip -except for those traffic circles.

Red said...

So if the school district had given you credit for the photo would that be OK? I found one of my photos someplace and I had been given credit but they hadn't asked me.