Lots of time with our family and their pets!

Here are some of our favourite photos over the months...and really hard to choose as we took so many! I always share our camera with the boys who take equally amazing shots! (usually of one another, holding a pet!) We really made the most of our time here in Canada from September to January. Thanks so much to Papa for supporting our long adventure and for spending a wonderful month with us in Toronto and in Italy. More photos to come...

See you next time, dear Friends!

In January we had to say "good bye" to our hot tub parties with Brenna and Carys, snowboarding with Kyle, and goofy times with Dondy, who babysat while the Mommy went out for lunch with her girlfriends at a fancy hotel! But we are back again already and looking forward to a seafood bonanza again with the Longstaffs, another hot tub party and climbing the CN Tower with Bella and her kids! And it is still cold and snowy so it is as if we never left!

Here is a photo of Dondy babysitting Frunty and Pit in January. The other night Dondy came over with Sean and we all played Pirate's Cove, our new game, together. Lots of fun!

Our new condo

Our favourite shed in the world! Papa made it for me when Frunty was born and it houses all our treasures and is a great fort for the kids too!

We had an amazing time living on Willow this past winter! It was so fun to be in our own home in our old neighbourhood and to enjoy some snow too! We really made the most of it!

And then we had the exciting joy of living in our new condo for a few days before flying over to meet Papa in Europe. With views of the CN Tower, St. James Cathedral, the St. Lawrence Market and the Flatiron Building, we all felt like we really heat scored on this purchase! Everything fun within walking distance too...a great location and another home in a car-free location! Perfect!

We are now fortunate to stay here an entire month while Papa works nearby and comes home for lunch. The boys are working on their studies beside me. It's a really nice experience.

Best of Photos: January 2013

In January, we had fun going to see The Wizard of Oz with Gramma after Hero Burgers! We were staying at our condo on Front Street so it was easy to enjoy the downtown lifestyle and we had the amazing opportunity to see a Leaf's game! Thanks, Papa for the treat! The Leafs beat the Washington D.C team 3-2! What an exciting game!

We got our Leaf shirts and face stickers and had amazing seats. Our neighbours gave us popcorn! We talked to Papa on the phone. He was listening to the game in Singapore on the radio!

Despite our car accident, we enjoyed the Scout Winter camp. Pit got pulled around in a sled due to his broken leg. I made soup in the forest and the fresh air helped my concussion and aches and pains. Frunty's headaches did not stop him from going on the scavenger hunt and participating in all activities. We were really celebrating being alive, the snow and a Canadian wilderness experience all at the same time!

Wow, it's April!

We have a lot of catching up to do but it is never too late!

January was a very challenging month beginning with a car accident which came two days after we heard of Nonna's illness. We still tried to keep our spirits high though as we juggled physiotherapist/medical appointments with our usual fun activities of art with Auntie Dee, Scouts, get togethers with family and friends and preparing to pack up Willow and move to our new condo beside the St. Lawrence market before flying over to Europe to meet Papa at the beginning of February!

Our days at our condo were a lot of fun! It is a very conveniently located place with lots of great things to do and going for breakfast at the market soon became one of the highlights. Gramma and Grampa came down for some visits and enjoyed hanging out here too.

At the beginning of February, we said good bye to our life here in Toronto and flew over to the UK for several nights with friends we met in Singapore, the McMahons. We stayed with them in Reading and went out to a fun pub with them. It was great to catch up with Christine, Lee, William and Emma and see how they are doing now that they are back in their home country. Was Singapore just a dream? It was interesting to hear what they missed and did not miss. They seemed to miss the weather and the exotic travel in Asia...and big coconuts with us on the East Coast and other new and dear friends.

We then spent several nights with our friends in Teddington, the Eglintons. Always a big highlight of any trip to Europe. Kirsten goes out of her way to cook with the boys and together they made homemade marshmallows which we then carried around Italy, eating them little by little...so precious. We loved playing with little Freddy who is a growing delight and cuter than ever. The three boys played wonderfully together despite the age gap which never seems to matter at all! We went for nice walks, visited the charity shops, had a pub meal beside the Thames. Simple pleasures. Just great. In the evenings, with all the boys in bed, I got a chance to chat with Eggy and Kirsten and learn about the doctor in the UK who made a BBC documentary about 5:2. We talked about nutrition and how to feed our families well in a world where it is increasingly challenging to do so. Interesting talks and I appreciated chatting with them, sharing information and support.

Our time at the Eglintons coincided with Nonna's operation and it helped to be distracted in fun ways. Good news that Nonna handled the operation well.

The three of us flew down to Venice from Gatwick and met Papa for an Italian adventure. Good to be with Papa after missing him for several months and also wonderful that he could piggy back Pit with his broken leg around Venice! In the mornings, Papa would piggy back Pit around town, eating pastries, while Frunty and I snuggled and luxuriated. It was heaven. The nights were busy and noisy as it was carnival but with our masks on, we participated too and enjoyed ourselves! We even went on a Gondola ride which we could not do when we went in 1994 with Matt and Mary. So that was very exciting.

We took the train/bus/train up to Brusson a few days later to start our ski holiday. I'll write more about that later and add pictures!

January Updates

Unfortunately I am still unable to figure out how to put photos on my blog after Papa updated it and put more space. So I will just write.

We ushered in the new year in Uxbridge and a highlight was all the giggles while playing Balderdash. We had many great days of skiing and snowboarding and got back to our home in the city to find snow too!

The year seemed to be going swimmingly well as we continued to catch up with friends at Evangeline and Sean's incredible, Ukrainian Christmas and dinner with our dear friends from Japan in our home. More skating with Grampa, dinners at Feathers, field trips with Gramma and art with Auntie Dee filled up our time in a wonderful way as we waited also for the arrival of the nonni from Newfoundland.

It seemed very quiet over there on Robin Drive and soon we found out why...unfortunately Nonna is quite sick and we are worried but hopeful too with all the amazing advances in cancer. After the surgery, Nonna will surely be ready for some fun again.

In the meantime, we made a plan on Sunday to spend the day with the Nonni by going to church and out for lunch afterwards. The boys and I took the GoTrain out to Clarkson on a very foggy Sunday morning and I remember thinking that I hoped we would not get in a car accident with all the fog. But it cleared up and before we knew it, we were on our way to the Pickle Barrel and just before we got there, experienced a nasty car accident afterall...with very few cars around and with the fog having lifted.

Papi made it well into the intersection on his green light when I saw a red mini-van coming towards us to our right and I yelled, "Papi!" I think I said it but the boys said I screamed it. Who knows? It was too late, we got crashed into and at first, I had presence of mind to think, "oh that wasn't so bad. We're ok." And then the curtain air bag hit me very hard in the head and I could not focus very well but remember Pit screaming, "my stomach, my stomach". Next thing we knew, a very gentle man asked if we were ok and could move and helped us get out of the car. I think I asked Mami if she was ok. Papi was already out of the car, I guess checking out the situation.

The boys and I waited safely by the corner, hugging, crying, answering questions by several paramedics and police officers. Hopefully messages were relayed to nonna but we did not hear how she was for quite awhile. Whereas I could pull my stuck leg out of the car door where it caved in, Mami was trapped and needed to be extracted by the "jaws of death." We were able to sit in the ambulance eventually to be assessed whereas poor nonna had to be put on a stretcher and taken to emergency and then had to wait for a long time in the hallway before getting placed into a room.

Papi seemed fine throughout it all must have been in shock when he told us right away to go ahead and have lunch at the Pickle Barrel which was about a 5 minute walk away. We would not have left nonna for anything and besides, the paramedics had to assess us, the police had to fill out reports based on our information (well done, Frunty for your observations!) and on top of the shock, trauma and pain of being hit so forcefully in the head and the boys jostled violently as well, we had lost our appetite!!!

We all made it to emergency and had several visits with nonna and some chats. The boys and I made ourselves eat some subs which normally would sound like quite a treat but were not as exciting on that day. We forced ourselves because I heard one needs sustenance in times like those! Gramma and Grampa came to pick us up at Credit River Trillium hospital and took us to the nonna's to put her purse in the house and for us to pick up our bag. Somehow, we did not do either!!! The boys watched some tv while I grabbed some of their winter clothes from the basement cupboard. Then we drove home in a daze and Gramma made us some dinner.

Somehow I took ten photos or so of the accident because I was so worried that Nonno would be blamed. But of course, the police took there own photos and it was very clear from the witnesses as well that the driver ran the red. But she had a long time to stop and when I saw her in the hospital she said she did not know at all what happened. It was a weird accident.

The three of us are sore and have not slept that well since the accident but and we all take turns talking about the accident. The number one concern is about nonna and how sad it is that she got the brunt of the accident...especially given that she is so unwell to start with...and we are very sorry about that...

On the other hand, how wonderful that we all survived that crash since being t-boned is really dangerous and although the airbags hurt a lot, they saved us from a worse fate! Sunday the 13 2013 will not be forgotten as a lucky day afterall because we all made it home that night, in one piece.

Happy New Year!