A Summer of Firsts: Part 1

Wow, the summer flew by, and I'm just now getting a chance to update the blog on all that went on. Our summer consisted of 5 weeks spent in Canada visiting family and friends! It all started on the 27th of June--we left at 2:00pm and arrived in Whitby, Ontario at 6am. Yes, my husband drove STRAIGHT through without stopping! Yes, Don is a determined and hard-working man! I'm so thankful he got us there safely! We spent 4 weeks in Port Hope and 1 week in Montreal. While in Port Hope (where Grandma lives), Denis passed a big milestone!! Grandma taught him how to ride his bike!! She bought a bike for him and worked hard with him, pushing and encouraging him to ride his bike in her big backyard. (the perfect spot, since there was a soft place to land.) After much practicing and many falls, he finally did it!!! Yea, Denis!

While in Montreal, we stayed with my cousin Katina and her family in their beautiful home. Thank you Katina and Marc-André for having us at your home! We enjoyed visiting family, and Denis and Amélie attending a french-speaking Christian summer camp at Don's former church. It was a wonderful experience for them and also gave Don, Arianna, and I time to spend on our own where we could tour a bit and also buy LOTS of french children's books!

Also, during this trip to Canada, Arianna had a few firsts--she began to laugh a little and began to blow raspberries--her FAVORITE way to communicate with us while we were on this trip. She would do it so much that her shirt would always get soaking wet, and I had to change her several times a day! It was rare to see her without lots of little bubbles around her cute little lips! She is such a good baby--she traveled so well--we drove straight through and we barely heard a complaint from her--and with all our running around town visiting family, etc., she just went with the flow, always smiling and happy!