We just got back from a twelve day vacation in CANADA! If you recall back in March and April we had a family come visit us from Canada - the Yuck family of Ottawa. Our families met at the Love The Church Conference in North Carolina this past December, and since then we have formed a wonderful friendship with them. They invited us to come visit them in Canada (they probably never thought we actually would!) and we took them up on it. So this spring we started working on getting passports for the seven of us! Gram and Pop so graciously offered to milk and feed while we were away, so we set to work training them. They learned the system quickly and became pros before we left! So on June 18th, we were off to Canada!
Stopping in Virginia for lunch...and enjoying the views!
Oh, and what trip to Canada would be complete without a trip to Tim Horton's?
Right, Yucks???
The moment of suspense....
CROSSING THE BORDER!
On our way up to Canada we detoured over to Niagara Falls where we spent two days touring.
Dad picked out which barrell he wanted to go over the falls in!
The stunning Canadian Falls
The beautiful American Falls
The Falls lit up
Waiting for the firework show to start over the Falls
Our hotel room afforded a gorgeous view of the Falls.
Journey Behind The Falls
(in our stylish yellow raincoats -grin-)
It was amazing how close you were able to get to the edge of the Falls.
Genesis 9:8-17
"And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."
Then we headed out on the Maid of the Mist boat tour to get a closer look at the bottom of the Falls!
My wonderful parents
It certainly was a spectacular sight!
The Whirlpool (down river from the Falls)
The early morning mist as seen from our hotel room
Dad...buffing....his head???
Ethan had been doing his research and found out that there was a Lego store in Toronto, so we stopped in there before making our way up to the Yuck's home!
When we pulled into the Yuck's drive on Tuesday aftternoon, our vacation had only just begun...
They were terrific tour guides, taking us to Ottawa (Canada's capitol), exploring Parliament Hill, getting us access into Question Period at the Parliament building, riding a boat down the Ottawa River, and squeezing their 15 passenger van into a 6 foot something underground parking garage!!!
The big black stage on the right was being set up for Canada Day (July 1st).
And then there's Poutine...
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| Photo courtesy of JavaJunko |
Poutine: French fries smothered in brown gravy and topped with cheese curds (the squeeky kind)!
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm!
Enjoying our poutine at Parliament Hill...
Inside the Parliament building, waiting to go up into the clock tower...
Walking alongside the Rideau Canal...
That night we went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride.
The Skyhawk paratroopers doing acrobatics in the sky...
The riders kept the horses stepping in time with the music. They put on a lovely show which included several involved manuvers of weaving the horses in and out.
Caleb and Bethany also took us ice skating, something we rarely get to enjoy down here in the South! They fitted us up with some skates, grabbed some donut holes...er..I mean Timbits from Tim Horton's and away we went, ready to give those Yucks some good laughs!
Noah on the ice!
Blessing, Cherish and Honour teaching Ethan how to skate using the bar!
Cherish
All the Yucks were pros on the ice, all the way down to little Liberty!
Noah, Savannah, Jordan and Bethany
Caleb and Noah
Group shot!
(Photo courtesy of the Yuck Family)
-a nice way of saying I copied this one off of their blog- he,he,he
The Yuck family run a dairy, milking about 60 cows. It takes them about 3-4 hours each milking from start to finish, so if we wanted to go somewhere early in the morning, the menfolk would get up around three or four in the morning to start the chores, so that we could leave the house by about eight or nine! They hired someone to come milk for them for three of the nights we were there, so that we wouldn't have to rush back from our sightseeing adventures!
While we were there they allowed us to try milking with their system, which is a fair deal bigger than ours!!! It took a little bit to get the hang of it, and I still don't know how they kept track of who had been milked and dipped yet and who hadn't, but all in all we thoroughly enjoyed watching their process, learning their system, and scheming about how we could get ours to work like that! We only skipped over one cow while we were there (that I know of at least!), and we are very glad that they let us help them! They certainly are devoted and they showed themselves to be very hard workers!
Bethany coming in from milking!
Their beautiful barn with the spacious hay mow! The mow was a lot larger than I figured it would be; it can hold around 9,000 square bales of hay!
The Yucks had never played Laser Tag before, so we fit that in on one of the days there! We have always enjoyed playing and I think they did too! Too bad I didn't get any pictures of that!
After playing Laser Tag, we went bowling... 5 pin bowling!?!
If you will, notice the lovely and quite stylish bowling shoes! Uggghh!
Honour, Cherish, Liberty and Blessing
"Ahhh...to my relief..."
The Yucks also took us to Upper Canada Village! It is an old town on the St. Lawrence River set up just like you would see it in the 1860's.
There was four in the bed and the little one said, "Roll over, roll over!"
We were fascinated watching the men in the cheese house (figures!). I think that was our favorite spot! And then there was the schoolhouse where poor Noah found out that since he is left-handed he would've had his hands slapped and then tied behind his back to teach him to use his right hand back in the 1860's! He's glad he didn't live back then!
Noah and Libby
Group photos...
Our family!
The Yuck Family!
(Back row: Caleb, Bethany, Mr. Paul Yuck, and Mrs. Debbie Yuck
Front row: Cherish, Honour, Liberty, Blessing)
Honour and the pig
Ethan and the pig
Overlooking the St. Lawrence River.
"Where's the spinach?"
One afternoon, Caleb pulled out their boat and took all of us older kids on a ride on the Mississippi River. (The Canadian Mississippi that is.)
Almost every single night we stayed up late playing games! Figure in staying up till 12:00, getting up at 3:00, staying up till 11:00, getting up at 5:00, staying up till...(well you get the idea). That makes for some pretty sleepy people touring Ottawa!
We hated to see our vacation come to an end when we left on Wednesday, but the farm was calling! We had a terrific time visiting with the Yuck family at their home which they so hospitably opened up to us. It was a a sweet time of friendship and fellowship.We can't wait till we see them all again.
If you follow this link
it will take you to the Yuck family blog where you can find more pictures!
Posted by Kelsey
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