Heading home!

Traveling today went smoothly.  We are all tired and I couldn't help but share these photos from one of our flights today.  Olivier fell asleep before we even took off.  

Montreal!

Today we headed to Montreal for our last day of visiting before heading home tomorrow.  We started by going to Mount Royal.  What an amazing view of the city!  

 Inside the beautiful chalet.

 And yes, I am wearing a California shirt in Montreal!

 This is the chalet in the background.

 There is a piano that the kids enjoyed banging on.

 Some of the cool old mixed with the new in Montreal.

 We went to see the Basicllica de Notre Dame.  We didn't go inside (they charge, there was a line) but what an amazing site!

 And this commercial building is basically right next to it.  Could you imagine having that view from your office?

 There was a bride and groom taking wedding photos.  :-)

 Yes, a McDonalds right in the middle of all the historic buildings.

The kids were happy to get to our hotel.  We had a quiet rest of the day as we prepare to head home tomorrow.

Drummondville!

Today we headed to Drummondville for the last family reunion of the trip.  Along the way we went to La Fromagerie St. Guillaume.  We got to see how they make cheese in a much larger milk co-op.  They were working in the vat in front of the viewing window for the most part which worked out great because the kids were able to see what they were doing with ease.  

 And we were lucky enough to take a tour of the facility.  The kids got to take cheese curds and make it into a block of cheese.  It was good for all of them to have a better understanding of how cheese is made.

 We had do to a few rounds of photos to get everyone in!

 Then we headed to the family reunion.  The kids enjoyed playing outside for a bit.  We eventually had to head inside because it started raining.  There was lightning in the distance as well.  The kids didn't see it though.  Bummer.

 We were lucky enough for this family reunion that there was a big reason to celebrate.  My mom's aunt Yvette turned 100 earlier in the month (she is in purple).  They had a special song celebrating her.  Here is a video of the refrain:

She was so shocked!

 In case you are looking for the lyrics!  :-)

 It was a large group and we enjoyed it but as our vacation wraps up, boy were we all tired!

St Jean day!

Today was David, Michelle, Natalie and Rhy's first day in Magog so the kids wanted to show them around.  First stop was to visit the lake monster.  Unfortunately the water wasn't coming out of his nose today.  

 They also showed off the backyard.

 And since today is a day to celebrate Quebec, we all got Quebec tattoos and the kids have Quebec shirts.

 Olivier took the adult photo for me with my phone.  He ended up taking 38!  Yikes!  Thankfully with digital photos it is easy to delete!  (We are showing off the Quebec tattoos.  Matt and David had them on their necks so you can't really see them in these photos.)

 And we managed to get a great group photo!

 Most of us then headed to the village to check out the kids activities for the celebration.  They had four bounce houses for the kids.  This one was on of their favorites.  Minion slide!

 Kind of a random picture but I wanted a photo of the benches in the park.  They had taken or replicated the chairs from a ski lift to use as benches in the park.  Kind of cool!

They had live music.  The kids preferred the 80's English music to this but I thought it was much more fitting!

 The kids enjoyed a brief time in the hot tub after dinner then it was showers and bed.  The adults played cards and listened to the thunder.  A great way to end the day!

Family reunion in Chateauguay

Today we had a family reunion for my mom's mom's family.  She was one of 15!  The weather was very humid outside with on and off rain so the kids had to stay inside most of the time.  David, Michelle, Natalie and Rhys arrived yesterday so the kids were happy to have their cousins to play with.  They played shuffle board with coins.  

 And tried to get coins to spin the longest.

 They got close to some of the other kids but they didn't interact much.

 The remaining siblings with their spouses.

 Matt was extra helpful with keeping kids entertained as much as he could.

 They took family pictures.  I couldn't tell you who is who, too many people!  

 In this photo the woman in the middle with the dark curly hair is named Julie.  I played Barbies with her when I visited 30 years ago!

 And our crew!

 There is some resemblance!

 Olivier loved watching the videos for the music they were playing.

 It was a good afternoon with family.  It was an emotional day, my dad's mother passed away overnight so we were thankful for spending time together as a family.  She would have wanted it that way.