Uncle Delaney and Callum (above) on Canada Day. They had a good time and it was lovely to see some other family members, we have not yet met, at dinner. Christine (Nancy's sister), Edwin (her husband) and Maya (their daughter), Harry (Nancy's Dad), his wife and Nick (her son) were great company.
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| Maya and Callum in the big comfy armchair |
The only sad item of news on our last day in Ottawa was that Casper, Nancy and Delaney's large, white fluffy dog got quite ill and might have come to the end of his life. Sad, but inevitable - and Callum seemed quite OK with the news. While waiting to leave Roy and I got into teacher mode and we did sums on the iPad with Callum which was a lot of fun.
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| One's fingers are useful when counting |
Back in Toronto we hardly had time to catch our breath and Lyle appeared to take us to St. Catharines, while Alex and Meaghan have departed by train for Montreal and a much deserved few days' holiday.
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| Climbing a tree with Daddy |
This picture was taken at Riverdale Farm, which is walking distance from home and has a cute little zoo for Callum to enjoy. We also visited Necropolis, the oldest cemetery in Toronto, right next to the zoo. Lovely old graves and lots of Irish names on them told us a bit about Toronto's history. In the 1830's - 40's the city's population nearly doubled with those Irish immigrants who have managed to escape the great famine.
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| A handsome Celtic cross in Necropolis |
St. Catharines was a real hoot. Four grandparents spoiling Callum, he must have thought he arrived in Heaven. It was a really relaxed time, we went shopping a couple of times, saw a lovely parade of vintage cars, visited Heather and Lyle's allotment, had a couple of barbecues, went out for pizza and finally went on The Great Woozle Hunt along the river. I got lots of lovely presents for an early Birthday celebration and even managed to watch the British Grand Prix. The best present to me was Lewis's win and I am not bothered by some saying that he could only win because Rosberg's car broke down. Who says he wouldn't have won anyway? Plus he already had two breakdowns himself earlier in the season and in spite of those was still pretty close on points to Rosberg, who had not had any until now.
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| Humpty Dumpty is winning |
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| Baarbecue on the back deck |
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| I want that toy! |
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| Vintage crock in St. Catharines |
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| Callum's drawing in the pizza restaurant |
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| Do I see a woozle there? |
After four eventful and fun days we got back to Toronto on Monday 7th. One of the highlights of the visit was the "All You Can Eat" Chinese restaurant. This time, learning from my pangs of indigestion after the Japanese "All You Can Eat" the week before, we went for lunch. It was delightful and all of us (except Meaghan, who was back at work by then) had stuffed ourselves silly.
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| The Salad Counter |
On one of our shopping trips we found an interestingly named pub. We had no time to go in, but I took a photo to prove it exists.
And finally we had a really fun and busy day yesterday, which included getting the car washed, having lunch in McDonalds and for a real treat, spending an hour in the Regent Park Aquatic Centre. Originally I wasn't going into the water, but upon discovering it was warm, I changed my mind. I had probably the best hour's fun, watching Callum's sheer enjoyment of splashing about non-stop.
This morning we packed and presented Callum with his outstanding Star Wars stuff. We brought amazing amounts of those fragile things all this way totally unharmed. He was waging space war for hours using the vehicles, figures and his bossed about grandparents!
Now we are nearly off to the airport. Let us hope the Toronto roads are kind, we make it in time and the flight is as uneventful as the one coming over was!
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