Canada Family Reunion

The weekend of August 26^th, we had yet another family reunion but this time for Chris’s mom’s side of the family up in Canada.  It was really a birthday party for Joan’s Aunt Doris who was turning 85 but a lot of the family was coming so it was also considered a reunion.  We first debated whether or not to go since we knew hurricane Irene was on its way.  But what better reason to escape the possibility of rain, storm damage,  and no electricity then to leave and head up north for a family reunion.  We also took Chris’s parents with us so that they didn’t have to be nervous about driving up or back through the impending weather. 

We got up there Friday night and went to Aunt Doris’s house.  She lived in an apartment complex and when Chris and Makenna went out for a walk, they found a farm right behind the complex with goats, rabbits, horses, and other animals I can’t remember.  It was fenced off but the animals came right up to them.  Of course when I went out later with Makenna, the animals were being fed so had no interest in me.

The next day we went to some beach like area for the reunion/birthday party.   It was a really a nice summer day and we got to enjoy the water.  What was really neat about it was that it was really shallow water with a lot of sand bars so you could really walk out far and it was shallow.  The bad thing was you couldn’t really swim as it was so shallow.  Also, the section we were at was the pet section.  A lot of people brought their dogs and they seemed to have free reign about where they went to the bathroom.  I even saw one dog use the water as his spot so I wasn’t too thrilled about going in after that.

 

After the reunion we had to go find this cheese place which took forever to find but when we did, it was worth the trip!  I made Chris buy some maple cheddar and even though it was expensive, it was SO worth it!  We then went to “Aunt Jan’s” house (she’s a daughter to Doris).  She has horses that she shows and takes care of for other people.  She has a really neat farm house and is also building an addition over the garage for guests.

 

Since her sister who has grandkids lives next door, she also has this cool playhouse that Makenna enjoyed. 

All day and night we debated what time we should leave on Sunday; early in the morning, later in the morning, later in the afternoon?  We kept tracking Hurricane Irene and Chris finally came up with a plan to drive more West and then South to go around it.  This worked.  We saw sunny skies the whole way home.

We did decide to stop in Toronto at a Discovery Center but we only stayed for an IMAX movie which was ironically called “Tornado Alley.”  We felt that we should continue to push on as we knew the storm was actually heading into Canada. 

We went through the Canadian border at Niagara Falls and just as we crossed, I got a dreaded phone call from the girl watching our dogs that Maddie was really ill.  She had been trying to call me and it wasn’t until we crossed the border that the phone rang.

Not sure what happened but Maddie was puking and having diarrhea and was extremely dehydrated because of it.  I told the girl to go ahead and have the vet give her the necessary fluids and medicine.

When we got home you could see a remarkable difference in attitude from Maddie – she was practically lethargic.  After a few days she perked up but whatever it was came back again.  We had stopped giving her the medication when it seemed as though she was doing better and found out, just like humans, you should finish the medication.  She seems to be back on track but not quite 100%. 

Who wanted these stinking dogs anyways – oh yeah me – DUMB!

At least we got away and didn’t see any rain and only had a small tree that had fallen from the hurricane right next to our propane tank and still had electricity when we came home.  Even though the vet bill was an unexpected $250 we still enjoyed the last weekend of Summer.