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So as I started to put together photos and content to catch up on our Christmas-time in the US, I realized that this wouldn’t be complete without describing our journey! We ended up with kind of a crazy itinerary, partly based on plane ticket prices (higher in Canada, lower in New York), weather (likely to be snowy everywhere, meaning the least driving we could do, the better) and what sounded like fun (train-travel, anyone?)! The end result? We drove to Montreal, where we spent two nights, dropped off our car at an airport parking lot, took Amtrak to Albany, spent a night there, then flew to Boise. We did the reverse on the way home! While some of the logistics were a touch stressful, we had fun overall. The only real bummer was that it was 10 degrees in Montreal when we were there, making it too cold to wander around old town Montreal with the kids.
Here’s a few pics of our travels:
We all really enjoyed the train! We took Amtrak from downtown Montreal to Albany NY, paralelling the north-south length of Lake Champlain. It was beautiful!
Pulling out of Montreal… Jacob loved watching the skyscrapers pass by!
We were blessed to have bulkhead seating, which gave the boys room to play in front of our seats (Jacob’s checking out our GPS here, to see how fast the train was going).
The bulkhead space worked well for when it was time for Ben’s nap, too!
The boys loved playing in the luggage compartment on the train…
And on the luggage cart at our Albany hotel!
We were happy to see that our flight would connect through Chicago O’Hare airport. The Chicago Children’s Museum has a permanent installation there – an airport-themed playground in the middle of the airport! Here’s Ben enjoying part of that…
The playground just plain rocks… here’s Ben in the passenger area of the pretend plane…
And now he’s flying the plane! There’s actually a phone in the cockpit that connects to the elevated control tower on the other side of the play area!
As much as I love O’Hare for the kids area, this is my favorite part… the underground tunnel between two concourses. It’s an art installation in which there are tons of different colored neon lights on the ceiling, which move like rainbows… and the walls are wavy panels of what amount to large paint chips… and there’s cool tonal sounds that ring as you go by on the moving walkway! I have memories of this tunnel from when I was aged 7 and we went through O’Hare on our way to Australia, so it was really cool to take my kids through there, more than 20 years later, and see that it’s still there!
Posted February 20th, 2012. Add a comment
Okay, so I realized that while I’m in blog-land, I may as well finish catching up on the catching up posts. My only challenge? I have to leave for class in 20 minutes, and I’m still in my jammies! So here’s the lightning-quick version of what we’ve been up to… NOT really in order of priority or time spent!
1. Studying. Tim and I are in the same class together this semester, and it’s been fun to study together. In addition to class time, each week we attend a French church attend a Bible workshop, we meet several times a week to study the Bible with a local French-speaking Bible student, we watch/read/listen to French media, speak in French, and do various written homework exercises. Now that we are at the advanced level, we also have to write papers in French and give presentations in class in French. We eat, sleep, and breathe the French language!
2. Baking. I gave myself the goal of learning how to make bread this winter, and I have been diligently working away at it! I’ve made honey-wheat bread, molasses-oat bread, cinnamon bread, and herbed baguettes. I haven’t yet found the recipe that I want to use for sandwiches and toast every day, but I (and the boys!) are enjoying the process!
3. Quality time with the kids. Missionary kids have their own set of challenges, and we are taking time for extra quality time with them this year. Jacob and I (Liz) have dedicated playtime every afternoon together, where he gets to choose the activity we do, and we do lots of reading stories and snuggling together before bedtime each night! Benjamin grabs his quality time whenever and wherever he wants it, as at the age of 20 months he’s into everything and we are hands-on with him all day long!
4. Enjoying winter. While I must confess that a good deal of my enjoyment of winter takes place indoors (with herbal tea, a cozy blanket, and soft snow falling… on the OTHER side of the window!) we have made an effort to get out and enjoy what may be our last winter for the next few years. We have an ice skating rink and a rockin’ tubing hill just steps from our front door (re: the tubing – picture a luge run, about two blocks long, and you know what we do on a regular basis!), and have taken advantage of both. I think by the time I got the camera out and snapped the below pic of Jacob he was feeling the cold a little… I promise he really did have fun!
Yay, I did it! All caught up to the present on the blog! Aren’t you proud of me? 
And due to the time it took for the photos to upload, I’m even all gussied up for class. Now, off to study irregular subjunctive verbs!
Posted February 20th, 2012. Add a comment
One perq of going to language school in Canada is that we were able to go home for Christmas! It was such a blessing to be able to see our family again. This was of course true for Tim and I, but we were especially glad that the kids were able to reconnect with their grandparents!
Benjamin enjoyed giving out lots of hugs and kisses to everyone, which of course we had to get on camera!
Jacob had tons of fun with both sets of grandparents. Grandma Kathy waited until he arrived to get a Christmas tree, since we didn’t get one here in Canada. He got to help pick it out, string lights on it, and decorate!
Of course, after Ben charmed everyone with his hugs and kisses, they were putty in his hands. He cashed in on this for plenty of storytime!
Gifts were definitely a footnote this year, far overshadowed by the blessing of being with family (although shouldn’t it always be this way?). But I have to say, Tim’s mom got Jacob a pretty awesome gift: it’s a pen and recordable sticker set. What’s that, you ask? You take the stickers, put them on pages of kids books, press the “pen” to the sticker, and record the words on that page. The end result is multiple books that Jacob now has “read” to him by Grandma Rita, even when we’re far from Idaho! Jacob just presses the pen to the sticker, and Grandma reads to him. Oh the things that missionaries couldn’t do for many years, that we are now blessed with!
Now don’t get me wrong, we adults had some fun too! I especially enjoyed a night out at Simple Sushi with friends. Fabulous sushi, and even fabulouser company. What more could a girl ask for? Well, maybe she could ask for a photo program that didn’t cut people out of the picture… that would be nice! Sorry the pics are so small, by the way… we’re having some glitchy issues with Picasa that we haven’t gotten to the bottom of yet.
And of course I had to include a photo of the Christmas morning madness… where floor becomes a sea of tissue paper, boxes, and bows. Thank goodness for recycling! But what a special time to have with family – we stored up those moments to savor next year, when we are far from home!
Can’t end this post without showcasing what was perhaps Benjamin’s coolest gift – a handmade hat, knit for him by his (12 year old) cousin, Elijah! Perfect for a chilly Canadian winter!
Aren’t you proud of me for (almost) having caught up? I wasn’t sure I could make it happen, but it is fun to feel like I’m finally doing some justice to our domain name fees! lol.
Next up: the last “catching up” blog (at least for awhile!) – about what we’ve been up to since we returned to Quebec in early January. Stay tuned…
Posted February 20th, 2012. Add a comment
