day thirteen through...i don't even know anymore.

woke up to the sound of the loon…oh and to allie climbing into our bed at an ungodly hour.  pancakes, bacon, canned peaches and hot cocoa for breakfast and we were on the road (not before allie decided to walk into the lake after which we realized she didn't have any clean pants left).

the day was beautiful and aside from a red mustang that cut cliff off which cliff then muttered at/tailed for the rest of the time he was in front of us, it was rather uneventful.  the kids and i rocked out to a little "baby beluga" and "men at work" in the back…jojo plays a mean air guitar.  seriously.  i'm working on my drums and simon is more concerned with headbanging than actually playing an instrument. we'll work on that on the way home.

i know we've said as we traveled that this trip was more about the journey than the destination, but we sure have been looking forward to this destination.  we were finally in ottawa!  we were greeted by half the family at the end of the driveway and peter gladly got out his chainsaw to clear a path through the trees for our monstrosity of a vehicle.

it was so sweet to see everyone meet simon for the first time and he was SO happy to be out of his carseat.

the next few days involved a fair bit of rest and lots of eating.  the timing couldn't have been better as we were all ready to spend time out of the motorhome.  cliff's mom spoiled us to high heaven and the kids loved playing with grandpa jerry.

it was so special that grandma sandi was feeling well enough to come and see us twice - simon took to her right away.

some of my best memories of time spent with cliff's family come from playing cards with yoka and jerry.  we laugh a lot.  not sure if it has to do with the late hour at which we play or the moderate amounts of alcohol that are consumed, but we all think we're pretty funny.