Weekend of biking and relaxing in the Laurentians...

Hi,

We rented a little cabin in the Laurentians for the long weekend....Gorgeous weather! Lots of biking! (It's too hot in the house to write more...I will let the pictures talk for themselves!)

Biking!

Hi,

Well, the big news in our family is that Gabriel got his cast off the other day. For the first couple of days he was afraid to walk on it but by Saturday he decided to give it a try. He still limps and we have been told that he could limp for up to 6 weeks but he seems happy to be able to get around more easily. We took the kids to the botanical gardens on Saturday so he was happy to get out of his stroller and explore a little bit.

On Sunday we took the kids up north to the Laurentians to bike on the "petit train du nord". It is a long and scenic bike path through the Laurentians made on the spot where the former railway track used to be years ago. It is a beautiful place to go with the family with lots of lovely spots to stop and have a picnic or just contemplate the view. Mathieu rides attached to the back of Vincent's bike so he pedals his little heart out. He did quite well too as we managed to do about 30 k in total. Needless to say he fell asleep in the car ride home.

Our camera was not working yesterday so I borrowed some pictures of the bike path from off of the website! Those people are not us sitting on the rock but we had lunch on a very similar rock to that one so use your imaginations!

Hockey Fever

I guess I can forget about going to bed for awhile. The city is wrapped up in hockey fever. The Canadiens just won again and there has been a constant stream of honking cars and screaming fans outside my window for the past 15 minutes...

Even Gabriel is aware of what's going on lately since every time he sees a Canadiens emblem he shouts out, "Hockey!!!"....

Hmmm....I may be forced to become a fan.

Mountain Air

Back from my wonderful trip to Calgary...I so appreciated my time there in many ways and will always carry special memories with me...

It did me good to get away on my own and have some time to think and I particularly enjoyed having the chance to visit with my dad, Jan and Chelsea. I really appreciated them giving me the "tour" of some of the beautiful attractions that Calgary and its surrounding area has to offer. Lake Louise and Banff were lovely and there is something about the mountain air that must be good for the soul. I enjoyed taking it all in...

( On a more superficial level, I also enjoyed discovering some of the interesting jewellery store that Banff had to offer. Jan and I spent quite a bit of time marvelling at the various stone pendants for sale as my dad patiently waited for us girls!!). It was difficult to decide between two particular pendants I wanted to buy so I was very happy when the second pendant turned up on my breakfast plate the next morning as an early birthday present from my dad and Jan!

Anyway, as much as I enjoyed my trip it was also nice to get home to my "boys". The boys had had a good weekend in Quebec city but Mathieu said he was counting the sleeps until I came home. He told me, "Maman, the house smells better when you're home" . So, I made sure I made a batch of muffins when I got home to make sure the house smelled like he wanted it!!!