O Canada!

After a year living abroad, it was great to get back home to Canada.  Our first stop was at Mom and Dad's place in Toronto where we were greeted by Mark, Paige, Dad and Mom.  It was a tearful reunion for a number of reasons, most notably we were able to see Mom for the first time after her long and difficult stay in the hospital following her hip replacement surgery.  Mom looked great and we couldn't have been happier to see her.

After spending a couple of days in Toronto, we headed down to St. Thomas.  Haylee was excited to see her friends after a year away from home.  She wasn't disappointed in the least as she was greeted by a welcome party of her friends who had congregated at the park on Lake Margaret, near our house.

We we then headed to the Chapmans, where we stayed for about a week.  It was great to see Michelle, Doug, Brett and Abby and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  We were made to feel right at home and had a great time swimming in their pool and spending time socializing with them.  What a great family.

During our stay, Haylee spent a day at Elgin Court in Robyn Walker's class.  She had a great time seeing her old friends and sharing some of her experiences with the class, like our housebuilding trip to Cambodia.

Our next adventure took us north to our cottage on Ahmic Lake.  During our first week, we were joined by Haylee's friends Jessica and Cassia and together with Haylee's cousin Paige, the girls had a great time. 

Week two was focused more on family and Haylee had a great time with Paige, Mark, G, Grampa Louchie, Aunt Frances, Uncle Tom, cousins Patrick and Sara and her cousin Frances.  After a great two week stay it was time to say goodbye to Ontario and meet up with Lisa in New Brunswick.




We were greeted at the airport in Saint John by Lisa, Kiefer, Davis and of course, Bella!  Haylee couldn't have been happier to see her cousins and her mom and was thrilled to get home to see Nanny and Grampy. 

We spent the next three weeks swimming, windsurfing, jogging, golfing and going to Zumba and boot camp.  We had a great time visiting with Robyn, Geoff and Kate Giffen and going to New River Beach.

Haylee also enjoyed the time she spent with cousins Matt, Jonathan, Calvin, Clinton  and Eilish.



Lisa's cousin Margot graciously offered to take care of Bella for the year after her brother indicated he would no longer take care of Bella.  We can't thank her enough as we were in a real jam because we couldn't take Bella to Singapore because her shots had not been kept up.

We departed Canada and returned to Singapore after a great summer and are now looking forward to our second year abroad.  The adventure continues!