O' Canada!

Yes, we are back in good old "Canada". We had a very good trip home on Thursday, and actually made it all the way to Woodstock, and are currently staying at the Pitock Conservation Area, just to the north of Woodstock.

We were away for 178 days. There have been complaints lately in the Toronto Star about the Customs Canada Staff being rude, and controlling, and just there to cause us all problems. We are pleased to say we had no problems returning to Canada, and in fact our Customs agent was pleasant and efficient, despite when she asked be if we had any liquor that we were returning with, and I answered "Yes, we have one body.......... ooooppppsss" She said if we did have a body on board the conversation was going to take a quick turn! She laughed it off, and welcomed us back to Canada!

Did not get the internet up on Thursday night so no blog. Kristina did come out and officially welcomed us back home to Canada. Had a great visit. Today, Judy spent the day with Kristina while she baby sat little Jack. They had a great day. I took off early on the motorcycle heading for Orillia, where I met up with Shawn and Jenn and the kids, who were doing an introduction of Baby Paige to Grama Hollinger. We had a great time!

We got to meet Cali, Kristina and Chris' dog.... Kristina makes a great pack leader!



Chris made dinner, and is now officially a "Master Chef" on the BBQ....



I kind of messed up in my uploading and got two of Chris on the Q...



The weather was awesome in Woodstock tonight while we enjoyed dinner on the terrace....




Mean while, back at Grama's place earlier in the day, I took this pic of Emmie helping Presley open a gift. Shawn and Jenn have not had a chance to meet Presley... she put on a show for us all.... what a great kid...


Little Presley fell in love with Shawn and despite the fact we tried to warn her that he was a Dr. still wanted to sit on his knee all afternoon!


Grama Hollinger got to meet Paige.... look at Paige giving her the once over....



And my favorite pic of the day, Grama H. with Emmie and Paige... what a bunch! We had a great time at Grama's place, and she made a great lunch for us all.... Pearl joined us, as well and Jenn's Mom, Andrea, and of course Mindy was there with Presley. It was a great time!


In the afternoon, I carried on up to Bracebridge to Dave and Angela's place, and traded my motorcycle for our car parked at their place. We decided we wanted our car for the week we will be in the Woodstock area.

Finally got the internet up late tonight to be able to do this post....

Till tomorrow....

Trippin through the "Virginia's"....

We got away from Warrior's Path State Park around 9:30 this morning. It was overcast and a bit foggy this morning, but turned out to be a nice day.

We headed north on Hwy. 86 which winds its way right along the Blue Ridge Mountains... which you can see in this picture.




It is very nice down here, as you head north into Virgina, and West Virgina. Everything is green as they have had quite a bit of rain lately.


This next picture is taken from a scenic lookout in West Virgina. Lots of mountains as you drive along.... you go up... then you go down....

We have made it to a place in West Virgina, called Sutton. We found a KOA, which we have actually stayed at before. It is fairly new and the sites are big and full service. We put our satellite internet dish up as they do now have any wifi here....


The KOA is beside a large new school, and they seem to share a building that has a large amphitheatre that you can see in the picture below... not sure how the arrangement works. The theatre sits a few hundred people.


This is a closer look at the building. You can see the theatre on the right, and on the left, is washrooms and laundry mat for the KOA. In front is a large fire and BBQ Pitt.


This is a bigger overall view of our site... lots of woods around.


There are some factory outlet stores across the highway from where we are staying so we went over and check out the bargoons....

We received a text from Shawn and Jenn indicating they made it back to Canada tonight. Paige and Emmie did very well on the travel end of things.... This Sunday is Paige's baptism!

Till tomorrow.....

Rain Rain, go away....

Lots of rain down here the past couple of days... looking forward to some sun soon!

We ended up taking the motorhome into visit Shawn and Jenn today, as we didn't want to get wet, and had stuff to pick up. It stopped raining just after lunch long enough for me to get out the lawn mower and cut the lawn... it was like about 4 inches high after just being cut last week!

Shawn and Jenn got all loaded up about 6:00 tonight, and headed out to Charlotte, NC. I just got a text from them indicating they just made it.... 10:20 p.m.

They fly out tomorrow and so do we in the motorhome. No pics again today... too busy...

Till tomorrow...

Just another day of work!

Kind of spring type weather here today, lots of rain... Went into the house first thing this morning hoping to cut the grass, however rain prevented that, so I worked away on laying the new patio stones in the front of the house. Got it finished between rain showers.

After lunch I raked a big brown circle area in the back yard where a pool used to sit, and re-planted grass seed.

Too wet even to take any pictures today....

Judy spent the day helping Jenn take care of the kids and cleaned up the house also...

Tomorrow afternoon the kids will drive over to Charlotte, NC. They will fly out of there, passing through Washington DC and into Buffalo on Wednesday. We will leave here on Wednesday morning and head north to Canada. We will be home in two days hopefully and will head to Woodstock to visit Chris and Kristina.

Till tomorrow.....

Hospital Visit!

Last Saturday was a very, very busy day. I managed to finish off the painting of the deck on Saturday, which turned out to be a big job! We ended up burning out the air compressor that Shawn had recently bought, and ended up having to get another one, but it worked and we got finished. We went in to Shawn's Hospital to meet him for dinner. As many of you reader know, our son is a Resident Pediatrician at the Johnson City Hospital. They recently built a brand new incredible Pediatric Wing on the Hospital, and we got a chance to tour it! I have to apologize as the picture ended up sideways with a couple others... I thought I had the problem fixed but not!Anyways this is the outside of the new wing....


This is the waiting area at the main entrance, it is very child friendly....


this picture is also on it's side, the kites should be flying up in the ceiling...


Eastman is a very large Company this is very generous locally here..... They funded a healing garden for the kids up on the 3rd floor....


they have a great play area for the small kids and another area for the teens, which includes video games and all kinds of other things to amuse them....

Dr. Hollinger treated us all to dinner at the Hospital cafeteria.... it was good food!


Today we spent a wonderful day with the kids... and in the afternoon, Shawn and I, along with his neighbour Chris, went to a friends place and cut up a tree that had blown over, and was begging to be made into fire wood. Shawn and Chris love to have fires in the back yard over the summer, and you need wood. We were able to provide our motorcycle trailer to haul the wood in... works good with the rear gate.


It was hard work collecting and cutting wood, so at the end we had to have a Popsicle of course, and here is Emmie enjoying hers...



A good day overall, and we are getting closer to returning to the the Mother Land!

David and Angela went to get our car out of storage up in Bracebridge today, and found that the one back wheel had frozen up and would not turn. A phone call later to CAA and the dude showed up, and took the wheel off the car and freed it up and all was good again! They were able to drive the car home. Thanks CAA.... yes, I will renew again this year!

Till tomorrow....

Now that is one fancy car....

Kind of a slow day today... it was raining this morning so we just slept in, it was nice... We did not do much, Shawn had to work this afternoon at the Hospital and with rain in the forecast we cancelled work on the deck today. Went in and had dinner with the kids tonight and that was about it for the day! Nice to be retired!

The other day Tom R. sent me a few pictures of his new Vette. WOW.... what a car....

He had an older one, and I guess spring got the best of him, and he bought this 2006 Vette.

I figure this car is just like our RV.... yeah.... they both probably cost about the same amount of money..... Tom tells me it has 400 horse or so, well, OK, he has about 75 more than the motorhome, he says it goes 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds.... OK, so it is a bit faster than the motorhome, and he says it is real easy to "burn rubber".... well, I have burnt dinner a number of times in the motorhome.... yup, just about the same!

Anyways... nice car Tom, we will be up soon to see it, and Judy says she wants to drive!

Till tomorrow...

Working "9 to 5...."

Was up early this morning and on my way to Shawn and Jenn's place by 9:00 and got punched in for the day. Painting time for the deck and Shawn and I got an early start, wanting to get a lot done before tomorrow's rain comes... We did well, and only have the steps to finish up in the next day or so as weather permits.

Finished work at 5:00 today, and we all decided to head out to the RV as Judy made dinner for us, and Emmie needed a chance to play on the playground equipment. Here is the gang just after changing some diapers.... yuck.


We were off to the playground next, and Emmie just loves the slide, here favorite toy! Her and Grannie were going to race....


Looks like a false start, or Grannie cheated!


Every time Emmie gets on the slide, her hair just stands on end with the static electricity.... have to laugh about that....



You can't go camping without having a fire in a can, to toast marsh mellows of course....



My favorite pic of the night was taken by Jenn of me and Paige. It was a gorgeous night out, very warm by our fire, and as it was getting darker, I was holding Paige and ...... there you go, your Pic of the day, love her big eyes!


Just a terrific day today in Tennessee.... time for bed, Ottawa just scored in the 3rd period of OT to beat the Pens.... Yeah....

Till tomorrow....

Work continues... the end is in sight!

It rained this morning and most of last night. When we got up around 8:00 it stopped and soon the sun started breaking through the clouds, tuned into not a bad day.

We went for a walk around the park this morning before heading into see the kids and took some pictures. Everything is in bloom.


I started working on the back deck with the pressure washer again, wanting to get it finished up today.... I did. Judy got to work helping Jenn inside and taking some pictures... of Emmie of course!

Hard at work on the deck.... doing this job you get to take about 3 more showers during the day!

Judy got this shot of both the kids ....


Shawn and Jenn had invited one of the Dr.'s that Shawn works with, to come to dinner. Dr. Britney and Derek are a real nice couple and they just had a little baby boy just 6 weeks ago, so we had lots of kids in the house tonight for a great dinner.

Tomorrow is another big work day.... we are going to paint the entire back deck... lots of fun!

Till tomorrow...

Learning how to "Shop till you Drop!"

Today was a busy day for all of us here in Tennessee! Shawn and Jenn had to take little Paige off to see the Doc again, and good news is all is well! Little Paige continues to grow but is still a bit of a fussy baby... has to grow out of that I guess!

Little Emmie went to school today, she goes now and then for a 1/2 day and just loves it. Judy and I went into the house and Judy did a big bunch of housework inside, while I started the job of pressure washing the back deck. That turned into a bigger job than I thought, and will have to be finished tomorrow...

Judy went shopping with Shawn and Emmie and this is my only pic of the night... they were teaching Emmie to " Shop till you Drop".... you can tell by the look on her face, she will be a shopper! How come they didn't have those fancy buggies when I was a kid??????

Raining in Tennessee tonight, but hopefully a nice day again tomorrow. Short blog tonight... to tired....

Till tomorrow.....

After Play Day, comes "Work Day!"

Yes, today was work day. Well, we did sleep in a little this morning, but we took the motorhome into Shawn and Jenn's House, in order to do some washing with the pressure washer.When we arrived, Shawn and I took some old boards off his front deck, to be replaced with new ones, and then washed the deck in order to prepare for painting. While we did this, Judy was entertaining Emmie in the motorhome.... Emmie came to visit with Patra while we were working outside.


Emmie found a few spare toys to play with inside also....

Took a while, but I got the motorhome all cleaned up, including a session on the roof to get it back into shape for summer. Worked away all afternoon, on a few different jobs. Time seems to fly! Just before supper, Emmie and I were digging in the garden just for something to do.


Here I am showing baby Paige how good I am at holding her. Mom was visiting the neighbours and I was trying to amuse baby Paige.... worked for a while.... I am getting better !



Till tomorrow....

Play Day!

It was a bit cooler today in Tennessee, however it was nice and sunny so that sure makes up for it. We were in to see the Hollinger's early this morning for breakfast made by Shawn! Would you trust your Dr. to make your breakfast?

After breakfast it was play day for the kids. We did lots and ended up going to see the neighbours new puppy dog, "Lucy". Here are a couple videos! Hope they work for you... just click on the play button in the middle and they should start up!




When we got to the house this morning, Emmie was all dressed up in her Princess gear, so of course you have to Dance to Taylor Swift's Princess Song!

Here is Grannie dancing with Emmie to the Princess song!


Yes, it was play day, and here Shawn, Grannie and Emmie are playing pop corn, on the trampoline. One person curls up like a piece of pop corn, and then everyone else jumps until the pop corn person pops! Guess who was the pop corn in this shot?


Here is Kara with her dog Buba, and that is little Lucy next to Buba... They only rescued Lucy yesterday from the pound... she is part Hound, so get ready for the "howling"......



Lucy was always on the move, so it was hard to get a good picture....




Meanwhile, Emmie thought it was time to get her fancy Jeep out for a run on a nice spring day!

She was good at pressing the gas, but Her steering needs work.



It was real hot on Saturday, so Emmie wanted to go swimming in her pool.... Pop Pop had to go swimming with her, until the neighbours showed up and saved me! Here is Fisher and Molly enjoying the sunny afternoon with Emmie.




Emmie had to get the soccer ball out and well and show me the fine art of kicking the ball!




All this playing is wearing me out! Emmie seems to have endless energy, that is for sure!

Till tomorrow....

Saturday, a relaxing day!

We slept in this morning, as we have been on the go for quite a few days now with all the travel, and seeing the kids.

Did a bit of RV maintenance this morning after we got going, and had a bit of a fight again with my star choice.... yuck.... look out thought, I ordered a new satelitte finding meter to use when setting up the dish that should take a lot of the pain away! This afternoon I did succeed in getting the star choice up and running, just in time to watch Montreal and Pittsburg, who are going into OT right now, tied 5 all.... great game!

Shawn and Jenn took the kids to a local neighbourhood birthday party today, and enjoyed that. We decided to take life easy this afternoon and stayed at the RV and enjoyed the sunshine and warm temperatures!

Going in to have breakfast tomorrow morning with the kids and then off to Church.

No pics today, as we used up our daily allowance on our downloads by watching video's.... oooopppsss.... oh well....

till tomorrow...

The "Babysitters"....

Judy and I were in to babysit Emmie at 8:00 this morning as Shawn and Jenn took baby Paige into see a Dr. We had a great day with Emmie and Paige both.... Very hot out today with great weather.

This picture is when we first met Paige in the back yard!

We had to take a picture of Emmie in here swimming pool.... she was having a ball!

Here is Emmie getting ready for dinner in a new booster seat!

I don't know why, but Baby Paige is very quiet when she is sleeping.... however it is a bit of a different storey when she is awake!

Here is Grannie with both the kids...

Now this is serious... Emmie and I taking in the Montreal Cdns. game.... they won!

Emmie loves "Tinker Bell" .... can you tell! Judy got her this night gown in California.

This morning I got this picture of both of them...

Here is the Dr. who can multi task....

Emmie giving Her sister a kiss!

My favorite pic of the day.... "One proud Pop Pop!"

enough said....

till tomorrow....