Decide to live the life you dream of.
Done!
Ok, ok… I know we said that we were not
going to do any repeating of trips during this challenge (rule #1). However, as
I justified to Will, we did not count any of nights spent in the states driving
to or from Ontario (on the way there:
Minot, North Dakota; Menomonie, Wisconsin; Toledo, Ohio; on the way home: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Menoa, North Dakota). This
is Toby’s (our beloved Honda Civic) NINTH and final trip between BC and
Ontario… how can we not write about
that?! We also didn’t write a separate post for our stay in Buffalo, New York
with our friends Grant and Melissa, or our stay in St. Thomas, Ontario with our
friends Matt and Justine and their family (which were both great visits!). To
add to that reasoning, it takes over an hour to go between Niagara and Toronto
(which were both included in our first post about Southern Ontario), AND we
have realized that many of our friends and family that live in these areas do
not regularly move between these places. Justified? I hope so!
The truth is, we simply felt as though we
couldn’t go without posting about this trip. I find summer to be a great time
for reflection and it usually comes to an end with me feeling rejuvenated and
very, very lucky. We had almost two weeks to visit with so many amazing people
who cleared their calendars to make time for us and make our visit feel so
special. Thanks to technology, we have been able to keep in contact with many people
in Ontario, and this makes visiting so fun! We are very aware of the fact that
many people we visited have a lot going on, and so we are all the more thankful
that they took the time to hang out with us! We were sorry that we were not
able to see every person we wanted to while we were there, but we’re so glad we
can keep in touch from afar! We enjoyed seeing our family, having a chance to
spend quality time with my mom and brother, and Will’s mom, dad, grandpa and
his wife. We were also able to see some beloved parents of friends- Sarah’s
parents, Jill’s parents, and Brent’s parents. Travelling between Fort Erie and
Toronto, we were able to hang out with Grant & Melissa, Brent & Sarah,
Ashley & Brandon, Natalie, Tanya & Zo, Lauren & Scott, Jill &
Brian, Candace, Sarah, Ash & Kenny, Ash G, and the Auger family. We are
eager to get some hiking in now to work off the amazing meals shared with all
of these people! We loved visiting new communities where our friends have
settled into homes and jobs. Many of our friends have also expanded their families
since our last visit, and we really enjoyed playing with cute babies and seeing
how well our friends have adjusted to parenthood. The only problem with all of
this great visiting was that I totally let my photo duties slide, and we ended
up with SO few pictures of anyone here. I will just have to go with a quote I
came across recently: if a picture is
worth a thousand words, then an experience is worth a thousand pictures!
My mom helping prompt "duck face" to be the new go-to face for pictures! Ashley and I... love this girl and her amazing little family!
This trip was a great reminder of what is really important in our life: family, friends, and doing things we love with people that make us really happy! We’re so glad we have been able to go back to visit as often as we have over the past seven years (man, time flies!), and look forward to continuing to do so in the future!
The Burgess Duo
Beautiful post, I especially like the quotes :)
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