O Canada, part one

We went to Ontario, Canada, from June 23-30 for a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. The actual reunion was only three days (and we all agreed that was too short!)... more on that to come. But we got to spend a few days before and after with family and had a great time.
We flew into Detroit (ugliest, dirtiest, ghettoest city, by the way) and met my family there, rented a car, and drove up to my grama & grampa's house in St. Thomas, Ont.

Jack was really excited to go to Canada for the first time. In fact, he won the prestigious Most-excited-to-be-in-Canada award at family reunion and was awarded a moose-topped pencil. Lucky boy. I've been tons of times but was really excited to get to use my newly required passport and was really looking forward to getting my first stamp in it. But guess what!?! They didn't even stamp it! I came really close to asking the guy to, but sometimes it isn't a good idea to make too big of a scene at the border so I didn't. I did request that we turn back around and cross again in hopes that the next border guy would stamp it, but we didn't.

Jackson did great on the plane. On the way there he slept for the entire first flight and then just played for the second flight. He sure makes a lot of friends where ever he goes. He had fun playing peek-a-boo with the people behind us and down the aisle.
It's been 7 months since most of my family has seen Jackson and needless to say, he's changed a lot in that time! It was so fun to watch them play with him and get to know him again. Here we are after we arrived at the airport, waiting for my aunt's flight to get in.
I'm missing a lot of pictures that I need to get from my mom's camera so I'll have to fill in some later.

We went to Scoops, a bulk candy store in my grama's town that we always visit when we're there. We each get a toonie ($2 coin) to spend on candy. It's a tradition we all look forward to!
We also went to see Jumbo, a huge statue of an elephant from the Barnum & Bailey Circus that was hit by a train in St. Thomas and has been memorialized there...really it isn't a whole lot to see, but we had to show Jack, Jackson, and Shawn. We did A LOT of driving on this trip. By the time we returned the rental car, we had driven over 1300 miles in 8 days. Jordan calculated that we drove for more than 24 hours. We saw a whole lot of farm land...
Jackson did pretty well, considering how much time he spent in that car seat. He had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo and other games with whoever was sitting in the back seat with him.
What a cute Uncle Ryan!

The highlight of our pre-reunion trip was definitely going to Niagara Falls. I've been there before, but it's been many years. And this time we went on the Maid of the Mist boat that goes around the base of the falls. It gives you a totally different perspective of it and is so cool (and wet). When you watch the boats go on the little tour from up above, they just disappear into the mist
of the falls. Luckily they give you rain ponchos! They even had a baby-sized one for Jackson :)


Stay tuned for part two of the Canada Saga, when the Shirts family goes to the Wilson reunion!