Lana's Visit

 I was sooo excited for Lana, Rob, and Grace's visit.  It had been such a long time since I'd seen them and it was a wonderful visit.  It took them much longer to get here than was expected.  A what should have been 9 hour drive took 15 hours.  Because of that, their visit was also cut short, but we made the best of it and had a super time together.  The first day we went to the mission office so that they could see where we do our work.  Then we took the metro, but unfortunately got off at the wrong metro stop.  We meant to go the Museum of Fine Arts, but instead went to the Museum of Arts.  So we didn't get to see the Chihuly exhibit that I wanted to take them to.  Instead we walked around the Place des Arts and looked at some of the sights there.  Also we heard a lot of the Jazz festival music that was all around.  We actually stopped at a little children's jazz performance.  It was very cute and the music was quite good.  Even though Grace didn't understand anything of what was said, she still got the gist of it and really enjoyed it.  We had lunch there in the food court.  After that we went to the Chateau Ramezay.  This was the home of the first mayor of Montreal.  Many of the rooms had beautiful carvings on the walls.  There were lots of interesting things to look at.

              Montreal has lots of Indians in it's history and here is a statue of one of the Indian girls.

                                               Accessories of the Mayor and his wife.

                                                    A child's toy horse and buggy.

                                                        A  morning outfit for the Mrs.

We walked from the chateau down this darling little street of shops and cafes.  Musicians are playing in the center part and the street is bustling with people.  When summer time arrives, many flowers are put out in pots all over the city.  Everywhere you go there are lovely flowers.

 We took a buggy ride through Old Montreal.  Grace got to sit up in front and she even got to drive the buggy for a bit.  She loved holding the reins.  Our guide was fun and informative.

When our ride was over we ate Beaver Tail which Grace had been dreading all day.  She kept telling me that she did not want to eat a beaver.  She did not want to eat a rodent.  I assured her that it really wasn't an animal at all, but a delicious sweet.  She didn't quite believe me until she actually saw what it was.  Then, of course, she loved it.  
After that, John and I went to the car to rest because at this point, my foot was hurting and I just couldn't walk anymore.  Lana and her family did some more wandering through shops and shopping. They did resist buying a Polar bear rug for a mere $12,000.  Haha.  When they were done, we went home, had dinner of Lasagna, salad, and french bread that I had prepared earlier and then we played some games.  After staying up much too late, we collapsed into bed ready to wake up early for another fun day together.
I must add that I feel so very blessed and so very grateful to have wonderful children and children-in-law who have grown up well and who like us and like to spend time with us.  I know each Mom thinks her kids are the best, but I actually do have the best kids.  :)