Back in Canada at Last, eh?

Let the good times roll!  We survived our 27 hour journey from Yanbu to Winnipeg and have been quick to squeeze as much fun as possible into the week we’ve already been back.  A quick recap of all the fun…

• The long journey went as flawless as can be expected. Jakob was amazing. again.  Thank you Lord.

• Shortly after the hellos, hugs and such at the airport, we headed off to Montana’s for food.  Pork ribs for me.  Mmmmmm…haven’t had pork in so long.  You’d be shocked how much better a bacon cheeseburger tastes with real bacon and not beef bacon substitute.
• Friday I headed off to my cousin Klaus to pick up a minivan we’re renting from him.  Sweet ‘98 Ford Windstar.  I’m soooo thrilled to be driving  a minivan.  Seriously.  I am. I love the seat height and the massive amount of room for all our crapolla.
• Of course the culture shock we are experiencing extends to the weather. As can be expected, we are wearing pants and feeling a chilly bite in the breezes while our Winnipeg friends comment on how hot it is. We are used to 39C and wind that feels like someone is blowing a hair dryer in your face.
• 2 days after arrival, and with jet lag still kicking our sorry butts, we headed off to Minnesota to see my brother and his family.  That was fun. One highlight was satisfying my craving for a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Mmmmmm…
• Jakob had a great time playing with Holly and Evan. It helps that Evan has a HUGE Thomas the Train collection, and that Holly is a big fan of Cars: the Movie, and has a Lightning McQueen and Mack combo car set.  Fun times. One of their favourite things was crazy dancing in the living room.



• One of the added bonuses to visiting Waldy was that I got to pick up the bike I bought.  It is really sweet, and practically needs to be tied down as it’s so light it almost floats away!



• It was funny to see Jakob’s reaction to something totally foreign to him – PUDDLES!!!  We bought some great little Lightning McQueen boots at Target so that he could splash around.





• We’ve spent so much time in airports lately, we started to feel airport withdrawal. To cure our itch, we went to a church service that’s held in the Grand Rapids regional airport. It was nice to be back in church, even if I don’t know the latest worship songs anymore.

So, that’s a quick recap of our first week back. The next week will be equally packed with fun. Tonight I will be racing my mountain bike for the first time since 2004.  whoa.  I’m very curious to see how I do, and whether the time I spent training on the indoor exercycle will actually translate into fitness in the real world.  Wish me luck.

Cat’s out of the Bag…

looks like Jakob’s hand-me-down clothes won’t be as useful as we’d hoped for the next little Duester…

Jakob is transitioning to a crib that has a side removed so that when the next baby comes along in October, he’ll be ready for her to take his crib.