Oh Canada!

Remember all the trouble we had getting approval to leave Florida and head to Canada on vacation with our son? Me either. It is in the past and everything turned out just like we had hoped it would. All we do from here on is look forward to the future and focus on the special memories we have made in recent weeks. We had a truly fabulous trip and visited with many family and a few friends while we were home in New Brunswick. 

We arrived late Thursday evening at my mom & dad's and were greeted by them and my Grammie Chase who has an apartment attached to their home. So just like that S met three of the most important people in our lives and now in his. Grammie Susan had made fancy new pillowcases for each of the children - here is S's with baseball theme, 

...he put in an order for a Star Wars themed one before we left. Obviously feeling comfortable enough to make such a request. I wish I could post photos of S enjoying himself in New Brunswick, but again - legal stuff - yada yada. One of these days there will be a post - likely many posts with photos galore to recap from our meeting in June until finalization - still hopeful for finalization this year.

For some reason I was basically a zombie on Friday. It was cloudy and I was exhausted - I hadn't been able to sleep much the week leading up to our trip. By Saturday I was feeling better and ready to take on vacation. Here are just a few of the hundreds of photos taken...

Crafting time with Grammie Susan - making a memory lamp shade with old slides. Which in turn prompted printing of some very special old photos, like this one... seriously how cute are my little brother and I?

The days are blending together for me now but I know that gradually over the 10 days we were there S met most of our immediate family members and he handled himself well. As an adult who is uncomfortable meeting new people I'm sure his anxiety was many times what I would experience. These weren't people he would never see again - these are his new family. People he will develop relationships with over the rest of his life. 

We took a two day excursion traveling through Fredericton including a campus tour of UNB - Michael's Alma Mater and a glance at STU - my Alma Mater. R & Michael were fond of the flat bill caps - for the record none of those made it into the shopping cart.

We ate at Montana's for dinner - yummo and fun to boot!

Relaxing with my R by the lighthouse on the Green.

The next day we went to Hopewell Rocks where we walked on the ocean floor at low tide. 

You may notice S's side pockets are extra bulgy here - it may have something to do with the 4.8 lbs (yes I weighed them) of special rocks he found on our walk. He also found his mama a piece of brown sea glass - I LOVE sea glass. 

There were 4-wheeling excursions to Tim Horton's. Speaking of which, what I wouldn't do for an Iced Capp right now. No really, someone go get one right now and enjoy it!

These last couple of shots were taken at Hays Falls on the Maliseet Trail below Woodstock. S shares K's love for adventure and had fun climbing over rocks and way up high on the sides of the falls and over the rocks at the base of the falls - okay honestly I think he was in the water as much as he was on the rocks. He doesn't like to admit not being able to do something but it was pretty obvious he had never tried to maneuver slippery rocks before. 

So it was a fabulous vacation. 

End of story? 

No this is only the beginning for S and his new family.