Montreal

Harv had a trade show booked in Montreal last week so we decided to take a few extra days to get to know this amazing city.

Montreal is situated In the province of Quebec on the St. Lawrence River and is one of the oldest cities in Canada. So there are many old buildings and lots of history. 

Harv had been here several time for trade shows but most had been in the dead of winter.  The last time I’d spent any time here was when when our family drove out to experience “Expo 67”.

We flew out on a Thursday evening and at noon on Friday we headed to the Palais de congres  de Montreal where the Canadian Institute for Mining show was to be held. 

        

This is a popular venue for trade shows.  One entire side of this building was made of panes of coloured glass that glowed at night. 

Our crates were there waiting for us and we made quick work of setting up the booth.

We left the exhibition hall using a different door than the one we’d entered and discovered a quiet courtyard with exquisite cherry trees in full bloom. 

     

We had a lovely suite at the Marriott Springhill Hotel right in the centre of Old Montreal.  However there was one small design flaw which was quickly discovered the first time we used the “facilities”. 

It was funny enough to share so we set up a photo op.  Needless to say, we moved the roll from its holder to a spot within reach.

Our hotel was within walking distance of both the show venue and most of Old Town’s  major attractions.   Montreal’s Chinatown and Rue St. Catharine which is the commercial area of the city were also both within a half hour’s walk. 

What a wonderful place to walk around.

          

 Rue Saint Paul, is the main street of Old Montreal which is one of the many areas of the city that are designated for pedestrians only.  There are numerous buildings still standing that date as early as the 1600’s and lots of excellent restaurants which were taking advantage of the nice weather and had set up outside seating .

There are so many more things I’d like to say about this city and our holiday there so I’ll share more in future posts.

More fun at Nana and PopPop’s

 

After all the excitement of our Cookbook and a new grandchild I finally have time to share a few more memories from our Easter week:

The Geo Tracks where set out and most days there were several kids playing trains.

Hot tubbing in the rain and a jubilant finding of Easter goodies.

Dirt biking up and down the driveway

Cozy chats with Opa

A bouquet for Nana

Aunt Chris giving Lego advice

and the whole family at the table for yummy ribs.

Even though everyone has gone home, these pictures remind us of our precious time together.

Wasn’t that a party!

Tonight House of James, a local Christian Bookstore hosted a book signing event for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Cookbook.

When I got there 5 minutes before the event was to start, the parking lot was full and there was a line up of people clutching the cookbook.

 

We’d been asked to bring sample of baking from the book.

Rhubarb and Apple bars, stollen, apple buns , peppernuts and oatmeal date cookies.

It all looked very yummy and by the end of the evening all the plates were empty!

There were lots of books to sign and well before closing time, they had sold out all their copies.

Lovella told the story of our blog and cookbook and answered questions.

My sister, Janet came to celebrate with us and brought me a lovely plant for my garden.

 

It all feels somewhat surreal but we are so appreciative of all the people who have supported our blog and the cookbook. 

It wouldn’t have happened with out you!  Thank you!

On top of it all, The Canucks won the deciding Game against the Predators and the town went crazy.

When we left later, the streets were crowded with people of all ages, flags waving wildly and horns honking as cars full of fans cruised the streets.

Anneliese’s son brought in his Canucks towel and had us all sign it to celebrate both the success of his team and our cookbook.

All I can say is, “Wasn’t that a party!”

Arrivals and Departures, The Week that Was!

What a lot can happen in one week.

Last week we had the whole family visiting and our garage entry looked like this!

Sunday morning it looked like this!

One family of Kids and grandkids departed for their home in Seattle on Satuday evening

And another family of kids and grandkids packed up their truck and trailer and departed for Saskatchewan on Sunday Morning.

Our son Rick and his wife who live here decided we’d had enough of departures and early Tuesday morning announced a welcome arrival.

This precious little one is doing so well and we love her to bits.  She has a bit of growing to do before she can depart from the hospital and arrive at her new home. As you can imagine – this made the week busy with eagerly made hospital visits.

In between we had  Stephan, a Danish Colleague arrive to do a bit of training and make a business trip with Rick to Prince George.  

However with his daughter’s arrival, Rick’s commitments were necessarily  changed and our employee took his place. When they arrived  back on Thursday, we hosted Stephan for dinner before he departed.

Thursday was momentous for the “Mennonite Girls”.  Our cook book is out and Thursday “GrandPappy’s”, a local business hosted our first book signing event.  We arrived there with much excitement.

Halfway through the afternoon, the excitement increased when Betty, one of the “Girls” arrived a day earlier than we expected.

Friday, Charlotte and Ellen arrived and then in the evening, all 10 “Girls” and 9 husbands (we missed you Tony!) arrived at Terry and Lovella’s for our official Book Launch Party.  Our first order of business was a photo of us all with our cookbooks.  (As you can see it was (still) raining so I apologize for the raindrop in the corner)

We had a fabulous dinner and even better fellowship.

A toast to Lovella, our Blog Creator and Administrator for an amazing job well done.

After more signing and a few goodbyes we departed for our beds.

The next morning some of us arrived at Winks In Chilliwack to sign more books while others arrived at Lepp’s Farm Market to do the same.  These businesses and others ( see the link on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog) have been so gracious in their support for our project with some even giving all their profits to the charity our book sales is supporting.

One more fun arrival was that of “Ocean Soul” a fellow blogger whose blog many of us follow.

So the week ended with departures as Betty and Ellen and their husbands as well as Charlotte left to visit friends or head home.

I’m so grateful for each of these mentioned above.  It was an incredibly busy week but I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it.

She's arrived!

Our newest grandchild was born last night. Our youngest son and his wife are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl. She surprised us all - arriving 5 weeks earlier than expected but is healthy and strong. At 4 lb. 10 oz. she is tiny with beautiful skin and dark wavy hair.

We are thrilled!! and grateful to God for her safe arrival. R & A we wish you both much joy in this new season of life.