The New Year

Well we are fresh back from our trip to Montreal for the Rosh Hashanah holiday. A Southwest flight sale that was too good to pass up led us to fly to Albany and then drive the rest of the trip. In retrospect, we are not really sure that Lily and Jack are quite ready for a drive like that - or we aren't! It was no longer than our usual trip to the lake but the unknown distance and the flight before/after made it much harder on the kids. I will admit to great frustration in answering "are we there yet?" over and over again - especially to someone that has no concept of time.

Regardless of the travails of travel, the trip was well worth the effort. We got to spend some quality time with Bubbie and Aunt Donna, Uncle Stephen, Cousins Emilie and Stephanie and other great great aunts, a great great uncle and cousins. Lily and Jack had their first trip to synagogue on Saturday and Lily had the great honor of going up on the bemah (stage) with her great uncle Stephen. She suffered from zero stage fright (in front of 1000+ people) and came back to her seat beaming with pride. There was a big family dinner Saturday night and Lily got a Montreal birthday cake to share with Cousin Stephanie - complete with princesses.

On Sunday we visited the Biodome and the kids had a great chance to see some animals up close. Lily got to take some pictures with her camera and then we were off for more time with family and some playground and backyard time.

A huge thanks to our hosts who provided us with more food than we could ever eat and generous portions of their time. We had a great time and look forward to future visits. On to the pictures and videos from the week that was ...


Jack enjoying some pasta at Friday night's dinner. Lily did not eat much but made good friends with the little girl at the next table over.


Jack and Bubbie.


Backyard tee ball and golf.


Lily trying to take Jack's head off :)


Reading with cousin Em.


Playing out back with Uncle Stephen.


Clowning around at dinner.


Another round of happy birthday.


Lily with the princesses off the birthday cake.


The family.


Checking out the fish at the Biodome.


Our little photographer.

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With a macaroni penguin.


Relaxing with Cousin Stephanie.


Jack doing a little light reading.