Stop #? on the Devenney Family Cross Canada Tour

How do you end a two week trip to Connecticut visiting your sister? By entertaining immediately so you can't sit around being sad! The Devenneys, goodness, we met in Don Valley ward in Toronto many moons ago! Nikki and Spencer got married just before they arrived in Toronto - Spencer was starting at the Chiropractic College (Nikki was already a nurse). I just looked at Nikki's Facebook page - 2005. Wow. Twelve years ago. There were a group of us "young" marrieds and we had activities and formed friendships. It was a good group and we had fun together.

Maybe two months ago, Nikki reached out to see if she could stay with anyone while she was in Toronto. The Devenneys live in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Nikki wanted to bring her kids out here but never thought she'd be able to afford the flights. Then she started thinking about driving out. She has now driven out here, solo with four kids aged 10, 8, 6 and 2. Spencer flew out and joined them in Toronto. I am absolutely in awe of her doing this trip with her kids. (Camping and seeing Canada along the way - seriously - she is Wonder Woman!)

After having spent the day in Niagara Falls on Friday, they met us at the Mandarin Buffet in Pickering. We've taken our kids once before several years ago, and they enjoyed it just as much now, as they did then!

After dinner we took them to "our beach" for a quick walk by the water. Ollie went in the water for a little swim - in his clothes, and everyone else enjoyed skipping rocks.

 

Kate however had a pretty bad headache and was moaning and begging to go back home - so we did. I was worried about Kate - when she moans it often means barf. We got everyone settled, Addie in Kate's bed, Owen on the floor in Kate's room, Alice in her room with Rosie on the floor, Kate on the floor in our room, Fiona in our bed, Spencer and Nikki in Fiona's bed, and Ollie in a pack'n'play in Fiona's room too. FULL HOUSE! Kate had some advil and went to sleep really quickly. (She'd actually fallen asleep on the couch when we got home.) Everyone slept in the hot non-airconditioned house (we're waiting on a part from Sears to fix the A/C), and no one barfed! Thank goodness!

Saturday morning, Ken got up and made a breakfast extraordinaire! We had bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, strawberries, with whipped cream and maple syrup of course. We all ate so much that we didn't really eat lunch! With the kitchen sort of cleaned up we made our way to the zoo.

It was so humid, it rained a little, but thankfully not too much, and of course the pavillions are the same kind of sticky humid places too, so there was really no relief anywhere!  We took the girls on the carousel as we waited for them to go through the lines - no lines for us with our passes.

Then after the obligatory pose by the panda sign, we were off to see the animals!

We saw a ferret (the kids got to pet it too), the Rhinos, the Malayan Woods Pavillion, then up the hill to the Indo-Malay Pavillion. We watched the keeper put out all the food for the Orangutans, and then watched one come out and start finding his food, saw the tigers, then up the hill to Africa... This is where it kind of went sideways for Fiona.

No one got enough sleep last night - well maybe Kate, but no one else. Fiona didn't want to go into the African Pavillion and after a "traumatic" bathroom event (humidity and clothing are not a good combination) was content to chase around a Peahen.

After everyone else had their fill of Gorillas, we moved on to the Penguins. They did not disappoint. Kate and I went to the underwater viewing area at the perfect time. I'd never seen so many swim underwater at once. It was amazing. They look like they're flying underwater, it is so beautiful.

This was pretty much it where our kids were concerned. They were hot and very bothered, so we said see you in a bit to the Devenneys and took the Zoomobile back to the main gate, got Frosters at Macs and went home.

The Devenneys came back and Ken had BBQ'd up a storm. He really loves to cook for people, which is so awesome. We had cheeseburgers, hot dogs and such yummy veg, not too mention chips and ice cream treats too. The kids all played so well. They had so much fun together. They didn't want the fun to end - but bath time and bed time interrupted the fun.

After the kids were down the four of us grown ups were actually able to sit and visit. We had a really lovely visit. It sure didn't feel like eight years had passed since our last visit. This picture is from June 15, 2009. They came up to see us in Tottenham before they left Toronto and moved to BC.

We said goodbye this morning as they went to Don Valley Ward to say hello and we went to our own ward. 

I'm so glad that we were able to have such a fun visit. Until the next time Devenneys!