At Year's End

Well, while it's been a crazy last few months, we somehow managed to survive and eventually found ourselves at the end of the year, and at the end of a chapter in our family's life.  As I mentioned we would in our Christmas letter, we closed on our house yesterday and hit the road for a two month stay in Jacksonville, Florida.  Although we will be returning to Rochester for two months when we are done with the away rotation in Florida, we will be returning to a friend's house and to a world of inevitable good-byes.  In truth, I feel a little like we are gone for good already.  Like the place we find ourselves in right now, and the place we'll be in for the next six months, is somewhat like a six-month waiting room. It is a six-month waiting game. A game of limbo. We are in limbo.  One way or another; however, our days in limbo are numbered.  Just as our days of being residents of Minnesota, and Nick's days as a resident at the Mayo Clinic are numbered.  And when those days are up, it spells only one thing for our family: CHANGE.  Change, change, and more change.  Changes in city, in home, and in school.  Changes of income, lifestyle, and work schedule.  Changes in wards.  Changes in friends.  Changes in the way people will perceive us, and consequently, changes in the way people will respond to us.  I've been warned by a number of friends and associates who have graduated ahead of us to expect the labels.  Expect the stereotypes.  Doctor.  Doctor's wife.  And all that that entails.  But I don't think I'm really ready to take on that persona.  I'm half tempted to move into a cardboard box while our house is being built and keep Nick's profession a secret.  I want to give people the chance to get to know us; the us that I know. The us that has just struggled through eight years of medical training with four kids in tow.  The us that we are, and not the us that we have the potential to become with all of the ensuing change.  I hope we never become that us.  I hope with all of the coming change, we don't ever change who we are.

Anyway, enough of my soul-searching nonsense.  I suppose I have the next six-months to ponder on all of the change and philosophize (is that a word!) about how to remain the same through it all..  Well, maybe only five months.  I think for the first month I'm in Florida, my plan is to completely and utterly crash! The last week was one of the most stressful of my life.  It was a sheer miracle that we managed to get out of our house in time, get all of the loose ends into our car, and drive this far running on no sleep and with the flu wiping out most of the family.  It was all a nightmare!  And quite a whirlwind.  When I took this picture of Nick peeling our family's name off of the living room wall a few days ago, it didn't even phase me.

Now, putting it up on the blog, it feels kind of sad.  And kind of symbolic.  We're moved on from that house.  We're somewhat moved on from Rochester.  And in general, life is moving on.  Such are the sands of time.  Happy New Year everyone!  Happy NEW year.

Christmas Day

Few mornings of the year, if any, are as highly anticipated as the long awaited Christmas morning.  It is one of the few mornings where if you have to wake children up, (which we always do) they stumble out of bed without complaining.  From the minute their eyes open, there is recognition in them of what the day will hold. Recognition and excitement.  For our family, the excitement must be held at bay until all of the children are up and ready.  Then they can make a grand entrance into the living room together.

This year was no different.  Mom woke up first, just as excited as the kids, and eventually gave in and roused the troops.  After potty stops and pulling a comb through the girls hair, the kids lined up and marched upstairs to the family room.  As is tradition, Santa brought a group gift in his giant Santa bag; however, he also decided to splurge at the last minute on something a little extra for each child individually.  This decision stemmed from a certain little girl who's Christmas wish just didn't fit with the overall gifting theme of the year. It was a bit of a rash decision, but proved ever so wise in the end.  In fact, the kids were so preoccupied with the individual gifts that Santa brought, that they didn't even notice the big Santa bag until later in the day. This was perfectly fine with me, as I love to stretch the present opening out over the whole day.  It was also ideal timing because Santa's group gift went perfectly with the gifts that Nick and I had purchased, and we all know how arranging all of the gifts around one central theme is my Christmas specialty.

Here are a few pictures of the kids with the first round of presents from Santa:





Just in case you can't tell, these presents included a Cinderella wedding dress for Emma, complete with shoes and veil, while the rest of the kids received Lord of the Rings apparel--Spencer as Aragorn, Maddi as Arwen, and little Mason as Frodo Baggins.  I realize that my kids are a little young to be into Lord of the Rings, but hey, what can you do?  They simply love it, and these dress-ups were an instant hit.  Spencer and Mason especially loved their swords--big surprise!  And it wasn't ten minutes before Maddi bestowed her evenstar necklace on Spencer and the role playing began.  I really love how my children love to role play.  They act out everything they see on movies.  It's a true testimony to me that there has to be monitoring of EVERYTHING that children watch.



After acting out scene after scene from Lord of the Rings, and then returning to dig through their stockings, we ate a little Christmas breakfast and then turned our attention to some of the other gifts.  First the kids opened their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa McArthur.  They sent some cute educational games for the boys,



and pink parasols for the girls.



Their main gift, however, was tied in with the real theme of Christmas this year: Harry Potter.  While my kids have only seen highly edited versions of the Lord of the Rings movies, they have seen almost unedited versions of all of the Harry Potter movies. And while Lord of the Rings is okay, Harry Potter is the true love of me and my children's life as of late.  In fact, on any given day at our house, you're likely to get a earful of whatever Harry Potter book we're on, not to mention a good laugh from the Divine Comedy You Tube spoof which the kids beg to hear every other minute.  "Baby Ride Your FireBolt" indeed!! Perhaps all of this obsession is because the last Harry Potter movie came out this year, both in the theater and on video, but whatever the reason, it was the prefect year to go all out, and Grandma and Grandpa McArthur kicked off the theme by sending Harry Potter robes for all of the kids. (And just in case you're wondering where we found one small enough for baby Mase--we had to have it custom made!)  They also sent the kids gift certificates for a certain Wand Shop in the famous Harry Potter World Theme Park--and yes, tickets to the theme park for the whole family.  They even agreed to fly out to visit us when we are in Jacksonville and come to the park themselves so they could watch each of the kids redeem their magical coupons.

After opening Grandma and Grandpa McArthur's robes and gift certificates, a thoughtful Spencer, who had asked Santa for some Harry Potter Legos for Christmas, suddenly remembered the Santa bag sitting in the corner.  It was as though he took the cue from heaven itself, and he quickly alerted all of the other children to the over site.  It was then that the morning really started to kick off in my opinion.  The kids ran over to the bag, which was topped with none other than the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, and began to unload Lego set after Lego set.  Somehow Santa managed to bring every single Harry Potter Lego Set in existence!  (Okay, that's not really true.  There are some retired sets online that Santa simply couldn't stomach the price of!)  All of the kids were ecstatic.  Many of their cousins have been collecting Legos for years, but aside from a few of the smaller creator sets, these were really our first big step into the wonderful world of miniature blocks.  And what a perfect way to start!  We agreed to let the kids assemble a few of the smaller sets--like the Knight Bus--but told them that this was one gift they would have to wait to play with.  We promised to dedicate a whole room of our Florida condo just to Legos, and then somehow talked the kids into laying them aside for a few more gifts.

This time the gifts were from Nick and I.  We generally try to limit ourselves to three presents each, and this year the three present were: Gryffindor scarves for each of the kids, firebolt brooms for each of the kids, and a special Harry Potter item each--a golden snitch for Spencer, time turner necklaces for the girls, and a Hedwig puppet for Mason.  The kids were in love.  Especially Emma, who had been obsessed with time turner necklaces ever since we gave one to the girls' friend Kennedy for her birthday.  She wanted one so badly, and right after opening it did something I will never forget.  She carefully placed it around her neck, and then glancing around at the rest of us to see if we were watching, slipped around the corner.  I, who was watching, peaked around after her and there she was, carefully turning the hourglass in the necklace and fully expecting to transport back in time.  It was adorable!  And I was even more disappointed than she was when after all three turns she was still standing in the hallway on the very same Christmas morning.  She mustered up her half eye closed Emma face, and then came back to the living room.  She didn't say anything about her experiment to anyone, but I could see the wheels turning in her head.  She was no dummy!  And I only hoped she wouldn't put two and two together too fast and spoil all of the magic of believing in magic.  She didn't seemed phased for too long though, especially when mom whipped out the laptop and put FireBolt on full blast.  This time the kids could actually dance on their own firebolts instead of getting dirt all over my house from riding on the cleaning brooms!  It was quite a sight to behold watching all four of them "vroom, vroom, vroom...flying higher on their brooms, brooms, brooms"! (For anyone out there who hasn't seen this video, here is the link for your Harry Potter viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySN8Q4U6wys You do have to be a fan to get it though.) I couldn't have had a better Christmas present than having four little loves riding around on their brooms and zapping each other with magical spells.  (That's the true joy of early motherhood--brainwashing all of your kids to love what you love!!)

Here is my favorite shot of the day showing the kids with all of their new Harry Potter gear.



Later that evening, Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins joined in on the magical theme by giving the kids the last Harry Potter Lego set--the Harry Potter Lego game.  They too, however, had a bigger gift in store for the whole family.  To the kids immediate delight, they found out Christmas night that Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins had decided to take the whole family on a Disney Cruise for Christmas!  Who knew they could top last years gift of sending the family to Wicked in Chicago!  This will be a family reunion to remember!

Well, all in all, it was a pretty awesome Christmas this year!  And the best part of it all is that this year, the Grandparents both gave gifts that just keep on giving.  We have so much to look forward to in the coming months.  If we can just get packed and moved this week, Florida is going to rock!  Speaking of packing.....I'm buried!  Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Eve

At our house, Christmas Eve is the day where we carry out some of our most beloved holiday traditions.
In fact, in many ways, I think that Christmas Eve at our home is even more Christ-centered than is Christmas Day.  With young children, no matter how hard you try, the miracle of Christ's birth that we all celebrate on Christmas Day can sometimes get overshadowed by the thrill of Santa and presents and treats.  Perhaps that is one reason I really love Christmas Eve.  And this year we added another Christmas Eve tradition that makes this day even more special and Christ centered.  This year I finally got my way in initiating a family tradition that carries over from my high school years--being a Secret Santa.

 During all of high school, and even into my early college years, my friends and I agreed to forfeit giving Christmas gifts to each other and instead put our money together to be a Secret Santa for a needy family.  Some of my favorite memories from high school center around these Secret Santa shopping trips and subsequent secret delivery missions.  For years I have wanted to start this tradition within my own little family; but we just didn't have the money during medical school or early residency to pull it off.  This year; however, with the added bonus of moonlighting, we decided to make the plunge. Though the moonlighting only just pads our budget, it was important to me that we go ahead and start the tradition this year instead of waiting for next year when we will be on a full doctor's salary.  In this way, the tradition would grow from true sacrifice.  This is the way I wanted the tradition to begin.  And I am so glad it did.  It was a sacrifice for our family, but a blessing to be sure.

A blessing, and a character-building experience for my kids.  Even though the kids usually exchange gifts with each other in our family gift exchange, I still felt like the character-building experiences of really giving had been missing from our Christmases past.  It just isn't the same to give a gift when you are anticipating one in return.  So, this year, in conjunction with our new tradition, we did away with the family gift exchange and instead put our money towards our Secret Santa gifts.  The kids all saved and saved, as in years past, but this time the giving would only be one way.  And even better, it would be anonymous.  Although our children are quite young,  and their financial contributions to the Secret Santa fund had to be subsidized by mom and dad , each one of them gave all they could and felt truly committed to the cause at hand.  Each had a person in the family that they were in charge of shopping for.  And each delighted in the opportunity to wrap and secretly deliver their hand picked gifts.  It was a Christmas Eve we will always remember, and hopefully one that set the stage for many memorable Christmas Eve's to come.






When we returned from delivering our gifts and goodies, we were all in the best of spirits--exactly the mind set we needed to be in for our annual Shepard's Dinner.



Following the Shepard's Dinner we opened our three Christmas Eve presents, took pictures of the kids in their new Christmas jammies under the Christmas tree, (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins for sponsoring the jammies this year)



and tucked our little ones into bed.  It was extra fun to kiss them goodnight since we had moved all of the kids beds into one room to help get ready for the movers.  They giggled and talked together about the adventures of the evening, and then were compelled to quiet down and get off to sleep by the sudden sound of jingling bells from just outside their window.  Nick and I even joined them after taking care of the last minute Christmas trimmings.

Seventh Heaven

We are down to just over a week in our house, but we took a day off from packing yesterday to do a little birthday celebrating.  I can hardly believe that my baby girl is seven!  I remember looking into her eyes for the first time like it was yesterday.  I just don't know where the years go.  And next year she will hit the big eight!  I'm starting to feel old!

We kicked off Madison's special day with birthday crepes in bed,















followed by a fun present opening session.



















Maddi had been eyeing the American Girl Doll of the Year Kanani for months, so we decided to make her day by going all out with Kanani gear.  Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins bought her the doll,



















Nick and I got her the matching dress, the Kanani books, and a few of Kanani's other outfits,



















and Grandma and Grandpa McArthur topped off the gift-giving with matching jammies for Maddi and her doll.

The whole rest of the day the girls and I played dolls and we all greatly appreciated the break from boxing up our life.  That evening our good friends the Andersons joined us for dinner at Maddi's favorite Mexican restaurant,

and then we stopped off at the ward Christmas party to cap off the night.  It was a fairly low key party, but Madison was ecstatic nonetheless.  After all, the love of her life--Ty Winder would be there.  And since I refused to let her pick Ty for her birthday outing this year, this was indeed a special treat.  Actually, as it worked out, she forfeited her birthday outing altogether this year in leui of getting in on the big "un-birthday party" in the Spring.  I didn't love this idea at first, but when I realized we were going to once again be traveling on Spencer's birthday, I decided to make Mason's un-birthday party a Hoskins children's un-birthday party and let all of the children in on the action.  Emma will still get her big fourth birthday celebration at Disney World, but the rest of the kids agreed to stay simple on their actual birthday in exchange for big fun later on.  So far they've requested a pony and a bounce house.  We'll have to see how that plays out!

Anyway, Maddi seemed content with her special day, and we all feel so proud to call her ours.  She is an incredible daughter, sister, and friend.  She has really grown up so much this last year and she seems to be totally at ease with who she is and where she is going in life.  Happy Birthday Maddi girl!!  We love you!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Well, despite the fact that our family is moving out of our house in just over two weeks, we still managed to get our annual Christmas treats made and delivered, right on time.  This year we went for some traditional treats--divinity, chocolate drop cookies, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.



We placed them in little Christmas tins and caroled them to our closest friends in Rochester.  It's a tradition I really love, especially the caroling part.  There is just something so cute about four little voices singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" that puts you right into the holiday spirit.  Snitching a little divinity myself--with the guarantee that I won't eat the whole batch--is pretty "merry and bright" too though.

2011 Christmas Letter

I've decided to start including a copy of our yearly Christmas letter on our family blog.  For those of you who have already received it, please bear with us.  For any of you who are not on our mailing list, but would like to be added, please contact us and we'll put you on the list!

Season's Greetings Family and Friends!

Another year has passed, and it is time again to write a letter expressing our love for the Lord, our love for all of you, and the newest happenings in our ever changing family.  We have now managed to make it through two Christmas letters with no baby announcement; however, we have yet to be able to write a Christmas letter that demonstrates some level of stability.  This year will be no different.

The start of our year was actually fairly uneventful.  We continued with work and home schooling, eventually completing our first year of at home education.  We took the kids on their first trip to Disney World.  We went to a big family reunion in St. George, Utah, to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday.  And in August, we celebrated our ten year anniversary.  There was a deceiving sense of stability to our everyday existence.  The coming months; however, would expose the deception.

The whirlwind all started late one Monday night when we got a phone call from some friends in our ward.  They had just accepted a position at Mayo for a Cardiology fellowship and were looking to buy a home.  They knew that we would be putting our home on the market in January, and asked if we would consider moving up our timeline.  In fact, what they really wanted was to do a private showing of our home the next day.  What else could we do but agree?  We stayed up most of the night getting ready, and the next evening they came for a walk through.  One showing turned into two, and by the third visit they were ready to make an offer.  And discussing the offer together, we reached an agreement and decided to go forward with the sell.  We were ecstatic!  The only downside was that they wanted to move into our home in December, instead of in June when we're done with residency.  Still, we couldn't pass up the chance to get out of our home without ever having to list it, and without losing any money.  So, with a little over eight weeks to get ourselves packed and moved into storage, we signed a contract on our home.

Now, if that wasn't a crazy enough three weeks, during the same three weeks that we sold our house, our job hunt also came to a head.  We had narrowed our job search down to three practices located up in Minneapolis, or one of three west coast practices located in Oregon and Washington.  Any of these options looked very promising.  Strangely, however, during this time period, another option crept into our periphery. A group in North Dakota, where one of our friends had signed a few years back, contacted us and began to recruit us.  Well, we thought, neither Nick nor I had been to North Dakota.  Why not get a free trip out and check North Dakota off of our states list?  That would leave us both with only one of the fifty United States that we hadn't visited.  That was all it would be--a free visit to the unknown state of North Dakota...or so we thought.  After a four day visit, something unusual happened to us.  We fell in love with the people there, with the small town feel, the "coolies" and the low crime, and most of all, with the pretty little temple that sits right in the center of town.  As we drove home through our beloved Minneapolis, the traffic filled streets seemed to have lost their charm.  We struggled for days, but eventually the decision came.  We got on a conference call with the CEO at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, and agreed to come to work with their group.  We finished the call just as we pulled into the title company to sign the contract on our house.  Not bad for a days work!

After the decision was made, we immediately began to get the questions.  It was home schooling all over again.  Why are you going to Bismarck?  As a Mayo grad, you could get a job anywhere?  You're picking Bismarck over Minneapolis?  Well, yes.  Yes we are.  And what would compel us to Bismarck, you might ask?  Well, ultimately the only thing that could compel us to Bismarck: the Spirit.  It helped as well to have the Bismarck temple president prophesy of our arrival!  After attending the ward in Bismarck, I couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity to speak with him.  "How in the world did little Bismarck get a temple?" I asked.  "Well," he smiled.  "That is the question."  "Bismarck is unique," he continued.  "When the temple here was built, it was the only temple in the world that was built in a city with only one ward.  When people questioned President Hinckley on the choice (temple placement is between the prophet and the Lord alone) he simply replied: 'the temple in Bismarck is not being built for the members that are there now, it is being built for the members who are coming...in the thousands.'"  The temple president then took my hand and his eyes welled up with tears.  "Something is going to happen in Bismarck," he said.  Then he paused and looked straight into my eyes.  "I have a feeling you are going to be a part of it."  I turned to look at Nick, and he too was reduced to tears.  It was a remarkable moment, and I think it's fair to say that it was pretty much downhill from there.

So, the long and the short of it is that we will close on our house on the 30th of December, send our belongings to Bismarck with the moving and storage company, and then wander about in the six month interim before the Bismarck job kicks off in July.  We'll actually be spending three of those six months at Mayo away rotations in Florida and Arizona, so that helps a lot.  During the other three months, however, we'll either have to live in friends' homes, or move into the Residence Inn here in town.  (That is, unless I give in and let Nick have his way.  He wants to buy a camper and live in it for a few months.  "Oh the stories we'll have to pass onto our posterity!" he says.  Well, I'm adventurous, but that might be going a little too far.)  People seem to think we're pretty crazy; however, we can't complain about the uncertainty and instability that lies ahead.  The Lord's hand in helping us to sell our house and find the right job has been so evident, down to the very last detail.  Indeed, rather than feeling overwhelmed by it all, we have simply turned our hearts to gratitude to the Lord and are doing our best to trust in His wisdom.

Well everyone, it's time to close and wish you all a happy and safe holiday.  May the Lord ever pour out his blessings upon you and your family; and may your hearts be open to receive them.  His tender mercies are upon us this holiday season, and we pray the same for each of you.

Much love and best wishes to you all,

Nicholas, Jamie, Madison, Spencer, EmmaLee, and Mason Hoskins

Christmas Cuties

Just thought I would include a picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits for this year. They're a pretty good looking crew, if I don't say so myself.

I wonder how many more years I am going to get away with this matching business?  Better take advantage of it while I've got the chance!

One Gorgeous Boy!

As is tradition, we got a few pictures made of baby Mase for his second birthday.  This was kind of a crucial photo shoot, since I like to select a photo from my kids'second year pictures and have it made into a little desk statue.  All of the other kids have such cute little statues sitting next to their name puzzles on the toy shelf.  Consequently, the pressure was on for Mason to shape up and give us a good smile.  He is normally such a cheeser, we didn't anticipate there would be any problem achieving this goal.  When we arrived at the little photo studio; however, we were unpleasantly surprised.  He would not smile for anything. He was thinking about it in a few of these photos...

But he was too stubborn to give in and show us his killer grin. Dad was beside himself, and even I, who am usually pretty patient about these things, was getting a little worn out.  Finally, as our time was running out, I pulled a last ditch mommy move.  I snatched a tissue from the desk table and puckered up into one of those fake mommy cries.  It was pretty convincing, and Mason, a boy close to his mommy's heart, was suddenly very concerned and totally distracted from the camera at hand.  He watched me so closely to see if he needed to come to my aid.  I peeked out from over the top of the tissue, and then, on a wish and a prayer, cracked a grin at my worried little man.  His eyes immediately registered my farce, and his face proclaimed a new found stubbornness.  However, when I threw the tissue on the ground in consternation, he couldn't help but stomp on it.  And then, of course, he couldn't help but smile that broad smile of his.  Caught ya!  All it takes is one second, and thankfully the photographer was awake.  There was my statue shot, tissue and all.

And then I was even lucky enough for a close up afterwards.  It was a rough half an hour, but I think we got him in the end.

Oh, and by the way, did everyone notice Mason's new big boy hair cut?  Quite the change from his long, straight mop!  I tried to keep that baby fine hair as long as I could, but it finally just had to go.

Holiday Fun!

December is without a doubt one of the craziest, but best months of the year at our house.  It is a month packed full of tinsel and traditions, parties and pleasantries.  From year to year, many of our December posts resemble posts of years past--just with slightly older children and the occasional change of venues.  Like our annual Halloween party, it may seem to the occasional reader like a bit of a broken record; however, it is just the yearly nature of these traditions that make them so special to me and my family. These are traditions that I hope my children and my children's children will have memories of for years to come.  So without further adieu, a few pictures from our yearly holiday fun.

Here we are bustin' out the holiday decorations bins.  This breaking in the season event usually takes place on the day after Thanksgiving right after we get home from our early morning Black Friday shopping.  We load our favorite Andy Williams Christmas CD into the Bose and blast "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" through the whole house.  Then we get all of the Christmas decorations put up.  All except the tree of course.  We usually wait until the first weekend in December to cut down our tree so it's sure to still be fresh on Christmas morning.





Here we are stopping off for a visit to Santa.  The Mayo Fellows Association hosts a family Christmas party on the morning of the first Saturday in December.  Santa visits the party,



as well as a few of his reindeer.  They also have party games, treats, a bounce house for the kids, and horse-drawn wagon rides outside.

Here we are on the annual Christmas tree-cutting trip.  Someday we will get a really HUGE tree, but for now, we usually try to pick something fairly conservative.  That's especially true since mom secretly threw away all of the fake Christmas wreaths last year and left us with only one option this year--buying real wreaths for all of the windows.  The tree cutting farm makes the most beautiful wreaths with the cut off tree bows and it was simply a must to have some this year.

We didn't capture any photos of the kids stringing popcorn or actually decorating the tree this year, but it got done nonetheless, as did another fun Christmas tradition--the twelve days of Christmas crafts.  Aunt Jenny started this tradition at our house last year by sending a little twelve days of Christmas gift pack.  We saved the box she sent and decided that while the kids are young this is a great way to bring in a little extra holiday fun.  Here are the kids with the first few days of crafts.

What cute girls........??

Activity Roster Update

At the beginning of the school year, I wrote a post detailing our kids' long list of fall activities.  Here are a few more photos, including some of Spencer and his little buddy Mikey Chan at the YMCA's youth basketball program.  Even though Spencer practices basketball with Daddy and Mason every Tuesday night while the girls finish gymnastics, (his class starts a half an hour earlier than theirs) this was his first time to do a basketball class with his peers.  He was amazingly confident, even though he was a full head smaller than anyone else.  He was able to hold his own in dribbling and passing, but the poor little guy couldn't quite launch the ball high enough for the basketball hoops. He gave a great effort though, and we can't wait until next year when we can get signed up again out in Bismarck. 

Maddi and Kennedy on dance observation night.

EmmaLee on observation night.  (She turns and blows me a kiss every thirty seconds when I come to watch.  She also insists on having lots of pictures taken.)  

 

                                   The annual gymnastics buddy shot.

And a picture of Emma's gymnastics class on their Halloween dress-up night.  Emma started this class when she was 18 months old.  It was a mommy and me class when she was little, and the same five girls have all moved up together since then.  Us moms have become quite good friends, and the girls are a pretty tight knit little group too.  It's going to be a hard pill to swallow to pull out when we move, but we'll live it up while we have the chance.

Oh Canada!

As our month in Boston drew to a close, the sadness of having to once again pack up and leave the east coast was somewhat overwhelming.  It was very reminiscent of when we left Pennsylvania three years ago and headed to the uncharted territory known as Minnesota. While I know we could never be permanent residents of any coast, it's still fun to pretend when we take these extended trips.  Pretend as we may, there eventually comes a day when reality hits and it's time to go home.  This time around, however, neither Nick nor I could bear to make the drive back to Minnesota on the same old route.  In fact, both of us swore, after spending over a hundred and forty dollars on toll roads on the way there, that we would never drive that blasted freeway again.  Consequently, we had to get kind of inventive in finding the right detour home.  After considering all of our options, we decided that the northern route was the only way to go.  And by "northern route", I mean cutting up through Vermont and New Hampshire and taking the free Canadian highway back to good old Rochester.  The drive would be slightly longer than the one through the U.S., but we decided to make a go of it nonetheless.  And can I just say, I'm so glad we did.  Not only did we get to drive through some beautiful New Hampshire towns and stop off at the famous Vermont Cold Hollow Cider Mill--home of the best cloth pressed apple cider in the world,

 but then we got to enjoy a bit of an international experience for the first time in several years.   Although our whole family crossed over to the Canadian side of the border on our trip to Niagara Falls a few years back, (almost getting stranded there since mom left her purse at the hotel!) this jaunt into the land northward was much more substantial.  In fact, I think Nick and I were a little too naive when we crossed the border this time around.  Neither one of us anticipated the total language and culture change, complete with unreadable street signs and incomprehensible costumer service.

  

It was a bit tricky making the transition over, and it tested my very rusty French to its very limits, but in the end it was quite a delightful little venture.  In fact, it gave me the international travel itch like I haven't experienced in years.  Driving into Montreal across the river felt so much like driving into Paris that I could hardly stand it.  And the kids were instantly infatuated with the language change.  They, especially Maddi, wanted to be taught French right away, and she, like her mother, very much enjoyed testing out the new vocabulary on the very attractive waiter at our first Canadian dinner stop.  

After dinner, securing a hotel soon became our next priority, and lucky for us, the Canadian hotel we stayed in accepted our American Express credit card!  The next day, which happened to be a Sunday, we got up and watched a few French cartoons, and then excitedly got dressed in our Sunday best.  We could hardly wait to attend a church meeting in another language, especially mom who still has a copy of le Livre de Mormon back home.  Unfortunately for us all; however, we managed to attend the only English speaking branch in a hundred miles.  Bummer!  Afterwards we snapped a picture down by the river, gassed up with fuel prices that were so much cheaper than back home (cheaper until we realized it was being sold by the liter!) and then hit the road again.

We drove for a bit, and then we were supposed to cut south again driving down through Toronto and then into Detroit. After about an hour or so on the beautiful Canadian highway, however, we decided to extend our trip yet again and stick to a less familiar northern route.  This took us up through the Canadian mountains, past the Algonquin Provincial Park, and to the quaint little town of North Bay, Ontario, where we spent our second Canadian night.  This time there was no French waiter to take our order; rather, we ate in the home of a Canadian local who prided herself on her authentic Canadian cuisine.  Here is a picture of just such cuisine--Canadian poutine (or fries with gravy and mozzarella cheese) and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Talk about living it up in Canada!  Much better than the expensive Steak and Pasta joint that was just next door!

The next day we woke early again, drove around the northern side of beautiful Lake Huron, passed the famous locks in Sault Ste. Marie, and back through the more familiar Wisconsin territory.  We arrived home that night quite satisfied with our Canadian detour.  If we ever decide to drive to the east coast again--which we won't--it will be Oh Canada again for us for sure!