Our Trip to Montreal

Jason's grandpa passed away September 30, at the age of 103. Jason was with him in his last moments, which was a really sad experience.

We knew that at some point Jason would have to take him back to Montreal to be buried, and we looked at different options, including having Jason go with just Ben or waiting until the spring and going as a family.

In the end, we found a flight over a long weekend in November when all of us could go. It was Eric's first time going on an airplane, and he was really excited and nervous.

  

 

When we arrived, it was already dark. We checked into the house where we'd be staying and then went out for pizza. At the restaurant, the menus were completely in French and the server didn't speak very much English, so we really felt like we were in a foreign land! 

The next morning we got to look around a little bit more.

It was -12 degrees, and we found some pretty impressive icicles outside on the deck.

Jason took us to a beautiful park called Mount Royal where we took some pictures and the kids got to play in the snow (something we hadn't seen for a while!).

In the afternoon we went to the cemetery, where Great Grandpa was buried with his wife.

Then Jason took us see Old Montreal.

There were some amazing old buildings and churches, some of them dating back to the 1600s. 

At one church we were able to climb the bell tower--where it was pretty cold! 

The following morning we took a three-hour drive out to Ontario to see some of the places where Jason grew up. He took us to Don's Fish and Chips in Brockville, where he used to go with his dad.

And then to Athens, where he lived from ages 4-12.

We saw his elementary school

and the house his parents built (and that we've heard so many stories about).

After that, it was getting late, but we wanted to see the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

On Sunday we went to church in Jason's grandparents' old ward (Greenfield Park). The person who greeted us even knew Jason's grandpa.

After that, we met up with Jason's two cousins, whom he hadn't seen since he was a teenager. One of them had children around the same ages as our kids, and--even though everyone was pretty shy at first--they ended up having a nice time together.

We had most of the next day left, since we wouldn't have to be at the airport until 5 p.m. We decided to go back to Old Montreal, where we were able to see some of the places we'd missed the first time.

Then we went to a park called Mount Bruno.

Ben had been sick all day, and things just got worse on the airplane (and throughout the rest of the week once we got back). 

We had kind of a rocky landing, but we were happy to see all the familiar sights of home.