Guess what? I'm back - well almost!

Yes I am back but I haven't got back into a normal routine yet or back to my blog.  I have been sneaking in and trying to catch up on reading your blogs and leaving comments but there were so many things to catch up on that I'll never get through all of them.  Moving forward hopefully will be easier.

We had a great holiday.  I'll probably post more about that but to sum up:

We spent 3 nights catching up with hubby's uni friends Richard and Kate.  They gave us a really warm welcome to Montreal.  They live in a suburb south west of Montreal island in a lovely house that had already had snow.

We followed that with a couple of nights on Montreal Island and then took a Greyhound bus to Burlington.  We hadn't been able to get an ESTA (visa waiver) in advance to enter the USA so we had some form filling to do at the border crossing.  I don't think we were very popular with the other bus travellers but we didn't hold things up too long.

After a night in Burlington our son Michael and his father-in-law Paul collected us and drove us the short distance to Barre where we were staying wtih Paul and his wife Crystal.  We've only spent a few weeks with them since the kids got married in 2014 but they are so easy to get on with and made us feel at home.

Michael and Elizabeth had arrived there the day before with baby Rory and apart from his grandparents it was the first time his american relatives had the opportunity to meet Rory.  Everyone was excited about that, especially his Great Grandparents, and of course we celebrated Thanskgiving together!

Then it was on to Boston for a couple of nights before flying home.

We packed a lot in but we did have some nice relaxing days in Barre and with the friends in Montreal.  

This week it's been back to normal - 2 days with Nathan - and of course catching up with the washing!  Lots of washing! (Michael & Liz came home to a flood in their kitchen so we had their washing too!)  Oh and I thought I'd been so organised before we left, clearing out the fridge, emptying bins etc BUT I forgot to run the dishwasher!  I won't be making that mistake again.