My Family Finally comes HOME!

For those of you who may not know, two weekends ago our family took a trip out east to Ontario to visit friends and family. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for the weekend due to work constraints, however Jody and Colton stayed. I'll admit, when I first got home from the trip, I thought "Wohoo, place all to myself! Time to live it up. However, that was not the case. Having a family changes you I found out. I was bored out of my mind, with only the cat to keep me company. The house was eerily quiet without the sounds of a little toddler running around. Going to bed at night was pretty lonely too. I did have two school exams to study for and take, so that kept me a little busy, but once those were complete, life was fairly uneventful. I actually ended up staying late at work quite a few nights, just to occupy myself. Yes, yes, it's a sad state of affairs for sure.
However, the boredom is over! Tonight my family finally returns home, and life can get back to normal. I'm one excited man, as I've missed my family deeply.
So with that out of the way, I can give you some of the highlights from our trip out there. First off, we got to see Jody's brother Stephen, who has recently returned home from successful missionary service in California. That was pretty exciting, especially for Colton, who has never met his uncle. Stephen is still Stephen, but a much more mature and refined man, which happens to most guys who serve missions. It's definitely changed him for the better (not that he was bad before), and it was a real joy to be around him again.
We also got to see her sister Bekky who recently returned from an extensive youth exchange program called Katimavik. It took her through 3 different provinces in the east, where she worked in different programs. It sounded like quite a fun experience, and she had lots of great pictures.
Other highlights included the traditional dim-sum meal with her brother Matthew in Toronto's Chinatown (mmmmm bbq pork sticky buns), a family picture (which I'll post when Jody gets home), and Man-Night with all the in law men. It was great to see her family and spend some quality time with everyone. Big thanks to Graeme and Jenny for coming down all the way from Barrie, to hang with us.
We also got to see some of our friends from our time out in Guelph. Our neighbors, nick and Janet, Tom and Andrea Palmer, Amber and Gracie (Colton's little girlfriend), and many more. It was great to catch up and see how everyone is doing. We do miss them all.
Lastly, I'll leave off with one of Colton's big events. Because we won't be out there for his birthday in 26 days, his Aunt Jenn organized a small celebration for he and his Uncle Matthew, whose birthday had just passed. The apex of the celebration came when it was time to sing happy birthday. Aunt Jenn and Aunt Jenny, created these very cool Cookie Monster Cupcakes! Could there be anything better for a little boy? At first, he wasn't sure what to do with it. He poked it, and observed it, and spun it around...........


Then daddy came over with a cupcake and showed Colton what to do with it. Once he saw me tear in to mine, he didn't waste any time. First to go was the chocolate chip cookie, then the white chocolate/chocolate chip eyeballs. Once those were out of the way, he methodically devoured the rest.......

I'd say that was a good trip, wouldn't you?