Barrington

What fun we had in Barrington with the M'akl's. We enjoyed the lovely home ( especially tea in the sunroom ), doing spring  cleanup with the boys in the  most spacious yard, taking the train to Des Plaines for lunch at the Choo Choo Café where items came to the counter  on a small electric train. We enjoyed  lots of lego, games and  stories and learned the routines for school, gymnastics, art class, and  swim, piano and flute lessons. We colored Easter eggs, hiked into a forest preserve to find a hill, did our egg roll ( note Bryn's egg in mid air ) and enjoyed an egg salad sandwich picnic. All wonderful experiences!

The Arctic

The dogsledding trip to Inuvik was truly a "lifetime high ". The group was fun, the dogs beautiful, soft, friendly ( I even let them kiss me ) and anxious to run. The rides were exhilarating. The expansive snowy barrens and icy  lakes were beautiful.We drove the ice road to Tuktaoyaktuk (and  did a pretend sky fall photo on it ). At close range, we watched the reindeer herd migrating to summer grounds - a sea of horns moving above  bodies. The northern lights were spectacular, every night doing another dance for us. Most memorable!

Las Hermanas en Mexico

What fun to have The Sisters et al visit. Garry built a caja for Andy and tucked his quitar into his luggage so we had live music, beach walks, sundowners on the beach or terrace, visited neighboring villages and enjoyed  lots of fine dining

McDonalds in Bucerias

It was so wonderful to have the Jr McDonalds join us in Bucerias. We had fun in the pool, at the beaches, at the markets, at Aquaventura ( where we met Peppe the sea lion ) and dining out.

PA

Had a great visit in Prince Albert. JR coffeed with his cousins.We took Mom to Amy's for a lovely dinner on the Saturday.  Maureen and Robert came for lunch and tea time  on the Sunday.We missed the Andvaags as  Arvid had whisked Carol out of town for a birthday week-end.

Lake House

With the exception of the Norgards who spent the holiday in Mexico, JR and I along with the Taits, McDonalds and all the  Hakls  were able to share special time with Lucinda, Kevin, Bryn and Ellis.
The boys experienced shoveling driveways, sledding with auntie Easa, skating on Lake Windermere, skiing at Panorama, playing monopoly, crokinole , pictionary and puzzles, listening to Kev and Jim jamming on their guitars, Brennan playing his guitar, Ryan playing his saxophone, celebrating the "birthday anniversary and just relaxing in the Lakehouse.What a wonderful holiday!

Annual-ish McDonald Family Bonspiel

Six teams competed in our revived  spiel this season with the team of Barbara, Kevin, Isaac and Ellis scoring the most points. Everyone enjoyed a meal of chili, caesar salad, rolls  and apple crisp with ice cream at our house following the event.