Road trip

Helping Grandpa with the compost pile

 To suggest we went on a "road trip" this past week is actually kind of hilarious, as I feel like we have been in the middle of one crazy epic ongoing road trip since we left the Cape.  But on Wednesday, we packed up yet again, and left the farm for the sparkling shores of Nova Scotia.

Juniper and Dory

En route to Halifax, we made a very important pit stop in Sackville, NB, where Juniper had just spent the last couple of days with her aunt and uncle, Theresa and Scott. By all accounts, she had a whale of a time, and despite being incredibly trepidatious at first, she became fast friends with Theresa and Scott's new dog, Dory. We arrived just in time for lunch, and Juniper had spent the morning helping Theresa prepare food and setting up a restaurant, complete with handmade placemats, name tags, and a menu.

Carefully bringing out the food

Menu

The gang, reunited

To say our trip to Nova Scotia was a whirlwind is an understatement. We were there for only three full days, and it was so completely full of visits and appointments, there was no down time whatsoever. We didn't even get to tell some people that we would have dearly loved to see that we were there, let alone get the chance to poke around downtown Halifax.  Here are some of the things I managed to snap pictures of:

Our hosts!  Carroll and Stephen were so very gracious to host us while we were there, and had a house full of toys and good food and comfort. They also had the added bonus of a ridiculously cute granddaughter, Emmalyn, who would often stop by for some playtime. Both kids LOVED having a new playmate around.

Carroll and the kids

Stephen and Linden discussing life

Emmalyn, always full of smiles!

Thursday, (the morning after we landed in Halifax), we got up bright and early (so bright and early that I actually had to wake Juniper up), and headed for the Annapolis Valley for the day.  I had booked appointments for both kids with a fabulous osteopath who works in Kingsport, and then we met our dear friends Zsofi and Will, and their twins Eva and Sylvie, for a day of fun in and around the Valley.  

Revelling in the slime and sludge, post appointment

We spent morning in Wolfville, and then headed to a place called Ross Farms, which I had shockingly never been to.  It is a living museum of sorts - a farm preserved as it would have been back in the 1800s/early1900s, complete with people tending to the chores and animals and other daily tasks.  It was pretty fascinating, and a fabulous place for the kids to run around and explore.  Everyone was plum tuckered out by that evening!

Happy to be back with her buds

Eva, Sylvie, Juniper and Linden 

Posing in front of some echinacea post-lunch

Walking down some old train tracks in Wolfville

Flax drying at Ross Farms (I got to see the whole process of turning flax into linen, which was SO cool)

Visiting the GINORMOUS pigs.  Notice Juniper plugging her nose. 

One of the favourite stops: the old school house

Juniper trying out the tablet and graphite stick

Linden contemplating the old ways

Helping with some chores

Having spent a week on the farm, Linden figured he was the expert on all things hay-related, and moved some around this field a bit

Linden, Sylvie and Eva, carefully carrying feed for the geese and the ducks

Group shot before we parted ways

Other than our day in the Valley, the rest of our time in Halifax was spent flitting from one place to the next, visiting as many people as we could. This included, happily, all of Juniper's Halifax buddies, who she still counts among her best friends, two whole years later.

Juniper and Cheri (who runs the daycare Juniper used to go to)

The old gang! (and one new friend) l-r, back to front: Calla, Juniper, Ewan, Patrick, Aven, Linden, Jack

Juniper and Bella (with Linden photobombing in the back)

And that is all I can manage to post this morning! We are now back in Fredericton, and will be here until we head back home later this week.  We will be celebrating my mom's 65th birthday this evening, and there will no doubt be some other grand adventures before we go, so stay tuned!