Our Canadian Family

Have you ever felt so at home and welcome with a group of people that they felt more like family than they did like friends? That feeling pretty much sums up the awesomeness of the U family's latest vacation.

Andrew, the kids and I embarked on our second Canadian road trip last week, and yet again Manitoba did not disappoint. Andrew has always considered the people we visited to be family and, after another year of invading their lives for an entire weekend, I can easily see why.

So here's a quick rundown of my favorite highlights of our Manitoba vacation:
1). The home-cooked food: Sharon's rhubarb dessert and brown bread, Andrew's chicken spaghettini, Orlan's buttered cake and truck apples, Lavonne's cream pies and shrimp and sweet biscuits and ham, Mavis' bean casserole, and the list goes on and on... Pretty sure the 5 lbs I lost pretrip will need to be re-lost.

2). The discussions: We talked about every hot button topic there was and managed to honestly share our opinions without arguing or offending one another at all. Religion, abortion, contraception, politics, family drama, work... You name it and we probably covered it. So awesome.

3). The laughs: when Orlan pulled anything that looked edible out of the freezer for breakfast only to find he had served us buttered toasted cake, we laughed. When Kev and Lavonne shared the silly stories of their grandkids and stories of their childhood, we laughed. When Mindy told us about the rocks in Dakota's crocs, we laughed. Watching their familial interactions, poking fun at each other, cracking silly jokes... We laughed and laughed and laughed.

4). The people: Orlan and Sharon, Andrew and Mindy, Kevin and Lavonne, Jed and Chris, Ryan and Barb, and all the other family and friends we spent time with on Sunday... Despite their differences and similarities they came together for a delicious meal and just made us feel right at home.

The temperature may not have reached higher than 50 degrees our entire trip, but the warmth and love we felt all around us more than made up for it. And now our kids our international travelers twice over.

Thanks Manitoba! You rock!