Life at the Hurley's

We're leaving for a farm in Alberta but here in Northern Ontario we've had our first taste of farm life. Lori and David Hurley live outside of Sault Ste. Marie and have taken such wonderful care of us. Especially Rebecca is very sad to leave because she has very quickly learned to milk the goat!

Here the Hurley's have 2 dogs, one cat, 3 turkeys, 3 goats, 20 chickens of varying ages and one vocal rooster. At first Elena was terrified of the animals- especially of the dogs. She announced that if the dogs were outside then she would be inside, and if the dogs were inside then she would be outside. Now she is fast friends with them and even tries to walk them (or they're walking her!). :-)

We've enjoyed the barnyard life, rides on a 4 Wheeler, all sorts of ball playing, a BEAUTIFUL Turkey dinner with our hosts, their 4 kids and son-in-law (and yes, They STILL have 3 turkeys in the barn!), and today a tour of the Bush Plane Museum in the Soo and a meeting with a friend from my and Lori's High School days.

Jonathan says: "I loved playing basketball at the Hurley's. Shooting forewards I shot it in the net 5 times in a row. Shooting backwards I got it in 11 times and 2 times in a row. I also accidentally broke a garage window shooting backwards!"

 Today was also Josiah's first birthday. All of the children were excited about that and about planning a little party with him. We ended up celebrating with our dinner of ribs (yum!!!), potatoes and corn on the cob and then chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. He is as lovely as ever and we're really thankful for him.

 Wow...our visit has been full and the time has gone by so SO quickly. Tomorrow we'll be up early again but we will be leaving with great memories.  Here is a map of our route to Irma, Alberta.  It is 2500 km and we will see how far we make it tomorrow, hopefully getting in by Sunday! (Thanks to Lori Hurley for all of these great photos! I wish that we had an extra seat in the car so you could document our entire journey!!!)

And so it begins!

We made it!  We're happily sitting with friends outside of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario after a 13 hour journey.  Ahhhhh.  The children are asleep and we can relax.  We threw them in the car at just after 5am and were on our way!  After a few stops for Jeremiah's poor tummy and for breakfast (to go) we were really cruising.
We had a longer break for lunch to let the kids run off their energy but otherwise we survived quite nicely with their math books, Narnia on CD and some car bingo and I Spy games.  They did really well.  I have confidence now that we can probably make our trip out to Alberta a bit faster than we had planned.  Well...I hope so!
It was interesting to see the countryside and to go through all the little town along Highway 17.  It had been four years since last time and little has changed.  We remembered all of the spots where we stopped for coffee last time! :-)  We will be here for two days and then, after celebrating Josiah's first birthday on Thursday, we will head out Friday morning for IRMA!
This was our route today:

Alle Schlafen....

Es ist 2300 Uhr und alle schlafen.....aber ich nicht. Ich überlege gerade alles was vor uns liegt. Alle unser Planen und vorberitungen sind vorbei und unser abenteuer kommt! Wir sollen um halp fünf aufstehen und die Kinder im Auto setzen und dann 900 km fahren. Die Reise fängt an! Aber es wird so bequem am anfang weil wir zu gute Freunde fahren...morgen in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario und (nach drei mehr Tage fahren) in Irma, Alberta. Wir beten dass alles wird gut gehen. Ich bin so dankbar dass wir dieses Zeit zusammen als Familie haben...es wird so schnell vorbei sein!!!! Wir vermisse euch in Österreich...es wird schön wann ihr mitfahren könnte. Na ja, unser Auto wird ein bisschen zu klein! Ich soll jetzt schlafen gehen. Morgen schreiben wir wie alles gegangen ist. Gute Nacht (eigentlich ich soll 'Guten Morgen' zu euch sagen!!).

For all you english speakers....I just had the urge to write in German...I can't sleep even though the house is quiet and everyone else are sleeping. I'm thinking about all that is ahead of us. I hope that Google can translate it for you! I'm off to bed now. Good Night! More tomorrow from The Soo!