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!!!)