New Year

We made it back to Carievale and are thankful for safe travels.  After thoroughly enjoying spending time with family and friends, we began our trek back to Saskatchewan.  As many of you know, our flight barely made it before the ice storm before Christmas.  We had a lot of luck (prayers were answered) that all connections were made.

The same was similar on our way back to Saskatchewan.  We left Niagara during the heaviest snowfall while at home.  We passed several motorists that had ended up the ditches, as we thought, "oh no, not again!"  We made it to the airport 1 hour before take off.  We made it through check-in and security quickly and only had to wait for 10 minutes before boarding.  Our flight was uneventful, save Sawyer deciding she didn't want to sit in either of our laps.  Overall we definitely lucked out in flights and the details surrounding them.

When we landed in Thunder Bay the temperature was a brisk -40 with wind chill.  It wouldn't have been that bad, except before leaving the parking lot I had to: clean the car, brush the snow off, scrape the ice, install Sawyer's car seat, and oh yeah, replace a burned out headlight.  On Friday we left for Saskatchewan, a drive of 12 hours (at least normal driving hours).  Unfortunately we only made it to Dryden (4 hours or 1/3 of the total length) as the weather and roads slowed us down.  The roads weren't that treacherous, but the heavy snowfall and blowing, drifting snow caused for very low visibility.  The storm was predicted to last until early Saturday morning, so we decided to spend the night in Dryden.  Part of our decision to fly out on Thursday was the cautious plan to leave 3 days for driving.

The weatherman/woman/people were right as the next morning the skies were clear and the sun was out.  The roads in Ontario weren't great as we were slowed by about 20 km/h, but better to arrive late than in a box.  Once we reached Manitoba the roads were almost perfect.  Besides the -40, with wind chill, it was a beautiful day.  Even better, I was able to get gas in Manitoba for 105.9, which was a lot cheaper than the 134.9 it was in Kenora (about 150 km away).

After a full day of driving, a little more than 9 hours, we emptied the back seat and went to gather Edgar.  He loved his vacation on the farm, as he was extremely hesitant to come back with us when it was time to go.  Sawyer especially loved having him back, giving him plenty of hugs and kisses.

Looking back over the past 15 days, our little family travelled roughly 5,000 km round trip (plus two trips to the GTA).  The two flights were Sawyer's 15th and 16th and an unheard of number of hours spent in a vehicle.  We are thankful she is a great traveller, although the last flight she wanted nothing to do with sitting still.

It was an extremely busy 12 days, but we were glad with how we spent them.  While there were rushed afternoons, long drives, and short sleeps, they made for lasting memories.