A tale of a frozen family

I will preface, that this will be an INCREDIBLY long post to my blog.  I have so much to say about this fabulous city, and I made the cut, down to 540 pictures.  The architecture is so amazing in that city.  Breath taking amazing.  I can’t explain why, but I truly do ADORE Montreal.

I think it has much to do with the French language and culture, mixed with the history (so much more history than we have in Alaska).  It’s like being in Europe without having to cross the ocean.  Although, given our airline fiascos, it probably would have been quicker to actually go to France, but that’s a whole other blog post LOL.

Thankfully for us, we get to go there once a year, as our franchise headquarters are there and our annual conference is there every May (WAHOO for us!)

If you have never been there, I REALLY recommend that everybody visit, at LEAST once in your life time.  I’ve been there in winter and in spring and it’s equally beautiful both seasons.  I will admit, it’s a lot more fun to walk around the city in the spring though!

So, we’ll start this photo montage with a picture of the offspring, showing her Canadians loyalty!  Say it loud, say it proud sister!!! (it’s just too bad they were eliminated from the cup right before we got there).

The girl loves her hockey…. what can we say!

We took a horse and buggy ride through old Montreal.  Another thing I highly recommend.  It’s worth your time and money, I promise.

Here are some photos of the tour…. did I mention I am in love with the architecture?

I had to chuckle…. Montreal can make even McDonald’s look chic!

and more beautiful buildings *swoon*

and the replica of the Empire State building, which is built right next to the Notre Dame.

And this is the Notre Dame that I speak of.  I REALLY, REALLY encourage anyone visiting Montreal to take the time to tour this amazing building.  If you are not a religious person, I swear this building will bring you to religion.  It is amazing, breath taking, overwhelming in beauty.  The level of detail inside this building is world class.  The stained glass inside is like nothing I have ever seen.  It truly will take your breath away.

At the end of our ride, Em decided that she needed to reward Tom for his loyal service to us during our trip.  He was very happy to take the carrot from her.

Now… aside from the beautiful buildings, they also had an abundance of flowers in bloom.  Now some of you, I realize, this is nothing new to you, but please remember…. when we boarded our plane, we still had snow on the ground, so the never ending sea of flowers was a beautiful sight for these *still frozen* eyes!

I tried to use the flower setting on my new bad boy camera and tried some different angles, etc.   I’ve not done any work on any of these photos… they are raw

and it just doesn’t get any cuter than this

Another one of Em’s passions in Montreal is to ride the Metro… AS MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.   She has 2 of the 4 lines of the metro memorized, and can say them in English and French.  Here she is with Grandpa Cindi, enjoying one of her millionth or so rides on the green line.

In usual fashion, Em was quick to make friends!

Next, we were on to our bus tour of the city.  Another tour I really recommend everyone take at least once (this was our second time taking this tour).   We got the same driver this time, as we did last time…… Angelo.  Angelo is an amazingly sweet Italian man, who adores our daughter and treats her like a complete princess every time he sees her.   Just like last time, he let her “drive” the bus before the tour.  She was in heaven!

It was rather hysterical to watch everyone board the bus.  As they did, Em would say “good morning” to each and every one of them.   The looks on their face were priceless.  Many were from other countries and I almost wonder if they thought for a brief moment that the minimum driving age in Montreal was four.

Here is China town.

More of the beautiful buildings.

It was such a beautiful day and the bus tour is a few hours, so Angelo stopped at a park for everyone to stretch their legs.  Em enjoyed a run through the park.  

And of course… MORE beautiful buildings.   Did I mention that I love architecture?

Another stop on the tour that I really recommend you come back and tour the inside.   St. Joseph’s is another amazing creation.

And Em with her favorite Montreal Man…. Angelo!!!  Bless him for being such a sweet man to our daughter

A section of the city from the mountain.  The one thing I like about Montreal, is when you look down onto the metro city, you still see large sections of GREEN!  There is still an abundance of trees in the urban jungle.

So, after our tour, we were tired and hungry and it was Sunday and most everything was closed (the malls in the metro area… the underground city… a whole other thing to check out!  The malls go for miles and are all connected to the metro.  You can live, work, grocery shop, clothing shop, live and never have to take one foot outside.  I could see how that could come in handy in the winter months!) at any rate… we were hungry and our options were limited.  We found a little place that was open and hubby HAD to try the infamous “fries and gravy”.   I took a bite.  I won’t say I’ll be doing it again anytime soon, but I tried it.  Hubster said he like them.  It was fries, brown gravy and cheese curds.   Me, being me, had to document the eating of this strange combination!

We did so many other things on our trip, but I will close this tour for now.  I don’t want to scare off anyone who still might have some little interest left in Montreal.  I apologize to all of you that I O.D.’d, but I love the place… what can I say

As many of you know, Em is a hockey freak.   She is OBSESSED with all things hockey.   I’m going to assume that not all four year olds can tell you every single NHL team in existence, which city and state they play in and for many teams, she also knows the goalies.   Which quantifies my “OBSESSED” comment!

Well, yesterday it was a beautiful spring day and she was outside playing hockey with her playset.   The neighbor kids joined her.  Both of the kids play hockey, so Em was in heaven.   The neighbor girl plays goalie, so she decided that Em should wear some of her gear.   First she brings the helmet.  Em shrieks in delight.

Next they decide she needs to be better protected.  I mean, you never know how hard you can be hit with a tennis ball puck, so they go for the leg pads (they forget the height difference between the girls is a foot or so!).

Em is a FIERCE goalie though… she protects her storage bin goal with all her might!

But I guess they felt she wasn’t protected enough… so they brought MORE pads.

and of course, you can’t have THIS much padding and not have a JERSEY!!!  (I try very hard not to pee my pants every time I see this picture).

But wearing this much gear and so fiercely defending your goal makes you very hot.  So she had to lose the helmet…. she was “too hot”

Back to defending her net till the death.

UH OH…. she starts to topple….

HEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPPPP!!!!!  I’ve fallen and I LITERALLY can’t get up!

It was at this point that she decided that leg pads are completely over rated and she decided she would rather play defenseman.  

The demise of a goalie career…. at least for this afternoon.