May
So May has been busy.
Lisa came to Ontario to meet Jordan for the first time. She was picked up by Cecilia at the airport and then we met her at Cecilia's in the backyard for some birding and gardening. This wasn't the original plan but we adjusted.
For a few weeks we had been looking to purchase a used tent trailer but with Covid, nothing was available, I think everyone had the same idea... get out and go camping. We decided that we would do the same, so we put out some feelers to try to find a tent trailer so we could take the kids camping this summer to get out more.
Anyway, the day before Lisa was to arrive, one of the people we had contacted said we could go see a possible trailer the day Lisa was supposed to arrive at our house, but it was near Cecilia's house... so we went to see it, and then had lunch with Lisa and Cecilia in Cecilia's backyard. We later learned that we could pick it up the next day... which also wasn't the plan, but... we adjusted. Cecilia and Lisa came to our house for some charades, board games and the final Leaf's game. Then Lisa slept over, and the next morning we went to pick up the trailer, and then got back around lunch time where Julie, her kids and Brian's mom were waiting for us to make a trip to the Toronto Zoo.
We enjoyed a full afternoon out walking the grounds of the zoo and then dinner together.
Brian seems to be able to make Jordan giggle every time he holds him and Selinah is so fun to play with.
From here Lisa went to Julie's house and carried on with her Ontario vacation. Both Hadley and Easton really enjoyed Lisa visiting.
After a quick service of the trailer to get new tires, a new jack, and just a general service we decided to use it for the long weekend. We looked and there were spots available at a park near us, but then we checked the weather and a crazy storm was brewing. So, we decided that a driveway weekend trial might be better. So we put up the trailer and enjoyed every moment of it on the long weekend. There are a few things to figure out, like we want to change the old lights to LED lights, and we need to sort through supplies that came with it, to see what we would like to keep in the trailer, but we are genuinely happy with the purchase.
We put the trailer through a big test on its inaugural weekend with us. On Saturday a storm known as a “derecho” (da-RAY-cho), a powerful kind of windstorm, ran through our area.
We heard about when it was coming and with emergency notifications and literally got the trailer down and put away as the rain and hail were hitting us and the wind was blowing. We then ran to the basement and about twenty minutes later the storm was done. However, there was so much damage in the area that we were without power and water for a week! Take that in for a moment. No electricity and no water because we are on a well... for a week! Think brushing teeth, food, laundry, dishes, all the things that are just harder without electricity and water. But the trailer was only a little wet, so after the storm, we set it back up and let it air dry. What a great little trailer.
While the week was hard and tried us a few times... we were able to get showered at the community centre, and we were able to charge our devices at the library and get containers of water from our friend Shawn for some dishes. We used ditch water to flush toilets. Honestly, we had so many offers from friends, we had no damage to deal with, but our biggest bother was that we had to toss food from the fridge and freezer. The kids definitely missed regular internet though. So we made a few trips to the library for them to use the wifi. I did buy paper plates to help with the loads of dishes from a week!
Laundry may take me some time to catch up on, but all in all, we were good. The weather wasn't too hot or too cold so that helped and we have propane, so BBQ food was possible.
I am so thankful that we weren't one of the families that had trees in their houses after the storm. Instead we played many board games all week to pass our evenings.
This weekend since we still didn't have power, we all loaded up in the van and headed for Julie's house. This made sense as I was invited to a baby shower for a camper friend that I knew from Hermosa, and Julie teaches with her. Small world. So we went to the party together and then spent the night.
This was my first big outing since Covid. There were three of us with masks on, and the rest were comfortable enough to go without. I saw my sister and her girls for the first time in over two years as she was also there.
Covid numbers are going down and I think that we are heading in the right direction. I am so glad summer is approaching and we can start doing more things with people.
Easton also started soccer this week. He has one person on his team that is from his school. I really am looking forward to watching him play all summer.
I really hope no new variants come from Covid so that we can continue in this direction of seeing people and doing things.