Hey peeps,

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend! We have just had the HUGEST week ever! Leaving Winnipeg was a little sad to say goodbye to family and new friends. We left on Sunday evening so we could get across the border with no major hold ups etc…. Was a new experience having my finger prints taken! Australia being an island, it certainly doesn’t have border crossings, so a new learning experience for the kids too.

We drove, drove and drove some more…….actually we covered about 2,000km in 19hours! I am so getting used to long distance driving, which is a little hard to believe really as just driving south to Busselton used to drive me a little stir crazy! 8 hours now seems so short…LOL!

The first day we made it past Chicago, now this is one city i would really LOVE to see. Originally we thought we could pop in for half a day, but once we saw that huge RV we were driving and how hard it actually is to manoeuvre around in traffic we gave it a miss Maybe another time…… I did get a photo from the front seat though.

One thing I was really amazed about was the traffic! 5 lane highway with so many trucks everywhere!!! And we were often surrounded by trucks. One time we were driving just past Chicago in peak hour traffic, and the truck in front of us blew a tire! There was this almighty BANG, and the next minute a ton or rubber came flying towards our windscreen……YIKES that was a close one! I nearly lost the contents of my bladder, and continued to shake from shock for the next half hour. Thankfully all was okay

Anyway all the miles driven brought us through Cleveland, up to Bufallo and the town of Niagara falls. We camped on the US side of Niagara Falls so had to cross the border to view it on the Canadian side of the falls. It was Mali’s 7th birthday on Wednesday, and what better way than to spend it at Niagara Falls……certainly a birthday to remember!

It is such a beautiful place, and so majestic, and powerful. Here is a couple of pics from our day there….

All that mist is created from the power of the falls and you can actually get pretty wet looking at it from the sidelines…..

Jaye and Mali checking out the falls….

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous little birthday boy……

We did several tours and one of them was the Behind the Falls tour. You take lifts down into the lower tunnels and then come out to the right hand side of the falls….. Pretty wet down here, but it was so neat to see that water smashing down over the edge!

Here are my banana boys….B1 and B2!

We really enjoyed the Maid of the Mist boat ride, and here is a shot with a rainbow shining across the falls….just beautiful.

Ah, finally got Rod on camera! Here he is with a Moose…….

We all had such a fabulous day at Niagara Falls, it certainly is one of God’s amazing creations on earth!

The very next day we headed back over to Canada to drop the RV off and get our hire car too. Time to pack up the RV and clean it out was a mammoth task as we had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the month of being in there. We went to the Fairmont Royal Park hotel in Toronto…..talk about luxury from the RV. One of the kids said as we walked in, “Is this where the queen lives?” ….LOL! It was great to wander around Toronto city, and shop at the Eaton centre. We had the BEST dinner of the whole trip. A lady at the Gap store recommended to us to eat at ‘The Pickel Barrel’……..oh man that was the meal ever! So hard to pick what to have, and no disappointments at all! So if you live in or around Toronto, I would highly recommend it!

The next morning was a very exciting one for me, as I was driving to Markham to not only see Cindy Major from the Design Team, but we were meeting at the Stampingbella store! OH LA LA……it was soooo fabulous to visit Bella land, and to meet not only Cindy but also Emily Block, the President Bella designer and owner of the company! What a hoot that gal is! As promised I took lots of piccies, so you can see what Bella land is actually like!

Look at all that RUBBAH on the walls!

Here is beautiful Cindy making her purchases….

Entrance to the classroom….

Emily (the owner) hard at work….

Group hugs!

Don’t you love the MWAH on the wall at you leave the store!

This is the back room where all that rubbah is cut, packaged, and shipped! So when you order from Stampingbella this is where your rubbah will be prepared and sent off to you! cool ey?

So excited about my newest purchase!!!

Cindy and i together……

After the store Cindy, her mum who was kind enough to be Cindy’s travelling companion to Toronto, and I headed off for coffee! It was SO wonderful to meet her after the past couple of years of emailing each other back and forth. She is such a wonderful, gorgeous and sweet person. I only wish we lived closer together!!!! Hopefully I can convince Cindy to come for a visit down to AUS! I was so amazed that Cindy was prepared to drive 8 hours to come meet me! How special do I feel, and she also made me the most adorable gift too, which I will have to photograph and share with you when I get back home to Australia…..

Toronto was a fabulous city and it was so great to have visited there……that very day we hopped in the new hire car and started our long drive to Baltimore to spend time with Kate and her family……news of that in the next installment, I promise!

Love to all……

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