Our Trek to Dauphin

As I mentioned in my last post, Travis’s Baba passed away this past week. We were very grateful that Travis’s parents made it possible for us to attend the funeral in Dauphin, Manitoba. It was a whirlwind trip consisting of two full days of travel and only one day at Dauphin, but it was very nice to be able to be there. We will all miss Baba, and it was nice to be able to go and show our love and respect for her and her wonderful life.

We started off preparations for the trip with buying outfits for the boys to wear. They didn’t really have any formal wear for the funeral and were both very impressed with their fancy clothes. I also had a nice surprise when looking for a suitable outfit for myself, I discovered that all of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit!

Our travel on the first day had five parts, first we drove to Toronto. Then we parked in the cheapest airport garage and took the monorail train to the airport. After that was our first flight from Toronto to Ottawa and from there we boarded our second plane from Ottawa to Winnipeg. In Winnipeg we rented a car and drove the remaining four hours almost straight north to Dauphin. At one point we were driving straight north, with a GPS compass reading of 0 degrees North. You can see the compass reading in the bottom right hand of the picture. And yes, Travis did change the car icon to look like our Subaru ;)

The boys took to the trip so well. They were extraordinarily well behaved the entire time! Though Arthur was a little distraught at the fact that we were driving a rental car and not our blue car. Arthur really warmed up to all of the family we got to see. He especially had a fun time with Cindy. As sad as it is to be at a funeral, I really love the family reunions that happen at these times. It really makes you stop, think, and appreciate what you have and who you have.

I have to say a huge thanks to Karen and Dan (Travis’s aunt and uncle) who despite planning everything from the funeral to the reception and everything in between, took the time to think of us and went to the local grocery store to get milk and snacks for the boys. Also, Jennifer and Vanessa (Travis’s cousins) did a ton of work organizing and delivering readings at the funeral, the eulogy, and creating amazing slide shows and photo tributes at the funeral and at the reception lunch. Everyone really appreciated all of the thoughtful touches and hard work you guys did.

I know this picture is extra blurry, but I had to include it. This is how the boys slept at the hotel and it was so sweet!

I feel strange saying that we had a good trip, considering how sad we all are losing Baba, but we really did have a great time seeing so much family. The boys definitely had a great time, despite the multitude of bleeding lips (Felix had two and Arthur had one from some brotherly rough-housing). Hopefully we can manage another family reunion under more pleasant circumstances.

We are now all safely home and settling in with both Felix and Travis knocked out with fevers. School starts again for Arthur tomorrow, so we’ll all be back to our regularly scheduled family nonsense.