Great Big Happy Life, Tuesday evening

Ghosts of New Jersey, and dangerous marshmallows:




Holly and Linnea, by Skype from Quebec, dancing to "Different Drum" as done by Me First and the Gimme-Gimmes:


Ah... the sound is bad because it's a cellphone video of a Skype session. Sorry.

Day 2: Great Big Happy Life

Morning:


Kelly:

Great Big Happy Life conference retreat

DAY 1
a peek:


"Speed dating for families."

Four-way stops

From the air, coming into Montreal, I saw a big highway roundabout, so i thought it was going to be a roundabout area, rather than four-way stops, but there are many four-way stops, at least in Saint Lazare and Hudson.



And a three-way, and one without the "picture" directions.

Holly and Ernie and some others

My, Holly, what big eyes you have!



Clones of Ernie in the forest. Maybe.



I met and talked with over half these people, but not all. I heard the names of nearly half these people, but remember only a few. Sometimes three hours fly by and I'm a puddle of tired at the end. It was a really good, full, rich day, and I need to sleep before I can really remember some of it. Too much to process. Nice day. Big day.



Eventually there will be more photos of the day here: http://sandradodd.com/montreal

Here are the people who didn't fit into the panorama shot above:

Kid-shorthand recipe

This is note-taking by a child of the recipe for making French toast. He wrote quickly, as the mom told him how to do it, went and made great French toast, and later the mom found his notes:



See if you can interpret it before you look at the full story. It's really cool.
Sam's Recipe

Quebec, and seeing Holly!

On the way it was almost nothing but clouds, but finally when we were approaching we flew low for a long time, in one of the little Canadair jets. I saw water, farms in unusual arrangements, flat and slow rivers with roads on both sides. Farm houses right at the edge of the St. Lawrence. A quarry, right in town. Trees as high as the fourth and fifth stories of buildings.

It's nice being with Holly in everyday ways. She said as soon as I got here it seemed normal. It's hard to describe, and we've been speaking on Skype so she had shown me most of the house, inside and out. We visited a little market and a park in the next town up, Hudson. There's a building with an American flag on it (in addition to Canada and Quebec). The people we were with didn't know why it was there, so if anyone here does, let me know.

The photos aren't really great or special, but they'll help us remember the day. It was darkly overcast all day and very comfortable. I got to meet one of the kids Holly's age that she's been hanging out with.



Meant to add these in the first place--kids playing at the playground.