Memory lane | Lessons from my daughter

I have told you about Emily’s love of fishing before.

If you can’t remember or if that was from before you started to follow my blog, you can find my post here : Fishing

Emily discovered fishing on her 4th birthday, years later, my father bought a “Pourvoirie”. A big property (45 square miles), with more than 35 lakes and 8 cottages.

Dad’s website is all in French but he speaks English and pictures speak louder than words! Go check it!

Domaine des Patriotes

From our house, it takes us a least 17 hours to drive there!

Last time, took us just over 21 hours to get home.

We did think of flying to Montreal and save 12 hours of driving but in order to survive in the woods, what we need to pack can’t really be flown to Montreal. Maybe we could borrow from friends but that feels like a lot of favors…

So, when we go, we pack the truck and plan a grocery stop 4 hours before we leave civilization 🙂

Here are some random picks! Let me know what you think!

View from our cottage! How would you like to wake-up to this view!

Introducing Emily to our toaster for the week! It rained a lot but we had a big bag of crafts, books and games!

My dad and my girl! She was nervous about getting in this 4-wheeler thingy 🙂 but she loved it!

Hubby caught a fish in between all the rain! We love fish!

Did I mentioned we were there during a rain marathon? That didn’t stop us from enjoying our week without electricity and internet!

My dad’s place! The only spot with electricity!

To be one with nature!

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Could you do it? Could you pack your truck full of everything you need for a week and drive until there is no electricity and internet, move into a cottage and enjoy your family’s company for a week?

Up until Emily’s year in first grade, we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

Not because we didn’t want to but because I was born and raised in Quebec. We didn’t celebrate The “Action de Grace” the way Emily wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Fall 2006…

Now that Emily’s teacher taught her all about Thanksgiving.. we found ourselves in an interesting spot… a couple of days before the actual holiday.

We had to invite family and cook some really specific food as per what Emily told me. I had to google some recipes.

Because Emily could tell us, using her words, we certainly obliged.

Lucky for us, we now had family near by.

We invited, Barb & Greg

And Jonathan’s parents

We moved the table in the living and set-up the buffet in the kitchen

I bought everything in the colors that Emily said we needed

I thought the table looked amazing but Emily had something else in mind

Even when she was only 8, she had lots of imagination 🙂 I have always loved that about her.

Before dinner, she made us go around the table and tell what we were thankful for.

So although today is not Thanksgiving, I am thankful for fall being around the corner and for my in-laws and family members living near by.

Above are 2 pictures that really shows the relationship between Emily and her grandfather. You can feel the affection they had for each other. We still miss him deeply and if you have a couple more minutes, I invite you to read how Emily decided to remember her “papie” here!