To Canada We Go!

So Mark and I headed off to Canada to do pretty much whatever God wanted us to do. Our missions minister and his wife put on a marriage conference so we helped a little with that. Mostly, we just built relationships. There is a church plant there that our church helps support. They are built of lots of new Christians. It was a great church because the people were not content to just sit within the walls of their church. They were not happy to just do nothing in their big city. In fact, the church was voted 2008 Community Service Provider for Ottawa (or something to that affect). Basically a church that is open to listening to and doing the will of God. Mark and I are looking forward to traveling there again and visiting with our new friends and getting involved in what God is doing there. Here's some pictures from our trip.

A view from the airplane coming home. There was quite a lot of turbulence as we ascended. Extremely bumpy, in my opinion. I was told later that it was actually just a small bit of turbulence...not so for me.

On Monday, we got to do a little sightseeing before our flight out. So, we got to go to Parliament Hill where all the movers and shakers move and shake their laws. We were told by our friend/tour guide, A, that the government system is set up quite like Great Britain...which makes sense since it is Canada.

When/if the queen visits, she sits in that big chair to the left and Prince Phillip sits in the chair to the right. I think the head of the Senate (where this all is) sits in the chair in the front. Think of their Senate as the House of Lords...not voted, appointed. Their House of Commons is set up like our whole of Congress...'cept they don't vote a set number of years. Just when they decided to hold an election. There's your history lesson.

Pretty carvings in the Senate

The very beautiful entrance to Parliament.

The eternal flame. Not sure why...it's just eternal. The shields around it represent the provinces (think states) of Canada.

Our awesome hosts for the weekend. They put up with us and S. contributed to my shocking weight gain! Thanks bunches! We so loved spending time with these guys and getting to know them and their daughters...I forgot to get a picture of them before they left for school that morning...agghhh.

Our host cat, Rusty...

...and his diva sista, Mia.

A beautiful shot of Ottawa!

A picture of where we stayed for one night for the marriage conference. It was so pretty driving to it. Apparently, it's just south of Ottawa so the trees were still changing color...simply beautiful!

If you ever step foot in Canada, you have to go to a Cora's for breakfast...let me just say....WOW!!! That was some good food. I had a western crepe omelette and it was smothered in hollendaise sauce with some fruit. Simply delicious!

Our only adventures included almost missing our flight from Chicago to Ottawa because we weren't sitting right beside the gate. And when we flew into D.C. Monday afternoon, our 5:30 flight was canceled because of "mechanical problems." Mark and our MoM headed over to customer service to change our flight. The MoM's wife and I were thinking about what we might do with a night layover in DC. Thankfully, the guys were able to get a flight out of DC at 9 that night. We got home at midnight...it was a long night but it was so nice to be home!