Abe and Seb visit

When we said goodbye to Abe and Seb and left for Quebec, we were hoping maybe they could come visit us sometime while we were gone. Seb can fly free on standby because of his job with United, and it's great, but it's not really the same as having a ticket! You have to be flexible, and you have to be at peace with maybe getting stuck somewhere for longer than you'd like! It's a little nerve-wracking when you have a schedule to keep to. 

Still, there was a week in August before school started where Abe thought he could take a day off work and then maybe work from Quebec for a few days. (His MTC job is all online, working with missionaries in other parts of the U.S. and Canada.) And Seb thought he could switch shifts with a few people to get some days off. And Seb is able to get Abe on flights free too if they fly together! So they picked a week, and Seb pored over the standby schedule. There are no direct flights from Salt Lake to Quebec, so they would need to get to a hub somewhere that could get them to Newark or Chicago, and then from one of those two airports to Quebec. And they needed to do it all in one day so Abe could be somewhere to work (remotely) the next day! I know Seb was really worried about making it all work out. He figured out how to get to the right places at the right times so there would be two flight options in case they missed one. And then he figured out contingencies in case they ended up getting stuck overnight somewhere. Worst case scenario, he thought, they could turn around and fly back to Salt Lake and just try to come visit us another time.

So we were prepared, when the day came and the boys texted us at 5 a.m. that they were at Salt Lake airport, that they might not make it all the way to us. All day we got little updates. "On our way to Houston!" (Houston? We'd thought they were going to San Francisco!) "Waiting for a flight to Newark." "Only a few more seats available. Not sure we'll make it on this one." And then finally, "On our way to Quebec City!!" They got in at 11 pm, late enough for us to watch the fireworks before heading out to the airport to pick them up. And we were SO happy to see them!!

Daisy (and Clementine) and Teddy (and Ziggy) vacated their beds so the big boys could have beds. And the next morning very bright and early, I heard all the little kids in on Sebby's bed, jumping on him and asking him questions and excitedly trying to tell him about every single thing they had done in the past two months. They were so happy to see him! And he was so happy to see them! It was so cute for the next few days to see everyone jostling to be the one who sat with Seb, who held Abe's hand, who called them both to dinner. 

Seb had brought birthday presents for Clementine and Daisy in his suitcase. It was so cute! 

Abe had to work some of the first day, but he had a break for lunch so we made sandwiches and went up to the Plains of Abraham for a picnic.

Ziggy's ham!

The kids took up the whole swing set (and then some!)

It was rainy in the morning, but it started to clear up later that afternoon, just as we were getting out of the car to go ride the Québec-Lévis ferry. We had a pretty walk through the basse-ville to get there.

Nice views of the Château from down there!

The ferry was fun. We have seen it going back and forth (it goes every half hour all day and night!) but hadn't ridden it before. It's always exciting to go on a boat!

Lévis is the name of the area across the river. Our branch of the church here is called the Lévis Branch.

There's a little plaza over there by the ferry terminal, with a fountain and some grass.

We walked around a little and then rode back!

Some more things we did while the oldest boys were visiting:

The sister missionaries came for their weekly dinner with us. We love them!

Sister Ritchie wore a velvet dress, and Clementine quietly ran upstairs and changed into her velvet dress. Then she was so happy, jumping around saying, "We match, we match, I match the missionary!" They were adorable together.

Pancakes with real maple syrup, of course!

Clementine eating the cookies Seb brought her

And hugging the giraffe he brought her

When Abe didn't have to work, we took the boys out walking to see the city and Old Quebec. It was fun to show them all the places we already felt some ownership of!

Seb brought his camera and had someone take a picture of us, which I am so happy about. I love seeing us all together!

Seb took lots of good pictures

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Inside the inner courtyard of the Château

And inside the Château itself

So many gnomies for Clementine!

Some of the kids rode the funicular up the hill with Seb. He would have loved that so much when he was little. And he still does! :)

More gnomies

Notre Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral. (I wonder what makes a church a basilica? Just size? Hmm. Wikipedia says it "was the first church in Canada to be elevated to the rank of minor basilica.") This one is still a real church!

Inside

We heard a bunch of sirens while we were walking around, and eventually came upon them. There had been a fire in the building above one of the bakeries on Rue Saint-Jean! Because all the houses are connected in these old parts of the city, they are very aggressive about putting these fires out quickly, and they did get it out. But that bakery hasn't opened again yet. :(

Still, it was a good day for Ziggy!

Tiny ice cream cones for the little kids

Clementine gobbled hers down and then watched sadly as the others ate theirs

Big ice cream cones for the big kids

Visit to a casse-croûte outside the city for a playground and poutine

So much poutine!

(Being an Ice Cream Man--you can tell by his face that he's not "being" himself)

Sunlit city

Clementine watching the fireworks with Seb

Pretty picnic by the St. Charles river

Daisy was proud of her tiny cracker sandwiches

Cookies we like (they have Château Frontenac on them!)

Skipping rocks

Montmorency Falls

A nice hot day, so the spray still felt really good! (Though nothing can quite equal how good it felt the first time we went.)

All the best pictures in this post are Seb's :)

Abe had time to go off and visit some stores with the kids during his breaks

We thought the boys were going to have to leave really early in the morning to go back home on Saturday, like they'd had to on the way here, to give themselves leeway to take different flights if they had to. But when Seb checked the standby list out from Quebec, there were something like 120 free seats on the 3 p.m. flight to Chicago. So they were able to spend the morning with us before heading out in the afternoon! That was an unexpected bonus. We visited a waterfall we hadn't seen yet, Chutes de la Chaudière. It is beautiful! Almost as impressive as Chutes Montmorency.

Ziggy did NOT like the suspension bridge you can walk out to look at the waterfall from.

But Clementine loved it!

You can walk down closer to the falls on these big rocky ribs that stick out into the river.

They are so interesting, made of these thin sheets of rock that are crumbling off in layers.

Such a fun visit with our big boys! And even better, they made all their flights toward home and were back in time for Seb to work his night shift at the airport! We're so glad they got to come see us!