I was hoping that some people would come and visit us while we were in Quebec, because it seemed like it would be so fun to show everyone our favorite things! Our older boys came, and that was wonderful, but I didn't know if anyone else would make it. (My mom was thinking of coming, but then couldn't, so that was sad.) But one day Sam got a random message to his work email from one of Malachi's friends, asking if he could come and visit Malachi on a certain weekend! We hardly even know the boy, Evan, but I knew he was a nice kid (all of Ky's friends are) so we said yes—and then he asked us to keep it a surprise for Ky! I was hoping Ky actually liked him and wouldn't be unpleasantly surprised by the visit, haha.
And then, my friend Andrea who lives in Maine and so kindly let us stay in her house on our way to Quebec, decided she wanted to come visit too! With her eight kids! (Actually, two of her kids are grown and living elsewhere now. But then she has a French exchange student living with her too. So seven kids.) I was super excited to see her but also had to tell her, "Okay, but you understand we have no extra beds, right? So you'll all just be sleeping wherever we can manage to put you? Probably the floor?" She said she was up for that, and so it was decided! And…it was the same weekend that Evan was coming!
That's 19 people staying in our little house, if you're counting.
I was a little nervous about how it would all go. We have spent time with Andrea's family several times back when they lived in Utah, but it has been a few years and we have older kids now, and you can't always just count on older kids to immediately start playing together like younger kids do! But Andrea is so fun, and so easy to be with, I thought it would probably be okay. And…thank goodness…it was!
The teenagers, after a few moments of initial getting-to-know-each-other awkwardness, hit it off splendidly (a little too splendidly in some cases…ha ha…just a little joke because there were some romantic sparks between Evan and Emeline, and Juliette and Eli were already a couple, so…that's always a little complicated for the chaperoning adults! but it was fine) and had so much fun playing games and wandering the city together. And the younger kids were happy and got along. And I got to talk to Andrea (her husband stayed home to take care of some imminent puppies!) more than I have in years! So it was good all around!
Rainbow!
(Oh look! There's Andrea's white van parked by our van at Saint-Jean-Baptiste church!)
That first morning, we walked around the Chateau and Old Quebec with Andrea's family, and then we told Malachi to come with us and go pick up some lunch. Then we drove to the airport and instead of lunch, picked up Evan! Malachi was very surprised and very happy! It was fun to see him switch into "tour guide and explainer of Quebec" mode, and even sound enthusiastic about things, as he showed Evan around. It was funny because at the airport, Evan just came out and got into our car, and then he and Malachi were laughing and catching up, and then Clementine suddenly said quietly and suspiciously from her car seat, "Why did this boy get into our van?" It was a valid question!
The other good thing was that Clementine got it into her head that his name was "Oven," and so she called him that the entire time, and everyone else started (fondly) calling him "Oven" too, until he politely but firmly requested that we all stop it! And we reluctantly did. (But he can't stop me calling him that in my head. And on my blog. So ha.)
We went home and made sandwiches for the hordes (Evan having proved not to be lunch) and took them back and ate them on the boardwalk above the river.
Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the swing dancing that occurred on the terrace, but as I said, Andrea is fun, and tends to orchestrate things like that!
Oskar carried Ziggy around a bit, which made him a friend for life
Daisy and Harriet
Inside Notre-Dame de Québec
I love the light coming through the stained glass here
Clementine is astonished
The Christmas Market wasn't open yet, but some of the booths and decorations were up already, including this huge cool advent calendar!
Morrin Library (We had to physically remove some of the kids from here or they would have stayed all day!)
On Rue Saint-Jean we saw this huge truck trying to turn onto the street past a UPS truck, and it was NOT going to make it. It was backing up and inching forward tiny bit by tiny bit, but there was a lamppost right in front of it and only about an inch to spare on the other side. I winced in sympathy, having been in similar situations myself. I still don't know how it ever got through! Not without some property damage, I'm pretty sure! Anyway, this incident made a great impression on Gus and he would not stop talking about it for the next several days. "Do you think that truck is still there? Did the police come?" "I bet that truck couldn't get out. How did it get stuck? I think I can still hear it beeping." On and on and on. I reassured him a million times that it would be fine, the driver would figure something out, but Gus just couldn't rest easy about it.
We got ice cream, of course!
Up on the city walls
Sun coming through buildings (and you can see the outline where they were putting up the ice rink down in Place d'Youville)
Clementine finishing her ice cream
Clementine and Juliette (the French exchange student) really liked each other. Juliette was darling and sweet. She helped me compose a delicate message to a branch member in French (just declining something, and I was trying not to sound rude and very grateful for a French-speaker to help me!) and did Clementine's hair in countless different ways and came up with the best and most obscure names for our game of name-charades. They were even more obscure when she said them in her cute French accent (I didn't even recognize "Charles de Gaulle"!).
The kids played soooo many games!
(I'm noticing now that Eli is next to Emeline in every picture, haha)
Sometimes the youth went out and walked around and made security guards nervous
Mealtimes were wild but fun
We drove up to visit Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré again. It was interesting to see how different it looked just a month later with all the leaves off the trees!
Still a beautiful cathedral, though!
The sunlight was coming in the windows at a different angle and was very pretty.
The sunlight made this little chapel glow like it was made of gold!
I got to look at all the different flower and animal mosaics again
And discovered, to my delight, something I didn't even notice last time—each pew has a carving of a different animal on the end! I loved looking at them, and sadly didn't get to look at every single one like I wanted to! And now we're back in Utah and I maybe never will! 😥
After such a fun few days we were really sad when it was time for everyone to go home! We walked through some shops looking for a souvenir spoon for Andrea's family to take home (they collect them).
And got ice cream again, of course!
And then we had to say our sad goodbyes!
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