Well, my darling 13 year old has officially travelled further in her short little life then I have.
(so far, at least;) Last week she had the chance to travel as a local Girls Choir member to Ottawa.
OTTAWA!
As in, our nations capital!!
I spent the week missing her, feeling jealous of her, constantly trying to text her and missing her some more. Abby on the other hand, spent her week much more productively!
Here are some of the photos that were sent to me:
Abby and her friends left town at 4:30 am on a Tuesday morning. By 9:30 am - she was on a plane, for the first time ever!
The reason for this trip east was so that the girls could participate in Musicfest Canada. A music festival in which these girls happened to be awarded GOLD for their efforts. Woot Woot!
Th girls didn't only perform at the festival though. They'd also managed to land some gigs at some nearby churches and even sang one afternoon during a Mass! Cool experience for Abby, for sure. (This picture was taken as the girls were warming up.)
When the choir was not performing- they were exploring! They toured Parliament Hill, walked along the Rideau Canal, crossed the river and had lunch in Quebec, visit the Canadian War museum, the Museum of Nature, the Victoria museum and more!
Some highlights for Abby included shopping at the "Long Tall Sally" store (a family favorite) that was conveniently located near her hotel! (grrrrr....Thanks to kind donations from cousins and Aunts, she had left home with a couple hundred dollars and returned home with only $2 to her name. I blame LTS for this!;) The choir girls also got to tour the Supreme Court of Canada and Abby was lucky enough to get to sit in the judges seat (Appellate, Court) for a moment. It was cool to see Ottawa from her perspective. I'm not sure she appreciated all the history and intellect that this old and dignified city has to offer - but she certainly did enjoy herself!!!
One night the girls had been eating in a diner and four men approached the group. They were apparently from Alberta and one of them was actually from Fort McMurray. (The place that has been so severely devastated this month when a massive wildfire tore through the city) Anyways, these men asked the girls to perform. The girls agreed to and the owner of the restaurant even turned the volume down so that all of the patrons could hear the performance. When the girls finished singing - those four men gave the group a donation of $400.00. As someone who has helped with the choir accounting this year - believe me - that was a very generous and helpful donation!!!
Another cool experience they got to have came as they were touring the national war museum. Again, they were asked to sing only this time their audience was a group of new army cadets. They all stood at attention as they listened to the girls sing one of their best songs "To Believe." It was so touching to see video of this and it was reported to us that this provided a huge moral boost for the troop before they were deployed. Cool beans!
I really did miss this girl terribly. Every night, around 7:30 (9:30 her time) I would start walking around with the phone in my hand, just waiting for it to ring. For some reason, she couldn't face time, but it was still so great to hear her voice at the end of every day and listen to her relay some of her favorite experiences.
She returned home the following Sunday afternoon and it was definitely a happy reunion! I didn't take a picture, but Nate and Jessica had both made "Welcome Home" signs. Nate's was the funniest. It consisted of a giant Welcome Home message scribbled at the top and then in little writing at the bottom the words, "I slept in your bed!"
It was a week of "firsts" for my girl. First time on a plane....first time travelling east....and first time exploring the world without John and I being the ones to introduce it to her.
She seemed to do just fine without us.
....What gives?!!!
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