Family Vacation

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At Christmas my nieces came up with a brilliant idea of visiting the east coast of Canada. Four of my nieces and their families, plus my sister and her husband all drove out to the east coast to visit first New Brunswick, then Prince Edward Island and then Nova Scotia. My husband is from Prince Edward Island so we were able to arrange for the gang to stay at my brother-in-law's cottage for the week. The nieces only made a two day stop there while my sister and her husband stayed for the week. This past May my husband turned 60 and his sister's were scheduled to come to Ontario on the May long weekend. I planned a surprise party for him but they all cancelled due to an impending pilot's strike (which ended out not happening). So my sister, disappointed at the cancellation, decided we would have the surprise party in Prince Edward Island including both families. We're talking about 40 or so people. The one day it was planned was supposed to be the only bad weather day. We were worried about trying to squeeze all those people into a small cottage (which is in the background of the photo). The weather turned out not being so bad, but I gotta tell ya, the mosquitoes on Prince Edward Island are in the millions. So we were all forced indoors anyway. My sister invited my husband, daughter and myself to the cottage for a barbecue (the ruse). Except at the last minute my husband said we would drop by later instead of going for dinner because my sister had enough people to feed. Noooo! I quickly texted my sister and told her to text him and demand he be there. He had no idea his siblings and their spouses were attending and bring salads and THE CAKE. His siblings gathered outside until they were all there and then walked in singing Happy Birthday. Since my husband's birthday was 2 months ago, he was a little confused. And, he didn't quite like the attention put on him. But he handled it. My husband is a former step dancing champion. His sisters also dance. My family said they wanted to see him dance, AND they wanted to see a re-creation of our wedding which had my husband and all his dancing siblings, in-laws and mother dancing with him. Of course that wasn't possible but two sisters and a sister-in-law were up for the challenge and they put on a show for my family. My family had had t-shirts made - The Flock Flies East 2023 (my family name is Bird). Each t-shirt was personalized with their year of birth and title (i.e. cousin, aunt, original (my sister)) on sleeve patches. They didn't get one for me and my daughter because they didn't know we would be there. This is simply to explain all the matching t-shirts in the photo above. I have asked for a t-shirt, not sure whether it will happen or not. So, the above picture is of my family and my husband's family. Technically, that's about half my family. And those are only my husband siblings (5 of the 6) and their spouses (2 missing). Some of their children dropped in later. My little Great-Nephew is a pro with the drone. It was a fun week (though I hate those dang mosquitoes!!!!), but I am glad to be home.