Roxford Cottage

Once again, I neglected to take very many pictures, and the ones I did take failed to give an overall feel of this leg of our journey - which is why I borrowed the picture above from someplace online. But fewer pictures just means this post will probably be shorter than the ones preceding it. And that's not necessarily a bad thing when I'm supposed to be getting ready to host Dolly's birthday party in a little over a day from now.

We left Travel Town when they closed at 4pm. As I posted earlier, all three kids fell fast asleep while we followed Mr. & Mrs. Habib back to their home at Roxford Cottage. Once we'd set up the playpen, we carried our little people upstairs for their much needed rest.

Then after Sir and I had unloaded the booster seats and the overnight bag from our van, Mrs. Habib and I went out to get a few groceries for supper. When we got back, the kids were just waking up and the Habibs started making the evening meal. Dolly and PC found two Duplo playsets and spent a good deal of time with them. Of course I didn't get any pictures of that, but I did remember the camera when Mr. Habib invited Dolly to help make the supper's main course.

First, roll out the pizza dough.


Plop on some sauce - be generous!


Add cheese...


And meat.


Then fold the dough over and use a fork to squish the top edges into the bottom edges thus sealing the pocket!

When Dolly got tired, Mr. Habib took over and then popped the pockets into the oven. While the Cal-zones baked, and Mrs. Habib prepared a salad and corn on the cob, we set the table. And Mr. Habib quietly and unbeknownst to the rest of us, set a camera up to record the whole meal. It's hilarious, so click the image below to see for yourself!

After dinner and the supper clean up, Mr. Habib obliged and enraptured my little people by reading book after book after book to them while I dragged them away individually to get their pajamas on before they could return to the books. It was so much fun listening to the discusions that the story and pictures sparked. And watching how comfortable all three of them were with the Habibs after meeting them for the first time only about 7 hours before.

Intently engrossed.


Emma listening in for a minute or two.


Dolly and her discussions.

Finally they either ran out of books to read, or it was getting too close to bedtime, but Mr. Habib headed upstairs to inflate the air mattress for our kids. Of course the kids followed behind, and it wasn't long before I heard loud thumping noises and childish glee bubbling from upstairs. When I went to investigate I found ALL three of my children jumping to their hearts' content on the newly inflated mattress. And then I realized that they were being assisted by Mr. Habib himself! No wonder they'll always want to go back - I mean, how many places do you find grown ups who help you jump on the bed?! To say the least, they had a blast and I got some good pictures before I had to ruin the fun and send them all to bed.

Just landing.


Assistance.


Zero Gravity.


A happy baby.


Kid-pile!

And then I put the camera away and didn't get it out until our next stop, but Tuesday morning (December 29th), we had breakfast with Mr. & Mrs. Habib before packing up and heading on our way.

The kids did not want to go back in the car for more driving and begged that we go back to Roxford Cottage - and we did go back, but it was a few days later on our way back to Canada. Here's the Roxford Cottage epilogue adventure continued two days after our visit...

We chose to drop off a thank-you gift that we had been unable to leave during our stay with the Habibs. So, we thought to leave a note taped to their front window indicating the package on the doorstep. We couldn't find a parking place in the visitor parking area, so Sir left the van running and I hopped over to the driver's seat while he went to leave our 'mysterious' package and note. The kids and I watched him go and were rather amused to see him suddenly duck down and go dodging out of sight in an almost tip-toe like manner. Then we were even more surprised to see none other but Mr. Habib strolling in our direction!

We thought Sir had surely been seen and our cover blown, so we smiled and waved at Mr. Habib, hoping to appear normal as he walked in front of our running vehicle, and down toward the visitor parking area, passing less than five yards from where we were. He appeard not to even see us and a few seconds after he was out of sight, Sir came bursting back into the van saying, "Go! Go! Go! I don't think they saw us!" I did just that too, and a few blocks later, we stopped to swap spots and to let our adrenaline subside a bit while we shared our stories of near-discovery!

Don't ever grow up - it's fun!