[FAMILY] Ontario

My home away from home - Ontario. It's been five long years since my last visit; needless to say, I was very overdue. There were new family members to meet, babies and puppies to cuddle and most importantly, a very special girl needed to make her debut. No one had ever met my Chloe and it was breaking my heart. No more excuses, tickets were purchased, bags were packed and off we went for a whirlwind week of re-connecting with our loved ones. It was wonderful. If only we were all closer.

NEWCASTLE was our home base. My Aunt and Uncle have made this town their home for many years now, and for eight years, it was home to my family while my father was working in Toronto. Like many of these little farming towns, it's growing by leaps and bounds, but even with the new subdivisions poking up, it has managed to keep it's quaint, small town appeal.

SAINT JACOBS is one of my favourite places to explore when visiting my family in Kitchener. It's a mennonite community with an amazing Farmers Market, a beautiful city centre filled with high end clothing stores, antique shops, and so many artisans. We spent a lot of time exploring the historic Flour Mill, which is filled with galleries, artisans, a maple syrup museum, toy train exhibit and the original Home Hardware museum.

We were lucky enough to catch the amazing fibre arts and quilt exhibition. I wish we had had more time to look closely at these exquisite pieces, but we arrived at the tail end of the day.

The toy train and maple syrup exhibit was so much fun. I loved the handmade baskets and tool displays. The model railway was unbelievable; everywhere you looked, there was so much detail and activity happening. It was very fun to photograph!

We took a small break from visiting family, to do a bit of exploring on the backroads of Bowmanville. During our drive, we had rain, sun, thunder, more rain...and I thought the coast was bad for keeping you on your toes! We had a couple fun pitstops along the way.

TYRONE MILLS is a working mill that is over 160 years old! It's one of Canada's oldest operating water generated mills. Flour milling season runs from mid-September to the beginning of July. The majority of the flour produced is whole wheat, but during the summer, they will do custom jobs producing speciality flours like buckwheat.

ARCHIBALD ORCHARDS produces the yummiest sparkling fruit wines I think I've ever tasted. I spent a lot of time sampling...hiccup!

Like all my visits back east, it went by way too fast. I miss my family terribly, and wish it wasn't such a distance and expense. See you again soon everyone!! xoxoxo