Cold

Sadie and I took Helen and Paul for a little tour of the town, including up on the mountain to see the view - I then realized that the top of the mountain is considerably colder than down in the valley.  We managed to get to 12-foot Davis's grave but could only stay there for a couple of minutes before we had to run back to the van.  I think it must have been minus forty up there.

Christmas is Here

Sadie and I picked up Nana at the airport in Peace River.  Sadie was so happy to see her - she shouted and shouted once she saw her.  It was adorable to everyone around us.

Erin and her class at the Christmas Concert at school.  Sorry, they're blurry.  The video's much better and has Amy singing too.  Erin's the short one in the middle of the back row.

Santa made it to skating class.  Man, that guy is EVERYWHERE!

The girls and I repainted the main bathroom.  This is them drawing the critters on the wall, followed by some of the finished product.  They drew and I painted.  It's basically a winterscape (you can see the mountains in one of the shots) with any animals they wanted to include.  There's a five-legged deer, an eight-legged lion, flying unicorn, alien aeomeba, penguins, and such.  

Sadie and I sometimes stop for a hot beverage on our dates.  This was in the coffee shop in the IGA.  It's a much nicer environment to sit and chat with a two year old than Tim Hortons.

She gets the toy helicopter, then goes and gets the lizard puppet and starts reinacting your favourite monster movie scenes!  She's definitely mine.  I'm so proud!

Skating

The girls had their first skating lesson today - it was... interesting.

Here's a quick rundown of the highpoints:

• lots of kids - around thirty or so
• Amy and Erin were really happy when they got there.  They enjoyed getting their stuff on and saying hi to kids from their classes who take skating too.
• Sadie had a good time hanging out with me in the bleachers
• Amy was a natural - Her roller blading in Ghana definitely helped her with the whole balance thing, so she only needed to hold hands with the assistant coaches for the first few minutes, and then she was off and running.
• Erin wasn't so apt, but definitely showed improvement in a short time.  
• After the first twenty minutes or so, Amy returned to Sadie and I, crying, in the arms of the head coach.  Someone had skated over her hand after she fell.  It was shock and pain, but overall not too bad.  I asked her later this evening how her hand felt and she said fine.  I gave her a couple of band aids and she went right back out to finish her lessons.
• Erin came skating up to me a bit later, with that angry look on her face that meant she was fed up.  She said her feet were cold and she wanted to stop.  The coach said that she did fine, seeing as it was her first day, and that there were only fifteen minutes left.  
• All in all, it was a good experience, and the kids are willing to go back.  
• Here are some photos:

Erin being escorted by the assistant coaches

Amy with her arms out

They were very happy at the beginning - They were happy to see kids they knew here too.

Daily Visitors

I know I always talk about deer on the lawn, so finally here's a photo.  These are two smaller ones. There's a group who come around, conisisting of about six does and one impressive buck.   Apparently there are plenty of whitetail here, but all I've seen (like here) are mule deer.  

Christmas Time has Begun

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here... Sherrie and I put up our lights on the house this weekend, the girls decorated the tree, and we went to the Santa Claus Parade!

All in all it was a lovely weekend.  Here are some photos:

Erin really enjoyed decorating the tree this year, as did Amy.  I'm so glad, because in previous years they weren't as into it as I was hoping they'd be.  I guess they were too young.  It was very beautiful watching them decorate it this time.    That's the same old little tree that we've always had, in Hong Kong and Ghana.  Sherrie and her roommate bought it in '94 I think.  I kind of want a big real one, but there's a definite attachment to this one for us.  

Most of my shots from the parade are blurry, but these two give you a good idea of what it was like:  bright, cheery, and COLD!

As far as parades go, this one was kind of small, but it was packed with cool stuff to watch like horses and fire trucks, costumed characters and ATVs.  The kids had a blast.  Many of the parade participants were handing out candies too, and our girls scored many.

This is a view of our neighbourhood, called Lower West, from across the river.  That's the ski hill behind it.  We're on the opposite side of the River than the downtown area.

And this is just a spectacular view looking in the other direction, that I had to photograph.  I'm buying a kayak when I get some cash so I can go exploring.  

Here are a few extra photos, just because I feel like it:

Sadie at Nana's House this Summer, when we first got back from Ghana.  I bought that hat on top of a mountain in Ghana from a village man for two dollars.  Love that hat.

Amy at the hospital this summer.  We ended up spending three nights there, about two weeks before moving to Alberta.   

At the cottage in the rain.

What a Day!

Amy and Erin had their swimming assessments on Thursday after school.  They loved this for two reasons:  They got to go swimming again, and we had McDonalds for dinner because we were in such a hurry to get to swimming and then to the school's reading evening.  (note to all health conscious friends and family:  SHUT UP!  Happy meals have apple slices now...SHEESH)

The girls both did splendidly and the young lifeguard who conducted the assessment (a South-African girl who was tickled by the Ghana factor) was thoroughly impressed by their ability and enthusiasm.

Please read on, all is not as rosy as it would seem:

So they do their assessments, well, and the young lady says no problem:  Amy will be level three and Erin will be a whale.  I'm told that's a good thing.  The girls get dressed and we go out to the main office to sign up for lessons and such.  When the lady finds out that Erin's a whale, she says sorry - they have no whale classes on and that if I really wanted Erin to take lessons, I'd have to find at least three more kids of equal age and skill to join her.  I tried all kinds of angles, like private lessons, putting her in with an older class, a younger class, etc.  All were 'no go' except for the private instructor, but that would be 26 bucks per hour.  Because they're Red Cross they can't make exceptions.  Needless to say, Erin was slightly devistated.  Tears welled up.  If you knew the background a bit you'd understand:  We found out that gymnastics were full in our first week in the new house.  Then we found out that dance was full a couple of weeks ago - that was the one Erin really wanted.  It seems that all of these things were signed up for just before we got to Peace River.   I had told her that since we were doing the assessment, she'd be going swimming for sure.  Dumb ass.  

Well, all is not lost.  Skating and snowboarding are taking her for sure - they seem to just want our money.  (of course, they're the most expensive classes too).  I only hope and pray that Erin really really likes skating and snowboarding.  

I think I made this sound terrible and devistating.  Please don't feel too bad - Erin is really fine with it now, and knows that I'll do all I can to get her into a class of four or more swimmers and knows that she might have to wait until spring.  She's really ok with it all.  The tears were just about ten or twenty seconds.  She didn't really cry.  She remains a happy girl who's got a full schedule of play with lots of friends and is fast becoming royalty in this town.  

You want to know who the real loser was in all of this?:

She was so ticked off that she couldn't go swimming.  She cried a heck of a lot more.

Here's a nicer story...

So the girls and I are at Reading night at school.  We go around the rooms, being read to and doing crafts.  Nice.  The last activity is one where we trace out two polar bears, a baby and a mom, and then we use chalk and crayons to recreate the scene of the two of them under the northern lights as in last book that was read to us.  

The lady directing the activity points out two pictures as examples, one by the front door of the school and one over by the office.  I suppose the school has two star artists.

So we do our activity.  Sadie and I get right into it, creating a huge explosion of light and colour in the flavour of Gerhard Richter or Turner.  Amy as usual is quiet, diligently working the chalk into the drawing to get her polar bears just right.  Erin, as usual, isn't too interested and is finished way before the rest of us and is chatting with some kid.  

After about ten minutes, the activity is coming to a close and I'm just waiting for Sadie to finish up.  Amy's got hers done and Erin's walking around.  All of the sudden Erin comes up to me and says "did you see mine?"  and I say "yeah, right there"  pointing to her unfinished piece.  She says "no that one" and points to the front door!  Our little Erin had created the perfect rendition of the book and it was on display at the front door of the school!  Here are a couple of photos.

(I know this is the typical proud parent story and have tried hard not to use any hyperbole or unnecessary praise.  But hey - this is for the grandparents, after all...)

That's all for today.  Talk to you later! 

The competition

I finally got some photos of my wife's new companion.

Yup, it's a chevy.  Unit 623 to be precise.  She came back from a four day trip in it yesterday and has just this afternoon gone away for three days again with it.  Cool logo on the door, huh?  That's on her business card too.  I wonder what she sees in him...

The girls had haircuts today.  I'll let the photos speak for how the haricuts were recieved....

Typical Erin, huh?  On a happier note, here's a regularly-occuring scene in Peace River.  After the girls have gone on the bus, Sadie and I take Sherrie to work.  She and Sadie always blow kisses to one another when we get there.  Here's a photo that sums it up pretty well:

So much going on!

Ok, so on Thursday evening we went to the Festival of Trees.  That's where many local residents and companies (mostly companies) donate a pre-decorated tree, wreath, or the like, to be auctioned off to others.  It's really quite a specatcle, with many beautiful holiday things to see.  The kids all get to decorate gingerbread cookies to take home and they also get to meet Santa Claus.  The girls all had a few shots taken with Santa but I'm not sure how we'll get them back - it cost five bucks but they never took even my number....  I should have taken some on MY camera.  Oh well, 

I'll sort that out later.  For now, have a look: