Hi everybody! Happy New Year! Here are some recent photos:
This is our neighbourhood
That's Amy in the middle - as well as being the shortest reindeer, she's also the choreographer for her group's part in the Christmas pageant. Notice how all of the other hula-deer are watching her? I was so proud.
Here's Erin in her class performance at their Christmas Concert. Unfortunately my computer's not allowing me to upload the videos of the performances. Erin had the best moves on stage!
And here's Sadie in her performance. Again, the photo just doesn't capture what the video does. Apologies.
For New Year's Eve some friends of ours organized a tobogganing/skating party followed by a barbecue and hot chocolate in the evening. It was a lovely time. We watched the New York broadcasts for the countdown, as it was two hours earlier than where we were, and then we managed to get the kids home a bit earlier. This is the only shot from that evening that I have.
Erin and Sadie are seen here helping me with Christmas dinner. We get together with a few families who also don't travel at Christmas for dinner every year, and this year was our turn to host. Needless to say, it was quite an undertaking: huge bird, lots of veggies, tons of prep. It was a lovely time though, and I regret not taking more photos. There are a few below.
This was taken on a hike we did with our friend, Cypress. This gate is on her parents' property. They have a gorgeous view of the entire Peace River Valley.
Here's that view I was talking about
Amy at the Christmas party. I'm not sure why the sour expression; I probably made some teasing remark to make her smile. Nice dress, huh?
Again at the party. That's our friend Steve (not me) dancing with Sadie
Sadie's first snowman earlier this year. You can tell by the size that there was not a lot of snow. There still isn't - it's the mildest winter we've ever experienced while here.
We went camping via jetboat up the river in August - it was a marvelous time.
Those are thousands of tiny dead flies on my tent. They're not black flies, and we couldn't even notice them in the air; they just showed up on the tents.
Another shot of the campsite. We had a great evening, and then it rained all night. The big tent in the middle was solely used by all of the kids (I think there were three other children plus two of ours - Erin was at a sleepover). The fly on the kids' tent came off in the wind that night, and we woke up to them all shivering and wet! They never thought to tell us! So we got them all warm and rushed them home - I stayed behind with two other friends and packed up the site. When the boat got back a couple of hours later, we had been having a lovely morning. Then North (our friend who has the boat) told us he was basically out of fuel so we'd have to drift home and only engage the engine when navigating around obstacles. Thank god the river flowed towards town! In the end we had a very enjoyable six-hour float through the wilds of Alberta.
Sherrie took this one, so I don't actually know where it is. I'm assuming it's on Wolfe Lake this past summer. That's Amy reading.
This is Z on our cross - Canada trip this past summer. Those are miniature grain elevators. They're really close to him. I thought it made him look like a giant.
Forgive me for having so many of Amy; It's what I could find in the computer from the most recent photos. This is on that same hike mentioned earlier. She's using the camera in her new ipod.
Erin with a mango that reminded us of Ghana. (for those of you who don't know, its colours mimic the Ghanaian flag so we added the star)
Our beautiful children... and Z.
The girls with their friend, Polina. she lives across the street. Beautiful Autumn colours.
Some more Steve Art.
That's all for now. Take care.
