A Few things about folks around here.

I'm not sure if these are Alberta things or just Peace River things.  Maybe it's applicable to the entirety of this half of the country - I don't know - but I feel compelled to share a few findings with you all about the people here:

• No one says "eh" at the end of a sentence.  MANY people, however, say "hey" at the end of a sentence, in the same fashion that we all expect "eh" to be used.
• Hot dogs aren't hot dogs.  They're smokies.
• Many many people keep their cars running for long periods of time.  This could be attributed to the cold on some days, but now that I've been here for a while I'm seeing cars left running at the grocery store and such in just minus five degree weather.  There should really be a program put in place by the government here to educate people about just how bad that is.  I made the mistake of telling someone they left their car running once, thinking they did it by accident.  I was stared at like I had two heads.  Weird.
• Anyone who comes over for coffee says 'cream'.  I'm wondering if I'm insulting them when I pull out our 1% milk...
• Ok this one is great and is specific to Alberta....CKUA.  Yes, it'a a radio station.  you simply have to check out this station - my god what a perfect thing.  It's one of the major contributors to my love of this place.  Completely ecclectic, you never know what they're going to play, and the djs program their own stuff!  They go down to the vaults and pull up whatever they want before they go on, kind of like WKRP.  Amazing.  The djs' taste is excellent too - Michael Frente, Etta James, The Band, Tom Waits, lots of Canadian and local talent, lots of folk and blues, you name it.  There are many excellent regular programs too, like Baba's groove, Roy's Record Room (I'm listening to now - a two hour special on Buddy Holly!) Mulligan Stew (remember Terry David Mulligan from City TV and Much Music?  He's been hosting this two hour show for many years now) and so many more.  I HIGHLY recommend you check out this station if you can.  Apparently they're online as well.  I am sure I'll never find a better radio station anywhere.  

And now for some photos:

We had a great weekend.  We went to a fun fair at a local school, a birthday party, a hockey game and swimming.  Threw in a couple of late movie nights with the projector in the basement for the kids too (our projector is now permanently on the ceiling in the basement and shoots an approximately eight foot image on the wall down there.  Great for having friends over).  These two images are from the hockey game on Sunday, which we were able to walk to from the swimming pool.  Apparently we have a good team, but they lost the two games we've seen.

Amy decided to get her ears pierced this week too.  She was very brave.  You can see the desire to cry in her little eyes in this shot though.  It's after the first ear was done and she's about to have the second one done.  She's now very happy and so proud of herself.  They look great too!

These next shots are from the family fun fair at a local school.  Amy and Sadie and I went to it, while Sherrie and Erin were at a birthday party.  

Oh and I threw this one in really just to bug Sherrie - a few of the parents from the toy library came over with their little ones today to play Scrabble and have lunch.  There were six kids here (including Sadie) and it was a madhouse.  It was really fun though.  I know I should have been cleaning or something, but this was great!

That's all for now... I have to go tidy.  

February

The weather was nice enough this weekend for us all to go to our local rink - it's a block away on our street, and has no one on it!  There was one problem with me going skating with everyone - I had to skate.  My mom graciously sent me my dad's old skates and they sort of fit - if I wear enough socks.  I had no idea that my 'new' skates would get such stares in Canadian Tire when I got them sharpened - the girl at the counter even laughed at them!  Well, after about fifteen minutes the laces broke so I just settled for taking pictures.  

Special thanks go to Billy Joe, a colleague of Sherrie's, for the lovely moose that we had in a nice stew.  Mmmmm Moose!

My Obelisk didn't stand that long, as the weather warmed up and it would take an expert iglooist to make something that can last way up here in the northland.  But I haven't given up - Here's a wall I made with more pieces from the driveway (that's the remnants of the obelisk in the background.  It actually looks really cool - like moss-covered ruins in the Irish countryside...)

Photo updates

I'm sure lots is going on, but I thought I'd just sum it up with some new photos.  Enjoy!

Amy making a snowman.  This was taken at Sherrie's colleague's house on Sunday - we had a weenie roast in their backyard.  Seems that most people have fire pits in their backyards and have weenie roasts as social events, kind of like the winter version of a social barbecue that we have in the summer. 

The finished product.  See the mohawk on him?  cool.  (editor's note:  I have no idea why this looks like a hyperlink.  can't seem to make it normal text)

Sherrie shoveling the shnow.  tee hee.  

A beautiful scene at our friend's house.  The girls were playing in the snow just to the right.  I think Amy's in the treehouse too.

There they are!  

Erin in the snow

Do you know about Sadie and sunglasses?  She's got two pairs and most mornings won't go to breakfast without them on.  She finds the lights in the house too harsh when she first gets up, and must have her shades on at breakfast! 

Ok ok no problem figuring who made this snowman.  What can I say?  He's already melting in this photo, his right hand was holding a snow skull originally....

Some more Steve art:  you know that hard snow you have to chip off the driveway?  I thought I'd make something out of it one afternoon.  This is known at our house as 'the obelisk'.  I'm quite proud of it, actually.   It stands about four feet high. 

Erin's photography

Erin got a digital camera for Christmas.  Here are some of her shots:

Deer on the sidewalk

Sherrie at the table

Amy

Paul, Christmas morning

This one's got a funny story to it.  I give her photography assignments, for which I pay her.  The deer is one of those, it earned her a loonie.  The next assignment was to photograph a sunset.  As we live in a valley, they're not visible to us here so I told her she'd have to bring her camera with her whenver we drove somewhere and hope that she would get one.  Instead, she went through her books and found a sunset picture and photographed it.  Smart.  I think Sherrie put her up to it.  It got her another loonie anyway.

HNY

We've had a great holiday and have probably spent a third of it cleaning up the flotsam and jetsam from the excessive partying.  Here are some highlights:

• Too cold to really do much outside with the kids (without as well, come to think of it) so lots of time was spent visiting with folks, playing games, and generally doing low-key indoor stuff
• Paul (Sherrie's brother)got to the ski hill only twice.  Once it was open (because the temperature had risen above minus twenty) and once because they let him walk up it to give 'er.
• The girls got tons of presents, from Santa, us, and family back home in Ontariario.  Thanks everybody!  Sherrie tells me we were making up for the rather lame present scores they had over the past few years, but I actually think it was much better to see them so happy with not as much stuff.  
• I got an XBOX 360!  WOO HOOO!
• The required turkey dinner was a success, but I was more impressed with my creativity in the days that followed:  Turkey Tacos, Turkey Tortellini, Turkey wraps, Turkey soup....
• My mom and Paul seemed to have had a great time - Mom would probably say her highlight was seeing the girls and us, and Paul would say it was playing Risk at Shane's place.
• The holiday was truly magical for the girls - they had so many great times that I can't possibly count them.  They just loved having Paul and Nana over, loved seeing their friends outside of school, and loved all of the excessive goody eating and present unwrapping.

I must apologize, as I wasn't nearly as diligent as I should have been with my camera over the past couple of weeks.  Same reasons I wasn't posting on the blog, too, I suppose - just having a blast with the fam.  Regardless, here are some photos that I did manage to take:

Here we have some kids from the neighbourhood playing in the basement with some of ours.  There was a lot of that going on this holiday - the place was often a shambles with all of the toys scattered everywhere.  

Paul at the ski hill, Misery Mountain.  Ask him how appropriate THAT name is....

My mom and Paul on one of my attempts to get them outside - a photo taking excursion.  We got a couple of nice shots, but not that many.  That's the river in front of them.  The ice was moving very fast.  

She often shouts "SUPER SADIE TO THE RESCUE!!!"  and It's really cute.  There's Amy knitting too - something she learned from Nana this holiday.  She's made Howard a scarf already!

Ah yes, Paul's highlight, playing Risk at Shane's place.  That's Shane there on the right.  

Present opening.  It was around 8:30 am, but that's how dark it is up here at 8:30 am.  The plastic boxes are for the girls to keep their hauls tidy - great idea Sherrie - it really worked!

I never knew my mom was so apt at playdough creating!  Here are some of her animals that she made while doing play dough with the girls:  a snake, a bird of some sort, and I think a mouse.

Well, with the holidays coming to a close, I hopefully can get back to doing this regularly.  Thanks and keep watching!

Steve

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!