..I bought tickets for the whole family to play our local Big Money TV Bingo...but Cadence was so exhausted he passed out on the couch at 5pm and missed it! Good reason though...we were at a party last night, and he had a great sleepover. And was pooped.

Plus, we've been up to a lot of other great exhausting stuff...

Back in July, Drew had his big performance at the River and Sky music festival. Cadence and I got to enjoy popsicles on the lawn as the test audience on Sunday afternoon before the festival as the band tried out their song outdoors. It was awesome. And if you haven't seen them yet, check out the performance clips here.

We didn't do very much camping this year, but got a few weekends in. During the August long weekend, Drew taught Cadence how to chop wood.

This summer, Cadence's friends taught him to ride his bike. Now it's like he's always been able to do it. He loves doing burn-outs.

There's a bike trick place downtown; one day I cycled down with Cadence and Isaac and introduced them to the fun of making bike movies.

Some of this fall's apple harvest. One of my favourite days of the year.

There was no hesitation in deciding to join hockey again this year, and Cadence loves it. I think this year what's neat is that he's not the youngest, or the newest, anymore, and that feels really good to him. Last year in hockey, then this summer in soccer, that was the case, and he seems really proud to fit in and know what's what. I'm enjoying being back to it as well; who would have thought?

 The Ontario government has decided to cancel and sell our public railroad. September 28 was the last run for the Northlander, which has run for 100 years and on which I've certainly had my share of rides. We walked down to the tracks to show our support for the train as it passed (and how upset we were about it). The conductor yelled out the window to us as he passed, "we'll be back!" I hope so.

Thanksgiving weekend here was a blast. We had 19 humans and 3 dogs in the house, and everything went off smoothly (mostly everything). But before everyone arrived, we made sure to enjoy the sunshine and the leaves.

The family portrait, taken by our neighbours who also joined us for the feast.

Yay Summer!

We're having a great summer so far--busy, but great. I'm working three days a week, Cadence is experiencing summer as part of a gang of kids, and Drew's super busy doing what he loves best.

A number of weeks ago we went with Gramma to the drag races in KL. We all enjoyed it way more than we thought we would. Cadence got right into posing with the cool cars in the pits. I was impressed...it was like Hot Wheels come to life!

This one was just in the parking lot, but he felt it deserved a posed pic as well.

We went to Morpeth for our annual Canada Day trip, and of course Aunt Tracey, Uncle Brian, Hallie and Emillie threw him an early birthday party.

We went to mini putt, played in the water and sand, went to watch fireworks, and again Cadence found a gang of kids to hang out with.

Oh--and we didn't play as much scrabble as usual, and rerouted our competitiveness to a mac and cheese cook-off. (it turns out we make our mac n cheese almost identically). It was a tie :)

Lastly, I took this pic this morning--our solar panels are up! Yay! Hopefully we'll be grid-connected and inspected early next week. This was all Drew's doing, and involved much perseverence. Yay Drew!!

Winter flew by--in part because it was really short again this year. We played outside as always, but also had the fun of our first year as a hockey family.

This year's luge track off the front deck. The best one yet!

This year for Valentine's Day, we all worked together to make melted crayon heart valentines for Cadence's classmates. They turned out fabulous and I felt very proud because a) I'm not at all crafty, and b) we all worked together really well. Yay!


Hockey fun day in Englehart. First full-ice games and it was really quite fun.

Clearing the deck/hockey rink for some practice time.


Last week we were lucky to join the Canadian Invasion to Orange County/LA. Cadence had the time of his life playing with his cousins, and we all got to connect with family and with Sunny SoCal. It was an unbelievable week of get-togethers and sight-seeing, and our hosts went above and beyond expectations to make our trip memorable. One of our first stops, of course, was the Hollywood sign. I discovered that I might have a wee fear of heights.

At Grauman's Chinese Theatre--fitting our feet in with the Star Wars stars

Hey, who's that in the background?

After a very sensory-stimulating afternoon at Universal Studios (seriously, our museum selves were completely blown away by the quality of attractions here).

We spent one full afternoon at the beach, where a few of us surfed (sort of), and the three boys dug in the sand.

Of course, we visited with Mickey.

and who could leave Disney without visiting these two leading men?

While waiting for the fireworks that ended up being cancelled due to high winds (that we couldn't even feel), Cadence and Drew had fun making light sabre photo art (with the light sabre Cadence proudly bought with his own money).

Drew and Cadence took some time out to visit the Star Wars exhibit down the road. It held all the original movie props, and they both loved it. In fact, the photographed every single item, so if you have any specific interests (the light sabre display? yoda? other various flight machines I don't know the names of?) let me know and I'll send you the pics.

There he is again!

Fall & winter

Geocaching in the fall. We found our first prize in the cemetery. Then we headed to cobalt for an awesome exploration around old mine shafts etc. We haven't been out since, but I hope we will sometime soon! I'd love to try it on snowshoes. Geocaching I mean.



I'm not sure who designed this costume, but little Cadence turned into a rather abdominally muscular dark version of batman this past halloween. He was therefore the opposite of the bright colours recommended for safe trick or treating...so I made sure to stay close in my gigantic cow costume.


A first iteration of house-as-pumpkin. I expect it might grow more elaborate over the years.


This year it was a healthy snack--carrots for the reindeer, I think...I can't remember what Santa got.


Christmas was really nice this year, although we really did miss being with family. After a spontaneous brunch with the neighbours, we went out to a friend's on the lake for some curling, hockey, and skating on the lake then a quiet dinner. It was all really wonderful to be outside on such a special day.



After New Year's, we travelled to TO for a visit. Drew & Cadence went with Auntie Mer to a vegetarian restaurant, where they had fun making special effect pics. I decided not to post them...out of respect for the subjects.


Our family.