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.

Backlog!!

A few posts on their way...this is from a while ago.

We had a great Gauley visit in Toronto last fall. Cadence got to see Casa Loma,



the new TTC streetcar,


and eat dinner at Wayne Gretzky's! (we're sort of related, you know....)

Apparently it's been a while...(sorry 'bout that)

We just pulled out the camera and half the pictures are taken when there was snow...so I'll start with them first!

Total spring shot: no mittens (still in a cast, I see), but cool enough to kind of want them, hopeful we can see the sandbox but still not able to actually get at anything inside, and me in the background, sweater off, soaking up the warm sun.


Somewhat exposed, but not even a tonka can get out of the solid ice.

Drew experimenting with snow, gravity, and sunshine.


And when the snow finally melted (which felt early this year, actually), we added two additional plots to our garden. Very proud (they're now thriving for the most part) (something stole all the pea plants, but we're thriving otherwise).


...and fast forward to a summer trip to Toronto! This was when I went to Toronto for work, then Drew & Cadence joined me, then I went to Montreal. In between we had lots of adventures, including several visits to an outdoor splash park near Auntie Lee and Uncle Steve. My favourite parts of Toronto are all the things available to the people who actually live there (i.e. not really the tourism things, but these great neighbourhood things!)


Cadence turned 5 this July, and so he and Drew were up & outside that morning at 8am working on the backyard mini-putt course. It was great. In addition to the friends he invited from school, all the kids from up the hill came down, and the neighbours were over, plus some older siblings and parents...the more the merrier, as long as they're content with a bit of chaos! Anyways, there were 6 holes, I think, and it was great. Funny in the end, there was a 9-way tie for first place!



In mid-July, we travelled to Huntsville (sort of) for the River and Sky music festival, and Meredith came up to meet us! Swam in lake and river, rented a peddle boat, saw great music, ate great food, and of course build block castles (oh--and I don't have any pictures, but we even played parachute games!)
Hangin' at the campsite


Hanging out in the shade (those Gauleys sure do feel the heat) :)

Photo courtesy of Cadence. That's my castle in the foreground, and his behind.


...and then of course was our vacation!
We had a great time, and explored a tonne of new places while staying relatively close in northern Ontario. First was Ivanhoe Provincial Park near Timmins, where we camped just a few metres from the beach, listened to loons every night, swam, canoed, and biked around. Oh, and had shadow puppet shows! Drew and Cadence worked hard (while I enjoyed a novel about wild cats) to make shadow puppets using boxes and our marshmallow/weiner sticks, and put on some hilarious shows. They ended up refining it to a dinosaur version of the three little pigs, where everyone had Italian accents.

Also at Ivanhoe...there were a bunch of little snails around, so Cadence and I paid homage to them "en sable"

Wow, I had forgotten about this already--Ivanhoe also had a short bog hike. Didn't see any carnivorous plants, but it was still nice. This year Cadence is such a different person--we hiked at a regular adult pace, which was great.


Next we drove along the eastern shore of Lake Superior (which is beautiful, and we hope to return soon to drive along the north shore) down to the soo. We arrived at a family-oriented RV park right on Superior, full of family-friendly programming including wagon rides, daily soccer games, and crafts. Plus, we were lucky to arrive in time for the annual Halloween in July event, complete with watermelon carving, a haunted house (SCARY for poor C.) a costume parade and then full-on trick-or-treating around the entire campground. I've never seen anything like it, and to be honest it was kind of more fun that regular hallowe'en, because everyone was out socializing. But really??? we just got rid of the Halloween-Christmas-Valentine's Day-Easter candy horde! Sigh.

We went to Value Village for some pirate garb. Drew did the sharpie tattoos (after I checked online to make sure it was safe)


We had two big dinners out--the first one was at Gino's pizzeria in the soo, where the panzerotti were the size of..seriously, a football. We ordered a delicious pizza and even had some leftover but unfortunately they suffered a waterlogging fate in the cooler. (really not easy living out of a cooler for 2 weeks). Next time, it's dehydrated food all the way.


Apparently there are no pictures from the last leg of our trip--we left the RV park 4 days early to add another spot to the trip, which was a provincial park near Espanola. On a river, with lots of logging history, a current to ride in the dinghy, sand castles, gorgeous waterfalls, long hikes, great weather, and even a day trip to an old fort in the local reserve and a spontaneous swim in the north channel of Huron when we happened to just drive out onto a beach. Everywhere we swam, I swear it was like a warm bath.

Although we were sad to see the end of our vacation, we're excited about many more adventures to be had before summer's over. Next weekend = Santa's Village!

Yay spring! (sort of...)

Well, we're officially a few weeks into spring, but I think yesterday and today are the first days when it's starting to actually feel like it. Today, for example, we got to actually wear rubber boots in the morning rather than winter boots, and today was the first day that Cadence wore splash pants instead of a full snowsuit to school. There's still enough snow to ski or snowshoe, but the roads are clear, and kids are out on their bikes. So it's beginning.

Last month, Drew and Cadence went to Toronto for a boys' weekend. They went to the ROM, where Drew introduced Cadence to folks and collections behind-the-scenes, and then met up with friends to explore the rest of the museum together.

Donor wall, which was one of Drew's last project at the ROM before moving to the Great White North


The new & improved dino dig


They stayed with Auntie Mere on their trip, and went out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner on their last night, where apparently they were feeling just a little bit goofy :)


Back at home, we went skating, and poor C. broke his elbow on the ice when skating.

Just home from the hospital...poor kid...

...but by the time jammies were on, he was a pretty happy guy again. I can't believe how resilient kids are!


Luckily, the day after Cadence's fall was a PD day, so Drew was home with him all morning. When I got home for the afternoon, they were working away in the kitchen. Here Cadence was teaching Drew how to paint a snowblower.

This winter, Drew decided to try and build an actual igloo. Saws, bricks, etc. He was very dedicated.

He found the bricks a bit too flaky, though, so enlisted Cadence (with broken arm) to help pack down a quarry field. It was great--got Cadence outside, and was great exercise for Drew.


Auntie Mere came up for a visit, a few days before Cadence's Wacky Hair Day at school, so we got some wigs out to experiment with.

We had a bunch of neighbourhood kids over to play outside & work on the igloo one day, and our neighbour came over with boiled maple syrup. Yes, really, it's maple syrup. We all ate it.

Meredith was here for what is now known as Pizza Fridays. I've become a little overzealous about Pizza Fridays.


Then, Cadence & I travelled to Aunt Tracey's for March Break. I took way too few pictures.
The kids played every single day on the beach. Cadence had the time of his life playing with his cousins all week.

and we all went one day to the Rondeau Park visitor centre.



The day after our March Break was over, we celebrated Grampa's birthday with a first-day-of-spring-bbq. Except the propane ran out, but the intent was there.


Wacky Hair Day!!

Yay winter!

Thought I'd use some of my quiet time this weekend to share some recent pics :) Looking forward to seeing the boys again in a couple of days!

Drew noticed a while ago that the bark on one of our pine trees was being increasingly stripped, and tracked down a porcupine living under the shed. He borrowed a live trap, and Cadence helped him set the bait of salted wood.

It worked!! Drew took a good look to make sure there weren't any babies in the shed too, then took our picky friend about 20 mins away to a place full of jack pines.

This is Cadence's second year x-country skiing, and this year we actually bough a pair of second-hand skis (with real boots) from a friend, rather than using the strap-on kind. Cadence was SO excited, that the next day, even thought it was -22, we went out on the river & lake for about an hour. It was my favourite kind of day--bright winter, crisp. There was a cold wind, but he did amazing, and while he didn't seem to be having fun necessarily, he didn't complain--it just was a really nice time. Drew went to get the car and they drove home, then I skied the rest of the way home across the bay on my own. So much fun.


Jamming with Trystan. We split up the drum kit so that they could both play.


Jamming (in jammies, incidentally) with mommy.


After Christmas, Drew & Cadence came across a great TV box at the recycling centre & turned it into a puppet theatre. We've had so many puppet shows, and they're all totally amazing. We've taken turns doing sound effects, lighting, musical accompaniment...best recycled toy ever.



Snow melting on the front deck. :)