After a very uneventful November...

If you look at my camera, we didn't do a whole lot in November. I believe that's because we were in the midst of Craft Sale Craziness. All we did in November was craft. That probably deserves a post of it's own, but maybe not today.

On November 29th, we finally got to see the Canyon Lights. I say finally because it's been on my Christmas to do list for many years. It was well worth the wait. We went on opening night and it wasn't bad. Also, it was very, very cold which made it feel more Christmassy somehow.

 Even the totem poles managed to look festive.

 The first thing we did was the cliff walk. It's so different at night time. Note to self: Don't wear fingerless gloves when it's minus seven out and you're going to have to hold on to a lot of metal railings. I think I almost gave myself frost bite. Live and learn.

 The lights were spectacular. And you definitely focus more on them than on the fact that you're hanging over a cliff edge. Because to be honest, you couldn't really tell how high up you were.

 The view to the suspension bridge is still breath taking, just in a different way.

 After the cliff walk and the short walk through the creek area, we made our way to a tent where they had cookie decorating for the kids.

Lizzie loves to do all of the things, so she was right in there.

 It took the boys a few more minutes to join in, but they like cookies so join they did.

 The finished product:

 Next we had to pose for pictures in the sleigh.

 All of us had to pose in the sleigh.

 Over to the side of the sleigh was a card making table. I promised Elisabeth that she could make cards once she'd taken a picture in the sleigh. But right after we'd posed, a huge crowd of people came into the tent and I forgot all about it. She did not. Cue warning music.

We continued on, stopping at the exit to the tent to discuss our plan of action. Let's tackle the suspension bridge next. And so off we went, paiusing here and there for pictures

 And then I grabbed David's hand, and a VOICE grip on the two Goldstone boys who weren't scared at all, and off we went. It was probably my slowest crossing of the bridge yet, mostly because the suspension bridge is SCARIER in the dark. Lots of swaying, you can't see anything, and SO MANY PEOPLE. But as you can see, the view from the middle is amazing.

As we came off the bridge, a young man came up to me and said, "excuse me ma'am. Have you lost a daughter?" Well of course not I said, feeling all self righteous and indignant. "are you sure?" "Yes! She's with Andrew. Right Andrew?"

 Well, you can see how that turned out.

Once I was done being ANGRY, and TERRIFIED, we got hot chocolates (thanks, Denis!) and continued on through the lights.

 And Elisabeth recovered too. We saw a REAL, LIVE owl. That has been on my bucket list for ever.

 Then crossed the bridge without losing any children, and went for a wander through the gift shop. Which is worth the price of admission all on it's own. I do love a good gift shop.

 Sorry you're so over exposed, Denis, but Nate looks so gosh darned cute!

 We listened to live music outside.Their band is always good.

David got his hair cut

So my boy grew his hair out so that he could be Anakin Skywalker for Halloween. Here he is with his long, long hair.

And here he is after mama cut it all off.

Half Marathons

This blog post isn't about the kids, but Andrew and I are in the pictures so here's the post.

In January Kandace and I decided we were going to walk a half marathon. So we took a fitness walking clinic through the Running Room. And then we took a Ten K clinic. And another one. And finally we felt like we were ready for a half marathon clinic so we did 16 weeks of training and FINALLY in October, we finished our training and were ready to walk the Vancouver Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

With the walking clinics you walk 3 times a week. We met so many inspiring and encouraging people in our clinics and made some really good friends. Including Melanie who is the pictures above.

We had to go into Vancouver to pick up our race packs, and that's when we took these silly pictures.

 And then we had nothing left to do except wait for race day.

 My biggest fear about race day was that it would rain. Doing any kind of race in October in Vancouver, that's always a risk. Walking for almost four hours in the rain though? Unbearable.

Luckily, race day dawned dry and cool. Here we are ready to ROCK AND ROLL.

And here I am with Mel at the end of our race, complete with medals. She didn't know it at the time, but Melanie did her half with a broken leg.

 After that we wandered around until we found somewhere to eat. Enjoying the fall colours all the while.

Trip to Victoria - but only the pictures I didn't lose

So you know how I mentioned we had a really busy October? I wasn't joking.

After our long weekend in Penticton, we spent two days in Victoria visiting my brother and his family. I got some really amazing pictures of the trip. Unfortunately I lost most of my pictures somehow, especially all the cute pumpkin patch ones. I'll keep looking for them. In the meanwhile, here's some of the first day.

We started off with a really, really early ferry. Like when we got on the ferry, the sun hadn't risen yet. the kids didn't care though because they like playing on the ferry. 

Even though even the youngest of them is probably about 5 years too old for this play area!

Meanwhile, I would rather be outside. Even if I'm all alone.

When you're outside, you get to watch the sun rise.

The weather was truly spectacular. The views were amazing.

Once we were off the ferry, we drove to downtown. The first item on our agenda was a trip to the museum to see the viking exhibit. It was amazing. Not at all what I expected though. Lots of artifacts, and lots of history. Not very cartoony which is kind of more what I was expecting.

After we'd thoroughly explored the museum exhibits and watched two iMax movies (one on the Holy Land, and one Vikings. Both were really interesting. The one on the Holy Land explored Jerusalem from the eyes three young girls and why the city is important to them. Very interesting and if you ever see it in a theatre near you, I fully recommend it!)

We parted ways with our neighbors after the museum and headed to my brother's house.

We spent a relaxing evening and morning with them (I got to read Cara her bedtime stories and help tuck her into bed) and then on Sunday morning we drove out to a local pumpkin patch. Now I'm used to pumpkin patches being quite the experience, but this one was AMAZING!

Heartbreakingly, I seem to have lost all my pictures but you can check out the site here.

Thanksgiving in Penticton: Our last day

Time to come home. We took one last picture of our little pumpkin friends.

This lake is very close to Penticton. When you're coming from Keremeos towards Penticton, it's on your right side. Long, and looping beside the highway. I've always wanted to stop there, and this time Andrew obliged me. It was beautiful.

(picture below is over edited, I was playing with it on my phone...but check out that cute pup...)

 Next stop was for pictures at the big bear fruit stand. I didn't think we were going to stop for fruit, just the photo ops (it's  a great place for photo ops, see?)

 And also a great place to look at pumpkins.

 But we also got 40 pounds of apples, ten pounds of tomatoes and a TON of peppers and onions for thirty bucks. So you know, win - win.

We kept driving and the weather was magnificent. We were so lucky. Plus, fall colours like these near Princeton:

 And these near Lightning Lake at Manning Park.

But then we got to Aldergrove and this happened. Ah well, it was a good visit and we were super lucky with the weather. Such a nice way to spend Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving in Penticton: Day Four

So one great thing about being on vacation is getting to sleep in and have lazy mornings in front of the TV. Don't y'all wish you were this cute first thing in morning? I know I do.

I like to call these two my twins.

 So, I forget what we did in the morning on this day. Maybe we swam. But afterwards, we were heading Oliver for a flea market. First, dad made me look at this pretty spider.

 Dad took us the scenic route. Like I told you last time, dad takes us on all the back roads and scenic routes. This time we drove on the eastern side of the highway and we came upon a little park.

 There were trails all around the lake, but there were also signs that this area would probably be popular with bears so we didn't stay for very long.

In Oliver we found a really neat antique store. And outside we found a lovely blue wall that was perfect for snapping head shots. If only the subject matter would cooperate :)

 I didn't take pictures in the flea market, except for these next few. It was HUGE. A big ol' warehouse full of everything from jewellery to junk to antiques and everything in between. There were lots of toys too.

 But not a lot to capture Elisabeth's attention, so we sat by the bistro and snapped more silly pictures.

Afterwards we headed home for some pumpkin carving. I was more involved in scooping and degooping, so I didn't take many pictures here either. But suffice it to say, the pumpkin carving was a big hit. Once the pumpkins were carved, Dad and Andrew took David and Elisabeth to the playground while we got down to the business of cooking dinner.

And this wouldn't be a thanksgiving post if there wasn't a picture of the meal.

 And finally, our awesome pumpkiny friends.