Recent scenes of Clyde River

These are recent pictures of Clyde River, mostly from inside the house. It seems like whenever we go out for a truck ride, I either forget the camera or the battery. Therefore, they are a bit repetitive, but that's why you can scroll.

The snow drift up the back of the house.	It makes a very good wind/snow block now.
Sled dogs.	Sun dogs.
These pictures were taken a week apart.	There was a 2-day blizzard in between.

'Cause we like it.

A couple of months ago, we started planning our next vacation. We were tossing around lots of ideas (most of which were incredibly expensive) and started thinking about what kind of holidays we would take as a family when we got back to the south.

We figured we would be less of a jet-setting family and more of a camping family. I, however, am not a go-into-the-wilderness-and-set-up-a-tent kind of girl. I look at the people who pull up in their RVs with beds, heat, stoves, fridges, showers, toilets, and (now that I have kids) locks on the door, and I think that's more my style.

This led us to thinking that maybe we should rent something like this and see how we like it. Now, eventually we wouldn't be getting a full-sized RV, just a trailer, but you can't rent those quite as easily when you don't have a truck. Then we started throwing around ideas about where to go RVing - when you're renting, you can start from anywhere! Finally we decided on driving to Calgary, renting there, then driving up and out to Vancouver Island and back. Great; we picked the RV we wanted to rent and started planning where we would stay each night.

If you've ever seen me plan a trip, you know that I now know everything there is to know about RV sites in BC. We even found out that there were "dinosaur" related stops to make along the way. Then we started to see a pattern. Some campgrounds were open all-year, more opened May 1, and the majority were May 15-ish. The tours we wanted to do of dino-stuff started the end of May. One campground that I emailed would open earlier than May 1 if enough snow was gone. Next we started planning what kind of clothes/jackets we would need to take.

Then it got really, really cold here in Clyde River. And we started to wonder if, after a winter of extreme cold, blizzards, and 110 km/h wind storms, we were looking forward to a chilly, rainy vacation. The answer became "Not so much." So where could we easily take the kids (so it would still be a vacation for us, not a marathon of survival) where it was warm and they would have fun and we would have fun? The skies opened up and the answer was clear:

We know the area, we know what to expect. Then, there was more planning. We wanted to go for longer; try to achieve that balance of the Disney experience without feeling rushed. So we're going from May 1-12. And to stay that long, in one room.... well, let's just say that our favourite part of travelling is not putting the kids to bed and then sitting in the dark, with me on the iPod and Craig on the laptop. Sometimes we watch a movie on the laptop; Craig gets the left earbud and I get the right. I know, it sounds awesome and you can't understand why we don't enjoy this.

So this time we are going to stay here:

In a room like this:

See over on the right? Through that door? That's our own room. That couch folds out into a queen-sized bed. Oh, and that's right... that's a fridge and stove - not that we have any crazy ideas about using them too much, as we always have food left over on the dining plan.

We're staying there for half the trip. The other half will be here:

Same deal, with a separate bedroom. This place has a pool with a water slide and we can take the boat launch to Downtown Disney.

Someday we will go somewhere new and different. But for now we're going back to Disney World. 'Cause we like it.

More sunrise/sunset

Here is a time lapse video from today. The first picture was taken at 11:13 a.m. and the last at 1:31 p.m.

It's up, It's up!!!

Liam had a pretty good 5th birthday. Today was a bit busy, making and decorating cupcakes for school that isn't apparently until tomorrow... making and decorating birthday cake... going to (and coming back from) school that isn't apparently until tomorrow... supper with neighbours... presents... and playing!

Mail!	Happy Birthday 5-year-old boy!
Helping make the birthday cake.
Finally...	I'm not about to open my brother's present!
What's in here?
Blowing those candles out like a pro!
A pteranodon cake.	Mmmm.... chocolate with creamy orange filling.
Two cuties.

What's been happening...

Some random pictures.

The bunk beds we ordered in July finally arrived! The boys are no longer "camping!"	Liam drew a picture of a planet - with a heart island. If you look closely you can see (at the top) a sun, moon, and comet, and at the bottom there is a red planet, a blue planet, and a purple planet (showing what happened when red and blue collided).
Story time.	Miniature bananas! How cute!
The sun was supposed to come up on the 18th, but it was too foggy to tell. This was taken today. I think the sun is still below those mountains over there. It is definitely getting lighter out. Today I didn't even turn on any lights downstairs until after lunch! And it was light out when we went to school and when we came back. Oh, wait - I had the wrong day and there's no school until tomorrow, so I suppose that doesn't count. We'll check tomorrow and see if it's dark out. If we have time. It's -52 with the wind chill, so we're not exactly hanging around out there!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the New Year by NOT going to bed before midnight! In fact, we had a storm with really big wind gusts. And we managed to stay up late enough to see the fireworks and snowmobile parade that were supposed to be at midnight, but took place when the storm died down, around 1:15.

---

Today was such a nice day that we went outside to explore the snow dunes.