A Very Strange Summer

This summer, Dad and Mom came up for a long visit, so Dad could do some work while he was here.  They arrived in early May, and were initially expecting to stay in a house, but plans changed and they stayed with us.  Towards the end of June, they had an opportunity to housesit for parents of friends of ours, and then Dad flew Mom home so she could spend the rest of the summer in her own house.  Dad came back in early July.

Still Laughing

Seven years ago, Eli and I made the best decision ever... and we're still laughing about it!

We got married following a great big nor' easter in Miramichi  with 90 cm of snow,

celebrating with our family and friends

(who came to partake in scarf-dancing, Bon Jovi-singing, and cowboy boot-wearing fun!). 

Presenting...

When I called Eli in Winnipeg, after I discovered Twofour on Friday afternoon, he said, "But, Shannon, we need to have bunnies."

It's true.  The more I thought about it.  It is totally true.  I've ALWAYS had bunnies in the house (since my first apartment when I was 18, going on 19...).

We've never been bunniless, not even for a night, as we've usually had bunnies in pairs. 

Twofour's buddy, Scooter, did not make it to our move across Canada, and we didn't want to have a baby bunny make the long trek as one of their first experiences...

We'd had told ourselves at the time that we'd get a northern bun later. 

But we hadn't gotten around to it.

Eli was going to Edmonton for the night before flying home (flight times are a little weird, sometimes), so he said that he would look around in Edmonton for a bunny (selection and supply is limited in Yellowknife).

I told him to look for two.

(Picture drawn by Miss G.)

Miss G's Tooth!

Miss G lost her first tooth!!

Last week, she discovered a loose tooth.

It was only barely wiggly, but definitely wiggly, and we rejoiced!  This is a BIG deal to a six-year-old!

Last night, on her way to bed, Miss G was wiggling her tooth, and after she had been in bed for a while she popped out to show me just how wiggly her tooth was...  She had made a major jump in wiggliness!

This morning, Daddy told her that, if she wanted, he could use pliers to take out the tooth.

"Daddy, do you mean tools?"

Yup.

She thought about it, smiled, and decided on "maybe," but she wanted to try on her own.  No rush, after all.  Daddy is so funny!

There is no school on the days after Halloween here. 

The school district strategically plans professional development days after Halloween, and the parents seem to love it. 

This year, it is two back-to-back days, so it's a long weekend for families. 

This morning our girls went to Jaime's house for the day, our lovely neighbour in the court with the girls' good friends.

When I arrived to pick up the girls, Miss G had a brand new smile!

Happy Birthday, Nanny!

Nanny celebrated her birthday today in New Brunswick while we were up North, with Papa visiting, but we managed to meld the celebrations together.

The girls called Nanny in the morning, and here Miss A is laughing pretty hard at the talking card we sent Nanny with a knock-knock joke inside.

Our Busy August Weekend

This weekend was busy.

I didn't realize it was busy while we were in the middle of it, but it was!

It all started on Friday with Papa's birthday!

On Friday, after swim lessons, I took the girls out to get Papa birthday presents.

They had VERY SPECIFIC ideas about what Papa would like for his birthday, and couldn't wait for Papa to arrive home on Friday evening from work. 

Miss A wanted to get Papa a robot.

"Miss A, why do you think Papa would like a robot?"

"Um.  Papa likes robots.  And, Papa can share his robot with ME!" 

Miss G wanted to get Papa a stuffy to sleep with, and she picked this soft and cute puppy dog.

His name is Patch. 

Patch has yet to spend a night in Papa's bed, because Papa tells Miss G that Patch really likes all of her doggy toys in her bed.

She has yet to argue with his about that! 

Eli and I picked out Papa's cake... any guess who got the duckies?

Papa, Miss G and Miss A. 

We thought about switching the numbers around to read 26, but Papa is very secure with his age and was like, "No way!  I'm 62!  Put 62!"

Excellent attitude! 

I don't think Papa managed to blow out either candle on his own. 

The girls are fast at candle blowing! 

Birthdays bring their enthusiasm for life up about 10 notches to beyond extreme.

Friday night, Daddy snuggled with the girls. 

Please note that Miss G is snuggling with Patch (and her owl), and Miss A has Robot (and her seal, which you can't really see).

Last night Miss G sighed and said, "Papa really loves his presents.  He loves to share them, too!" 

Daddy got some extra special snuggle time on Friday night, because on Saturday morning, I drove Eli to his work early in the morning so he could meet up with the rest of the crew heading to Inuvik (which is far North in the Northwest Territories) for Operation Nanook.

He'll be in Inuvik assisting with the air operations for Op Nanook for 18 days in total, returning the day before the girls' first day of school.

He says the weather is about 2 or 3 weeks ahead of us in Yellowknife, and it is cooling off.

I'm not surprised, because it feels like some autumn air is pushing in here, too!

He is sharing a tent with six other guys, and he says that it is luxurious by many other military standards.

Eli packed well, and sent me this picture of his cot and space within an hour of landing in Inuvik.

They have good food services within the operation itself, and Eli brought his little mini burner for making coffee and other snacks, too.

And, last night, he went fishing with some rare downtime with some of his buddies, so I think he'll manage just fine.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, Papa and I ordered in.

On my way back home from picking up our supper, I saw this parked close to my house, and it totally cracked me up. 

Ah, Northern humour.

After church on Sunday, I stopped by my classroom to drop off the puppets and stuffies (reading buddies) I took home to put in the laundry, and to bring home another bag of toys to clean. 

I've been in the school a few days so far to set it up, and I had help on the first day from a good friend Michelle who volunteered to help me move my furniture around. 

Any teacher friend of mine know that Michelle must be a good friend!

It's coming together nicely, and I'll take you on a full tour once it's all set up. 

Later on Sunday, Papa introduced the girls to Jiffy Pop.

They were totally amazed and pumped to pop popcorn this way!

Usually, we just use our popcorn popper (we don't own a microwave, and haven't for many years).

They polished off almost all of the popcorn, and had some help from Papa.

Then, I moved into the kitchen to make a tuna casserole for a family in the community who needs a little extra lovin' right now. 

I'm sure they would appreciate a prayer from you, too.

When I returned from my supper delivery, the girls were on the front deck with Papa and our neighbour friends, all drawing in notebooks.

This is Miss A's Giant.  He's grumpy.

This is Miss G's bird in a bird house.

Maybe next year a family of birds will move into our bird house in the tree in the front yard.

And, on Sunday evening, I finished these dresses for the girls.

This was my weekend project, and likely what made the weekend so busy when I looked back over it!

The girls love looking at fabric, and this was picked by Miss G.

I had to modify the pattern a bit, because the girls are to teeny tiny.

I fully lined the dresses, and I loved the ruffle (called a flounce) on the hem of the dress. 

I'm so impressed with myself!

I had to bind every hem because the fabric was challenging to work with, but the final product looks great and the girls love them.

Oh, and they think they should be fashion girls.

What do you think?

Bloggeversary

Today is my blog's bloggeversary.

Happy bloggeversary, by SHANNON LEE.

I began this blog on June 12, 2011, on the road to Yellowknife. 

You can read all about the monumental cross-Canada drive that started it all by clicking on the Yellowknife or Bust tab on the top of the blog anytime.

I have posted all the links to the trip in chronological order there.

So, what has a year done?  Well...

1. I have bangs. 

2. We discovered that working two full-time jobs with two full-time school girlies requires balancing.  AND, we did it!

3. Autumn and Spring do not exist in the North.  In fact, you might remember last summer about me blogging about Autumn in August (I was wearing a toque on August 20th last year on an evening walk).

4. The Northern sky is huge, spectacular, and unlike any other perspective in Canada.  I would say that it is my favourite thing about the landscape and climate up here.

5. The girls are happy where their little family is.

6. It's freakin' cold up here, and there is snow from September to May. 

7. Spring is sloooow coming.  The picture above is the first day of spring.

8. Northern means EXTREME... extreme darkness, extreme daylight, extreme coldness, extreme sun.

9. The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) are worth living here for.  Period.

10. Eli loves his boat.  And, boats in general.



A few stats on the year... 

10421+ page views in one year (excluding my computers, for checking on formatting and the like)... wowsers.

The highest readership was at the beginning, peaking on our arrival in Yellowknife the end of July 2011, and again in December 2011 and March 2012.

Most of you read more when I was posting links on Facebook.  I'm not on there now, so I wonder if that is very inconvenient for you?

I've made 160 posts, including this one, in a year.

I've had web traffic from all over Canada, the United States, Belgium, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Argentina and Mexico.

Thank you for reading!!

Happy O Canada Day

You might remember, that in November, Eli took the girls to be in the Santa Claus parade (like the great Daddy that he is), while I was flying home for Nana's celebration.

This parade was decidedly less cold and more enjoyable for the girls.

Mommy and the girls rode bikes downtown for the parade, and Daddy walked/jogged along.

Oh, man!  I need to blog about my new bike... remind about that, eh?

Nanny and Papa drove the car downtown, so that the girls could get a lift home.

It was drizzly and the girls were tired by the end, so that was a good plan.

At the first mention of the parade, Miss G did not want to go (remembering her chilly feet at the Santa Claus parade), but she did get excited about it! 

Don't you like her Hello Canada t-shirt?  It's Hello Kitty.  She thought that was pretty hilarious.

Miss A began the parade on top of Daddy's shoulders, but once she determined that the parade was not too loud (because she still likes to cover her ears if it is noisy or scary), she got right into it. 

Miss G was very pleased that I packed her a lunch bag of snacks, and enjoyed her fishy crackers right away. 

Miss A eventually moved front and centre to see the parade floats move on by. 

She especially loved the Queen's 60th Diamond Jubilee float with the giant cake and "princesses." 

The girls declared it the "Best O Canada Day parade ever." 

Miss A loves to call it O Canada Day.

Well done, Yellowknife! 

We moved to Somba K'e, a beautiful park by Yellowknife City Hall, for the post parade celebrations.

Somba K'e honours the Dene First Nations's name for Yellowknife. 

Somba K'e, in Dogrib, the Dene language, means "Where the money is," which is how Yellowknife was (and still is) called by the Dene.   

We left the park a little early because I still had to ride my bike home, and the clouds were ominous and looked rain-filled. 

We browsed the vendors set up selling local arts and crafts, and the girls had fun playing in the grass with Daddy. 

It did rain, but then it stopped (a pretty common theme here this summer, with the daylight hours making it possible to fit about three days-worth of weather in one 24 hour period), so Daddy decided to go on the boat with Papa. 

Initially, it was going to be a Papa and Daddy fishing expedition, but Miss G was heartbroken to be left behind ("They forgot me!"), and they came back right away to get her.

She promptly fell asleep in the boat, once winning the battle to go on the fishing trip. 

Then, she woke up! And, she helped them to catch four lake trout!

Papa has discovered that he actually likes fishing and being on the boat.

All in all, it was a pretty Canadian O Canada Day, eh?