A Loooooong Day, a Tunnel, and Two Super Cars

DAY 9 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Kapuskasing ON to Drummondville QC (1073.6 km)

5404.2 km in total from Yellowknife

Motivated by being more than halfway, tired of staying in hotels, and with time zones seriously kicking our butts, we started à parler français au Québec.

Learning About the Marathon of Hope

DAY 8 on the Road to Nova Scotia
Thunder Bay ON to Kapuskasing ON (618.7 km)

4330.6 km in total from Yellowknife

This morning, the girls were very excited to be able to stop at the Terry Fox Memorial and Scenic Lookout, just east of Thunder Bay, ON.

Where's the Thunder?

DAY 7 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Winnipeg MB to Thunder Bay NS (779.1 km)
3711.9 km in total from Yellowknife

(DAY 6 was a second day in Winnipeg.  Eli's truck was making noise that was making him crazy, so he got some exhaust work done.  And, he was exhausted.)

We hit the road, and most of our stops were to get gas, food or the bathroom.

This cool spaceship playground was outside one of the gas stations, so the girls had a chance to play a bit before we were on the road, again.

Happy Accidental Detours on the Highway

DAY 5 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Saskatoon, SK to Winnipeg MB (should have been 786.4 km)
PLUS a small accidental but happy detour: 851.8 km

2932.8 km in total from Yellowknife

We left Saskatoon pretty late (about noon) because the kids were all playing together so nicely at Chris and Shawna's, but we knew that we still had several thousand kilometres ahead of us.  We punched our destination in the GPS and took off.

Cousins in Saskatoon

DAY 4 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Leduc AB to Saskatoon SK (556.7 km)

2081 km in total from Yellowknife

We left the hospitality of my second cousin Stella and Johnny, and headed east to Saskatoon to see my cousin Shawna and her beautiful family.

Roller Coaster Girls

DAY 3 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Staying in Edmonton, AB

We had a recovery day in Edmonton today, and to burn the girls energy, Stella and I hit the West Edmonton Mall with the girls.  We've been to the mall many times while living in Yellowknife, and have done most things at the mall... the water park, the sea lions, shopping like crazy... but today, we visited Galaxy Land!

Pure J.O.Y!

Hakuna Matata

DAY 2 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Peace River, AB to Leduc, AB (515.2 km)

1524.3 km in total from Yellowknife

We "slept in" a bit, and hit the road.

We had a very important reason to arrive in Leduc early in the afternoon.

Well, two reasons.  One, Stella's lazagna.  Two, ROAR!

I was so excited to see The Lion King, and to take the girls!

Like a Boomerang, We're Going Back to Nova Scotia

DAY 1 on the Road to Nova Scotia

Yellowknife, NT to Peace River, AB (1007 km)

Today, we left Yellowknife NT to move to our new home in Nova Scotia.

We started off our big move with a very long day.

Today we drove 1007 km, which is over 11 hours of driving (not including any breaks).  We got to our destination in Peace River, AB around 10:30 pm.

We left in the morning, right after stopping at the Yellowknife sign.

This was our first picture in Yellowknife taken EXACTLY 4 years plus 1 day ago.

D'Iberville Untouched

Eli has been having a lot of fun with my new travel camera, and he's been sending me some more pictures when he has a chance.

Today, he had a bit of a break because the planes were not able to fly.

Too much snow!

These are some more pictures from his Father's Day day-trip to D'Iberville, which reminds me of Tess of the D'Ubervilles a little bit.

Eli:  D'Iberville was an arctic research station last inhabited in the early 1990s. 

The Top of the World

Eli is, quite literally, at the top of the world.

Until the end of the month, Eli is in Alert, Nunavut, which is the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth by humans (and not elves). 

Alert is on Ellesmere Island, which is a little hard to imagine as an island because the ice around it is a polar ice cap.

The permanent population is 0, however, it is a military and scientific base, and so there is always some personnel up there. 

All of the Canadian territories boast of being North of latitude 60. 

Yellowknife is precisely 62°30' North, and we are about 400 kilometres from the arctic circle, that invisible line where the sun is up for exactly up for 24 hours on the summer solstice and down for exactly 24 hours on winter solstice.

Right now, Eli is above latitude 80 (and just so you know, 90 is as far as the scale goes). 

Alert is at latitude 82°30'05" north, and is 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole and Santa Claus, although Alert is actually North of the geomagnetic North Pole, meaning that compasses would behave oddly there.

The girls are beside themselves because Eli is SO close to the North Pole!

Catching Up: March, Part 2 AKA Family March Break Vacation

I'm not going to comment on my lack of blogging. 

I'm just going to write, because that's the best way to write.  One letter at a time.  Tap, tap, tap...

This is the Big Burning Thing (official name) on Great Slave Lake during the Long John Jamboree, near the Ice Castle (March Break).

The build it up and then light it on fire to watch it burn.  It was fun.

Nicole and Shannon Take Orlando: Day 2, Conquering The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal Like Champions!

The main draw to make this whirlwind trip to Orlando, for Nicole -- aside from me, of course -- was the fact that we could visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure.

For us Harry Potter nerds, nothing could be more wonderful!

Nicole and Shannon take Orlando: Day 1, SeaWorld

Nicole and I spent our first full day in Orlando at SeaWorld.

Our major goal was to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and we decided to do SeaWorld as a second choice, and are we ever happy we did!

It was the BEST DAY EVER.  Seriously.  After our respective weddings and the respective births of our children, I think SeaWorld is next!

From -40 to +30

Through some fantastic luck, a great professional development fund, awesome encouraging husbands and more luck again, I spent the end of January in sunny Orlando enjoying a technology and education conference in January, which also means that I am getting a wonderful break from the arctic temperatures and short days.

My cousin Nicole met me here for my first weekend, but to chronicle our adventures, I will need a few blog posts.

This post is about my flight and meeting my week long home away from home in Orlando, the Hard Rock Hotel. I love you, Hard Rock!

Eli brought me to the airport for my afternoon flight south. 

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?

Whitehorse, Blue-horse, Rainbow-horse

Last week, Eli went to Whitehorse, Yukon, for a week for work.

He sent the girls and I lots and lots of pictures from his week.

One of the first ones was this vintage white horse mechanical toy.

It fuelled quite a discussion.

Miss A wanted to know if Daddy could maybe go to see a blue horse instead.

Miss G requested a rainbow horse.

Why?  Why is it Whitehorse??

Why not a blue horse?  Or a rainbow horse??

Daddy got his boots all polished up at the airport on his way to Whitehorse.

Years of having to spit shine his own boots has given Eli an appreciation for boot shiners, and he likes to support them at the airport. 

The landscape flying towards Whitehorse is decidedly different from the flat tundra with large lakes around Yellowknife.

Whitehorse has rivers and mountains, and is close to the Pacific Ocean.

Yellowknife has big ravens, bison, snow, ice and Great Slave Lake.

As Monique told me, Whitehorse is the "other" northern capital.

I asked her, "What about Iqaluit in Nunavut?"

She said, "That doesn't count because I didn't learn it in elementary school."

Ha ha ha ha!! 

There is no direct flight from this Northern capital to the other, though.

So, Eli had to fly from Yellowknife, NT, to Calgary, AB, to Vancouver, BC, to Whitehorse, YK, on Monday.

Then, Eli had to fly from Whitehorse, YK, to Vancouver, BC, to Calgary, AB, to Yellowknife, NT, on Friday.

Efficient.

Eli found a nice little restaurant pub near his hotel in Whitehorse. 

It was a double-wide trailer!  

The charm of the Klondike city was evident in many of the landmarks. 

And, Eli found this not-so-politically correct cartoon in the local newspaper that I couldn't help but laugh at when he sent it to me. 

Eli found a fun store... for him. 

All hunting, all the time. 

Eli took a day trip to a small town about 200 km south of Whitehorse, to Teslin for a work meeting. 

He said the stops and scenery were great. 

Pacific salmon. 

Of course, Eli had some fun with his rental 4 x 4. 

Eli said, the whiteness 4 x 4 was just asking for a little mud fun. 

"The big rocks are called mountains.  The little ones are their babies."

Name that movie. 

The ice is almost completely out of this northern river.

That's the difference to the proximity to the Pacific Ocean. 

And, this is the difference a few hours of fun with Eli makes to a white vehicle. 

The Klondike! 

And this is a bullet from a moose.

Can you tell that Eli went on this trip and not me, based only on the pictures??