Where has the time gone??

I can't believe it is the end of May... I totally missed my "one year anniversary" of living up here (it was April 30th) and here we are exactly one month later! I think this is a sign of contentment... things aren't new and unusual up here anymore, urging me to write about it on my blog. Now, life just is.

We haven't been sitting around on our bums though, we have been busy, as per usual. We have had hubby's family come and stay with us, we have had a few birthday parties for Allan (my baby is FIVE!). We attended the trade fair here in FSJ, which was huge and very well put on... the kids had a lot of fun checking everything out, getting treats and seeing friends.

We have also had some friends move to town from Ladysmith. They have also been affected by the demise of the forest industry on Vancouver Island and have come up here to work, so I am looking forward to having a friend who is MY friend.

We also were shown how to find the Charlie Lake Caves by the daughter of a friend. These caves have no signage to speak of and are wide open for anyone to explore, which is pretty impressive considering the following statement taken from the Virtual Museum Canada:

Charlie Lake Cave


Charlie Lake Cave is located in the Peace River area in northeastern British Columbia. The site contains evidence of a series of temporary occupations, spanning the last 11,000 years.

The lowest (earliest) level of the site contained several stone artifacts, including a fluted point, six retouched flakes and a small stone bead. This level has been dated to 10,770±120 years BP. Associated animal remains included bison, snowshoe hare, large hare, ground squirrel and fish. The bison bones exhibited cut marks that researchers believe were created by humans using stone tools. Charlie Lake Cave is the only archaeological site in Canada in which fluted point tools and associated animal remains have been found in an undisturbed context.

So we have settled in to life up here and we have started some of the habits of those who live up here (i.e. we have bought a travel trailer and a quad!). We are still exploring new things up here and enjoying finding things to see. This summer we have plans to use our travel trailer and discover whatever we can within the nearby areas. Ao I hope to keep in touch on here, but it may be sporadic!

Spring

Walking around Stump Lake in Squamish with Nana & Grandad

The last two weeks have been spring break for Maria so we took advantage of the time off to go back to Squamish and the Island to catch up on some overdue visits and for Allan's yearly check-up with the cardiologist. It turns out that two weeks is not long enough to see everyone, but we managed to see many of our much missed family and friends.

Getting in the good books with the Easter Bunny...

Having a lovely visit with Granny Green brought the unexpected surprise of more cousins!

Our trip to Squamish was wonderful, it is funny how we have come full-circle now that we have left the Island. For so long after leaving Squamish, we couldn't stand going back to town because of all of the changes and building that was never-ending. We loved seeing our families and friends, but it was hard to see the town itself, it was no longer our home-town. Now that we have left the Island and moved up North, we can see the beauty of Squamish again, it still isn't "home" but it isn't so disturbing to see the changes... maybe because it really isn't home anymore? (anyway, I side-track) We had a wonderful visit with everyone we managed to see while in Squamish and we enjoyed the lack of snow.

Maria stopped by at her old school during lunch hour to see some of her old friends, then we went to Transfer Beach after school to meet up with more friends... it is always fun to throw rocks

Our visit on Saltspring with my Sister and her family was great fun!

We left for the Island after a week and managed to see so many people and had such wonderful visits, it really was awesome on the Island too. We managed to get to Salt Spring to see my sister and her family, visit my other sister and family in Ladysmith as well as most of our friends, we visited much of our family in Duncan and managed to join in on the annual easter egg hunt which was great fun. We also spent one day in Victoria after Allan's Dr. appointment (which was excellent) and we went to the Royal BC Museum and watched an Imax movie... so it was VERY busy, but so wonderful.

We had a great time at the museum

We saw an otter on our walk out on the breakwater

The easter egg hunt was awesome... even if it was pouring rain!

Then to top off a wonderful trip, we arrived back in Fort St John to spring... the snow is almost completely gone and it is warm. Ahh spring, I have missed you!

Our trip home was good... but a little over-stuffed!

A lot has happened in a year

It occurred to me the other day that it was over a year ago when hubby and I flew up here to look at houses and look through the school - and I suppose when I started this blog. The picture at the top of this blog was taken in early March...

We hadn't moved up here yet, one year ago, but we were gearing up to it, and all the panic and depression that ensues during that kind of upheaval. I have some friends who are going through the exact same thing as we did a year ago, and I feel for them. That was the hardest part. I have been trying to help them as much as I can, but there is only so much I can do... time does the most and I must say that after almost one year up here, as much as I complain about the weather... life is so very much easier now and I am thankful for being where we are.

Blahh!!!

Ok... I know the other day it felt like we made it through winter... but now we are snowed under AGAIN! Make it stop already! No seriously, everyone in town is not enjoying this lengthy winter and so many people keep saying that they are sure this must be the end of it, and yet it keeps coming... so we are going down to the coast for spring break and get away from it for a bit. We are all very excited to see everyone again and are trying to work it so that we can see everyone. Hopefully by the time we come back winter will ACTUALLY be receding... one can hope!

We made it.

Today is the first day of spring, the spring equinox... we made it through our first winter. It is still winter here according to the weather, but I know that it won't last long, so it doesn't feel as depressing as it did a month ago. In fact we are getting snow as I type this, but yesterday was a magnificently sunny day that melted snow piles into huge puddles and reminded me of the mud season we are about to begin (where are my rubber boots?!)

The days are already much longer, the sun rises and sets at around 8 each day, which is really nice. The days are long enough that we can go play outside after Maria gets home from school, in fact the kids are anxious to get their bikes out, although I think it best if we wait until the sidewalks are clear of ice.

So it feels like we are in the home stretch and we are almost there. It is spring.

Time for Some Escapism...

Winter is hanging in there, long after it has lost its welcome. I really think that I was very patient with it, I certainly don't expect it to be gone, just milder... is that really too much to ask? Apparently it is, so maybe today I will think of Mexico...

The colourful bus that took us to the park

One of the highlights of our trip (well actually there were many, but this is one...) was going to Xcaret (the "X" is pronounced "Ish"). We didn't really know what to expect on this excursion, but we knew it was kid friendly so we thought it would be good.

Arriving at Xcaret!

We, and our friends who met us in Mexico, all got on the bus early in the morning and less than 1/2 an hour later arrived at a zoo... well it was crazy busy anyway! After finally filtering our way in (they made us all trade in our sunscreen for bio-degradable sunscreen to protect the animals in the park...) then we had 4 kids and 4 adults who all wanted to see something special in the park... This place is huge and has so much to see it was hard to know what to head to see first and what was where... you would be walking along and see a sign for something really cool so we would wind up veering off here or there... but we had requests to see the manatees, the bats, the dolphins, the underground river and the sharks, everything else was a bonus... and a bonus it was.

The mining caves right near the start of the park

The Mexican cemetary

Xcaret had so many things to see and we saw so much, I am sure we missed some cool things, but we do not feel like we missed out on anything. One of the highlights for me was seeing the traditional Mexican burial ground with its labyrinth of graves and its Mary shrines, but it was also very cool to see a tapier.

The Tapier

The Iguana that scared Maria... she was standing up leaning on the wall looking in at the leopard and didn't see it and it was RIGHT in front of her!

The leopard was huge and very impressive

However, after walking around through the jungle-like park all morning, we were COOKING hot so we decided to head for the underground river. The park gives you a lovely pink life jacket and snorkel equipment if you want, they also have you put all of your belongings into a duffle bag with a lock on it, you keep the key and they take the bag to wait for you at the end of the river.

They have a turtle release program to give the turtles a better chance at survival, these little guys are sooo cute!

After doing all that you go down some stairs into a small canyon and you choose... a river that is completely underground - i.e. cave the whole way or a mixture of cave and open air. Michael is still moaning about the fact that he would have rather done underground entirely, but I for one am glad that we went for the mixed route! So we all hopped into the water which was quite chilly and for 45 minutes floated along through caves (which kind of freaked me out) and through mangroves and even past some animal enclosures, including the manatee area, so there were also fish swimming about. We were not able to take our camera into the river, although we did have Maria's underwater camera, but the pictures did not turn out well, so just believe me that it was very cool.

They have photographers here and there along the river to get pictures of all the people so this is one of two that we have. Maria was further along the river swimming with her friend Katie!

After the river we came out and had some lunch, while being serenaded by an amazing mariachi band. We then spent a while checking out the bats, butterflies and the aquarium, where we saw so many different creatures it was incredible.

The Blue Morphos Butterfly was the highlight in the butterfly pavilion

About this time we were debating whether the kids would be able to handle the show that was to cap off the evening. The show was to be two hours long, starting at 6:30pm and we would then have our bus ride home... and this was on top of a very busy, long day. We decided we might as well give it a whirl, the kids were still in good spirits and it would be a fun memory for them.

So we hustled back all the way across to the other side of the park and just made it in time for the show. The show was really quite cool. There was a demonstration of the Mayan ball games that were played long ago, then they did a brief show of the history of the area and then musical numbers from different areas of Mexico. It was very entertaining, and just a little too long for the younger two kids, they each fell asleep during the show... but that was ok too. Part way through the show, we became aware of a loud pounding sound, and soon realized that it was not raining... it was down-pouring. The large grass roof on the show arena kept out most of the rain... but then we had to make a run back to the bus, and we got SOAKED! It was a blast...

The ball game where the players are not allowed to use hands or feet to shoot the ball through the rings... this looked tricky, but the one with a burning ball looked very impressive to the kids!

Some music and dancing at the show

Ahh, I almost got warm there! Now back to our regularly scheduled, long-lasting, winter...

We had a blizzard on Saturday and today it is -29... sigh.

These Boots are Made for Walking

One of our concerns of moving up here has been our dog, Suki. Suki has never liked being cold and it was really difficult to get her to go outside when it was cold and rainy... we had no idea how she would do in the REAL cold.

She has actually done quite well, much better than we expected. She is much more willing to go outside in the dry cold and since we don't get much rain, it hasn't been an issue. The only problem she has had is when it is -30 or colder her feet hurt. There were a few times when she went outside and would be limping and whining after a quick pee, so there was no question of going out for any longer (not that anyone wants to be outside when it is -30 or colder!).

So Nana decided that Suki needed some boots. Yes, our dog has boots, but these boots aren't made for walking... more like dancing :)