The Perfect Summer Fruit...

...especially when it brings back such great memories of my childhood days. Back when all watermelons, it seemed, still had black seeds.

I was so delighted when I cut this one open after bringing it home from a roadside stand.

"This is the real thing, kids!" I said.

"Cool! Can we collect the seeds and put them in the garden?!" was their immediate response.

I love how they love the outdoors and how excited they are to watch things grow.

*****

What's your favorite summer fruit? And do you have memories of childhood summers eating them outside, as well?

Winter on the Pond

The weather was so much warmer today than it has been in a long time and so I took Jayden and Marcus down to the pond while DH stayed with napping Allan.

Here they are going out to check the ice.

After a few tentative steps Marcus joined Jayden in a game of "hockey" with a puck that they found. And when they were through with that, we all had a grand ol' time doing this!

Then they wanted to go see if they could find the Canada geese that are normally so crowded around here but nary a one was seen...

Marcus found this massive stick, though, and decided that that would be a great one to carry all the way home in order to "show Dad". Why is it, I wonder, that they need to find the biggest one?!

I'm not really asking... I know it's 'cause they're boys and that's what boys do! :o)

*****

This has been my inspiration for this winter adventure. Have any of you read this?

There and Back

Our trip through the Rockie Mountains to the Fraser Valley of B. C.

Driving from Calgary towards the mountains was quite daunting to say the least! It felt a little crazy that we should be entering them in the depths of winter.

The scenery was breathtaking, though, even more so on our way back yesterday. The sun was shining bright and there was a fresh, thick layer of snow on everything... (except the road, thankfully!)

There were so many of these waterfalls in a beautiful frozen blue/green color, many of them huge and right along the side of the road.

These were the road conditions for most of the way there... not too bad...

until we got to Hope, B. C. and then it was slushy and slippery. We were thankful it was still light out and that it wasn't snowing!

We arrived at around 2:30 on Dec.24th and as soon as we got there it started snowing like crazy! Here is a picture of my parents yard... looking out their front door.

Christmas day at my parent's. Standing on the dike looking towards the Fraser River.

My sister, Racheal, tobogganing down the hill on which I broke my hand.

My parents' place... so beautiful. We had the whole basement to ourselves... it was wonderful.

My oldest brother, Steffen, rigged up this sled to pull behind the Kaboda... what fun we had sliding around on the driveway!

Just along the dike from my parents place is Steffen's place (you can see a bit amongst the trees in the picture below)... it's so nice that he is close by and we spent a lot of time visiting together.

When we arrived home yesterday this is only how far we made it into our driveway... we had to walk the rest of the way to the house!

This picture doesn't do the situation justice at all...'cause, boy, are we ever snowed in!

My DH definitely has his work cut out for him with the snow shovel!

Doorways

" Between every two pines

is a doorway to a new world."

~John Muir

Took a leisurely ramble down to the pond yesterday morning

with my sister, her two littlest, and my three.

So glad we took the time to get outside in the fresh air

on what looks to have been the last warm day for a while.

I'm gonna have to get real creative with warm clothes

in order to keep this up through the cold prairie winters! ;)

Getting Outside

"It seems to me that we all

look at Nature too much,

and live with her too little."

~Oscar Wilde

So... Inspired by the chapter "kids... beyond the backyard" in this book, we set out as a family yesterday afternoon to the lake for a stroll through "the wild".

The weather was beautiful for this time of year (19 c) and I was all excited, thinking that even though it may get a little chilly towards evening I would just bundle the children real well with warm coats and even brought along mittens just in case!

Low and behold, when we got to the lake, I proceeded to get out the coats and found that I had forgotten Allan's coat in the stack I had taken!

Well, we decided we'd just have to make do and so Marcus' coat went on Allan, Jayden's coat went on Marcus, Daddy's coat went on Jayden and Daddy?... well, Daddy just had to freeze, that was all there was to it. First we took a trail along the side of the lake.


When I wasn't carrying Allan...We were doing this.

We we got back from our walk we made a fire and roasted wieners. Then a rousing game of tag with all five of us, a big pile of leaves for jumping in and burying each other and a ramble through the trees in the twilight looking for sticks to put on the fire.

We drove home through the dark with the boys falling asleep in the back seat...

So thankful to have made these beautiful memories of crisp Autumn moments.

A Fishing Trip and a ... Caterpiller?

Went down to the river yesterday afternoon so that the boys could try out thier new fishing rod. Hmmm, Decisions, Decisions.
Daddy helping them with the bait.
Allan gets to try, too. Didn't catch anything but still smiles all around. A beautiful afternoon.

On our way back up the path, Jayden found this ...

Caterpiller?

We're not too sure what it's called.

Do any of ya'll know?

If not, there's always the internet! :)

Us

Enjoyed an afternoon at the lake yesterday....