and... Fall into Winter

So Winter has once again caught us by surprise! Scooters and bikes still scatter the backyard and yes we had planned to go cranberry picking this weekend. We will need a shovel apparently! Kate is thrilled... first real snow in a year and a half. Mira was caught without boots so yet another trip to the store for Mira! We have found mitts, hats, scarves and coats and so it goes... ha ha what fun.

Hope you are all well.

Paul is off moose hunting - hopefully he brought mitts and a warm change of clothes.

Kate and Mira with their first snowman.

View from our window this morning.

Happy third day of fall from the Yukon. s

Summer and into the Fall

Hi all, Long time not write....

So the summer has come and gone. We are, as you all know, back in Whitehorse. Back in our house, with friends and cutting wood! Paul is still wearing shorts despite a number 0 and -1 on our thermometers mornings!

Shock o' shocks, I am back to work full time. This was not as tough as I thought it would be but Kate found it hard to suddenly find herself without two adults at her beck and call all the time. She has now adjusted. Mira and Kate are back at school. Mira is happy to be in Grade 6 and back with all her friends. She is racing through the Harry Potter books in her free time and getting into dance and activities. Kate is excited to be meeting and playing with new friends. There is a gaggle of little girls in the neighbourhood now and she has a busy play-date schedule. She is doing ballet this year... Paul was voting for some martial arts as a better fit for her but the pink tutu won out.

Here are few highlights from our summer....

Kate and Cousin Ava kayaking at the cottage.

Trouble? Kate, Ava, and Mira.

The cousins: David, Mira, Ava and Kate

This is a four photo sequence. This could be a hunt from the animal network.

The posee circles around the unsuspecting vacationer....

The herd attacks.

Successful take- down.

Prey gets away without a loss of a drop of beer

The three sisters.

Kiss?

Mira and the Official Harry Potter Exhibition Poster ....

Sharon and Ann 'just goofing around' at the Ontario Science Centre.

Back In WHITEHORSE, Yukon, Canada!

Labour Day weekend we took off with friends to Atlin, BC

Atlin Lake

Kids climbing and watching for Bears?

Vistas.

Boys or at least most of them back from a 5 hour Mountain Bike Ride...

Cold Mira?

Felix, Kate, Sacha, Mira, Wakey wakey.

First Day at School, August, 2010 (Mira is thrilled and Kate, well, she looks scared!)

Art is up... Weaving from Laos, Window from Victorian House in Ontario (FH) and Painting from Vietnam.

Kate being Kate.

Paul has been busy. This is our house. Can you see it? It is there.

Oh, now you can see it. I came home from work to find this on our front lawn. I drove around the corner and when I saw this sight I almost laughed myself right off the road.

Cheers to all, love sharon

Canada? We're back....

Hi all, I haven't written for sometime.. I guess I am in denial - Is the trip really over?

We arrived home safe and sound - more or less. The jet lag really threw us for a good loop. We were the better part of a week just getting back to a sane schedule - we had a few yogurt parties at 3am and Mom graciously joined us for the fun.

We have been able to get out to the cottage some. We are doing our part to keep cottage traditions alive and imparting the "fun" in menial labour. Mira and Kate or should I say Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did the fence this year. They didn't go through nearly as much paint as Kay and I did when we were young but the job still got done.

Mira hard at work.

Kate painting the fence - white!

Cleaning the brushes.

The girls have been very excited to come back to visit Grandma, Alice and the cousins.

Alice celebrating Canada Day with Mira.

Not nearly as fun as the parade in Skagway, Jan and Sharon in Cobourg.

Cousins.

Smile.

Poor Alice.

Cottage fun continues. I am not nearly as brave as I was when I was 12 and now, as the 'watch person' I gasp a great deal, cover my eyes (not a good habit when you are supposed to be watching) and whisper 'slow down' under my breath while the kids squeal with glee......

Kate is officially toothless - this one was lost during a particularly competitive game of Twister.

Cheers from Canada, s

Images from Australia

We are preparing to end our voyage. Paul and I were saying that this has been a really wonderful adventure. We have been so lucky and had a spectacular time.

So we are packing up tonight getting ready to head to Hong Kong for the weekend before heading back to Ontario. Here are a few images from Australia before we say bye.

Sydney Harbour at night.

Sea food anyone?

Paul, Mira and Kate searching for platypus.

Fancy drink at Paul's aunt's nephew's bar in Port Douglas.

Cockatoo in the park.

Freckly girls.

Outback and a termite mound. They are everywhere!

Kate having fun.

Saying goodbye to the beach.

We got to go to the Reef a second time - a couple upstairs in our apartment complex won first place in the Cane Toad races and won a free trip to the reef. They gave us their pass and we did the rest. This time we went to the Opal Reef. Another fantastic day was had by all....

Kate free diving down to look at a clam.

Mira getting friendly with the wildlife.

The crazy snorkelers.

Cheers. mate. s

So what do you do all day?

Hi all, thought you would like to see some photos of our fun... especially since our days are numbered.

Kate is a crocodile and Mira is the box jelly fish.

We are overlooking the 'stinger net' - the protective net that is going to save us from the jellyfish.

We entered in the sandcastle competition - this is our rendition of a salty croc... We wrote in the sand "A Yukon Family Saltwater Crocodile" and the judge thought we were the Yukon Family - like the Smith or Jones Family. We didn't place.

Happy to be on the beach?

Watch out for stingers.

Catching hermit crabs on the beach.

We went up to Cape Tribulation. It is in the Daintree Rainforest. The rainforest comes right down to the sea. It has tons of birds and snakes... look it up.

Kate beside the 12 meter marker for the flooding that takes place in this area.

We did do a croc tour and no, we didn't do any swimming.

Here is old salty.

Along the road to Cape Tribulation, there are lots of warnings about Cassowary crossings. These are huge birds with a horn on their head. We didn't see any in the wild but we saw some on our day in the Rainforest Habitat.

Watch out for these critters.

Kate and the vegetation.

The gang just goofing around.

Take a careful look at this photo. Way back in the back you can see some young woman with her top off and Kate is doing the same :)

Enjoying the sand and sun.

Kate.

Yep, we are here too.

So when you spend two weeks in a town of 3000, you have to look for something fun to do. So we went to the cane toad races at the bar. These toads were brought into Australia to control the Cane Beetle but oops, the cane beetles are found at the top of the sugar cane and the toads don't jump that high. So they have billions of these pests and nothing to kill'em. But it does make for entertaining racing. Kate's ticket was pulled so she encouraged her toad named Fat Bastard. She placed 4th. She did not kiss it... asked mom to do that!

Kate getting Fat Bastard to jump.

End of the race.

That is all from Port Douglas, Queensland for now. cheers. s