Christmas Away from Home

So, I have to admit that I have already broken one of my new years resolutions.

I planned to blog more and get pictures uploaded quicker than I had in the past.

Here is our Christmas 2011 update:

Hannah getting a bit too comfortable. I think that Caitlyn turned her head because Amanda was telling us that it was 'Time to go.'

Our girls were pretty worried this year that Santa wouldn't find them since we wouldn't be at home this year on Christmas Eve. We made sure to go see him at the mall and tell him that we would be at our cousins house.

Here is the oldest cousin (she turned eight on Dec. 25th) giving all the kids a story time before bed.


Christmas tree before presents from Santa

This picture is out of order, but this is the remains of the snack (cookies & milk) and the reply from Santa in a letter one of the cousins wrote to him.

It is a tradition for our girls to have Grampa read them 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. With Grampa being really uncomfortable sitting in the car for an extended period of time, him and Gramma stayed at home this Christmas.

We called Grampa and put the call on 'speaker phone' so that he could read the story to everybody! I think, based on this picture, that they really thought that was neat!

Christmas Morning 2011 - Opening stockings from Santa

Four hours later (give or take) and our stuff was already organized and packed!

We celebrated somebodies birthday that same evening!

Kids look like they are having a blast! (Wow, sorry about the red eye!)

It actually snowed for the very first time on Boxing Day.

Our drive home was pretty uneventful although weather wise it was interesting.

We started the morning with -10C and about a foot of snow. I actually had to brush the snow off of the car and let it run for a bit to warm it up. An hour and a half of highway driving later and we were snow free and +2C. Another hour and a half (through Toronto or the Capital of the World) it was +8C and we were actually driving with motorcycles on the 4-0-1!!

After we arrived back home and had unpacked we opened our presents from Winnipeg.

Here are the girls with two of their favourite presents from Santa this year- Lotso (he smells like strawberries and Bullseye from their favourite movie Toy Story.

A chocolate 'H' from Grandma 'B' & Grandpa 'R'

The next day we had present opening with Gramma & Grampa.

Guess who was excited to play 'Santa'?

Gramma & Grampa were given a 'Family Tree' quilt with five generations of names printed on each leaf.

Caitlyn is now in charge of supplying us with dinner music!

Mom and Dad's First Visit to the Home of Purple & Orange

TRICK OR TREAT!

This year I figured that we would have more kids for Hallowe'en than the 15 we had last year so I purchased enough candy for about 50 trick or treaters. Then, after dinner it started to rain.

CAITLYN KITTY-CAT

HANNAH KITTY-CAT

CAITLYN KITTY-CAT, AUNTIE WIZARD, HANNAH KITTY-CAT & BIG BABY MOMMY

LEFT OVER CANDY FOR MOMMY & DADDY!!

(We had a grand total of 20 kids)

Fall Fun? Not really!

During the last week we've had quite a bit of rain, but one evening in particular it seemed as though it was getting quite windy outside. We heard a loud noise outside after putting the girls to bed, and I checked and noticed that our barbecue had rolled into our deck table. That's when I also noticed something else different, our canopy was no longer above the barbecue. I turned the outside light on to see that the entire canopy, including the "high quality steel construction" had completely ripped out of our deck and landed partly on our lawn. Getting our shoes and jackets, Amanda and I quickly went outside in the pouring rain with a flashlight to remove the awning (canopy) part before the whole thing blew away even further.

So much for thinking that it would last us a few years, more like a few months!
Apparently, the deck screws I had were pretty good, as they stayed in place.

"LIKING HIKING" ????

As you can see, we were all smiles as we started our hiking adventure.

The girls wanted to do some exploring and wanted to find pinecones and leaves.

Starting out on our trek.

Due to all the rain we had the previous week, there were quite a few places where walking was a bit slippery due to the mud and wet leaves.

Still smiling!

Not smiling anymore. (Especially after finding out that we were only half way!)

When the sign at the parking lot said that the nature trail would take

1 1/2 hours, we figured that wasn't too bad. We got back to the car after 2 3/4 hours!

We were all grumpy, sore, tired, thirsty and HUNGRY!

As Hannah said to me after our hike "Daddy next time Caitlyn and I are bored at home, we won't come back here we will just find different toys to play with!"