I cannot even begin to wrap my head around the fact that July is over. Really....July is over!? Is this just an April Fools prank that somebody is playing on me?
If it really is August that means it is almost hat & mitt season again. I have yet to convince N that he doesn't need to wear his winter hat every time we go outside. If he doesn't have his winter hat on it is rare that he doesn't have a hood pulled up over his head. It must have become a comfort crutch of sorts. I was wearing a really cute little red fleece jacket on him but the hood is ridiculous. It has a pointed hood on it and it reminds of the Travelocity Gnome. Every time I put it on him and he pulled the hood up I always thought to myself "someday he is going to hate me for letting him wear this and taking pictures of it". One day we were at the "playground" and a little boy from play school was there as well and said that N was wearing a Santa hood. That was the end of that jacket. It was one thing for me to think it was funny/cute but the second I saw someone else pick up on.....bye bye jacket. Ah well, it was cute while it lasted.
Once again I have a crazy amount of pictures to share. We had a blast this month. We went on many quading adventures, saw lots of wildlife, caught a few fish, took a few dips in the water, flew some kites and took in what will likely be our last full month of July in this lovely town we are lucky to call home.
We also one day of "those days". July 17....I visited the health centre 3 times in one day.
First I went, nothing serious but I was there.
Then, in the early afternoon N and I were headed outside to play with some kids. He missed the last two stairs. Off to the health centre we go and 1 (should have been 2 but that wasn't happening) stitch later we were away again.
And then that night our English Mastiff Morley started bleeding out from his gums. Talk about a helpless feeling. I remember when we decided to move up here one of our major hesitations was the fact that there is not a vet. We do have three dogs so it was a legitimate concern. Up until this day we had been doing okay. No major issues, but when your 6 yr old dog starts bleeding from his gums and becomes lethargic to the point of not even moving his tongue when we were trying to get pictures to send to the vet......well we were worried.
With the help of no less than 4 people we were able to fix him up. We got a short supply of pills from the health centre and our old vet in YK took a larger supply of pills to the airport to catch the next flight.
He's been off the pills for 5 days now, and so far so good. Yes, I did know on wood.
So here is our July in pictures.
It was pretty great!
Who doesn't love to fly a kite
I know I do.
He's a natural!
This little yellow plane was in town for a few weeks. They were tracking the Caribou. From what I understand they were hoping to see them all get together and form one big herd, but that didn't happen while they were here.
Mr Seal.
Impromptu quad beach party. We went out by ourselves and ended up at quite the social gathering. We were out site seeing, some were out gathering glacial water (that's a little chunk in the pic) and others were heading out to Egg Island.
It's pretty cool quading on the beach beside the Arctic Ocean
Weird Sand/Mud
R's first fish. Bahaha. A little flounder. N said it was a baby. R already taught him all about fish stories and now if you ask him how big it was he stretches his arms out nice and wide.
Hot dog roast up by the river. Awesome day with awesome people.
Considering we are kind of in the middle of nowhere I was more than a little surprised when our picnic site...in the middle of nowhere turned into an afternoon social drop in. A whole crew of people were heading out caribou hunting a few hours out of town. I'm not exaggerating when I say at least 6 other quads stopped in to say "hi".
A little perk of no trees is that kids can run and run and run. Really, where are they going to go you can literally see them for miles.
On our way to go blueberry picking
Yup, that's me. I got stuck. Sunk right in the mud. Got winched out. Is it bad that I thought it was kind of fun?
The blueberry search in on!!!
Another trip over to Crowts. Sand dunes are fun. Another one of those spots where kids can just run and run and run. Hmmmm, there seems to be a theme emerging here.
Now, if you look really close you can see a mama caribou and her little one. Over towards the left just past the dirt. By the time I dug my camera out they were getting pretty far away.
A few people from YK came up for R's work. They brought Tim Hortons treats with them. N just couldn't decide what he liked the best. Totally reminded my of my Aunt M and her dang chocolate experiments. Pot of Gold and M do not mesh well.
Yeah, they are cute, but there are three of these little birds that kept me up for nights on end chirping away. This was 2 am and there they are just looking at me. Good thing they are cute.
Big news. A new boat in town! It actually just left yesterday but it was here for about 10 days. I guess they were lucky to make it into town because they were having mechanical issues and they got stuck here while they waited for a part to be flown in. Not a bad place to get stuck.
We were having a blast one evening down on the sandy beach. R was working and called on the radio to ask where we were. We told him...just down the hill from the dump. He said he was at the dump and to come up....
There was a big ol grizzly bear at the dump.
I'll admit I panicked a little but once we got up there and saw exactly where the bear was I felt okay again. It's not a nice feeling thinking a grizzly is eyeing you up.
He's the dot past the dirt by the lake. Not really that far away but it looks it in this picture. He took off running a few minutes later.
GONE FISHING
It started off as a beautiful sunny morning.
All except one direction.
The direction we were going.
Holy Fog
We were headed out to Dennis Lake - a 2 hr quad ride and yes we did have a 2yr old with us and another couple had a 1 yr old with them. They were super stars and rocked it!
The Enchanted Forest.
When you are above the tree line this is pretty neat to come across.
Erie and really spectacular all at the same time.
Arriving at Dennis Lake. I asked our leader if you could normally see the other side of the lake or if was really big and you couldn't see anything. She assured me that when it was clear you could see lots including the other side of the lake.
Talk about a group of people in their glory.
We had such an amazing day. It started out crazy with all the fog and ended up being clear and marvellous.
A total catch was 5, 6 -7 lb lake trout and a whole bunch of memories.
N is quite the baker.
Pretty proud of himself.
There is a new rule in our house:
No baking without Mom and Dad.
We have flour in our sugar and sugar in our flour
and 1 little baker boy
The moon is at it again
It still doesn't get dark here. This is it.
Taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean.
It was pretty warm yesterday, I was a little tempted,
But Nah.
Brrrr
Kids just have better insulation.
They didn't mind it at all.
So as I sit here trying to hurry and finish this up because I mistakenly hit "publish" instead of save before I finished up, this is what I see off my deck. Not a bad view on another spectacular 26 degree day in Paulatuk.
It may seem a bit like I'm rubbing it in, you know, what a wonderful summer we are having. You're right, I am. I only get 1.5 months to do it so I'm getting all the good stuff in while we can. Before I know it we'll be bunkered down for another 9 months of real, hard core winter and I will be reading all your facebook posts about how you are still camping, swimming and enjoying the last bits of summer.
So yes, it's true. Our summer has been one for the record books and I am rubbing it in.
What will August bring.....
