The Lost Months...part 2

Back home in Paulatuk.

I am going to begin and end this entry with two pictures that I did not take. These pictures were taken by a very talented friend  who has captured some of the most beautiful shots I have seen of our wonderful little town. I often find my self in awe of the shots she posts and wonder "Why don't my pictures look like that?" I'll try to work on my photography skills, but until then she said that I could share her photo's with you to enjoy. So Miss Kendra Knaggs - Thank You for letting me share your spectacular pictures.

 

See what I"m talking about! It's fantastic isn't it!!!

This was taken out on the bay in front of town. I recently took the plunge and decided to buy a good camera. One that I can take pictures of the Northern Lights with. I must say that I do LOVE my new camera but it does intimidate me. I'm not sure how to do much with it and I'll be the first to admit my track record with camera's is not the best. Having said that - it does take really nice photo's and it makes me excited to know that one day I might be able to catch moments like this. I am not much of an artsy person but I have noticed that I am beginning to spot some great photo moments and I feel like maybe I've found something that might awaken the artsy side of me.

When I first thought about the months I missed, November, December and January, I thought "Oh gosh they were all the same, what am I going to write about?"   I started sorting through the pictures and realised that although many days were similar to the one before and after there were certainly highlights tucked in there too.

So here we go - our life in pictures for the past 3 months.

We were welcomed back home with a new sight out on the bay.  A boat.  The story is it blew across the frozen bay one day and now it is destined to spend the winter right there. As I write this I can see it sitting out there full of snow.  This is how you winterise your boat right? 

 

Here's N sporting the moccasins I made him last year.  As you can see they were getting all bunched up.  I thought it was liking because of my sewing skills, or lack of sewing skills.  Turns out it was an easy fix.  The duffel liner was getting twisted around.  So after a little more sewing he's all fixed up now. 

 

 

N and R cooking up a storm.  R was making gnocchi and N was helping roll it out.  I told him to make a snake with it like he does with play dough.  He rolled it, R cut it and then we cooked his separate so he kind of made his own supper.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

 

 

 

 

A few weeks after we came home we went to Yellowknife for 4 days.  R was selected to receive an award for work so we packed our bags back up and headed down.  The morning we were set to leave the weather was clear.  Come noon the weather was changing.  Sometimes we could see across the bay and the next moment everything was white.  The plane that picked us up was a few hours behind schedule so we figured by that time everything would be white. 

 

The pilot must have found just the right moment to land.  We were happy to hear the plane, but even after it landed, we couldn't see it down the runway until it was really close to us.  He opened the door and R had to hold it while we loaded up so that it wouldn't blow and bang into the plane.

 

The person who came into to replace R looked more than a little nervous as he hunched forward to try to power walk across the tarmac into the wind.

 

Once we were flying everything was clear.  Not only was it clear but we had quite the view of the sunset.

 

 

 

 

We tried to make the most if our short trip to Yellowknife.  N and I went swimming at the pool with some friends, we had supper at a friends house, a play date and we ate some nice meals at a nice restaurant in the hotel and walked around Walmart looking at all the things we couldn't bring back with us because of weight restrictions on the plane.  There were also some less than stellar moments.  The battery on our vehicle kept dying, the temperature in the hotel room was HOT the first night, the pillows were at least a foot high.  We didn't get a whole lot of sleep at the hotel...and I really like to sleep.

 

Coming home we had to leave a suitcase and N's car seat in YK because there were more people on the plane - more people means more weight....and that means even less luggage.  That was ok because the plane was making a few trips up over the next few months and we didn't need those things right away.  We hopped on the plane, and it was the start of a very long trip home.  We first travelled to Fort McPherson, Aklavik and Inuvik to drop other people off.  Then we were on our way to Paulatuk.  We were over town and the pilot couldn't see the runway.  Another storm.  Ugggg.  So off to Yellowknife we were again.  After an entire day spent on a plane we spent another night in a hotel and hopped on the plane early again the next day.

 

The pilot warned us that the weather wasn't looking very good, but he'd fly up and see what it looked like.  He landed.  It was windy, but we were pretty thrilled to be back home.  It was a long few days.

 

This was loading up for the 1st attempt home.

There were less smiles on day two......

 

 

So that was November.  The other major thing that happened in November was the last sunrise.  The sun made it's final appearance on November 20. 

 

 

Which brings us to December.

 

 

N was pretty serious about building his Gingerbread House

 

 

 

 

Even our little town sitting on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, miles above the tree line had a Christmas Tree this year.

 

It wasn't really a tree, it looked like an upside down tomato plant holder, but it worked just fine.  That is until the wind blew it over....a few times.

 

Remember at this point we had been living without the sun for a month so Christmas lights really make a difference and puts you in a more festive mood.  While some people dream of a white Christmas, that was a given for us - we were dreaming of lots and lots of people decorating their houses with as many lights as they could.

 

We also had a Santa parade.  There were about 10 vehicles in it.  The fire truck, the school bus which is a white cargo van, a few 1/2 tonne trucks that were decorated, the RCMP truck, water truck, fuel truck, sewer truck, garbage truck and of course Santa was in his sleigh.....but Santa was missing his beard this year?

 

Which reminds me.  Santa visited the store this year.  Again - Santa was missing his beard so the store managers wife made him one.  She made it out of white fox fur.  It worked perfectly and I bet our store Santa's beard was softer than yours ; )

 

A happy boy

 

 

We spent the Christmas Day and the days on each side of it, bunkered down.  It was the first blizzard of the year.  Which meant that not as much visiting with friends happened as we had planned.  If we could have seen anything other than white we might have made an attempt, but we were fine staying in, rationing our water to try to avoid running out and just waiting out the storm.

 

On New Years Eve we did get together with our friends in town.  We had a big turkey meal exchanged Christmas stories and then close to midnight we bundled up and headed up to where the Christmas tree was to watch the fireworks.  For a town of 300 people - the fireworks were something to see.  Twenty minutes of non stop dazzling fireworks.  N was fascinated and for the next few weeks was asking to go see more nightly.

 

 

And now - onto January.

 

January was long.  It was cold and dark.

 

I know we essentially live in the North Pole and we do have the clothes to make it more manageable but we had weeks of -30 something and then add in the windchill and it became -50.  That's cold.  N and I still made our daily trek up to and back from playschool.  One day I was walking back up to pick up N and the kids had just gotten out of school.  I had to do a double take because they were all walking backwards because the wind was coming straight at us.  

 

 

The rest of these pictures were all taken on my new camera.  I'm a little excited to see if I can tell the difference.

 

 



 

 





Cutie!! 

He looked at this chocolate hedgehog for about 5 minutes

before he decided he could eat it and not hurt him after all.

 

Yes, we bike inside...and look, it's really fun

That is our calender on the wall

N is really getting good with days of the week and numbers up to 30

 

 

During the dusky period.

It's not dark...but it's not really light

It is beautiful

 

Getting a little artsy

At the end of town

 

LOOK WHAT I DID

 

 

After 8 years of living in the North and seeing so many beautiful Northern Lights, wishing I could get a picture of them, I DID IT!!!

 

I took it right out on the bay infront of our house.  That's our  house right above the words "North and seeing"  I got a bunch of pictures but I like this one the best because our house is in it.  Pretty cool.

 

Another lady and I were out there, both with new camera's, trying to figure out what settings we needed to get our camera's on.  It was a little tough in the dark and I kept having to take my seal skin mitts of to play with the different controls.  I actually froze my thumb...but it was worth it.

 

We also had a little visitor while we were out there.  A fox.  We saw him coming, he kept getting closer and closer and that was fine until he was about 10' feet away.  I figured that was close enough and then scared him off, a few times.

 

 

Another one taken by yours truely

 

 

TADA

 

 It's the sun, it's the sun, it's the beautiful SUN!!

January 20 it just peeked over the hills

This was it - the moment

 

The next day...a little higher

 

 

I'll be the first to admit I like things that sparkle

I swear the sky was sparkling

Stunning

 

This is how N rolls.

He's sitting on sheepskin, bundled in his regular outdoor gear

and has a quilt on top.  Somedays I wish we could trade places.

 

 

N says he is The Balloon King

I have to agree with him.

 

 

As soon as N wakes up in the morning he says "hmmmm, which one"  He is talking about balloons.  It is after all a tough deciding which colour balloon to start the day with.  When we get home from pre school he gets another balloon.  Oh yes it true, 2 balloons each and every day.  These balloons were left overs from a Birthday party we hosted.  N was in balloon heaven.  I let the balloon count in the house get to about 6 and then the balloon fairy comes once he is in bed and makes about 5 of them disapper.

 



 Not only is he the Balloon King

He's also a fountain....

 

 

 

 

The school held a Welcome Back The Sun party.  A little Dance Dance Revolution, obstical race and good 'ol freeze tag were in store for the kids.  N had a blast!!

 

 

 

 

N doing a little jig in -30 but no wind = warm day

 

 

Hockey Pool Standings

 

 

You quickly learn up here that sometimes you need to create your own fun.  Last year we had a play off hockey pool.  It was really fun.  Gave us something to do and a few rivalries started up.  I didn't do so well - I think I was 3rd from the bottom.  This year I did research.  I have 4 pages of notes - stats, the whole deal.  Last week I was at the top - this week I'm third and if Claude Giroux and Patrick Marleau decide to start playing again, maybe I'll get to the top again.

 

Draft Day

Serious business going on here....

 

Picasso??

He drew his family - the 3yr old is the biggest ; )

 

 

 

Not only is he the the cutest kid ever - but he also enjoys posing for me.  Well up to a point.  When he's had enough he says "that's enough" and emphasizes it by throwing his arms around.  I took this photo with my new 50mm lens.  I can set the aperture on it to make everything in the background fuzzy.  Love it!!

 

 

As you can see arts and crafts is alive and well at our house.

Hearts seem to be the favourite shape lately and thankfully "make it rain" seems to have come to an end.  Make it rain consisted of him throwing all the scrap paper up in the air.  I can see how it would be fun, but the clean up didn't do much for me, or him.

 

 

 

This is my favourite non N picture.  It's artsy hey.  Maybe I do have it in me after all.

 

 

So there we have it.  I am now all caught up.

 

I must say I am proud of myself.

 

Here is the other picture I wanted to share with you that Kendra took.  It is one of the local men, his dogs, rifle and a fox he got.  There was one (yet to be confirmed two) rabid foxes in town.  Last week was a bad week to be a fox up here..

 

 

 

Now you are all caught up on life in Paulatuk

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

 



 

 

 





The Lost Months - Part 1

Where oh where to begin?

Morro Bay, California

I'll start this off with a warning - I have no idea where this post is going to end up. 

I now have literally months to catch up on.  We were out for a family vacation for the month of October and had a wonderful time.  We made lots of memories, captured many wonderful moments on camera and were able to see and experience so many great things all while spending time with family and friends. 

We flew back to home on Halloween and I had great intentions of actually posting about our vacation which I haven't done in the past.  I figured since this has turned into my somewhat public diary this would be an easy way for me to write down my favourite moments and be able to share them with family and friends at the same time.

It wasn't meant to be.

The computer started smoking. 

Nope - not a good sign.  Of course there is not an electronics store or computer repair store in town so we had to ship it off to the computer doctor.  That didn't happen easily though.  Initially the computer doctors told us we had to order a new charger for the computer first to see if that was the problem.  Of course it wasn't so after waiting a few weeks for the charger to arrive in the mail we then had to ship it off to a friend who could download our photos in case the hard drive was erased.  Add another couple of weeks for this.  Then the computer doctors fixed it up and sent it back to us with a courier company that doesn't come here.....ahhh, because no courier company comes here.  It was sent across the country twice.  So - if you are still following all of this computer drama - we finally received it back last week.  Oh happy day!!!

Okay - I think I have decided how I am going to do this.  I'm going to go through my 700 pictures and pick my favourite 20.  That's it.  Okay - now that I have a plan in place let's get this together.

.......................................this space represents 45 minutes looking at pictures.................................. 

Here's the latest play by play.  Twenty pictures is not going to cut it.  I went through our October vacation pictures and I have 21.  Then that still leaves 4.5 months to catch up on.  Although many of January's pictures are of the same thing.  The SUN!  I swear that the week the sun came back I took a couple hundred pictures of it.  It was just such a welcome sight after it's two month absence I just couldn't help myself.  I think I essentially have a play by play for the week of the sun. 

What was I thinking?!?  Twenty pictures.  In addition to the 21 that I want to add from our October vacation there are also 32 from our winter so far in Paulatuk.  So that means the count is at 53....20 huh.  Insert snark here ; )

So lets begin this little journey.

I left town a week earlier than R did.  So N and I went on a bit of milk run to get back to Nova Scotia.  Our first day was Paulatuk to Inuvik.  We spent a night there.  N saw the trees - being close to the tree line they are small.  We don't have any trees so any tree is big to N.  He saw them and said, "Wow, big, tall, trees"  Once at the hotel there was some grass still showing.  He got down and rubbed his cheek against it and said "soft, cuddly, grass"  Oh man. 

From Inuvik we went to Edmonton for a night.  Then finally to Halifax the next day. 

The weather in Halifax was great.  We were able to experience fall all over again.  We went from hats and snow suites to t-shirts and sandals.  It was wonderful.

We had a wonderful, warm week with family. 

Blissful.

 

 

 

 

Once R arrived a week later we headed down to where his parents live to visit.  The weather stayed beautiful and our wonderful vacation continued.

 

I spent an awesome day with L, my friend since kindergarten.  I have pictures of us with our socks pulled up to our knees, hair in pig tails and various class pictures over playground equipment.  As you can imagine we have lots of fun memories and this day was another one to add to the many wonderful ones we already share.

 

We went on a wine tasting tour in Gaspereau Valley, NS.  We rode on a pink double decker bus and toured 3 different places.  Seriously - the pink double decker bus would have been fun on it's own, but add wine into the equation....we had a really fun day.



 

 

 

 

 

The pictures kind of tell the story on their own.  The Nova Scotia part of vacation we spent with family and friends exploring our own backyard.  Well, our parents own backyards.

 

We spent afternoons hiking down old railroad tracks, flying kites, having picnics in sod fields, rolling down hills, visiting museums and just spending time with the people we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

 

As always, we ran out of time.  I had great plans to visit more people, more often.  Things just never seem to work out that way.  Time seems to slip away while your busy exploring.

 

 

Next Stop

 

California

 

Well Hello again San Francisco

 

Oh, how we missed you!

 

 

 

A few years ago R and I travelled to California with another couple and had a great time.  We knew we would come back as soon as we could.  

 

There were so many things to be explored and and things to see.  We loved it all.  My favourite part was Napa.  Not only because of the obvious reason - the wine, but I just loved the over all feeling that I got while I was there.  It's country.  There are fields and fields of vines and amongst them all there are wonderful tasting rooms that you can pop into and visit, talk with not only the servers, but also the wine makers and often the owner is lingering not too far away. 

 

There is also a wonderful river front town that has small shops lining the streets and award winning restaurants tucked in with all this greatness. 

 

Wine, Country, Shops and Restaurants, what's not to love?

 

We made a deal that we would not open the last bottle of wine we bought in Napa until we had booked a return visit.

 

We came back with four bottles.  I accidentally opened one a few months after we came home.  It was the same brand as another bottle we had, but a different type and year.  I opened it and R asked me what the special occasion was.....um, Thursday? 

 

 Opps. 

 

We opened the second bottle when we sold our house in Yellowknife and we still have two bottle in storage.  They both have special occasions waiting for them, but they haven't happened yet, and we didn't want to wait much longer to return.

 

With a little encouragement from friends - we booked another trip.  An epic road trip.

 

We started out in San Francisco and ended up in San Diego 2 weeks later.  We went from San Francisco - Napa - Oakland - Morro Bay - Malibu - Santa Monica - Anaheim - San Diego.  Anaheim didn't start out in our plans.  We added it in as a late addition because we figured if we were so close it would be a shame not to visit for at least a day.  So that's what we did - Disney in a day.  After all we were travelling with a 3 yr old and a 10 month old.  Yup, you read that right, 2 couples, 1 mini van, 3 yr old and a 10 month old. 

 

It's also worth mentioning that during our first trip R and I were cruising around in a black Mustang convertible.....and this time a silver mini van.  As far as mini vans go though - this one ended up being pretty swanky, leather and a dvd player. 

 

There were some seriously funny moments and some that I'm sure we all want to forget, but can't because those too are a little funny, now that they are over.

 

One of the most classic road trip moments was travelling down Hwy 1.  This road goes by a few different names.  Hwy 1, Cabrillo Hwy, The Coastal Hwy - all the same road.  It is the main road that runs down the coast. It is two lanes, one in each direction and you drive along steep cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There are beautiful views and lots and lots...and few more twists and turns.

 

Little Miss P (the 10 month old) had a tough time with the twists and turns.  She was after all safely strapped into her car seat, facing backwards.  I think I may have felt the same as her in the same situation.

 

The inevitable happened. 

 

Everyone in the van had a different reaction but the award for the funniest reaction (after the fact) goes to R.  He was driving and was pretty concerned that the van might start filling up with the smell that comes along with it.  I'm happy to report that we all survived and once the twists and turns came to an end, Miss P returned to her regular rock star self.

 

 

 

Epic California Road Trip

 



 I only see the sky - what is Alcatraz?

 

 

N loved this - it took us at least an hour to find this playground,

but this smile made it all worth it. 

 

 

 A park overlooking The Golden Gate Bridge

 

 

Driving Across The Golden Gate Bridge

 

 

 Muir Woods

Giant Redwood Tree's

 

 

 Napa - I love Napa! 

These are the little cottages we stayed in.

Have I mentioned I love Napa? 

 

Bachelor Ben.

Yes, it's true.  Two grown, adult women hunted

Bachelor Ben's winery down in Sonoma just to meet him.

.....and we were a little giddy about it.......

 

 

The sole reason M wanted to come to California

To go to an Oakland game

It is fun to watch dreams come true

 

 

 N and I went to Disney on Ice across the parking lot from the stadium. 

By the looks of the photo's they showed me - they

had fantastic seats.  Home team won, icing on the cake. 

 

 

 

 Morro Bay

This little town was an unexpected surprise.  We used it as a halfway point for our drive down the coast but if I ever get the chance to drive the coast again I would stop into this quaint town.

 

 

 

Santa Monica Pier

 

 

We spent an afternoon on Santa Monica Pier.  I can't help but start singing the song whenever I say that.  I wish we had more time to spend there.  There is a huge beach on each side of the pier that was almost begging us to lounge around on.  We had just come from Malibu and naturally had to spend some time playing on the beach there.  So after Malibu and Santa Monica we were Anaheim bound.  We tried to get out of Santa Monica in time to beat rush hour going through Los Angelos....but we didn't make it out in time.

 

LA traffic is INSANE. 

 

Initially the GPS told us we'd be at our destination in 40 minutes.  2+ hours later we arrived.  However we did get the chance to see some fun things along the way and maybe if we had of actually been moving on the road instead of at an essential stand still we would have missed.  We saw THE Hollywood sign, we saw The Staples Centre and we followed a car down the parking lot...I mean 6 lane highway, who's license plate was "ORLXPRT".  Ahum.  So of course we tried to give the driver the benefit of the doubt and said they must be a dentist......nope, not dentist.  Her Mom must be proud ; )

 

Disneyland

I took a picture of the $20.00 picture

they were trying to sell us.  I love that

R and I are smiling and almost everyone else is

freaking out

 

 

San Diego

 

 

Because we added Anaheim into our plans we only had 1 full day in San Diego.  We went to the Zoo.  It was another fun day.  San Diego looked like a wonderful city and from all the research I did I know there is a lot for kids to do.  Who knows...maybe another California trip is in our future.

 

A girl can dream can't she.

 



 

Before we returned to the Arctic we stayed a few days in Canmore and Banff with our friends that we first visited California with.  They have welcomed a beautiful little girl to their their family since the last time we were with them so we also had the chance to meet her.  She is beautiful and has wonderful parents to call Mom and Dad. 

 

Here we are after an afternoon walk in the mountains around Canmore, Alberta

 

 

 

There is going to be a part two to the entry.  I just have too much to catch up on and I don't want to just skim over it leave things out just to cut down things down.  So, "The Lost Months Part 2" will be

coming soon.

 

I promise.