The Long Weekend: How my iPhone Saw It

We don't get to the lake often in the winter.

It's not because we don't want to.

It's just busy from September to Christmas.

Some of you may be thinking that this is for the best.

I mean, you don't even have a furnace or running water out there right?

Guilty, but you know what?

We love it.

Jeff is in his element when it's only his fire between our comfort and hypothermia.

The kids and dogs come alive in the snow.

And is there anything better than coming in to drink hot chocolate and watch Elf after tobogganing?
I think not.

Our Labour Day Weekend

I'm still working on my last Ontario post but in the meantime wanted to share our weekend.

We headed out to the lake on Friday to maximize our last summer weekend.

On Saturday afternoon we cleaned up {as well as you can without running water} and drove back for our friend Josie's wedding.

It was at the Oasis Centre which provided many photo ops during cocktail hour in the garden.

Here's Cedric striking his very best casual pose.

And Fiona doing a fierce take on the "contemplating".

Cocktail hour also led to some fish-tank antics.

These fish were actually a major life saver with the kids.

 Cedric soon figured out that he was the only one small enough to fit behind the tank.

This of course meant that he was back there every chance he got.

Giggling away, naturally.

I probably shouldn't forget to mention this fabulous couple.

Congrats Josie and Kajan, thanks for letting us share your day.

{And a beautiful day it was.}

After the wedding it was back to the cabin to soak up those last days of summer.

The mornings were chilly which graced us with some beautiful foggy scenes.

 The leaves were coming down and subsequently being raked into jumping piles.

 Warm oatmeal felt just right.

 Finally, my morning runs were the perfect temperature and gorgeous.

Jeff, on the other hand, has taken to running in the evenings.

{Yes, you read that correctly, Jeff is running!}

And he has certainly noticed the earlier sunsets. 

After realizing how dark it would be he ended up running down our country road with a carving fork.

{In case of a coyote run in.}

Now that's dedication.

Hope you all had a great Labour Day.

Thank You

Thanks to everyone who read and responded to yesterday's post.

It was difficult to write only because I didn't want to sell Grandad's amazing life short.

In the end I focused on my memories of him and I can't wait to hear more from his other family members' point of view.

Again, this blog and everyone who reads it have given me such an amazing gift.

I would never have taken the time to reflect so thoroughly.

Or to browse through so many beautiful photos.

Or {let's face it} to have such a good hard cry.

So again, thank you.

I did want to share some photos of the weekend still since it really was great.

The kids spent most of it almost entirely nude but I tried to censor the pics a bit for you.

We finished off the weekend watching the fireworks from our house then promptly passing out.

{I mean, staying up until dark in Edmonton is hard.}

Last Weekend - Finally!

I didn't want to let last weekend go without sharing since it was such a great one for us.

I love winterguard season but I feel a huge relief when it's over.

Getting those Sundays back as a family day is amazing.

Last Saturday Fiona and I had a mommy-and-me outing.

Diana tipped us off about this great event held by the Alberta Ballet.

To introduce their 2013 season they put on a sampler performance for the public.

This was the first time Fiona had seen live professional ballet and she loved it.

I mean, how can you go wrong when they open with the Sugar Plum Fairy?

After the performance there were crowns to make and costumes to try on.

We even found one just for Fiona.

{I promise, Fiona wasn't being grumpy, just silly in my photo attempt below.}

We finished off the day with a couple of birthday celebrations.

On Sunday we decided to head to the zoo.

In the winter?  You might say.

I was a little hesitant myself but it was great.

The place was all but deserted and some of the animals seemed more content in the cool weather.

One exception was the water fowl who's winter abode pales in comparison to the summer pond.

{No photo included, it was too sad to photograph.}

This was Cedric's first real experience seeing jungle animals so his reaction was great to watch.

Here's to many more lazy family days in our future.

Ready to Rummage

Ok that was bad I know but it kinda rang true.

This weekend was the SEESA fall rummage sale.

I have been meaning to go to one of these for years!

Each year I'm either pregnant or have a baby so I forego the sale.

Well, this year I still have a baby but also had a Jenna and a Steve who offered to help out.

{Jeff was working on hail again this weekend.  

Thanks Daddy, we so appreciate how hard you work.}

I wore Cedric and Fiona was a doll on her best behaviour.

Success!

We went at opening to get the best selection.

Now I'm glad we did but that timing is what gave this post it's title.

Those rummage salers are ruthless determined!

Cedric actually got a hand in his face at one point so I didn't last long in the big room.

Despite that I managed to do pretty well.

 Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, I even went back on Sunday for a more leisurely {albeit picked over} browse.

I hightailed it out of there before the $2 bag madness began though.

I have my limits.

 Those little girl guides were also there and they just get me every time.

As my Grandma would have said "they're lovely girls".

{I'm channelling Grandma after seeing so much that reminded me of her this weekend.}

All that and I only spent $21!

Now I know I've been talking about purging rather than bringing more in.

The bonus of this though was that I was prompted to organize and clean up a bit to fit my new treasures in.

Just let me justify it ok?

Leaves: AKA, Reliving My Youth

We had a beautiful weekend.

It was made even better because we got to relax with Jenna and Steve who you may remember from their fantastic wedding.

As I said on Friday, Jeff took the weekend off.

{He did however run to the shop at 9pm to grab payroll hours, sigh.}

Now to the subject of this post.

I have been dreaming about the day that our kids would love to play in the leaves.

Raking a big pile to jump in just takes me right back to teased hair and Tiffany.

I might have to wait for Cedric to do the jumping though.

Feefs kept inviting people to sit "in a my house".

So we surely couldn't mess up the walls.

It was said many times over the weekend that this was probably our last warm one.

But c'mon now, we're Canadian.

We'll still be walking, playing and sitting around the campfire until at least -20C.

Speaking of cooler weather, I saw something truly shocking...

Christmas is 12 weeks away you guys!

12 weeks!

Anyone have any toddler-friendly Christmas charity suggestions?