One wild evening

I have just arrived back from a fantastic girls night out with Janice and Marla! Wahoo! Did we go CRAZY! We hit the dance floor at the local saloon bar, then out to one of the hottest nightclubs in Fernie, then we got matching butterfly tattoos! What a night! (LOL, that little exaggeration was just for Janice's daughter Holly, who I know reads the blog :) Your Mother is one wild lady Holly!)

Marla, Myself and Janice

Nah, so the real story is a little more tame, but was still a brilliant night, even without the tattoos. We were planning on heading to a great Mexican place but sadly it was shut on Tuesdays. So we went to a local steak house instead which was pretty amazing.

Prawns, Scallops and Steak...what a treat :)

Marla and Janice got pork ribs which were the size of my whole arm! Then we went through to Bellvue for some ice cream, they had every flavor imaginable! Peanut Butter, licorice, apple pie!

Then on the way home we thought we would go for a little drive and see if we could find some animals and we got really lucky! We saw a black bear, it was SO CLOSE! You don't believe me?!

What?! 

Fine, I got a photo to prove it...

Ok, so the photo isn't much. But you can see the bear, it's that black fuzzy thing hiding behind that green fuzzy thing!

Ahhh, so other then outrageous girls nights, what else have we been up to?

Oh so the COLTS had an "Adventure" Day yesterday, which from what I can tell was basically a day of silly/fun activities just to lighten their load a little. The girls and I saw them in some sort of calming circle in the grass and when Alex arrived home he said the best part of the day was when they went to town brought a bucket of slurpy (no joke, they took their own bucket and filled it up) then brought some hot Doritos (I don't think we get that flavor in Aus) and suicide hot wings. Then they all got the Crow sauna as hot as they could bear  (get it?) it, then they ate all that hot spicy food until they were practically crying and then jumped in the freezing lake!!!!! Honestly I think the COLTS may have lost their minds!!!!


The girls I heard about the slurpies and decided to check them out for ourselves and have a little picnic today before heading out to the library, the 7/11's over here are SOOOO much cooler! The slurpies are like $1 each, crazy :)

I haven't told you the best news of all! In Canada Alex has a fantastic alter ego! I think I may have fallen in love all over again! Check him out.... Cowboy Alex :) Dang!

So what do you think? Should he keep this Cowboy alter ego? I vote YES!!!

OK and last but not least the COLTS head out for the major out trip tomorrow of the course. It's 7 days long and kinda a culmination of all their training and covers a full cross section of their new skills . So it's a pretty big deal, although not as big apparently as the solo out trips they go on a couple of days after the big one. On that trip they get taken out into the wilderness, and left somewhere they haven't been before so they can find their own way out. Good luck with that one!

Talk soon! (Hope all that gave you a heads up Donette, my new friend :))

Oh almost forgot here are the photos from the blog the other day that were all weird and purple...

What a life hey! Check out that view!

This waterfall only runs for a small part of the year and it's like just across the road from us :)

Love you and miss you all!

A whole week of updates!

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while, I was waiting for Alex to upload some photos and he has been so busy that it was a week before I realised that I was still waiting!

So here is a LONG blog about the last week of adventures :)

You may like to break it up over a few days, LOL.

Monday: Well Alex is back from his out trip and his trip to Calgary. So we all went out as a family to have a look around. We ended up driving up one of the mountains that Alex had gone up on his out trip the day before. The great thing about Canada is you can actually drive a fair way up a lot of the mountains very here and get a decent way up them (now that’s my kind of mountain climbing!)

The girls absolutely loved four wheel driving over the bumpy roads and up the hills and through the giant muddy puddles. We stopped for a picnic on top of a hill which had a huge panoramic view of the mountains surrounding us…

We got to see some amazing waterfalls and also a few chipmunks and squirrels, no bears to Alex’s disappointment L

Back up Crow, it was the last day of the Keenagers (like Teenagers but keener!) camp. Which is similar to Camp Clayton’s Golden Ambassadors. It’s a camp for over 50’s and it was has been really awesome meeting so many of the people that have helped with Crow over the years. Many of the group have been coming to the Keenagers camp for over 30 years!

We met some great people and were delighted to discover an Aussie or two, which made us a little homesick listening to their accents J It was great to use Aussie words and not get blank stares from the person listening. LOL

Another highlight of Keeangers was the Kitchen Crew. Here at Crows there is one person who works in the Kitchen and the rest are volunteers. This weekend Janice was given the weekend off and a Youth Group from Coleman and the surrounding areas came in to prepare, cook and serve the food. They also did all the table setting and clean up afterwards (including the washing up). They did such a fabulous job and it was a real blessing to see so many young people willing to commit to working for a whole weekend for the benefit of this camp and staff. I would love to see this sort of thing at Camp Clayton in the future. What an amazing testimony and a great way for young people to learn a servant heart.

In the evenings, if they have time off and have done all their homework, the COLTS often get together at Robyn’s home to play games. Alex and I have become particularly addicted to a game called BANG. We are definitely planning on buying it and brining it home to play. These evenings are a lot of fun with plenty of laughs J I certainly enjoy getting the chance to spend some relaxing time with people my own age, LOL, well kinda, I keep forgetting how old Alex and I are. Most of the COLTS are in their early 20’s.

Alex and were also contacted yesterday in regards to John Dyer’s unexpected call to Glory. This has come as a real shock to us, especially having had the chance to get to know him so much better with his involvement in our trip here. He will be greatly missed, he was an amazing man of God. We grieve this loss and for his family and pray that God will give them peace during this time. Praise God that John is now with our heavenly Father.  

Wednesday: So tonight Alex is out on another out trip over night...except that he didn't know that he was going! LOL, I really should tell you more about Alex's COLT program but it's kinda hard to explain looking in from the outside, but I'll give it a go, there may be some amendments tomorrow after Alex reads this.

So the COLTS program is a very intense program that teaches many things, from what I can see it focus' on teaching Outdoor skills and Leadership. Alex and the other COLTS study hard on many outdoor wilderness issues  orienteering  packing etc and study even harder in regards to their personal relationship with God and becoming an exceptional leader, they memorise verses, study the Bible and practice leadership at every opportunity.

So as you can imagine Alex has been flat out, we barely see him, mostly only at meals and even then most of the COLTS are exhausted and hoping for naps :)  Once the training component finishes and the Summer starts, the COLTS do the out trips during the camps and some also do programming (Supervising). So although he will be busy during summer there should also be a bit more opportunity to spend time with him.

So, the last night out trip was an expected surprise for the COLTS. They were only told they were going on a hike but once up there the scenario changed to them being lost for the night and they had to cope with whatever they had with them. Now you would think that most of them would pool their resources but only the girls did that. the boys decided to suck it up on their own. Poor Alex did take his big pack but did not have any thermals on or his hat as they were all in the wash :( He did have a tarp to keep off the ground thankfully, so he was a little cold by the time her returned home. It was raining as they left but it turned into sleet/snow during the night, I opened the door in the morning to a full on snow with poor Alex at the door. Most of them didn't pack any food either so a big hot breakfast was ready for them that morning :)

Friday: The girls and I have found a fantastic playgroup in Coleman that is free and runs every morning! It's great, the girls love getting to meet new kids and play with new toys. The girls have also made a great new friend named Karen and are having a sleepover with her this Friday.

Think that is it! Talk soon :)

The Divine Secrets of the Rae and Sandy Blessing Club

So Alex has been away in Calgary with the COLTS for the last 3 days and Rae and Sandy decided to take us on a “Big Adventure” as the girls liked to call it.

We set at out at 9 and visited a really beautiful waterfall. Laura was more interested in the wind turbine as usual but Hannah was fascinated with the waterfall and being able to step out onto these man made ledges so you can get a better view. Elizabeth as not so impressed as she didn’t appreciated the spray that kept hitting her in the face when the wind blew :)

Then on to Lethbridge. Rae told me he was going to take us to an amazing second hand shop called Value Village. Which I have to admit was totally amazing! It was a huge shop where all the clothes are sorted into size and types of clothes. Eg all the jeans are together, all the dresses are together. And the quality of the stuff was pretty good! The girls and I had a great time finding some more toys (!) and a few new pieces of clothing. Miss E looked at some shoes and toys but couldn’t make up her mind. She had a great time playing with Rae and racing around the aisles.

The next stop Costco – Rae’s favourite shop of all time. This surprised me, surely he would prefer MEC or some other outdoorsy shop?! We stopped for lunch first at Costco. Their prices are soooooooooooo cheap! A hot dog and large soda for only $1.50! We got all this for under $11. It fed all of us. Great value J

Costco was even better than Value Village, which was hard to imagine before we entered it! Costco is a shop that you pay membership to and you can only shop there if you are a member. The quality is amazing and the prices are so low! And everything is in bulk. The chip (crisps, for all the Candian’s reading) sizes were as big as Elizabeth and only $2-3. Hannah had whinged (whined) after lunch that she was still hungry and Rae promised her that she would definitely not be hungry once in Costso. I thought he was just referring to the fact that she would get distracted and forget or that her stomach would fill once she let her food settle. WRONG! On the end of every aisle there is free samples or popcorn, pasta, icecreams, cooked vegies etc. The girls went to town J

This shop is crazy, it has TV’s, jewellry (some items cost $3000!), golf clubs, clothes, and anything else you can think of! We brought a tonne of great stuff, well actually Rae did. He’s sneaky that one. Because we were in Costco I couldn't pay for anything (because I’m not a member) which meant Rae and Sandy won that round in the blessing game.

The blessing game?

What is that I hear you ask?

 What are the rules? 

Who can play?

Great questions, as far as I can tell Rae and Sandy keep the rules to the game a secret. Originally I thought the game was only played when paying for meals at restaurants and such. It turns out the game can be played anywhere or anytime that you have the chance to bless someone else. So now that I know that, I am going to have to up my game. J You know how competitive I am, and what can be better than playing a game to bless others?

After Costco we headed back and stopped in at Pinchers Creek, it turns out that if you keep going past the Walmart, there is a whole town behind it! LOL

We visited an outdoor clearance shop, awesome! Got some great bargains there too, and made sure I made it to the register to pay before they did. Gotta watch those two!

Well, what a day! So much fun! So many great conversations (REALLY GREAT!) and awesome shopping. J

Alex and the COLTS are back today and then they are back out tomorrow on another out trip.

Here’s some pics for all of you who don’t read the blog and just want to look at the pictures J

This is Value Village, see how tidy and amzing it is? This is only like 1/8 of the shop!

See this? Rae and Sandy got all this for $10.60!

Lovin the hot dog and chips for lunch!

Miss E wouldn't stop screaming until Rae took her on this giant swing, this was in costco. She screamed when we had to leave it too!

Totally wiped out after our big day! Why are her lips blue you ask? She had a blue lollipop in costco. What a day!

Even Hannah was tired after all that shopping!

Oh and you know how I told you guys that we often go on mini roadtrips, just the girls and I, here are some photos from other days that I haven't had the chance to show you yet.

Where is Hannah?

Biggest Truck in the world "Apparently!"  Titan 33-19

Hannah checking out the view

Morning Tea or snack time in Canadian

Lovable Laura

Checking out the Coal Cart

This town was a lot like Sheffield, heaps of Murals everywhere

I think I am in HEAVEN!!!!!!!!

Ice cream - awesome :)

Happy Belated Mothers Day

Every mum can testify that motherhood can be rough sometimes.  And motherhood in another country without your usual activities, grandparents to fobbed them off to occasionally and days off can make it even more interesting.

Last week was one of those weeks. One of those rough weeks were you get stuck inside for a few days due to bad weather and then your kids start losing the plot with each other and as a mum you actually resort to locking yourself in the toilet just to get five minutes peace.

For the last 4 weeks, the girls and I have been together 24/7. Which isn't the norm for us. Hannah does school 3 days a week, Laura and Miss E go to daycare once a week, and they all have visits to the grandparents and have play dates with friends. We aren't really used to being together as much as we have been since arriving in Canada and I think we were all beginning to show the strains of spending too much time together. Hannah and Laura were fighting over the most ridiculous things, Miss E was throwing ginormous tantrums and I was happy to cut onions in the Kitchen if it got me away from the girls for ten minutes.

Of course this was the lead up to Mothers Day. A day which had completely snuck up on my actually. We aren't really living in a day of the week or date world over here at the moment. Most days roll into the next and it’s hard to remember what the date is.

So when Janice and Marla mentioned that on Mothers Day they were taking the day off from cooking and that everyone would be fending for themselves, I looked at them and was like “wait, what day is Mothers Day? “  That night, Marla mentioned over supper that originally she was going to have to spend Mothers Day alone, but thankfully all her family were able to make it now.

I joked that having the whole day to myself would be my dream Mothers Day. But actually at the time, I wasn’t joking.  I imagined a quiet day of reading , taking a long luxurious bath and I imagined what a relief it would be to not have to referee the girls toy sharing dramas or changing the extraordinary nappies Miss E has been producing of late and instead just been able to think and breathe and drink tea. Yep, total bliss!

So I guess as I entered the Mothers Day weekend, I wasn't really feeling it.

But as is often the way, God knew exactly what I needed and sprinkled these AMAZING moments to remind me that although being a Mum can suck sometimes, 80% of the time, it’s the best job on the planet.

Miss E’s moment:

She finally said my name! Mama! She is the only one to take this long to say it and I had begun to feel it would never happen. But she did and now whenever she says it I feel my heart swell a little.

Laura’s moment:

As any of you who know Laura know, she is such a little comedian! She hurt her finger the other day and she came to me and I looked and it could only see the tiniest of tiny red marks on it. So I laughed and said “Oh no, it looks serious Laura. Hmm, do you want me to give it a kiss or just cut it off.”

She looks up at me with a big grin and says… “Cut it off Mum.”

She is hilarious J

Hannah’s moment:

Wow Hannah is growing up. We have been having all these really grown up conversations lately. We chat about whether she wants to have kids or not, or why people get married and all sorts of stuff that I wasn't really expecting to talk about for another 10 years.

But the other day we were walking past the COLTS out playing Volleyball a little after 9pm and she said “Mum, why do they get to stay up so late?”  I told her that was one of the great things about being young and single, you can stay up late and play games, go to the movies. I told her when she is grown up and in her teens she will be able to go shopping, start driving, and all this great stuff. Then I added with a smile that she won’t want to hang out with me anymore. That she will think I am so uncool.  She took my hand and said 

“No way Mum! I will always want to hang out with you.”

Naw, what a sweetheart! (And I have it written down now so I can show her when she is 16 and keeps telling me to leave her alone J)

So, although this isn't really a Canadian post today, I just wanted to wish all the Mums out there a belated Happy Mothers Day and I hope that you get some special moments with your little ones this week, or at the least, 5 minutes alone in the toilet. Whichever you feel you need more J

Wild Weather and Creepy Crawlies

WARNING!!! SERIOUSLY CREEPY PHOTOS INCLUDED IN THIS BLOG!!!!

So last weekend I think I told you that it was snowing again. It was a good snow too, it lasted for about 3 days afterwards and the girls enjoyed it heaps.

And then literally one week later, its summer. And it’s HOT! A total pearler as they say at home.

Today we are the playground at the Crows site in shorts and T-shirts. I even broke out the summer hats and sunscreen!

The girls and I have settled into a great routine of dropping into town to look around, playing at the playground and visiting the lake. We also often head to the Kitchen in the afternoons to help with tea prep. If there is nothing to do we often sit and have a cuppa with Marla and Janice.

We have really been enjoying getting to know the staff and other COLTS more. Meal times are always a laugh sitting around discussing cultural difference or just what went on that day. The topic of discussion of late has been Ticks. The COLTS have a Tick count going to see who at the end of the summer can have the most Ticks found on their body (not actually dug into the skin yet, just walking around on them). Totally gross. I have already found two and I never even head into the scrub (what is the Candian term for scrub???) that much. But it certainly is fun to bring up at the table as it immediately a starts everyone a-scratching (particularly Robyn!) and also brings out a few Tick war stories. Like the time Percy found one on his head after waking up, back when he had hair apparently and decided to pull it out and got some blood, hair and scalp after all the tugging. GROSS!

Here's a pic to freak you out...

Although we don't see many Ticks in Tassie, we do have our share of disgusting little critters. We thought it would be a good idea to enlighten the Canadians about how good they have it... I doubt any will be visiting any time soon after hearing about our redbacks, funnelwebs, leeches, white tails, snakes, jack jumpers, bull ants but I think what really put them off were the huntsmen. Even though they aren't harmful the idea that we have spiders as big as your hand totally freaked them out!

And this photo is for all the Canadians out there who read the blog and weren't quite sure whether to believe me about their size. I have seen bigger ones then this though...

Ugh and now on to something far less creepy...

Yesterday the girls and I spent a few hours down by the lake, since it was like 22 degrees or something. Although the weather was hot the lake is still freezing! They have a special flag over here called the Polar Dip. If someone jump in the lake every morning during their camp they are allowed to sign it. It’s a big deal over here and it wasn’t until I popped my feet in yesterday that I realised how utterly insane Canadians are! 

Good grief it was cold. It took forever for the water to not feel as though it was trying to keep them as a souvenir.  Alex has been enjoying the camps sauna with Joshua (formerly known as Josh) and some of the other COLTS (Daniel and Tim). Before they go in they all get in the lake and then go into the sauna, then back out and into the lake etc. They all swear it gives them the best nights sleep (probably cos their bodies are in shock!) but I don’t think it makes that much difference. Alex never wakes up during the night anyway!

We did have a lot of fun skipping rocks and chucking other various things into the water. I have included some photos for you to help you feel jealous. J

So, some of you must be wandering what is Alex is up to these days. I am hoping to get to write an account of what he is up to soon for you. Today he is headed up the mountain with the COLTS for some more training. He is enjoying it heaps and doing really well. 

Talk soon!

True Canadians

So far there are many things that we are loving about Canada.

1.       The amazing views

Similar to Tassie, almost everywhere you look there is something pretty. Whether it be the Ginormous Mountains, cool red barns, wind turbines or gorgeous little stone rivers. It’s hard not to appreciate God’s beautiful creation here.

2.       The people

Everyone we have met so far has been so welcoming and they can never do enough for you. People we have literally just met 5 minutes ago invite you over to their house for a meal or offer to give you anything you may be missing. People here are so helpful and will stop to explain things we don’t understand (like prepaid petrol stations) and they don’t mind when we ask a gazillion questions. They also try not to make fun of our silly accents and strange sayings, which is big of them. :)

3.       Tim Horton’s

Every Canadian or person who has been to Tim Horton’s immediately just nodded their head in approval. Tim Horton’s is kinda like a fast food bakery, but without the bad food stigma. And everyone here LOVES it. We didn’t really get it for a while but the other week we dropped in and were thoroughly convinced that Tim Hortons ROCKS. Love their donuts, and $1 smoothies…oh and their iced lemonade….oh and their chicken wraps…oh and their chilli….

4.       The snow

We have had two snowfalls so far and they are just breath taking. The girls and I love walking in the snow and opening our mouths to catch some. It’s just the loveliest experience. There is also something pretty cool about being the first to walk on crisp white snow in the morning.

5.       Furnace Heating

I can’t tell how great it is to walk into any building and be warm! If I ever build a house. I’m putting in a furnace.

6.       The humidity

Ok this is actually a love hate relationship I have with the humidity. I LOVE how the lack of humidity makes my hair less frizzy and all I have to do is brush it in the morning and it’s straight. But it is playing havoc with our skin. We have to apply lipgloss and moisturiser a few times a day otherwise we get all itchy and dry.

A few days ago Alex was inducted in as a true Canadian because he ate his porridge with mayple syrup instead of brown sugar. (It was quite tasty he said.) Yin (one of the COLTS instructors) mentioned that it was much easier to be inducted in as a Canadian then an Aussie. I asked why and Alex said, because to be an Aussie you have to eat Vegemite.

Fair enough I thought, Maple Syrup is much tastier then Vegemite. (Is it unAustralian to say that?)

Percy (The Camp Director) mentioned he has always wanted to try Vegemite. So of course I ran back to the cabin to grab ours and we popped it on some toast for him….

HE LIKED IT!  I have a video somewhere of him eating it so when I find it I'll show it to you all.



Here's some pics....

I just had to share this cute photo of Miss E. The girls brought a tonne of dollies home from the second hand shop and Elizabeth claimed this one right away. She takes is everywhere, puts blankets on it and feeds it. SO adorable!

This is Alex and the rest of the COLTS up on the mountain doing there training. They had an overnighter up on there is this kind of weather!

Beautiful hey?