Dragon Fruit

Katie was watching Daniel Cook on TV last week and he was trying out new foods - fruit in particular. Katie decided we should try out some new types of fruit like Daniel did... so we went to Safeway and she bought a dragon fruit. Now not knowing anything about the fruit and not having watched the show with her I was relying on her with what to do with the thing once we got it home, but she did well and instructed old mom not to worry and just how to cut the fruit. Then she got into it with the melon baller and had a blast! I must say I found it to be rather bland for such a pretty inside and couldnt help but think it looked like it should have been poisonous... none the less Katie enjoyed it and decided we should try more new fruits each time we go shopping! This week it is Kiwi which she got to try at school on friday when one of the kids brought it for snack. I did tell Katie that one thing to keep in mind is that most fruits bought in the store especially up north dont taste anything like what they would fresh (I dont buy apples and cherries very often after living in the Okanagan!) and that what we need to do to really experience these fruits is to convince daddy that we absolutely must go to where they are grown... does anyone know where dragon fruit is from? and more importantly are there palm trees and beaches there too?

Back to work for us

I was sorting through the picture files and found a few cute shots of Katie so I thought I would post them. Last week was my first week back to work and was a busy week for all of us. Katie went to Jolanda's for daycare while I was working. It is so nice to have Jolanda here to care for Katie, what peace of mind for all of us knowing that Katie is happy and safe. It was definately tiring for Katie though to play with Tessa and Vayda on top of her school and other activities - she didnt make it through supper the one night!

Rob ended up working lots last week which is great cause its been a slow start to the year - hopefully it will be busy from here on in. His helper is back from school and the truck is running good (touch wood) so he is eager to work. It has been warm too so its not that bad for him being outside working.

I enjoyed being back to work, it was a bit nerve racking as I have been off for a while but I think it will all come back easily. The staff here are so happy to have help so I got a very warm reception! The hospital is a fair bit smaller than Penticton (I think about 1/2 the size) so it will take some getting used to - some services and resources that I took for granted before are not available here, like a CT scanner and 24 hour respiratory therapists. As a result they tend to ship out the sicker patients but ER is still quite busy as they have to stabilize and then wait for transport to get here. The labor and delivery ward is also busy - they have 500 - 600 births a year at this hospital! I am starting in ICU but am going to orientate to ER and float which helps out everywhere.

Family day in a winter yard

While Rob shovelled the driveway this afternoon I made a tobbogan run for Katie in the back yard. The snow drifts from last weeks blizzard were already about 4 feet high just off the deck so I added a bit more snow and groomed a saucer run out into the yard. It was cool! The snow is quite dry and doesnt pack very well so it was tough making stairs for Katie to get up the hill but in true kid style she struggled up with her saucer and then giggled the whole way down the other side. Jersey of course had to get in on the action and chased the saucer where ever it went.

Rob went into the house after a while to start dinner and made a coffee for me and pink milk for Katie which he passed out the kitchen window to us - nice to have that window opening onto the back deck!

It was another one of the fairly frequent times lately where I am so glad we moved up here. Just those hours we get to all spend as a family doing things - and things that I found harder to do with just Katie and I. I will try to post the video clip but I have never done one so not sure if it will work.

My Favorite Memories

I love Kelly's slide show so I went to the link and did one too! Although I love Fort St John and am very happy we moved, I miss all my friends and family - so here is a slide show of some of my favorite memories with y'all. I wanted to put it to the theme song to Cheers but I am not that computer able so just sing it to yourself as you watch! I discovered that there are alot of people that I dont have pictures of... next time I visit I'll come armed with my camera!

Dog Sledding

This past weekend we became true northern folk... we went to watch dog sled races. Am I now a true Canadian? lol. Actually it was amazing to watch, the dogs were not the big fluffy huskies I was expecting instead they looked kinda like fluffy labs. It was pretty cold outside that day but they didnt look cold at all and they were so noisy while waiting to run it was unreal. For each team they had about three people helping to hold the hyper dogs that were hooked up while they hooked up the others, got to the start line and then while waiting to countdown and go. The dogs were whinning, barking, jumping at the line and eachother and we even saw one spat, the minute they were counting down though, they all got quieter and as soon as they were running it was asolutely silent. They really were excited to run. Most teams were families and we saw several kids who looked about 12 helping to harness and hold dogs! The cages they keep the dogs in are small which I knew but I was kinda worried about how cold they must get on the highway. They didnt look heated and some had only wire along the door so you would think it would be very windy? The dogs all looked healthy though so it must be fine. Katie enjoyed watching and as she was dressed better than Rob and I, wanted to stay and watch more than we did!

Photos of Rob

For Robyn in Australia - Its amazing isnt it?

For everyone else - Rob and I were "blog surfing" the other day - clicking on links off friends sites to see where other bloggers were from. Its amazing how global blogging is and cool to see peoples pics from parts of the world we have never seen, so anyways, Rob clicked on Robyn's link as she is in Australia and nearly fell over when a picture of her husband popped up... He and Rob look so alike its uncanny! I am not very good at blogging yet and I dont know how to put a link in - and dont know if Robyn would be comfortable with me linking to her page - so I will have to wait to see if they reply and then can maybe post some pics to show you - I commented for them to check out my blog for shots of Rob.
Typing this in I feel a bit odd - I know many bloggers surf other peoples sites but we rarely do and had never commented before to someone we dont know. Kinda weird to think of who might look at our family pics, hope I didnt freak them out either... "hi, we dont know you but were looking at your family pictures"... This new online world is odd to get used to - I wonder if our children will have problems with this when they are our age - will it become a more open but trustworthy world or will there still be peeping toms and such?

A Winter Trek

Well, just a walk in the field really. Across the street from us the houses back onto a huge field , then railway tracks and some forested hillside. We hear and see people out there on ski doo's and quads all the time so we decided to go and check it out. Rob, Katie and I, oh and Jersey too, hiked across the field to the tracks and then down a bit and back to the house. It was deep snow but mostly hard packed so as long as we stayed on the sled tracks it was easy walking. The field is huge and continues on around the north west side of town all the way to the Alaska Highway and then goes into the forested hill a fair ways before houses start. Apparently the field is privately owned but the owners live in California. Rob and John went out the next day on the quads to check it out further and found a huge tobbogan hill and tons of trails. They got stuck a few times in the deep snow where they got off the ski doo trails and then hit water in some culverts they were driving through so they came home soaking wet but with huge grins of course! We will try to get out for a day of quading and tobboganing with the Poestch's if both guys are off work one day.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2007 to everyone - hope you all had a great New Years Eve. For those of you with hangovers - best of luck. We are not hungover today but did go to a great New Years Eve party - one of the guys Rob works with and his wife stopped by our house last night to say hi and have a beer and then invited us to join them at the party they were on thier way to. We had decided to have our own party for just the three of us and so Katie and I had made appies, punch and got dressed up but it was pretty quiet, so we thought we'd accompany Jason and Amber - it was great. Katie was very welcomed and ended up in balloon wars with two of the dads there. Everyone else had arranged siters so she was the only kid - but she still enjoyed herself. They were a pretty great group - some family, some friends and we felt very welcomed as we have so many times up here. They had a karaokee machine going - what a blast - had I not been driving I would probably have gotten up but with my voice I definately need liquid courage, lol. The other moms all tried to get Katie to sing with them but she was too shy - and Rob of course was too shy, and he can actually sing half ways well. Anyways - we missed our old crew for sure and hope you all had a great time too. Here is Katie after we got home - the one guy had taken to decorating her with streamers so she was covered with them! It was also a hat party which was cool - katie wore her new toque and looked so cute.