Kids at the Park

Last month while Larissa was Hennaing for the Boys and Girls club, the kids and I played in the adjacent park….

Hope’s Hallowe’en Costume

My own school photos. :p

I have taken to snubbing the school photos of the kids, and taking my own. I like them better and so does Larissa.

Here they are!

-André

Kids @ Hayes Falls

Just a quick photo update - this was shot at Hayes Falls a few weeks ago on our hike.

Hope and Alex climbing up, and up, and up!

-Andre

Trip to St. Andrews with Friends

Amanda and I … and the kids went for a trip to St. Andrews yesterday. Larissa stayed home to work and do taxes. I was originally planning to head to Fundy, and Amanda was going to go to St. Martins – but the tides were no cooperating and we decided to go together for a trip. We went to the Kingsbrae Botanical Gardens and then had a picnic at the massive play structure nearby.
What an adventure 2 adults and 5 kids aged 9 and under. I missed the turn off and ended up going on 4 to 630 then down to 1 and back over to 127, instead of just taking 3 to 127. Oh, and we had one roadside shower after Cassidy tossed her cookies. :)
All was well until Alex had to join in the fun and leave his cookies at the playground :P
Poor kids…..poor adults….
In the end we all had fun, and made it back in one piece.
Photos…..










Ladybug Release













    










What the heck it that!















-André

Bushwhacking in Western NB

A very good friend of ours recently bought some land near Florenceville – and we had the pleasure of visiting her and her son. Relaxing out on the ‘back 40’ was great and time flew by – before we knew it we had spent 8 hours there.
We arrived and had a chat, and soon set out on a ‘little’ tour of the property. I wouldn’t say we got lost, we just over shot our destination a couple of times ;)
We had a great trek, found a part of a moose skull, and had a tangle with some bald face hornets. Most of us thought of this as a fun, but long adventure – until the hornets showed up. Lucky for everyone else, that Larissa is a magnet for bugs of any kind. I think we actually stopped on their nest! Larissa got 8-12 stings and the rest of us were spared – thanks Larissa!
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to just get stung repeatedly, she had to go and develop a skin infection from it – poor girl.
After the ‘adventure’ we relaxed and had a great lunch, and then time just slipped away….

“Moose Jaw”

“Bushwhacking”

“Local flora and fauna”

“Post-Hornet tangle – more Bushwhacking”  

“Flora…or….Flower?”  ;)

-André

PEI trip #2

Our second trip to PEI was with 3 other families (14 people – 8 adults and 6 kids) in a fantastic 5 bedroom ‘Villa’ for 1 week in July. It was awesome!

Pictures…

View Full Album

 

Enjoy!

-André

More practice on the bikes

We went out again tonight for some fresh air, and more practice biking. Alex is learning fast! Here are some more photos….

 

The bikes are out – and the training wheels are off!

Alex has been making great progress on his bike – without training wheels! We went over to the school last night and he is now starting himself without a push from Dad. I am so proud!

Hope has outgrown her bike and we are on the search for a new one…we may even have one this weekend for her!

I can see this will be a great summer for bike riding :)

 

 

...um...more video of Hope skiing.... :)

Wednesday night - half price at Crabbe Mountain. Hope has four 1 hour lessons under her belt and 5 hours of skiing on top of that, before this video was made. We had a great night of skiing.

-André

More Ski Video!

Can you tell I am excited!?




-Andre

More Skiing! The Kids are Fantastic!

We (Me, Hope, Alex, Mariecke, Elizabeth, and Aylish) went to Crabbe Mountain today to put the kids in lessons. The 3 biggest kids got suited up and had a great time. It was snowing quiet a bit – big flakes, and it was close to freezing. It was a beautiful day! Hope was the only one in her lesson and took off to the big hill, while Alex and Elizabeth were on the little hill in the same class – just the 2 of them.

Here are a few photos from the morning…the kids just love skiing, and it was great to see Hope and Alex skiing together after their lessons were over.

While the lessons we going on, Mariecke, Aylish and I were in the lounge watching and taking photos (and video). It was a really nice morning!

Old Skis - New Skis

Well, I am getting back into skiing as you can tell by my recent posts. I took my old skis (Rossignol Viper X) to a local ski shop (Ski Wolf) to get them checked out, and tuned up.

Unfortunately they (Ski Wolf) missed the checking out part and only did the tuning up part. When I got to the Ski hill on Sunday, I could not put my boot into the binding. Something obviously wrong - seems broken and unfixable. Ahh well, these things happen.

What really rubs me the wrong way is that they did not inspect the ENTIRE ski, and proceeded to do a tune up on an unusable ski, which I had the priviledge of paying 30+ dollars for.

When I went to complain about their lack of attention to detail, they pulled the work slip - which said only 'tune-up'. It did note that I dropped off a boot as well.....hmm wonder why.... They just looked at me and said - we did what was on the slip. All I know is, I didn't fill out the slip, they did. I also know that I told them that I hadn't skied for a few years, and I needed an inspection and a tune up. I also said this over the phone before I came in. They suggested that they could maybe talk to the owner (?) and they could maybe put the value of the tune up toward purchasing new skis - since I hadn't skied on them. Haven't heard back from them yet.

Nice. Well, I am not going back there (Ski Wolf).


On a happier note, I may have found a great pair of skis at Sport Chek - New 2007 Volkl AC3 Unlimited.

I will update soon!

Valentines Day Trip to Crabbe Mtn.

Hope and I were the only ones interested in feeling the snow beneath our skiis today. Hope did awesome! See for yourself! She is also sporting new Goggles and a Neck Warmer!

Some Ski Pics

Just a couple of snaps of the backseat on our way to the ski hill last weekend.

-André

Skiing at last!

The kids were both interested in going skiing, and we finally took them out this weekend. Larissa went with our kids and the Leavitts for an hour lesson on Saturday. I joined them today (Sunday). When I say I joined them – none of the adults actually went skiing, we took the kids.

Today the weather was nicer, and we brought along the video camera – Larissa was the expert operator, and we got about 20 min of tape. Hope had a fantastic time and we are all floored by her ability and progress. Please keep in mind that I spent a couple of hours with her when she was maybe 4 years old, and then she had an hour yesterday, and another hour today. Here is a clip of Hope on the bunny hill during her lesson at Crabbe Mountain.

I will also be hitting the slopes soon....

Here is a clip of Alex - also during his lesson!



-André