I just realized I have changed mind sets and become a North American once again. I went kind of hog wild in Whitehorse and bought myself some "STUFF". Man what was I thinking. I bought a lovely gold nugget ring, with the remainder of my Christmas bonus from my employers. As well I purchased a pair of hiking boots, the last pair, while still good, hurt my feet, so what good are they??? I bought three, count them three new tank tops, the other ones are really sun bleached and old. They would have been perfectly fine for the boat and lasted a few more years before shredding!! I also indulged in a pair of earrings which I really did not need, just because I always buy earrings when I am in Whitehorse (what kind of sick mentality is that).
When I thought about it I figured out that I have once again become a Canadian consumer and NEED to get back to the boat to regain my perspective.
Oh yeah, I also bought all my grandchildren presents but that doesn't really count because all grandparents give their grandchildren necessary clothing. It is their job to look cute!
We have both not bought much except boat parts since we arrived in Canada, so I guess it is time return to our other life.
We are planning to leave Yellowknife on March 20, drive to Wpg. to visit with my Mom and then head out to the coast visiting family and friends on the way. Barry is interested in trying out his new hip on the ski slopes and thinks that Panorama close to Windermere where our daughter Trish lives is a good place to try it. I would like to go kite skiing if there is some good wind.

Usually, what goes on the road stays on the road, but I thought I would share a few pictures with you. We were planning on going to Ottawa this year so we thought that a beaver theme for the year would inspire us
When we got to Whitehorse we found Bucky the Beaver in the store, here is our lead Lois modeling him. The girls were huddled on the bed. Everyone is in our room tonight and the topic at the moment is ice and whether or not the Yellowknife ice is better than Whitehorse ice.
We took a little side trip to the Olympics to check out curling!!!!

It was nice to have some time off work to watch and good friends to discuss the curling shots with. Go Canada Go!
Whitehorse is a city with a lot of history, I love the buildings in the downtown area. The gold rush is a big tourist draw and while we were here they had the Sourdough Rendezvous contest and the men were singing to see who would become Sourdough Sam.

Okay we lost. We are not in a position to win anymore so my dream of going to to go to the Nationals is squashed. It is unfortuneate but the other team came up big and we lost. I am not going to Ottawa and at the moment we are partying and having a good time. We went to the oppositions room and gave them a bottle of champagne. I know that I really wanted to go to Ottawas but not this year.
Instead, Barry and I will go to visit my Mom in Wpg. before we leave to go back to the boat.
Hasta La Vista.

Barry and I have been wearing Tilley hats which my Mom gave us before we left Canada for the first time. I lost mine in a big storm just west of Tahiti but Barry managed to hang on to his. It has a lot of sun damage and then he got a hole in it when he put it in the dryer. Tilley offers a life time guarantee with their products so Barry sent his hat in and sure enough a while later a brand new one showed up in the mail. It is amazing what the sun has done to the hat and now I know what it does to your skin, no wonder mine looks a little used!!
Life just kind of rolls along here in the north. It has been cold and windy the last few days and I am counting the weeks (just 6, maybe 5 and 1/2) until we get to return to Cat's-Paw IV and warmer weather. We did inventory at the store last week and I worked all day on Sunday and then 12 hours on Monday counting everything in the store. We had a bit of fun on Tuesday making up some interesting window displays.
Our curling season is entering it's competitive phase. This weekend is the NWT playdowns but since there are only 2 senior ladies team we both get to go on to the next level, the NWT/Yukon playdowns. The NWT Curling Assoc. in their wisdom has decided that we only have to draw to the button to see which team will be designated NWT 1 or 2. We both get a 10 minute warm up then each team member has to draw to the button, with sweepers, the cumulative distance from the pin is measured and the team with the least distance wins, Whoop Dee Do!! The other team has agreed to play a game so at least we will get one game out of the process, it will mean nothing though. We will do that this Sat. afternoon. Once we get to Whitehorse in 2 weeks there is only 1 team from the Yukon so we have to beat 2 teams to get to the Nationals which take place in Ottawa in mid March. We have a pretty good team so I am quite confident at this point that we have a good chance, but anything can happen.

Barry has been busy spending our hard earned "cold cash." He has bought a new wind vane, ours getting really old and we bent the paddle the last time out in NZ. We have also decided to install a wind generator as our solar panels are great but the sun only shines 12 hours in the tropics and the wind can blow 24 hours at a time. He has also ordered a new ham radio so the sailing gods willing we will have a working radio when we cross to Fiji. We will have to order a new dinghy when we get to NZ as our old one was still suffering from the huge hole I put in it when I took Mom shore in Whangamumu. It still holds air but it is not reliable any more and you really need a solid boat to get to shore and back. Cat's-Paw IV should be in great shape when we leave NZ, almost as good as when we left Canada.

Heather is working in Tulita, which is at the confluence of the Mackenzie River and the Great Bear River about 600 kilometer northwest of Yellowknife. There is a weekly paper that comes out across the north called News North and Heather had her picture in it the other day. She is the weather girl at the airport and she also communicates with the pilots, letting them know the local weather conditions when they are planning on landing. It was great to see her picture in the paper and know that she is out there doing a good job. Way to go Heather.
Curling has been picking up. I am curling with the SENIOR ladies this year and we have the NWT playdowns in three weeks. Then 2 weeks after that if we are in the top 2 in the NWT we go to Whitehorse to play off to see who goes to the Nationals in Ottawa. We played really well last week, gearing up for the playoffs.
The weather has warmed up this weekend and it was quite nice outside today, just in the -teens so life it good. The store I am working at sponsored the Banff Mountain Film Festival this weekend so Barry and I spent Friday and Saturday night watching some awesome films from around the world. Cassidy and Elijah came over today and we made cranberry orange muffins with some local cranberries picked out at Moose Bay. It is so nice to have that tart taste of fall in your mouth in the dead of winter.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR
Barry took the "new" camera (the shock proof, water proof one that I haven't managed to destroy yet), down to the lake on New Year's Eve and put it on fireworks setting and took some pictures. He borrowed a tripod and took some lovely shots. We figured out that exactly 10 years ago at Y2K we were doing the same thing, standing out on the frozen ice watching the fireworks. I wonder what we will be doing 10 years from now. Barry will be 70, I will be 64, I wonder what life holds for us between now and then. Completing our circumnavigation is high on our list of things to do and it seems to work well for us to come back here and make money every couple of years,, as well as get lots of family visiting and renew our relationships with our growing grandchildren.
Speaking of them we have had some wonderful visits over the holidays. Elijah took this picture of Cassidy and I showing of our new Christmas earrings. I think he took a wonderful picture.
On Christmas Day after the gifts were opened the kids had fun playing around with the Nerf guns at the Divekys. We made one of their puzzles and had a game of Twister.
We had a lovely dinner with the Borkovik family. This is the couple that we ran into in a grocery store in New Zealand. It was very kind of them to include us at their table at Christmas. The next day we entered the traditional Boxing Day Bonspiel. It is for families and it is just 3, 4 end games, we curled at 10, 12 and 2 and then there is a pizza dinner and everyone gets a prize. Cassidy and Elijah had great fun and got the hang to the game, by the last game I had Cassidy yelling HURRY, HURRY HARDWe took some good pictures on Cassidy's new camera but they were accidentally deleted.
We had the kids come and sleep over just at the end of the holidays. They painted the shirts that Trish gave them for Christmas, we walked across the lake to Canadian Tire, we made a more complicated puzzle and the Nerf Guns came out again. It was great to have them and they seemed quite at home with us, the cat even came out and said hello to them. Last weekend I borrowed some rental snowshoes from the outdoor store I am working at and Elijah came out snowshoeing in the bush just behind Diveky's house. We just got a big dump of snow so it was quite a bit of fun. All in all it was a wonderful holiday season. I hope yours was as enjoyable as ours. It is too bad that the whole family couldn't get together, maybe we will have to plan for that one day.


I will leave you with a few more of those fireworks shots, they really are quite spectacular.

Hello my name is Elijah and Cassidy. This is a blog about our gingerbread houses. Grandpa had a great idea, to make gingerbread houses using kits brought from the store. Gran and Gramps went to 4 stores before they found the kits, the rest of the stores were sold out!!
Everything started off better than normal, people weren't crying, the icing seemed to be working, Grandpa said no muss, no fuss, THIS IS GREAT!!!! The houses were stuck together, the roofs seemed to be fine, decorating was proceeding.

























For some reason (it could be because Grandpa didn't read ALL the directions)the roofs of the houses started sliding.






The icing decided it was too tired and let go, the roof fell off and when Grandpa tried to fix it, he put too much pressure on it and it cracked in half and then it looked like it got hit by a tsunami of bowling balls, it was pathetic!







There were no tears, some disappointment (mainly by Grandma)but hopefully it still tastes good. Grandma resurrected the old method of keeping a house together using burnt sugar and we managed to salvage Elijah's house. YEAH

Barry and I went out to his office Christmas party the other night and took his new hip for a test run. It did very well on the dance floor, it was great to be up and dancing with my MAN!!! We had a very nice time and I think the last time we went dancing was in Tonga at a feast at Big Mama's Yacht Club, over a year ago. It actually, crazily enough, kind of reminded me of that place because it was big and wide open and there was a feeling of space there.
We had the grand kids over this afternoon and made some Christmas cookies. These ones involved baking the cookies and then dipping them in chocolate and then in crushed candy canes. The kids had great fun smashing up the candy canes with a hammer I wrapped in saran wrap. We put the canes in plastic bags and then smash away, great fun. I really enjoy seeing them every week. We have signed up with them for the Boxing Day Bonspiel and hopefully we will be able to have them come and sleep over when we are house sitting.
Our friends Janet and George Diveky will be in Mexico on their sailboat over the holidays and have asked if we would look after their house. It will be nice to have a little extra space and have some dinner parties, where we can seat more than 2 people at the table and not worry about running out of spoons or forks.
It has turned cold here and the car did not want to start today when I headed off to the rink for practice. The coach keeps finding things about my delivery that I can change to improve it so I have lots of stuff to think about. Nice to have a coach that has the knowledge to do that for you.
Anyway, where ever you are I hope you are keeping warm, and to all you sailing buddies in the warm part of the world, enjoy!!!

A trip to the Hotsprings was undertaken and enjoyed by all. Graeme was able to join us and it was a good thing. 4 little ones under 2 1/2 are a handful.
Grannie was resurrecting her lifegaurding skills, neither one looks very impressed with the process, but they loved the experience.



Fun was had by all.

Jen trying to figure out what having twins would have been like.



The train set provided many hours of entertainment, not always harmonious, it went exponentially better after Trish made a trip to the train store and added engines and tracks so each 2 year old could have their own train. We figured that this was the time of their lives where they would have the most difficulty sharing with their cousin.

That's June I am bouncing on my lap.

June and Leeland were mostly quiet observers, they were just hanging around here, quietly cutting teeth.

William with his second cousin, Chantel, building Lego in Innisfail

Jen's trip out west was a success, we got to see almost every relative that we have in Alberta. It was great. I am just going to load up a bunch of pictures. I had a wonderful time and want to thank Jen for the idea of doing the trip and for having the energy to go through with it. I saw all my daughters and my 6 grandchildren in a week, it was super. THANKS JEN.
Visit with the Shanks clan in Calgary.







The cousins walking Mooch on the way to the playground.


The tribe, Trish put us all up for four days, thanks for doing that sweetheart. We all pitched in and created lots of memories.



The boys had a blast at the playground.
















































The time honored tradition of throwing rocks in the water. I used to do it as a kid, we did it with our kids, I had so much fun doing it with my grandkids. We have thrown rocks in some beautiful spots but this has got to be right near the top of the list.

We had our car stolen last Sunday morning. The police called at 0600 hours on Sunday and Barry went out to get the car. I was oblivious, sleeping away. Barry had been trying to perfect our plug in routine and had left the car door unlocked. We have always left a key in the car because it has a key pad entry so we get in that way and just start the car with the key we leave in the ash tray. I guess the car thief found that very convenient as well. The guy took the car and drove away after just putting on the windshield wipers. The rest of thee windows had about 4 inches on snow on them, over 10 cm for you young guys. I guess that was a dead give away, the cops being the observant people they are became suspicious to see the car driving around with only the windshield cleared and gave chase. The thief put the car in the snow bank about 2 km away and took off. The police did not catch him and we were only out the price of a tow out of the snow bank. Luckily he didn't wipe out the fence he got close to. Needless to say we no longer keep a key in the car!! A relatively cheap lesson.

What I can't figure out is how the guy could see when he was driving???

William was wasn't sure what was going on but he didn't want to left out of anything.
I am back at home after a whirlwind trip to visit Jen, Trish and their families. I managed to see all my children and grandchildren in one week, that was pretty special and well worth putting up with the cold weather and snow we have been having in Yellowknife. I have a ton of good pictures of my trip so I may do several blogs to share some great pictures with you. Leeland in his Hallowe'en costume, William refused to wear his dinosaur costume and was frightened by the scary costumes.
























The modern female physician, Jen is ready to take her children Trick or Treating, but managed to get a few minutes of work in before we left, notice the soother hanging off the baby carrier, classic.

We had the kids over on the weekend and carved a Jack O'Lantern, It has been a while since I have done it and it was so much fun with these kids. We managed to get through the whole process without slicing off anyone's finger or nose, inspite of Grandpa's dire warnings. A pictorial journey follows......


Assessing the possibilities








Sketching the face












This was the tricky part, but safety measures were observed and all fingers and noses were accounted for!!








The creative carvers








The finished product, designed by KID POWER

The ground is white outside and I have a cold so I am laying low this weekend.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I think we used almost every pot and plate in the place. It was a feast. Everyone lent a helping hand, including Elijah who we put on KP duty. It was great to have Heather and her partner Brad for dinner, as well as the kids. Thank you Brad, he flew Heather up from Fort Smith and he flew down from Tulita. It was so nice to have family around to celebrate and give thanks. Cassidy was busy downloading music for her new IPOD which she got from her Mom for her birthday which is tomorrow. She will be eleven, it is interesting to here her views on the world and find out what that generation is interested in listening to and doing. She can make videos on her IPOD and that was a big hit, she is not sure how to erase them, but that does not seem to concern her. She is going to have dinner with us tomorrow and she wants, grilled cheese, hard boiled eggs and French Fries! I should be able to manage that.

Elijah did really well in his race and he had lots of fun with his buddies. Unfortunately he had an equipment malfunction. His pants weren't done up tight enough, or perhaps they were just too big and he had to hold them up for quite a bit of the race. He finished fourth out of about 20 kids and Barry said that as soon as the 2 kilometer race was over he went off to play with his friends. Apparently he fell asleep on the way home so all that activity must have tired him out.

Barry took these shots of the kids in their swimming goggles! Cassidy was reading one of her books to me and she said she needed to put on her reading glasses.














Barry went to pick up some groceries the other day. I asked him to get some pine nuts. BIG MISTAKE, I did not specify how many pine nuts I wanted. I was thinking, you know maybe a hundred grams, to put on salads and fancy appetizers, well look what he came home with. His excuse was that he was too busy looking at the horrendous price of the bulk almonds and besides when you open the bin, they come out REALLY fast. Can you guess how much he got. We figure there is over a kilogram of pine nuts in the package and they cost, wait for it, fifty-three dollars. Guess what will be included in all of our Christmas packages, maybe we could foist them on some unsuspecting Halloweiners!!