Quinn, who is not quite 3, riding his bike!
We have been having a great time getting reacquainted with Quinn and June. June is just 10 months old and has been making strange, she seems to have gotten used to me but still has some reservations about Barry. Today he fed her some lunch and after some initial reluctance that was a downright refusal to open her mouth, she decided that if Grandpa held his mouth open perhaps she could as well. She has a beautiful smile and a mischievous personality is starting to assert itself.



















Today we were had hoped to go skiing, but with the possibility of wet snow, rain and winds forecast up to 30 knots we decided we would head to Radium Hot Springs instead and soak out the kinks we have accumulated from driving over 3000 km. June seemed to love the water, not objecting to having her picture taken under water. Quinn was learning to navigate with his life jacket on and happily jumped in to chase a floating toy. The harder he splashed his hands the further the toy got away, but he would persevere and nab it. We hope to go skiing tomorrow, in the fresh snow that is visible on the mountain tops.

We are now in Invermere visiting Trish, Graeme, Quinn and June. We did get to the page playoff game at the Women's World Curling Championship in Swift Current on our way. It was a really close game and we had great seats in the front row,
unfortunately the Canadian Team lost after she went for it in the 9th end and ended up giving up 4 when her last rock missed by a millimeter. I don't think anyone in the building thought her rock could go through the hole it did. Barry got some decent shots of the team.

Here is the German skip relaxing between ends. She was kind of scary to look at on TV but she wasn't so bad in person. She was definitely the BOSS on her team. She won this game and went on to defeat Scotland in the final to ascend to her second World title, she won the first once in 1988, pretty impressive, 22 years between championships.










PROOF POSITIVE THAT I WAS REALLY THERE!

On the ICE ROAD crossing the Mackenzie River
We are safely in Winnipeg, visiting with my Mom. The drive down was not uneventful. The first day we left Yellowknife early in the morning and headed to Peace River, AB. The roads were good until about 2 hours outside of High Level and it started to snow. There was about 10 cm accumulating on the roads and I was driving and had to slow to about 80 km/hr. That was painful to a speed demon like myself, but every once in awhile I could feel the car start to slide and I knew it would be really dangerous to speed up. We changed drivers in High Level and it was crazy as soon as we left town the roads were dry, not a bit of snow, it was great driving the rest of the way to Peace River.
The next day we had a lovely drive to Cold Lake AB, close to the AB/SK border about 100 kms north of Lloydminster. We had a great visit with friends we had met sailing on Great Slave Lake when they had towed their boat up to Yellowknife to compete in the Commissioner's Cup. The next day we once again left before dawn. I was a bit worried about driving in that country in the dark. Barry was tooling along and a couple of deer leaped out in front of the car. We clipped the hind end of one of them at 100 km/hr. Fortunately, we only caught the end of it and all that was damaged was our front signal light. The headlight was fine but the right signal light did not work any more. We saw quite a few more deer but they were smart enough to stay away from the road while we were speeding by. We arrived in Wpg. about 9:00 P.M. and were very happy to be here without any more incidents. Barry is off at the moment at the auto wreckers trying to buy a new signal light.
Barry had suggested before we left Yellowknife that we would be driving by Swift Current SK, while the World Women's Curling Championships was on so we should see if we could get tickets. I went online and sure enough there were some tickets left, we are going to see the 1 - 2 page playoff game on Friday night. I guess I should figure out how far it is from Wpg. so we will know when we have to leave on Friday morning.
Mom had a big dinner planned tonight, my uncle and his new wife will be here as well as Bill, my Mom's friend. All I have to do while I am here is buy a team Canada hockey jersey so my buddy in San Franscico can wear it around the airport, to pay off a bet we made about the results of the Olympic hockey game.

We took Cassidy and Elijah out ice fishing today. We found a hole that was already open and stuck our lines in. There was a net down the hole and the first thing Elijah caught was the net, then when I went to investigate another possible hole he hooked a jack fish. It is a pretty good size and we were so happy that Elijah finally caught a fish when we were together. He pulled it out and we took it back to the car so his Dad or Grandpa could clean it. I am sure they will have a very tasty supper tonight. YEAH ELIJAH!!

Yesterday Barry and I went out cross country skiing. He came into the store on Sat. at closing and suggested that we rent some skis. The kids are in Edmonton with their Mom on spring break so we had the day to ourselves. It was great. Barry probably has not skied in 10 years so it was wonderful to get out.

We went and visited our friends Ian and Helen and saw the progress they are making on their Liberty 45. They have stripped their teak decks and are getting it ready to put a fiberglass deck down. They have made a lot of progress since we last had a look. They are going to be very comfortable on their lovely roomy boat. They told us there was an ice road going down the lake, so we headed out with our skis.
We stopped at the fish plant, a favourite sailing destination and skied around. They had Bombardier's outside the plant that they use for ice fishing. We skied over to the marker at the corner of Yellowknife Bay. We have never been that close before!!

It was a gorgeous day, bright and sunny, with temperatures close to zero Celcius. We ended up driving almost out to Moose Bay, I thought about skiing in but the ice had frozen very uneven in that spot and my heel had been rubbing in my ski boot so I decided to just look. It will be a long time until we see that again. We have less than 2 weeks to stay in Yellowknife.

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.