WoooOOOoooo!

It's the night when ghouls and ghosties come a knocking.....Halloween seems to have been revving up here for weeks, and tonights finally the night. Houses around are bedecked with orange lights, pumpkins and even entire graveyards with dry ice machines going......there's no doubt, All Hallow's Eve is HUGE here. I've bought a few hundred candy bars and chocolates and I'm waiting by the door. Jaz has gone out 'trick or treat'-ing with her friend Ella, so here are a few spooky pics of local houses, our scary spook Jaz herself, and a ....er.....lovely....halloween treat that she made for her Guide group party this week.....severed fingers.....ugh!

Alberta Bound

Shamelessly stolen from the 'Moving or new to Okotoks' group on Facebook, but for those of you who've never been here, a music video which kind of sums up Alberta for those of us who love it. It's more like a promotional tourism video than a music video, but we think it's a brilliant way to share all we love about this place we now call home. Mostly filmed around these parts, with the Okotoks Big Rocks themselves featuring about 1.07mins into the video....enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhkcjxLCm8Y

Jake's Field Trip

Jake has just returned from his first residential field trip since moving over here. He spent 4 days and 4 nights at the YMCA Camp Chief Hector near Canmore with his Grade 6 buddies. He was really looking forward to sharing a cabin with his best friends Spencer and Tom (Spencer is in the red jacket, Tom is just to the right of Spencer) and had an amazing time in the snowy mountains. He got back to nature learning about ecosystems, food chains and the natural world by playing games, hiking and team building. He came home tired and in need of a long, hot bath, but with plenty of tales to tell and a smile on his face. Great stuff!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last weekend was a long weekend, with Monday off as it was Thanksgiving in Canada. All a bit early I hear you mutter, thinking of the US Thanksgiving which is celebrated just a week or so before Christmas, but here it's in October. In Canada, Thanksgiving is like a big Harvest Festival, where family and friends come together to celebrate and give thanks.....and eat loads of turkey!
Being as our families are all many thousands of miles away, we decided to club together with my friends Debbie and Kat, and their families, and celebrate together in a 'pot luck, but not so random' sort of way. We each took responsibility for part of the feast, and everyone came over for an afternoon and evening of eating, drinking and general silliness. Everyone had a great time, and we're going to continue the tradition with future festivals as they come up, as we all had so much fun together.

Jaz had her enrollment night at Guides last night. Despite never being part of Brownies or Guides until this year, she has fitted right in and is loving all the activities and challenges that they do. She's already had her first camp out, and has also taken part in selling Guide Cookies door to door - making over $100 in sales that has gone towards future guiding work. She was a very proud girl after the ceremony, and although she was nervous about forgetting her 'promise', she did us proud! Well done Jaz!
The temps as you know have plummeted over the last few days, and last night it was a very chilly -10 degrees. Nevertheless, Neil was out barbecuing our steaks in the snow.....truly Canadian eh?

Have just read that Canada is ranked the 4th best place to live in the world! Only beaten by Norway, Australia and Iceland....Britain didn't even make the top 20. Looks like we might have made a good choice then....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/6261469/Britain-slips-out-of-top-20-best-countries-to-live-in.html#

Snow again!

Ok, so here's how the seasons seem to go here.....winter... winter... winter... summer... summer ...winter. Last week we were still basking in temperatures of plus 30 degrees, and now its down to single digits, with a couple of below zero mornings, and this morning.......snow! We're still getting to grips with the whole 'extreme change in weather in just a few hours' thing that seems to happen here.
The re-arrival of the snow has transported us back in time to our first months here, and we've been reminiscing about how excited we were to see the first snowfalls of last year, and how Jake and Jaz couldn't wait to get out there and play in it. This year.....oh so different! Jaz woke this morning, looked out the window and said 'oh....the snow's back then' in a very casual tone. Jake got up and didn't comment on it at all! (Although to be fair, he is in that 'teenager monosyllabic grunting...surprised by nothing' sort of stage in his life now!) Neil is pleased to see it back....he loves the snowy look and I would be too if it was just another month on from now, but snow in October seems a little early to me. I'd have liked to hold onto the warm autumn days a little longer I think, especially as last winter was sooooo long (we were still getting snow in May!). The snow is a bit 'British' in texture at the moment.....a bit wet and sloppy, I prefer the snow around late November - February where it's dry and powdery, but I'm sure we'll get it soon enough. This snow is already melting fast, but more is forecast for the end of the week, so we'll see what happens....