Tag: video

Boxing Day

December 26, 2012
Rainwater

We headed out to Lori’s and Dale’s for Boxing Day. Brad had bought the family a new puppy. After his Dad told him he could get a big dog… if he moved out, he wisely picked a Jack Russell mix. Her name is Marley.

Marley getting to know Chloe.

Marley sitting still for a moment.

Last year it was all pictures of Lily, this year she had to share the spotlight with Marley.

Lily with her lion hat.

Lily with her finger puppets.

We bought her a circus tent from Ikea, Angela looking kind of creepy and Gillian offering a ball up.

Lily checking out the tent, I think the girls had vacated it. Marley playing with some wrapping paper.

Lily was helping herself to whatever was in the bags.

Marley took a nip at Chloe and she didn’t take that too kindly.

Marley with her sweater.

Uncle Dale taking Marley out for a pee break.

Lily trying to pull the wool over Marley’s eyes.

Both Lily and Marley had her shoe in their mouths over the course of the evening.

Lily and Marley fighting over the shoe.

Shanna, Jesse and David had skyped in from Rossland.

It was an early evening as the first snowstorm of the year rolled in with high winds and blowing snow. It was a slow drive home. In the end there was 10-15cm on the ground.

Christmas Concert

December 18, 2012
Rainwater

Claudia’s school had a Christmas Concert today, she was singing/dancing with her class and singing with the choir.

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The choir was singing “Do You Hear What I Hear”.

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Claudia and her classmates were dancing to and singing “Last Christmas”.

Here is the choir singing “Feliz Navidad”.

At shows like this, it is all about the little kids, here are the JK and SK kids.

Happy 1st Birthday Lily!

November 17, 2012
Rainwater

We headed to Hamilton on Saturday via a stop in Dundas, to visit with Grandma and Poppa and the Sweetness Bakery. Here is Chloe ready to get going. Turns out she was watching her buddy Cooper walking by across the street, that’s why she was looking so intent.

Lily having a little nap before dinner.

Here she is checking out the snacks.

She was painstaking in her unwrapping, one strip at a time.

Lily with her elephant from Uncle Brad.

Giving Chloe a face rub.

Here she is checking out our present.

Melissa continuing to torment Lily with the elephant. Lily would keep pushing it away.

Chloe catching some shut eye through all the excitement.

Call me maybe.

Concentrating with her tongue sticking out.

Singing Happy Birthday to Lily!

Lily with her fingers in the cake…

…and on her face.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Around Island Falls

September 20, 2012
Work Posts

We lucked out with the weather this week, only the first morning was a little chilly with frost on the car windows and on this dandelion.

The Snow Geese were headed in the right direction.

Our ride for the week was a Jeep Liberty.

The site is located at the Island Falls Hydroelectric Dam, this is the A-Dam Spillway.

On the way out of the site we encountered this guy.

He was just sitting on the road, not in any hurry to move off to the side.

I took some video of the bear as I was slowly driving towards it, eventually it bounded off into the bush.

We were staying at a fishing camp about 20 km’s from the site.

This is our cabin at Slim’s Cabins.

The cabins are located on the Churchill River, only about 8km by boat to the dam. The camp offers fishing, fly-in fishing and hunting. The main catch are Lake Trout, Pike, and Walleye.

The Hydroelectric Generating Station was built in 1928-30 by the Churchill River Power Company, which was a subsidiary of the HBM&S Co. (Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company). It provided power to the Mine and Smelting operations in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Today it is owned by SaskPower.

Up until the late 60’s there was a townsite of company owned houses for staff. Our site is located on the old townsite. Although they have long since torn down the houses, the sidewalks still remain as you can see in this photo.

The only remaining building from the townsite is the Commisary.

The two-storey Comissisary can be seen in the distance along with the old sidewalk.

These two photos show the location of the townsite in relation to the power station.

The Comissary is in the bottom right of this photo.

Another look at the A-Dam Spillway

Some video of from the Spillway.

Had time to visit the Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin statue in Flin Flon.

The history behind the name of the city. NHL hockey players that were born in Flin Flon include, Bobby Clarke, Al Hamilton, Gerry Hart, Eric Nesterenko and Ken Baumgartner to name the more famous ones.

The flight to and from Winnipeg was with Calm Air. I flew up in a Saab 340B and an ATR 42 300 (below) on the way back. The Winnipeg Airport Terminal is quite nice now, a big step up from the old terminal.

Day 20: Heading Home

August 25, 2012
PEI2012

After 19 days on the road we were heading home, here are the girls watching movies on their iPods.

Our drive today took us up through New Hampshire, across Vermont, into New York State and back into Ontario. This is somewhere on Lake Champlain.

Near Rouse’s Point, NY.

Welcome to New York.

We could see the border, but we were not going through Montreal, instead we crossed at Ogdensburg, NY which leads to Johnstown, ON. It spits you out onto the 401 near the 416 highway to Ottawa.

One final stop at the Big Apple in Colborne, ON.

Unfortunately, all their porducts are labelled “May contain…”.

The main reason for stopping was to add another photo to our “Big Things” collection.

This has to be one of the few things that is still free. You can climb up inside the apple to an observation deck, to see the 401.

One last goofy photo.

When we pulled into G-ma and G-pa’s driveway, Chloe was excited to see us back, here she is running back and forth to each of us.

Here are the girls on day 3 of our trip, the photo I took on day 1 was blurry, so we had to do a re-take.

Here is the back of the car after we pulled into our driveway. Since we stopped to pick up Chloe on our way home, we had to squeeze all her stuff in the car as well, so even if the girls were in the back seat, there was no way we’d see them.

Our drive today, we left Manchester, NH at 7:18 am, crossed the border at 2:39 pm and pulled into G-ma and G-pa’s driveway at 6:00 pm. We had a great supper and visit before loading up one more time for the final leg. I’ll post the trip summary once I crunch some of the numbers. Thanks for following along on our road trip to PEI, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Day 18: Old Orchard Beach

August 23, 2012
PEI2012

Day 18 was a short driving day from Freeport, Maine to Manchester, New Hampshire. It allowed us to stop at one more beach for this vacation. We headed for Old Orchard Beach near Scarborough, ME. We got there around 9:30 am and it was already filling up.

Still lots of real estate to choose from.

We chose the strip of beach that is right in the heart of town near the pier.

There is an amusement park on the beach.

Claudia getting use to the water.

The girls jumping the waves.

A guy looking for treasures.

Digging around on the beach.

Back in the water.

The girls catching a wave.

Claudia could catch the odd wave that she could ride pretty far.

The sand around us was filling up.

It was packed when we left.

It is a pretty hopping town, probably jammed on the weekends.

Our driving route for Day 18. $3.75 in tolls on the Maine Turnpike.

Off to the ballpark to watch the New Hampshire Fisher Cats take on the New Britain Rock Cats.

Day 16: Don’t Mess With Tides

August 21, 2012
PEI2012

At Cape Enrage we saw the importance of reading and heeding the times on the signs. At the top of the stairs going down to the beach, it clearly tells you to avoid being trapped you should be back at the stairs by 1:45 pm.

The girls and I went down at about 1:40 pm but we weren’t straying far from the stairs. They go down 30m to the ocean floor. In this photo you can still see a bunch of people almost in the centre of the photo at the bottom.

In the photo below you can see a guy with a red shirt coming back towards the stairs. Where he is is the narrowest part and where the tide will hit the cliff first.

The video below shows some people trying to avoid getting wet, two people get over and then the guy stops to help the other couple. At the 19 second point you see two kids and a mother come running into the frame. The boy slips on the wet rocks and if the guy didn’t have his arm, he would be in the water. In the end the mother gets two soakers as she gets across.

Day 16: Fundy Coastal Drive

August 21, 2012
PEI2012

Today we were doing the Fundy Coastal Drive, with stops at Hopewell Rocks, Alma, Cape Enrage and finally Hopewell Rocks again. Angela where are we going today?

Low tide was at 9:32 am this morning, so we were able to walk on the ocean floor. The people closest to the bottom of the photo are the girls.

Looking over the mudflats.

Going early meant less people around.

Gillian taking a picture of Angela.

An older couple asked me to take a photo of her and her husband, afterwards she offered to take one of us, so here we are at Hopewell Rocks.

The flowerpots are just like I remembered them as a kid.

They have most of the caves roped off for safety.

The mud is smooth and sticky, just ask the girls.

Not knowing that they had hoses at the top to wash off your feet, the girls were trying to clean their feet on the seas sacs.

Under the piles of seas acs are rocks.

Note Angela’s muddy feet.

Washing off the mud. We would have to come back in a few hours to view the Hopewell Rocks at high tide.

From Hopewell Rocks we headed to the town of Alma. The tide was out and it gave a good example of the vertical tides as well. I was looking forward to seeing these.

The Salmon River.

We had lunch at the Harbourview Restaurant, when we came out we took a walk back to the wharf and the tide was starting to come back in. We didn’t have time to stay long enough to see the tide come right up.

From the Village of Alma we drove to Cape Enrage to see one of the oldest lighthouses in New Brunswick. This one was built in 1870, it replaced the original built in 1840.

Claudia put a loonie in to take in the view.

You could walk down to the beach, but there wasn’t much time as the tide was coming in.

The inukshuk Gillian built.

Skipping stones at Barn Marsh Island beach.

Gillian sitting atop the shingle bar beach.

We got back to Hopewell Rocks for the peak of high tide at 3:22 pm. The tide was 44 feet today, it was rising at a rate of 12″ every 7 minutes.

Low Tide…

High tide…

The girls taking a break.

The girls at the bottom of the stairs, note the closed sign strung across behind them.

We thought we saw Uncle Danny at the Hopewell Rocks listening to one of the guides.

This one is Diamond Rock.

Day 13: So Long PEI, Hello Tidal Bore

August 18, 2012
PEI2012

It was finally time to say so long to our cottage on PEI. The girls and I were up early and down on the beach at 6:30 am to beach comb one last time. After we had the car packed we gathered for our new blog photo (see left).

Some photos of the cottage, the kitchen.

The living room. There was no air conditioning, but with all the windows open and the breezes coming through, it wasn’t necessary. The fans gave the extra relief when needed.

The stairway up to the bedrooms, there was one bedroom on the main floor and two upstairs.

Another view of the kitchen.

From the kitchen looking into the living room and front hallway.

Looking down from the stairs to the back deck.

We have extra business cards if anyone is looking for a place to vacation. Special thanks to Rob, who works at the City with Susan, for the recommendation.

Paying our way off the island, it cost $44.25/car in order to leave, it is free to cross onto the island.

We drove through Amherst, Nova Scotia, looking for a Subway. Amherst has a lot of old building, this is the First Baptist Church.

The old Bank of Montreal building. It was built in 1904.

The old Amherst Post Office building built between 1884-86.

After picking up up subs we headed to the Maccan Tidal Wetlands Park to have lunch.

The park is an excellent spot to watch the incoming tidal bore. I read about it on the internet and how there was a gentleman who lived nearby that came down everyday to see it, and give a little info to tourists. Sure enough he was there today, pulling out pictures of what we should expect and answering any questions.

Here is the tidal bore in action, it is travelling at a good rate of speed, and it is loud and it sloshes on the river banks.

Some video of the tidal bore.

It only takes a couple of minutes to pass by. I had seen one a few years ago on the Shubenacadie River a little further south. There were 5 other tourists there to see the tidal bore.

Once the bore passes it takes about one and half hours for the river to fill in to it’s max, it changes with the size of the tide and the moon phases.

The gentleman is Gordon Boss, who posts the times and the type of tidal bore.

Here is a before and after photo of the river upstream. Before the Tidal Bore.

After the Tidal Bore.

That is Gordon Boss in the blue coat.

It was onto our destination for the next couple of days, we are staying in Dartmouth, across from Halifax.

Our route today. It was 351 km and it took us 6 hours with our stops.

After dinner tonight we headed out to Cole Harbour, NS, which is about a 10 minute drive from our hotel. They have a “Home of Sidney Crosby” sign as you enter the town. One of Gillian’s friends is a big Crosby fan, so I thought Gillian could say she has been to Crosby’s hometown. In the background is a closed Zellers store that will be converted to a Wal-Mart.

Afterwards we picked up some hot fudge sundaes from McDonald’s and brought them back to the hotel to enjoy.

Common Cement

June 27, 2012
Rainwater

Today was Angela’s grade 8 graduation. Fortunately there were some delays with the planned renovations/construction at the Church, so they were able to move the graduation back to the Church from the school gym. The title of this post comes from Ellen Degeneres 2009 commencement speech at Tulane University, it’s a funny speech.

Claudia, Angela, and Gillian. Claudia was singing in the Grad Mass choir, she did an excellent job.

A nice family photo (Grandma Swan was behind the camera).

She almost looks taller than Susan.

Ready for a busy evening ahead. There was a Graduation Mass presided over by Father Abraham, followed by the ceremony.

Waiting for things to get started.

Mrs Foster was the MC for the graduation ceremony.

The school principal, Mr. Araman.

This guy needs to get a camera, I didn’t get a picture of the other guy taking pictures with his iPad.

Angela going up for her diploma.

Receiving her Honours medal.

Angela and Mr Araman.

Angela was the recipient of the St Richard Student of the Year Graduate award.

Here she is with Mr Araman and her Grade 8 teachers, Mrs Jordan and Mrs Lang.

Angela was also chosen to give the Valedictorian Speech for her class.

Here is Angela’s speech. Thanks to Gillian for holding the camera for the entire speech.

Gillian with her Student of the Year award.

Angela with Mrs Jordan, her Grade 8 teacher.

Angela with Mrs Mountjoy, her Junior Kindergarten teacher, as well as her Grade 7 teacher.

Angela with Mrs Foster, her Grade 6 teacher. Mrs Foster is Claudia’s teacher this year and she taught Gillian Grade One.

Angela with Mrs Lang and Madame Ditaranto.

Mrs Kelly and Angela. Angela had Mrs Kelly for Grade two, she retired a couple of years ago, but she still volunteers at the school, she played the piano for the choir at the Mass.

Angela with Mrs Falotico, the school secretary. Angela was an office helper this year.

Angela with her peanut/nut free cake from the Sweetness Bakery in Dundas. Thanks Grandma!

Congratulations Angela! A job well done! We are very proud of everything Angela accomplished this year and for the past 10 years at St. Richard. She has worked hard and has turned into a fine young lady. Thank you Angela!

Angela’s poem

Graduation is here, 
There is nothing to fear
It is not the end
But new beginnings are near

We remember the new
We remember the old
We remember the people who taught us to be bold

Do not cry
For your dreams will fly
And I don’t want you to say good-bye

Close to your heart
Memories will stay
And starting today 

We will collect new gems
And meet new friends

But never forget
Our elementary years
Because graduation
Is finally here