We have spent a couple of days south of Whitehorse on Marsh Lake. Our landlord has a sister who has a house on the lake. It is a beautiful spot!! She is a part of "Inn at the Lake" that was featured in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, so you can imagine how beautiful the spot is! Anyway, Cathy is one of the ladies that helped with the furnishing of our condo up here so we have gotten to know her. The first time we went out was before Halloween and the girls helped her carve her very first pumpkin (she doesn't have children) and they had a ball. We ate chili and went for a long walk with Newman. The second time, was before Christmas and we cross country skied on the lake and had a great time!
We all carved pumpkins again this year ~ we certainly all have our own individual styles :) Annabelle dressed as a witch this year, Jacqueline was a Jac-o-lantern, and Newman and I were the hippy duo. The candy was crazy, some people gave the girls handfuls of candy - they had never gotten so much!!
Newman and I are continuing to walk around the town and on the river trail, but we were hampered in January because of the super cold temperatures.
Another fun place we have been a couple of times is Lake LeBarge, which is about 30 minutes north of Whitehorse. Jim works with a man who has a house out there so we went out ice skating on Shallow Bay when it first froze over in November. You could skate all the way across the bay!! We had a huge bon fire on the shore and it was really fun. The last time we were there, we had an even bigger fire (it was -47F) and played scrabble! We spent the night in their guest cottage - super cute!
The girls are enjoying skate academy - it is Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. They are learning jumps (small) and spins - now I have to take lessons from them :)
We went down to Skagway, Alaska in November. It was a virtual ghost town. We had been there 4 years ago when we drove to Alaska, but it was summer and it was filled with cruise ships and tourists. As you can see from these photos, we were basically the only people in town. It snowed 8"over the night we were there so the drive back was a little slower over the pass getting back to Whitehorse.
Mr. Newman got some booties so his feet won't freeze - doesn't he look handsome? I will try to post the video of the first time he had them on - it is so funny!!!
We have all been enjoying cross country skiing. Jim is taking skate skiing lessons and the girls are interested in that too. They are all participating in biathlon and skate skiing is the preferred method of skiing in biathlon. I still like traditional, so I am sticking with that. There are a lot of trail to ski on and some of them are lit each evening until about 9:30. We have not been out skiing in the dark yet, but several time during the daylight hours.
Jim's mom, Joyce came up for a visit over American Thanksgiving. It was so fun to have her here with us! We had a traditional turkey dinner and all the good stuff! He went up to Takhini Hot Springs when she was here. That was an adventure! It was about 0 degrees out and you have to walk down a really cold ramp to get to the water. Once you are in, it is fine, but getting in and out was cold. We all had frosty frozen hair. Our friends David and Verlie came over while Joyce was here too and we had a really nice dinner with them.
Jacqueline was chosen to play the lead in the all school play at Christmas. The played the little boy who got the first present from Santa in the "Polar Express". She told me of the part on Tuesday afternoon and said she needed a blue robe. We looked on-line at photos and decided she should have some yellow pajamas as well. So I set out to find those two "simple" items on Wednesday morning.... Well, by about 1:30 it was clear that I was not going to find either item... plan 2: I bought a sewing machine (cheap) and a men's One-size-fits all robe in navy blue and 4 yellow bath towels. Did I mention that the play was on Thursday and they had dress rehearsal during the day???? Well, they turned out really cute and she looked just like the little boy in the movie :) I did end up taking the sewing machine back - I told her I used it, but they took it back anyway - yippee!
I still love to Curl!! David and Verlie are on my team along with a gal named Shandra. We have a really fun time! Often times Jim and the girls will come with me and watch for a while then go home, then I ride home with Verlie and David - they live about a half a block away from us. I really want to have curling in Spokane next year!!
The girls decorated gingerbread houses before we left for Spokane, I put up one strand of lights around the window, a drape of garland and we had a little evergreen centerpiece with Christmas bulbs on it for our decorations at the condo.
We were all excited to go home to Spokane for Christmas!! Seeing everyone was so great!!!!! We went to amazing parties and spent time with friends and family, it could not have been better!
The girls passports were going to expire after we returned to Canada in January so we needed to renew them when we were in Spokane for the break. We knew that it was going to be tricky, as you have to give up your passports to get new ones.... But the lady at the passport office assured us that as long as we had a copy of their original passports, certified copies of their birth certificates and receipts showing that they had been renewed, everything would be "fine, no problem". Well, at 3:30am on December 31st at the airport, clearly there was a problem. The ticket agent said that we could NOT use that documentation and that the passport office was wrong! So, Jim left for Whitehorse and the girls and I went back to our house. Apparently, the government doesn't like to work over the new year holiday so we had to wait until Tuesday morning before we could get any information. When I finally contacted Philadelphia, they informed me that the girls passports were being sent out that day (Tuesday). They were supposed to arrive in 2-3 days... So we made new reservation to get home on the next Sunday - they day Jim was leaving for a week to go to Vancouver, BC - at least we got to see him at the airport in Whitehorse before he left :) During the time we were "stuck" in Spokane - the girls had the pleasure of being back at school and seeing their teachers and friends and I got to visit my mom and sisters again as well as my friends!
Since we have been back in Whitehorse, we have gotten back to our normal routine. Although we have been experiencing first hand the very cold weather. For two weeks it ranged from 10F degrees above zero to -51F. It is stinkin cold when it is below -20F!!
We took a road trip to Dawson City and that is where we encountered the coldest temperature of -51F. The Yukon River is frozen over and they have an ice bridge that people just drive across - kind of strange to drive across a river. Once again, the town was sleepy - it is a tourist town in the summer but not much going on in the winter - it was fun though. It was a 6-7 hour drive and the road was snowy so I was white knuckled a lot of the way. Coming back was much worse that going up.
The girls are both enjoying being part of the Selkirk Student Government. Annabelle was just chosen by the principal to be an ambassador to the Government Auditors who are assessing all the schools in the territory - pretty cool.
Jim is headed off to Denver on Monday for a week - work on another project ~
I just signed up to volunteer at the Arctic Winter Games in March ~
The girls continue on their school, skating, biathlon and skiing adventure ~
Thanks for reading ~
Bye for now...
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