Halloween Festivities

This was a neat Halloween because Sedona really understood what it was all about, so we could build up towards it. She enjoyed the anticipation as much as the night: decorating Mr. Pumpkin Head, icing Halloween cookies, having her face painted as a butterfly, doing crafts and going to a Halloween party. We are lucky to have amazing neighbours all around us and they have been asking Sedona for weeks what she was going to be for Halloween: a princess. She had our route all picked out listing whose houses/people we were going to visit. She got spoiled with not only edible treats, but stickers, homemade rice krispie squares with the letter "S" and a handpainted Halloween tray as well. Aja came along for the ride as a ladybug and enjoyed watching her big sister in action. All these holidays become much more meaningful once there are kids in the picture. Our night ended with watching fireworks from our deck!

Outdoor Gal

Thank goodness Aja likes the outdoors as much as the three of us!

More evidence for the Ontario folk

 

 

That the sun does shine on the Coast. It really is true that every visit by Lisa's parents, except for our wedding day, has been blessed with November snow storms, windstorms, June rain squalls, and September washouts. Here's the proof LQ and PK!!!

 

Reason #547 why Sedona and I love the deck. That it is Oct 26 makes it even better.
chris

Cousin Stephen's San Diego update

Hey - looks like the fire has died down quite a bit in the last day or so. Rancho did not get hit as badly as first anticipated. Somewhere around 20 rancho homes were lost I believe, and none of them in our neck of the woods. I'm sure you guys are hearing about the level of devastation, $1 billion or more in damage, 1,500 homes lost, somewhere around 645 square miles burned...but it is all getting better and sd will bounce back in no time. Thanks for thinking of us!

Harvest Moon

We often go for a family walk around the block after dinner before the girls go to bed. Chris and I sometimes watch an educational program on kids and recently we saw an alarming statistic: in the UK (where the show is filmed), the average 4 year old watches 4 hours of T.V. a day. We're happy to say that that's about how many hours a day Sedona is outside getting exercise or fresh air. Anyway, last night on our walk we saw an amazing sight; this beautiful harvest moon rising over the mountains. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice. It's actually an area we go snowshoeing/skiing called Dakota Ridge. It was the biggest moon Chris and I have ever seen in our entire lives and we watched it come completely over the ridge. At first when Chris pointed it out, I thought it was snow on the mountaintop because it was this brilliant white, but then it kept getting bigger and bigger before our eyes. We all just stood there for 10 minutes in awe of this sight. it was unlike anything we have ever seen. we then went and told our neighbours who brought out their telescope to share the sight with us. When Nana called from Hawaii last night the first thing Sedona told her about was the huge moon we saw. It was an unforgettable sight for all of us!!!! We treasure those kinds of family moments.

Little Music Maker

Cool Cat

An update from the California fires

Hi. Andrew and I have 2 cousins and an Aunt who are very closely connected to the California fires. Cousins David and Stephen grew up Rancho Santa Fe, one of the areas where the fires are ravaging. I conacted Stephen via Facebook yesterday and was able to get this update from him. I will post it here for some of the family members so they can keep up to date. I have also been sharing his words with my class as I try to explain to the the magnitude of what is happening.

"Hey buddy...yeah Rancho took a bit of a beating today. I have been following the news constantly, and most of my friends are relaying our info to each other via facebook. The house in rancho looks safe for now, the fire skimmed south and east of us (about 1.5 miles away by my estimate). The RSF fire crews are doing an amazing job, and all the irrigation is slowing the fire down in that region. I have heard varying estimates, but the recent one is 100 homes lost in rancho. That number could likely rise, but most of the homes are in the eastern side of the community. Total is 1,200 homes and about 350,000 people evacuated. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that the humidity rises and the wind dies down.
Stephen"

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst in our new global climate.
chris

PS: did anyone catch 60 Minutes last Sunday eve. They did a lead story on the new phenomenon of the Super-fire. These are taking place in SouthWest U.S. are competly changing the eco-system. Lisa and I chatted last night, really for the first time trying to comprehend what our world is going to look like when our girls are ready to start families. What will our earth look like then?
c

Who's to.....

stop a creative artist from painting in the nude?

6 Months Old

Aja turned 6 months old yesterday. She is doing something in this picture that Sedona never did: holiding our hands and taking steps. Sedona never liked doing that. She was such a speedy crawler and very independent. When she was ready to walk, she did it all by herself without holding onto anyone's hands. Aja, on the other hand is happy to hold hands and take some steps. Although she's been babbling for months, she really just started talking using sounds, i.e. Ba Ba, Ba, Ba. It was really neat because as soon as she did this for the first time, Sedona got so excited and said "Mom, Aja's starting to talk." It was really neat to see that Sedona could decipher the babbling from real letter sounds!

Pizza!

Friends came over last night for homemade pizza. Sedona and Isabella each made their own pizza. Our friends have a 13 month old as well, so it was a good reminder for us as to what kind of babyproofing we need to start doing!

Focused

Rivers' Day

We went to a local Fish Hatchery to celebrate "Rivers' Day." Here are some pics from the festivities. Showing off a fun art project

Feeding the fish Face Painting: Butterfly

On the way there, we explained to Sedona she'd get to see some fish. She asked if she could hold one. So when we got there and we saw this man dumping a bunch of small trout into one of the containers, he kindly let Sedona touch it!

Random pics

I think I am going to make a greater effort to post on our blog. Since lisa has taken it over, she has done such a great job that I feel not worthy. Perhaps a picture of two from the archives. Speaking of which, I have boxes of negatives(remember those things) of my trips overseas. It sure would be great to have the digitally accessable so I could show some of them. In the meantime, I'll leave you with an action shot.

Congratulations...

If you are reading this post. It means that you have found the new address to our blog. Currently I am in Richmond, BC at the Rural Schools Education conference. It has been very interesting experience thus far and I have been able to network with teachers from all around the province. If there is one theme to the conference, it is that technology wil continue to play a much greater role in the delivery of education to students of all ages through the province. Yesterday, a colleague and myself walked around Richmond for 2 hours walking off the "conference" legs. It was nice to see all the ethnic restaurants and sweets shops. It reminded me of my time in Asia. I quickly realized however how much I appreciate the country life that I enjoy with my family. Stepping out into a forest setting with Sedona and Aja is so important to Lisa and I, and the amount of learning that we are able to do that way could never be replaced in an urban setting. Signing off for now. chris in Richmond

2 Crazy Girls

Perhaps you're getting sick of these videos, but we just love seeing the girls get such a kick out of each other. They're such good buddies! And we can never get enough of Aja's laughs!

blog addres change

Hi dedicated blog viewers. Now that Lisa has latched onto the blog, it seems to be going stronger than ever. We will be changing the address of the blog soon as I am creating a classroom blog and will named after my class, called NDVR. I am proposing that our new blog will be called www.sedonaaja.blogspot.com Wil keep you posted on the finality of the change. Take care. chris

It's More Fun to Feed Myself!

Book Time

Sedona and Cousin Owen took a 5 minute break to read books the other day when he was visiting us.

Who's Cuter?

Bright Eyes