Happenings of the last month

Christmas Holidays were fun and busy!  We thoroughly enjoyed our time down south.  Of course, spending time with family is the best part.  We started off our holidays leaving Whitehorse in -40 degree weather.  We had arranged with a lady to look after our home, sleep there, keep the fires roaring, feed and look after the dog and cat and basically keep everything alive.  With that all in place, which took tons of string pulling, we took off a little apprehensively. 

We stopped over at my husband's brother 14 hours later.  We did not stop for anything more then gas for the vehicle and bathroom stops but the roads were messy and it took us 2 hours longer then usual.  By the time we stopped for the night it was -3 degrees celcius.  Much better!  It had warmed up for us 37 degrees!  We discarded most of our heavy winter gear there and that freed up some space (not much) in the car.

The next day we traveled another long day and were exhausted.  The roads were horrible and it made for a very tense trip.  We decided to stop in at a hotel and enjoy a restful evening and sleep.  Well, no such luck.  I opened my facebook and discovered that all was not well at the home front.  The lady who was to look after our place decided it was too difficult and she didn't want to.  Oh, great!!!  I scrambled for telephone numbers, calling anyone and everyone I knew to find someone who could go to our house and animals.

God is so Good!  We have some awesome friends who took over for us and went to our house.  They discovered that because the fires had been neglected, all the water pipes in the house were frozen (only one was broken).  Thank you to them for thawing everything out and fixing everything up for us.

But that took several days and my husband was so stressed, he was ready to book a flight back home and call it quits on the vacation thing.  That would have been just up the Devil's Alley!  So grateful that didn't happen!

We spent the first few of days after we reached our destination, at my sister's house.  The kids spent all day everyday, sledding.  They were soaked to the bone and having fun with their cousins and friends.  It is so awesome to have other kids to play with.

Then we all (My sister's family, my parents from Colorado, and our family) headed to the coast for Christmas.  What a beautiful place to spend Christmas!  I didn't miss the snow one little bit.  It was such a reprieve!

We rented little cabins for each family and ate altogether in my sister's.

Here are some pictures of our time there.

Opening Christmas presents.

Isaac got a STOCKING monkey in his STOCKING

Art got a CD holder with lots of beautiful, Christian music.  We've been listening to them ever since.  Never get tired of them.

Thank you Anna Joy

Jacob built a little lap desk for Brianna.  Our Neighbor helped him out a lot!

My Parents watching Jacob open up his gift of Solar System Monopoly.

Thank you Uncle Steve

Out on the beach there were hours of fun.  The rocks were so beautiful!

My sister looking at the different colours.

My Niece, beautiful Brianna

Colourful pieces of seaweed and rocks

My Dad!

A valient effort at running on shifting rocks.  Go girls!

Anna Joy picking rocks

My Hubby, Art,  enjoying the ocean from the outside. 

Caleb and his seaweed friend 

Rocks, drift wood, seaweed and railroad tracks

Climbing dead trees

Our favorite photographer!  Bri

My mom!  I miss her~

Mom and Dad~  Wish our visit was longer

The whole gang!

Love this picture of Jacob!

Stina-Bee

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Pick up colourful seaweed

Picking rocks

 Drift wood

My sister and her husband, Steve

Beautiful sunset

Mom and Stina, picking rocks

Our Sweet Vanessa

Beauty

Sea creatures.  I know what they are but don't know how to spell it.  LOL

Still exploring at sunset

Aaaaahhhh!  Greenery at Christmas!