Out of Space??

It turns out I have used up my 1GB of space allotted for pictures and videos on Blogger. But, not to worry! I am going to purchase more space as it's quite cheap.

To top it off, our camera broke. It might be done for good. We dug out our old one for the time being. We may just be in the market for a new camera at Christmas. I am thinking a Nikon D90 and following it up with some local photography classes... ;) Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I also started my first quilt this last week. I only have one good rotary cutting accident thus far. I'd say the quilt is coming along well. It should be done in a few months. Hopefully.

Cheese!

It's that time of year again. We received Cora's school photo samples today. I must say. This girl is so cute. Remember, she puked right before these pictures were taken. I thought for sure she wasn't going to give us her best show, but I was wrong. Very wrong.

The pictures are in numerical order. The first is my favorite. Lee's favorite is number 3. The photographer's favorite was the 4th one.  I have no idea which one we are going to order because I think it may be hard to settle on just one.

If I remember how to make a poll, I'll post it in the right hand column of the blog.

Update: The poll was easy to create. I voted! You should too.

Camping in the South

After our camping trip in the north this summer, we packed our car and headed south to Crowsnest Pass for another camping extravaganza. We found a nice, tiny campground right on the Old Man River. It also happened to be a half way point to meet our favorite Montanians, Chris and Vicki.

Cora was quite excited when we started pulling the camping gear out.

Doing what she does best in the car...sleeping.

We had no cell phone service at this campground. Lee had to drive about an hour to get some service so he could let Chris and Vicki know where we were. Meanwhile, Cora and I pigged out on salsa and burritos.

Really, Mom? Another picture?

Is there anything better than burritos when camping? Yes. Leftover burrito makings for breakfast burritos in the morning. Scrumptious! 

Cora loved to drive the car. 

She also got her own chair for this trip.

Naptime in the hammock. Now that's what vacation is all about.

Lee catching a fish just below our campsite. It was less about 50 feet down the hill to the fishing hole.

Cora and I throwing rocks into Lee's fishing hole. Hey, we all need to have fun, right?

Chris and Vicki finally made it!

Lee and I really thought our curse of camping in the rain had been broken after our camping trip to Rock Lake. Turns out we were wrong. Very, very wrong.

The rain started. We decided to open a bottle of wine and wait it out.

Chris and Vicki thought that was a great idea.

But, it rained and rained and rained.

And, then, it rained some more. It didn't let up. In fact, it kept raining harder and harder. We finally decided to try and get a fire started for dinner. Surprisingly, Lee and Chris got one started. We had a delicious dinner of chili out of the dutch oven. The rain never stopped that night. But the next morning was beautiful.

In fact, it was absolutely gorgeous that day. Lee caught lots of fish.

So did Vicki. Chris, on the other hand, didn't have such luck. :(

I have no words for this hilarious photo.

Cora and Reggie talking to the squirrels.

It was so nice, we decided to take a dip in the river. The river was freezing! We didn't make it in very far.

Vicki, Chris, Cora, Lee, and Sascha. Chris and Vicki left on Sunday. Canada had a Monday holiday, so we were staying an extra day. While it was raining the night before, we decided to take off at the same time as Chris and Vicki. We had no desire to camp another night in the rain. The beautiful weather on Sunday quickly changed our minds.

Lee went down to fish a bit more in the river. Low and behold, he caught a fish that had Chris' fly in its mouth. Too funny! Afterward, we took a nap with Cora. We left the doors of the tent open so the breeze could blow through. It was great. About an hour or two into our nap, Lee shoots out of bed saying it was going to rain. We both looked out and there were giant storm clouds just coming over the mountain. Sure enough. There was another huge storm. We took down our tent and packed our car in about 12 minutes and headed down the road. 15 minutes later, the rain started and never stopped. Whew. Thank goodness Lee has a weird sixth sense for rain.

We kept seeing these signs and laughing all the time. Texas Gate or Cattle Guard. The little things that remind us we are in Canada. We were about an hour down the road and Lee was looking really tired. I, too, was exhausted. There was no way we were going to make it the 5 hours back to Edmonton. Hotel and Shower, Here we come!!

We had a great time swimming in the pool. We ate a good dinner. We took hot showers. And we slept in a comfy king size bed. I think Lee and I might need a king size. Nobody was fighting for space. Not even Reg.

Hotels are always great fun.

They are so much fun that little people never want to leave.

Trick Or Treat!

And the Grinch grabbed the tree, and he started to shove
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Who!
Little Cindy-Lou Who, who was not more than two.

Sweet Little Cora dressed up as Little Cindy-Lou Who this Halloween. She fit the bill as a Cindy-Lou Who. I just couldn't resist. We bought the book, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, so Cora could meet the character she was dressing up as. The beginning of this entry is an excerpt from the book. The picture of the character below is actually from the cartoon movie. This is the Cindy-Lou who we tried to recreate. The Cindy-Lou Who from book looks quite different, and the Cindy-Lou Who from the Jim Carrey movie is way different.

The costume worked out really well except for the Christmas ornament, which was her trick or treating bucket. I bought some silver glitter to make the trick or treat bucket shiny. Ummm, yeah, it turned the sucker a nasty silver color. When I tried to fix it, the red spray paint ran out. Oh well. The dress, the antennae, the red bows, and the little girl looked pretty darn good.

Halloween seemed to be spread out over the course of this week. We started by cleaning out the pumpkins. Cora loved watching Daddy pull out the guts of the pumpkin. She was not fond of the slimy feel though. She especially loved listening to her voice as she yelled into the carved out pumpkin.

Oh Boy!

Cora called Grandma Jo to tell her all about the insides of this bright orange pumpkin.

The next night, Cora and I decorated for Halloween. We bought lots of candy so we needed to make sure the little kids would stop by for some trick or treating. We have never had much luck with trick or treaters, but we were hoping this neighborhood would be different. It was the best turn out of trick treaters we have had in Edmonton. We probably had 2 dozen kids or so.

The spider webs, spiders and orange lights on the front porch.

More webs and lights in the entry way.

We had some left over webs that we put in the kitchen and dining room.

On Sunday morning we finished carving the pumpkins. I woke up with the lovely flu that Cora brought home from daycare on Wednesday. Yuck. I think our pumpkins looked so good because Lee carved both of them!

Don't they look awesome!!

Lee took Cora trick or treating, which is a tradition that we will keep for years to come. The weather was amazing this Halloween. It was probably 50 degrees outside. Cora only had to wear a turtle neck and warm tights under her costume! Lee took some great pictures of her in action. And, he is a trooper because the flu hit him as he was trick or treating. We're both home on the couch today.

I love how her antennae look.  She was not fond of them.

Walking up to a house.

She even knocked on the door.

Candy! Even Chinese candies are fun.

On a mission for more candy. Cora's bucket was packed full when she got home.

Heading up to another door!

I guess Cora wanted to enter every house. We don't know these people but she was trying pretty hard to get in. 

I asked Lee today what he thinks Cora will ask to be next year. He said she chased every princess down the street. Hmmmm...A princess huh? Lee really wants her to pick a ghost or something that we can paint her face with. I wonder what the next year will bring us?

Happy Halloween All!