Newfoundland Vacation (Photo Heavy!)

Emily and I have been away for the past 3 weeks - David sent us off to Newfoundland to visit my family. My dad calls his parents every evening, and since Emily was born my Grandmother instructs my dad to "give that little girl a kiss and a hug for me!"

It took us 3 days of driving to get there (with lots of breaks for Miss Emily), but she was such a good little traveller!

She got to meet most of the family, as everyone was there for my grandparents' 71st wedding anniversary.

We also helped celebrate my Aunt & Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. I got screeched in at the party (but got to drink Purity Syrup rather than screech, as I'm nursing), and am now an "honourary" Newfie.

We had a great time at a Mussel boil on the beach...

Emily's First time on the Beach!

And Emily had a bath in her Great-Great-Grandmother's bowl (she was a midwife, and most of the children born in Bonne Bay were washed in that bowl, including Emily's Great-Grandmother and Grandmother). She had a great time, splashing water all over Grammy's floor!

We had a great time, and finally after 3 weeks it was time to say goodbye...

Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland

... and head home.

Weekend in Toronto

This past Thanksgiving weekend we went to Toronto for my cousin's wedding. We grew up together, and I wouldn't have missed his wedding for anything!

The had a beautiful spot - 

you can see the Niagara Escarpment in the background

Family came from far and wide to help celebrate!

Enjoying a dance...

and of course the Mother-Son dance.

Congratulations Shane & Chelsey - 

Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness!

New Addition!

We found out at the beginning of July that we're going to be parents! According to our calculations, our estimated date of delivery was March 12th, 2012. However, at our fist ultrasound last week, the technician told us that I'm actually a little further along than I thought. Instead of being 12 weeks, 4 days the baby was measuring 14 weeks, 4 days moving the due date to February 26th! Needless to say we're very excited! It's still too early to know if it's a boy or a girl, but we should be finding out at our next ultrasound. 

Our Little Jumping Bean

And we're back!

I was hoping to start posting earlier than this, but my body demanded that I take some time to rest and relax as best I could before starting back to work. Just to warn you, this post is a little long... photos will be added a little later.

David and I left for Newfoundland a couple of days after my last post. It was my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary and family traveled from all over to be there to help them celebrate. Unfortunately, my grandfather fell ill just a few days before the big party and was taken to hospital (he's doing very good now, and is back home), so my grandparents ended up spending their anniversary in the hospital. The party went ahead as scheduled and we made a video for them with all their well-wishers. For the rest of the week, my grandparents had a never ending line of visitors as everyone stopped by to visit.

As for the rest of our vacation, David finally achieved his goal of climbing Gros Morne Mountain (the mountain the National Park is named for).

On our way back, we decided to stop over in PEI for one night. David had never been there before, and there was a mini mill on our way that we could visit (it's David's dream that in addition to an alpaca farm, we also process and spin our own fiber). We had a beautiful campsite at Lord Selkirk Provincial Park, and spent a couple of hours touring and learning about the Belfast Mini Mill. We met some wonderful people and had a great time!

We timed everything perfectly - we made it back home just in time to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary!

That week was quite hectic as I raced to finish putting together a show book for the Navan Fair Alpaca show the following week. Once it was all done and sent off to the printers I had a couple of days to relax before the Alpaca show started. Once again, we volunteered as Alpaca Security and camped in the alpaca tent with the animals. It was kind of noisy, and I'll admit I didn't get as much sleep as I was hoping for, but it was much quieter than last year! We had a great time at the show; I even had some family come by to see what it was all about.

A couple days later and I was back to work. Looking back our summer passed in a whirlwind. Now I'm looking forward to our labs starting up and getting back into the swing of things!

And for those that may be curious: planning for our next Halloween party is well under way...

A North Bay Weekend

This past weekend we decided to head to North Bay to visit David's parents. Despite the weekend of rain, we had a great time with them. 

The last time we were there, we went to a Mexican restaurant and David had a "burrito as big as your head," and was disappointed that he couldn't finish it. This time, he was determined to finish it!

Burrito as "Big as your head"

With a fork, for scale

Almost done!

I'm sad to say, that David only almost made it - he only left one bite. It was either that or he would have spent the rest of the evening sleeping off his incredibly large meal!

Catching up... again

So far, this month has been pretty crazy... as evidenced by the lack of posts!

On May 4th, I performed in Vanier's 40th anniversary choral concert with the college choir. It was a huge work, very... different...

We still haven't managed to tackle the two remaining gardens that were covered in hay in the fall. The gardeners were supposed to come by in the middle of the week to mow our lawn so we wanted to deal with the hay that had been raked off one of the gardens before the mowers got here. Tuesday evening (May 10th) we raked everything up, and decided since it was decent out, to burn the hay rather than fill countless bags. Needless to say, we got a good roaring fire going!

The following weekend we had some visitors Saturday afternoon, and Sunday my parents came by with lobster for Mother's Day dinner. Boiled lobster, corn-on-the-cob, rice & veggie stir-fry, and cheddar-bay biscuits... topped off by a chocolate-fudge cake... yum!

Last weekend was our busiest and most anticipated weekend! First, it signalized the beginning of our vacation (sort of... we traded 2 days for the following week). Our jobs have a temporary lay-off during the summer, so we'll both be off until mid-August. The weekend kicked off on Friday with alpaca shearing at Magpie Hill Alpacas in North Gower (just south of Ottawa). This is the same farm we helped out last year.

Cria (baby alpaca) with full fleece

Half way through...

 All done!

We had a great time, and we both learned a lot!

Sunday, our nephew was baptized, and I must say I don't think I've ever seen a more quiet baptism... not a squeak from him!

We has a few days to ourselves before we were back to work to help one of our suppliers set up equipment in one of our labs on Thursday, and back for workshops the following day. A great time was had by all, as we learned about ELISA antibody tests and protein analysis through electrophoresis...

That's me pipetting our sample into the gel for electrophoresis

Finally, yesterday we had a beautiful summer day... the thermometer read 25 degrees! David and I managed to finish working on 3 of our gardens: annuals were planted around the deck; our garden by the garage was edged, filled, planted (with dahlias & peonies), and covered with cedar chips; and the garden in front of the barn was edged, filled and planted (with gladiolas) as well! We put some garden lights in the two new gardens, but last night decided that they just didn't fit in there. So, this morning I've moved them to the garden around the deck (the photos were taken yesterday).

Facing driveway                                        Facing Back Yard

Dahlias & Peonies

Gladiolas

We also made another trip for plants this afternoon, and.... Ta Da!

It's oh, so quiet

Not much has been happening around here lately. Temperatures have been dropping since my last post, including snow, hail and freezing rain on Saturday. Add to that the crazy high winds we get here... we've just been keeping our fingers crossed that we don't lose any trees! 

We had some family & friends over on Saturday to help celebrate my birthday (or as David put's it "another lap around the sun"). We had a great time despite the weather! After years of my cousin (who's more like a sister) trying to blow out my birthday candles, a tradition that has been going on since my 2nd birthday, I decided that we should give up all pretenses and she should just help (especially seeing as the number of candles on the cake will only get larger, right?).

On the crafting front, not much has been going on. The knitting needles were quiet for a quite a while as I recovered from last year's intense knitting (2 stoles for my wedding - maid of honour & bridesmaid; 1 baby blanket that took FOREVER to finish; 2 baby sweaters and a hat (blogged about it here) and that had me knitting until the wee hours of the morning to finish). Well, with 3 more babies expected later this year, needless to say the knitting has recommenced. No photos yet - those will have to wait until another day ;)

Hopefully, with the warmer weather forecast for the weekend, there will be more happening around here!

The lion rears his head

I know, I know... I've been neglecting the blog lately. But, I'll make up for it today! 

Last Saturday we had a snowstorm... so much for March coming in like a lamb! Not that the cats minded at all. Caesar was completely mesmerized by the birds at the feeder, and was oblivious to the falling snow.

Cleo, however, was having a great time with the snow!

We woke up Sunday morning to a pretty coat of snow on all the trees, and more snow falling.

We headed out in the snow to Oxford Mills, just south of Ottawa, to celebrate my Grandmothers birthday. The main highways were horrible, and everyone was driving in the middle of the two lanes. I was worried the county roads I had to take to get there would be even worse, but actually they were in better condition than the highway! We had a great time visiting with everyone, and we got to see how big our nephew is getting. 

The sun was setting on the way home... red sky at night, sailor's delight... it was beautiful!

Waiting game...

Things have been really quiet around here lately, as not much has been going on. This past weekend, we were in Ottawa, anxiously awaiting the birth of our new nephew. Unfortunately, he still hasn't put in an appearance. We're blaming his father for passing on his patience and stubbornness genes ;)



ETA: James Henry was finally born on January 31st at 5:30am. Welcome to the world little Peanut!