Cross Country

Jack joined the Barrhead Elementary School cross country team, trained hard and did well. He ran in four races in total and if we can, we'll get him to write about it.

Here are some photos from the final meet.


Can I reel him in?
Highly valued support from newly arrived Australian contingent - Alec, Sam, Will & Anita.

Golf Season begins & ends

The mixture of Golf-Carting and Golf kept the boys amused for a few hours on Thanksgiving Day holiday. Sun was out. No-one on the course. Main hazard was the fallen leaves which provided endless hiding places for little white balls.
Chip!

Whack!

Youthful optimism.

Splash!

Fore!

Rattle, rattle.

Fore!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving long weekend saw action galore. Saturday - Hockey in morning, Smoky Lake in afternoon. Thanksgiving Day at Hewitt's on Sunday plus cross-country training for Jack. Monday - Golf Day for Will, Amanda, Jack and George on the sun-drenched, leaf littered Autumnal slopes of the Barrhead Golf Club.

The Hewitt's Giant Turkey must have been fed with the same stuff as the Smoky Lake pumpkins. This would not have been the kind of turkey that one would have wished to tangle with in a dark alley. The fact that it had been slaughtered, plucked, stuffed, laid on its back and cooked at 375 (degrees Fahrenheit) for many, many hours made it easier for us to relax in its company.

Eating it was not a problem.

The Hewitt's taught us a new (for us) family game called '4 on the couch'. Short-term memories were challenged.

We felt privileged to share such a great Thanksgiving meal with such a fine upstanding Canadian family. How can we ever hope to repay such generosity when the Hewitt's visit us in Australia. Roo Tail Soup? Wombat Stew?

Four-on-the-Couch. Traditional 'extreme' Canadian family game normally played outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, but is was too warm so we played it inside this time. Will's tie was a recent purchase from Harrods.

This looks to me like a candidate for a 'caption competition'. Any suggestions?

The glorious centre piece of the table was a very fancy collapsible paper Turkey that Nadine (school deputy sheriff) had purchased at the Westlock Dollar Store and given to Will for his birthday. For some reason the Hewitts insisted that we take the folding paper turkey home with us. Not sure why...

Goalie first time for George

Passing puck (me George goalie)

Match. Me in net.

It was weird because you had to get a whole different bunch of stuff on. Like I didn't have to wear shin pads because I had goalie pads on. The goalie pads were tied onto my skates so they didn't fall off. I didn't even have to wear my gloves because I had the catcher and blocker on.

The Annual Great White North Smoky Lake Pumpkin Fair and Pumpkin Weigh-Off

We took the 2 hour drive east to the Smoky Lake Pumpkin Festival straight after hockey. Amanda's whim - boys all prepared, on this occasion, to go with the flow. Landed in town to be momentarily distracted by the very fancy cars in the main street and the concrete pumpkins by the railway station before being shuttle-bussed to the real action - the Weigh Off at the town Rec Centre. The ice was out of the hockey arena to be replaced by thousands of seats all of which were full. The MC was a local radio identity who might have been related to Dennis the Rodeo Clown - judging by the number and quality of his mother-in-law jokes.
Sculptures at the Smoky Lake train station.


The On-Stage Smoky Lake Pumpkin Carrying Unit delivers another big one to the scales.

The Winning Pumpkin. That's 1137.5 pounds.* It's a bit discouraging really isn't it. Until now we'd been impressed with the vegie growing expolits of Doug & Sally and Judy & John. Not so much any more. What can they use as an excuse? Drought? Top-soil? We didn't research techniques for growing large pumpkins. We might though.

* 'Scuse me, Dad - what's that in kilos?

Pumpkin Flesh with Family.

Amanda's fetching new pumpkin hat, modelled here by George.


Autumnal rural Albertan scenes.

Fall = Yellow (& white)

2 day camp the Year 6 'Jasper Challenge' went without a hitch - apart from the unrelenting snow that fell on Friday. The family then camped at Thunder lake on Saturday night.
Hike up Maligne Canyon, near Jasper.

Next day, buckets of snow.

The Mighty Icicles in pristine pre-hike condition.

Frozen lunch at Summit Lake. The bad weather alternative to the Bald Hills hike.

The family camped at Thunder Lake on Saturday night with Strands and Hewitts. Falling yellow leaves everywhere. Still water. Loads of ducks and geese. Beautiful clear skies. The heating system in the tent was pushed to its limits. The tea in the teapot froze overnight.



Thunder Lake early in morning. I became momentarily attached to wooden bench due to general iciness.

17 candles + 15 people + 3 grouse + 2 deer + 1 beaver + 1 chocolate zucchini birthday cake + 1 frozen teapot + 2 nuthatches + 4 woodpeckers + 0 heaters in tent = 46 = great way to see in my 47th year.

Jack and George Johnston: Jet Boat Instructors

Well, we gave our mate Lambert (pictured above) a call to see if he was up for a Jet Boat lesson. We hadn't taken him out for a while and the old boat needed a bit of a run. Martin and Sally came too - a good way to celebrate her 50th (oops).



We let Lambert have a bit of a drive once we'd got through the most dangerous parts of the Athabasca River. It gets a bit shallow. He did OK round the bends and needs to remember to speed up through the shallow bits especially when you hear a grating sound coming from underneath.
We went upstream for a couple of hours towards Whitecourt. Drifted back down for a while and then sped back for our next appointment at Mrs. V's for another sumptuous meal.
Lambert seemed pretty happy with his progress. Next lesson we'll have him going a bit faster. We'll also see if we can help him grasp the concept of using his hands on the steering wheel.

As you can see the conditions were superb. Autumn colours on the way. We saw a couple of deer, a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle.

We feel like we're getting to know the Athabasca River reasonably well. We've walked on it's Glacier up past Jasper, enjoyed the Athabasca falls, rafted 15km's of it below the falls and now this. This river is rare because it is both very long, very large and as yet untamed. From here it heads north and we think it's water ends up in the Arctic Sea via Lake Athabasca, Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River.