Canadian Adventure Part 2

Happy Monday Foxy Friends! I hope your weekend was amazing. As promised I'm finishing up our Canadian adventure today. For part 1 click here.We left off with arriving in Waskesiu and getting settled in. So we wake up on Saturday and are having breakfast when we get a frantic phone call, that the dog sledding we signed up for wasn't on Sunday but in fact was right now. If we hurried and left now they could still fit us in. So off Abbie, Alison to keep Abbie company while we all dog sledded, Lana, Mr. Lana, my Mr. and I went dog sledding.

Mr. Lana and I were squished in the back, I have no idea how he squeezed his legs back there, trooper.

All bundled up and ready to start dog sledding.

Sundogs was amazing, they are off the grid as much as they can be and love what they do, and you can tell.

 

Showing us how to get and out of the sled, yes there was a specific way.

All the dogs lined up ready to be attached to the sled.

They let us put the harnesses on the dogs, yep I even pet a dog, which I haven't done in probably 15+ years? Crazy I know, long story short I've always been allergic to animals so I made a policy to not pet animals ever.

Abbie and Alison freezing their butts off, but getting great pictures for us.

They did a 20 minute test with us, and I was cold just standing there, so I asked for another jacket. 

Mr. Lana and Lana were bundled up and warm.

Off we go!

Mr. got to stand on the sled and pretend he was driving while they unhooked the dogs.

Me all bundled up, haha! I think I had at least 4 layers on, could have been 5.

The kids went swimming while we were gone, but were ready to go out and play in the snow when we got back.

She is a little snow bunny, her happy place is in the snow.

We saw some curling and the kids wanted to give it a try. Then decided riding on them was more fun.

Moving onto ice skating, but the kids wanted to jump around in the snow.

She thinks she is going to go the Olympics for ice skating...who am I to hold her back?

Got Baby Fox out there too, but he made it half way around and tapped out.

Yep he's done.

Meanwhile, Mr. went cross country skiing, he's never put skis on...he did great!

These two skated all around and loved every minute of it.

Baby Fox took off his skates and went ice fishing instead.

This girl skated for 2.5 hours and was pretty tired at dinner.

But she rallied and then proceeded to walk through the keepest snow possible.

We went on a tractor ride, we were cold and it went around the cabins, we thought we were going to go through forest, it was not that.

The girls thought it was pretty cool though.

We put the kids down, and were hanging out, when Deena called and said we were going to try and find the Northern Lights, that the App told us it was close to us.

We didn't find any Northern Lights, we thought it would come about 3am, so I told everyone I would wake up at 3 to see if we could see them and then text them...Mini Fox woke up about 3am so I checked and it was snowing! So no Lights, we were THIS close to seeing them. But in the morning we had another great view.

Kids played in the snow while we packed up.

When we got back Mr. got snuggles with the cat and G.

Back at the house before the photoshoot we were all sharing pictures that we had taken. But funny it looks like we are just on our phones and not engaging with each other.

 

Mr. was so excited to be taking family pictures, can you tell?

 

It's snowing!

 

Love this lady so much! Thanks for making this trip so freakin' amazing!

 

They are just so cute, I die.

Sneak peek to the photos we took.

After the photos, Deena and Abbie had orgainzed a Canadian pot luck with all of their closest friends so we could enjoy all the yummy Canadian food.  Set up some fun outdoor activities, Mr. and I learned how to really cross country ski by Deena's amazingly talented Sister-In-Law. Baby Fox even joined us.

What it looks like when you host 40+ people at your house in the winter, haha! And this doesn't even show the stuff where you can't see to the left.

Monday morning was a lazy morning, kids watched the rest of thier movie they started last night.

Mr. and I did some skeet shooting, it was really fun. Mr. caught on really quick and was soon getting them all, I got two, which I'm pretty proud of!

After we were done, we came in to roast some hotdogs for lunch.

Afterwards the kids went swimming, while Abbie, Lana and I are took Alison to the airport. Sad goodbyes. We picked up dinner on the way back from shopping and doing some Belong Lifestyle drop offs.

We picked up dinner after our errands and ate when we got home. The kids swam the entire time we were gone. It was then time to take Lana and Mr. Lana to the airport, so Mr. said goodbye to his favorite Canadian gal because Abbie was going to go home after going to the airport. Insert sad face.

Then all the girls wanted to get in on the love.

Later Deena had to take the dogs for a walk, so I got to experience -40°F temps...it was crazy cold! But still fun.

Our time was coming to an end, we had to pack and go to bed. Next morning we woke up nice and early (the kids were not happy about that), to get to the airport.

Our plane was late coming in, but good thing Mini Fox was there to help guide in the plane.

After a long day traveling we finally made it home and really had the BEST Canadian adventure. Thank you Abbie and Deena for showing us the best time and really going above and beyond to show us your home town. Until next time, a little -40° weather would not keep us away from you guys. Stay tuned on Friday for all of the photos we took. Larrisa from Lovely Roots Photography did a great job!

Friday Favorites: Canadian Adventure Part 1

Hi Foxy Friends! I'm actually recapping a trip before several months have passed and then it gets awkward. But I started this blog to remember this time in my life, I need to start actually posting stuff.

Our flight was at 7am, so we were at the airport around 5:30am, Baby Fox (as you can see) was not in the mood to take pictures, he was super tired. Luckily our Aunt and Uncle live about 10 minutes to the airport, so we spent the night at their place the night before, so all we had to do is hop in an Uber and head to the airport.

Not sure how this guy got in there, but it crept Mini Fox out, and she stayed on the opposite side of the seat.

He's taken a nap and in better spirits

Arrived and was greated at the door by Abbie, Deena and Deena's kids with lots of jackets, hats and gloves in hand for us! Boy was it COLD! We went to dinner right away, although it was really lunch for us, but dinner for them, it worked out though. We got back and went swimming right away, the kids had a blast!

Mr. made friends with the cat, they were inseperable...should I be worried?

After the kids went to bed we decided to take a walk and really experience how cold it was. The dogs needed to walk, so we all went.

We tried to take a picture, but it didn't really work out, eh.

 Spent the rest of the night chatting, eating the best cheeseball of my life and then we picked up Alison from the airport around 11pm. It was a hug fest and she loved it (read sarcasm here, we're allowed one hug when we see her and one hug when we leave, she puts up with us, but she keeps coming back, so she MUST like the hugs a little). No pictures here...what were we thinking! Oh and Alison is the master packer...take tips from her.

The next morning, Mini Fox wanted to head outside to help feed the dogs, she could NOT wait to a) pet the dogs b) go out in the snow.

 

Living her dream.

We ate breakfast and then headed outside to tobboganig and Ski-dooing. I don't have nearly enough pictures with Lana, so I told her all the pictures are going to be taken.

That's Mr. right there, off to explore.

Meanwhile my kids learned how to sled.

Then they took a ride on the ski-doo.

Afterwards we headed back to the house for some lunch and Abbie had gone to get her kids from school, and they were so happy to be reunited. It took them a few minutes to warm up to each other, but soon they were attached at the hip. We had brought a few Valentine's for our friends.

A little after lunch we had to leave to get to Waskesiu Lake, but first we stopped to see Abbie's new house being built, so dang cute. Will have to go back and take another picture of these two in the same spot when it's done.

We ended up putting all the guys in one car, then we put the older kids in one car to watch a movie, and then I got to sit with G, she's the cutest.

We stopped at Deena's SUPER generous parents house, and they fed us all dinner. Seriously, the night before, while we were picking up Alison at the airport they said, hey when you stop to get some cross country ski stuff, why don't you eat dinner too, that way you don't have to go out with the 15 of you...so with about 17 hours they threw together a fab dinner for all of us.

We arrived at the Elk Ridge Resort and got settled. Abbie and our family stayed in one cabin, and then everyone else, including Baby Fox stayed over in the other Cabin. The girls were a little hungry after their bath so they got a snack. Hard to get a good picture when food is involved.

Put the girls to bed and then we stayed up and chatted. Girls were doing great sleeping, so we decided to see if we could go see some Northern Lights. First Abbie and I decided to walk outside and about 30 steps outside, we decided it was way too cold and went back to retreive the car and drive around.  But first I had to take a picture with the ice sculpture. It was cold.

We didn't find any lights, but we found a really cool street with no lights, and beautiful trees and stars. We headed back and Abbie took Mr. out to see the same spot, it was so pretty.

The next morning was gorgeous out our window.

Okay so this is getting long and I haven't even gotten to the dog sledding or the ice skating...so we're going to make this a to be continued on Monday! Hope you have a great weekend! We have a full sports schedule, horseback riding, karate, soccer and baseball. Then Mr. is leaving for a trip on Sunday, so I'm taking the kids to the movies. See ya next week!

What's Up Wednesday: February

Hi Foxy Friends! Today I'm linking up with Shay and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday, where we share what's going on with us. So let's get to it:


1. What We're Eating This Week

Mr. made a chilli recipe he had at a friends house, it was really yummy.

I also made this instant pot recipe and Mr. kept saying how good it was, so it must have been good.

If you do end up making this recipe, I only pressure cooked it for 25 minutes (45 minutes and 25 NPR is a ridiculous amount of time) and NPR for 10 minutes and it turned out perfect. I also added a corn starch slurry to thicken up the sauce. In hind sight I should have taken the meat out, taken the fat off of the sauce and then did slurry, but hey I'll do that next time.

2. What I'm Reminiscing About

All the fun we had while on our Canadian adventure, already planning when we can go back!

3. What I'm Loving

The pictures that Larissa took while we were in Canada, gorgeous!

4. What We've Been Up To

All of the kid things...not sure how we got here, but here are the kids after school activities...

Baby Fox: Karate, Religious Education formally known as CCD, Football, Baseball

Mini Fox: Religious Education, Soccer, Gymnastics and Horseback Riding (but only for 2 more weeks I think).


5. What I'm Dreading

Not being able to work out with all of the kids said activities (see prompt above). But I've figured out paths to run while I'm waiting for the kids, and then there is always YouTube workouts at the park while I'm waiting too. I really like Blogilates, as most of her videos no equipment is needed.

Oh also dreading Mr. going on his buisness trip, hate when he has to travel for work, he was doing it so much last year, it was nice to have him home for 3 months, guess all good things must come to an end.

6.  What I'm Working On

Hmmm...trying to organize my desk area...and need to finish cleaning up the garage from the mess that was Christmas. Hosting 20+ people a lot of stuff gets thrown into the garage, so need to clean that up, I think this weekend we'll finally have some time to get that done.

7. What I'm Excited About

Watching baseball and soccer again, I love watching Baby Fox play baseball and Mini Fox play soccer.

8. What I'm Watching/Reading

We just finished watching Lost in Space on Netflix and really enjoyed it.



9. What I'm Listening To

I carry my old iPod Touch in my purse for YEARS, and this week I decided to charge it up and see what songs were on there. Re-Obsessed with the song on there. I think the last time I turned it on was 2014 (I assume, since the calendar is stuck on December 2014).  Anyone else still have their old iPods? I remember thinking that this screen was SOO big when I got it too. Now look how small it is in my hands. Also in the video's section, I had Dawson's Creek season 4, Pitch Perfect and Twilight...that makes me laugh.

10. What I'm Wearing

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

Wearing all the things from Belong Lifestyle (not affiliate). I just got back from visiting them and got to buy some of their stuff coming up for Spring and you're going to love it! Go see what they have, and because it's a Canadian store, we get a great exchange rate, and the shipping is $5CAD no matter what you get, which means $3.50 for us! Great deal!

Also Target is having their buy one get one 50% off sale of bathing suits for the family. It ends on Saturday night so better hop on it. Includes some of the cute cover ups too!

Go to this post to see more details.

11. What I'm Doing This Weekend

Baseball and soccer...and then Mr. is going out of town so taking the kids to the movies on Sunday. Going to see Sonic...anyone see it?

12.  What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month

Next month I'm looking forward to celebrating Mr's birthday and a friends 40th birthday, should be really fun!

13. What Else Is New

Can't think of anything else that is new...hmmm...need to figure out the kids summer schedule still. Trying to weave it all together is like the air traffic control guy...so hard! haha!

Hope you have a great Wednesday! See you Friday when I recap our Canada trip!