A few photos of life in Lethbridge

We're thawing out from our first (and brutal) cold snap. It was -25C for about eight days, and it seemed to snow about three inches each night -- just enough to need to shovel. Then, on the last day, a Chinook came along (the west winds that bring sunshine but unbelievable wind)... and we endured winds gusting between 50 and 90 km/hr for more than a day. The drifts we woke up to were incredible -- perfect for building snow caves, according to Jack and his buddies (who have a better ability to look for the silver lining in the windy clouds).

Yesterday and today, though, we've had the payoff for the Chinook.... gorgeous blue skies yesterday, and a regular old normal November weather today (the kind where you want a jacket when you go out, but that's it).

We are planning a small (and scaled down) Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with American friends (chicken and not turkey, and only a few of the trimmings). I love celebrating Thanksgiving twice a year (of all holidays that could be celebrated twice, I think Thanksgiving is the best.... you can never be too thankful, right?). And it's funny -- my internal "holiday" clock really FEELS like I should have been at home on Thursday, cooking and expecting friends to come over. Instead, we went into work and ate frozen pizza for dinner because I had to go and teach my night class... and it felt like something was just not quite right. So hopefully some poultry tomorrow will set things back in balance.

And now -- some photos of life in Lethbridge from late October til this week. In the first, we took a walk down along the river bottom in Popson Park one Sunday morning in late October or early November. Usually we'd just walk along the bottom but on that day, the kids wanted to go up and up and up the coulee (the hills). So up we went... and we ended up walking home! John went back once we got to the top to get the car (stressing Kaia out terribly -- she did NOT like the idea of our pack being split up), and was again amazed at the hikers we seem to have raised. The first shot is looking up the hill. In the second one, if you look down to the river... well, that's where we started. (Kate in red and pink)

The next picture show Kate and Liv in the new Christmas dresses from Costco -- which we got for them to wear to their big Christmas concert on Dec. 8. Unfortunately, we found out this week that their class is to wear pajamas for the concert. Sigh. I am sure the dresses will get plenty of use anyway. (Liv in purple).

Below, you can see my soon-to-be patented system of getting kids out the door for the bus on time in snowy weather. Each step contains an item for each child to put on... starting with snow pants, then boots, the coat, then gloves and scarves, then backpacks. This ensures all the pieces are there the night before (when I set it up) and that we don't spend all morning scrounging around for a lost glove. You can see Jack once he is ready to go -- and some of the snow he faced on his way to the bus this week (pre-huge-drifting).

And finally, here are some shots of the girls in their ski gear. We are hoping to get them skiing well this year (the last year they are free) and we (I mean, John) have been picking up pieces at the ski swap and garage sales over the years. They are SOOOOO excited. First up, Liv in goggles, then Liv trying on skis, then Kate trying on hers, then the dynamic skiing duo looking very pleased with themselves! Don't they look like naturals?