Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian family and friends! I hope you all had a wonderful time with loved ones. We sure did.

Holly and Ben flew in on Friday to celebrate the holiday with us and to check out our new surroundings. They weren't overly impressed with air pressure at 30,000 feet, but had a good flight experience overall; flights being on time, good visibility, etc. They liked our neighborhood and kept saying they couldn't believe that they were more than 2,000 miles from home! lol

We had a very busy weekend with band stuff; a football game on Friday night and a competition on Saturday in Longmont. The weather was pretty miserable all weekend, rainy and overcast- something we have rarely seen here. Rich blames the Canadians. He says, coincidence??? Ha, ha, ha. As a result of the bad weather, Heidi's competition was cut short which meant she got home much earlier than expected and she had the evening to chill with her siblings. Their band came in third place.

The rest of us decided not to hang out at the competition for long and we headed over to Boulder. Ben had asked if we could try and get a photograph of the Mork & Mindy house- so we had looked up the address and over we went! lol

We did some shopping at the Pearl Street Mall (a pedestrian mall) and had lunch in this nice little Italian place that has a wood-fired oven to cook their pizzas in. It was delicious!

Sunday we had our big turkey dinner and everything went well. Zach came home to celebrate with us and to meet Holly and Ben. We all enjoyed dinner together and I am relieved!

This morning, the girls came with me to bring Holly and Ben to the airport. Lots of tears and hugs later, they were on their way. It's Columbus Day here today- but apparently it is a minor holiday, as most things are still open and running as usual. It's weird to know it is a full-blown holiday in Canada...

Homecoming Dance & Weekend activities

Here is a photo of Heidi and her friends going to dinner before the Homecoming Dance.

I have to say, our first experience with Homecoming was pretty great. The game was fun to attend and Heidi loved all of the activities throughout the week, ending with the dance. Being on TV was kind of cool too... lol

Yesterday we went to a corn maze and what a challenge that was! I had a lot of fun taking "artistic" photos as well as regular ones, and afterward we went for a drive up to the foothills to see the trees changing.

If you have ever driven on mountain roads, you already know there really isn't anywhere to stop, so most of my drive photos were taken from the car as we were moving. Considering that, I am happy with the photos, but they really don't show the colours the way I saw them- vibrant and breathtaking. 

It's the most amazing thing to see the bright gold aspens in amongst the evergreens- on the mountains it looks like fluorescent lights in the middle of the dark trees. 

I thought coming here that I wouldn't see the lovely fall colours that I am used to in Ontario, but I was wrong. Many of the trees and shrubs change here, and as you can see on the mountain, there are lots of colours to see here too. YAY!!! 

Homecoming!

Well, we are just coming to the close of our first ever Homecoming- it is really something, that is for sure!

The high school had a whole week of spirit-building activities and pep rallies, and yesterday morning, the local Fox news was at the school to film little segments of some of the groups. The marching band was one of them! Not that you can see much, but if you are interested, you can go to this link:
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/
Click on the Good Day red tab, and from there there is a little photo under the main photo that says "Friday HS Pride- Columbine Rebels".  That will pull up a small article with a side bar that has five small photos- click on the fourth photo down to see the marching band- it is a short video. You can see Heidi in it two or three times- she is in the front row with a flute and has a bright green bandana across her forehead. They didn't show much of the band, but it was pretty cool to see her on live TV yesterday just the same!
Last night was the Homecoming football game (which we won 34-14) and Rich, Chloe, and I worked in the pit. The band played the National Anthem, then they played various little ditties throughout the first half from the stands. At halftime, they played just the third song from their show, so I had to snap photos QUICK! lol
Tonight is the Homecoming Dance and Heidi is going with a group of her friends- more on that tomorrow!

The Outdoor Lab girl!

I am back- I just remembered that I forgot to take the photos of Chloe from the other day off of the cameras.

Chloe left for Outdoor Lab Monday morning and she was SOOOOO excited! (Well, you can see that in the photos).

They spend the whole school week up there, studying the stars and all kinds of outdoor stuff, staying in cabins with their friends, and doing team building stuff. The teachers have really been hyping it up and you could feel the excitement and anticipation while we all waited for the buses to arrive.

They are due back tomorrow afternoon and I imagine the house will be filled with chatter non-stop all weekend. What a change that will be, the house has been so quiet this week. I didn't think I would miss hearing Chloe's stories as much as I do. Just goes to show you, eh? lol

Playing with the camera

I have to say, playing with a good lens is great fun! 

I went outside to take some scenery photos in our neighborhood and discovered that I need a LOT of practice before I am any good at this! lol

I do enjoy taking and looking at photographs though and I am sure that I will love every moment of the learning process.

I will be taking more garden photos as I progress there- I am trying to do a little landscaping and some final fall planting- before it is time to plant tulips!

Thanks to a tip from my neighbor, I have found the perfect garden store nearby. They have the biggest selection of tulip bulbs I have ever had the pleasure to come across. Of course, the problem will be narrowing it down to just a few...