Thanksgiving and the End of Fall

 

Ella is ready to head outside into the snow while in Quebec for the Thanksgiving holiday. There was about a foot of snow on the ground, which is funny because there's no snow in Brattleboro.

Chandre is having fun pulling Ella around the "track" we were making in the powder.

Chandre had fun sledding and decided to go down this steep hill. After a few times on her bottom, she decided to go head first ... and face planted into the snow!

This is the new house that Daph and J.P. are living at near St. Beatrix in Quebec, Canada. It's on 100 acres with a lake and small cabin that's a 20 minute hike away from the main house.

Chandre did some sledding in the woods. She's hiking up the hill here after taking her spill in the powder.

Here's Ariane's mom, Marmie, giving Ella a present (in was a barn playset that Ella is having lots of fun with!).

  

Daphnee and her baby Lili, who is 1, are hanging out with Ella.

 

 

Chandre had a really fun time with Lili and the two were almost inseperable.

 

 

Ella had a really good time with this rocking horse. She looks like she's having lots of fun!

 

 

Ella loved apple picking this fall. She still mentions it all the time.

 

Chandre and Ella pick apples at Green Mountain Orchards in Putney, VT. We turned the apples into a few different things, but mostly apple crisp!

 

Ella was checking out pumpkins and flowers at the orchard, but mostly remembers the cider and donuts we had after apple picking.

 

We all had a fun time finger painting with Ella. She got all messy, of course, but made a pretty nice picture in the end.

 

Chandre wanted to do some zip line jousting at the Renaissance Fair we went to this fall.

 

A nice shot of Chandre (one where she doesn't know I'm taking the picture) at the park.

 

Ella loves to try and copy what Chandre does. Here on the swings Ella tried to lean all the way back, just like her big sister.

 

Ella opening presents for her birthday!

 

 I had to try this hockey helmet on Ella. She didn't like it too much.

 The Vernon Dam is where I'm working right now, as a technical writer for TransCanada, who owns 13 hydro facilities in New England.

 

Ella got this tricycle for her birthday and is having fun riding it around the house.

 

Ella is super happy to be all bundled up on the couch watching  a movie.

 

Ariane, Chandre and Kaleigh carving pumpkins ahead of Halloween.

 

Ella thought the pumpkin guts were "disgusting." And any time she sees this picture, she says "that's disgusting!"

 

Ella was a cute pumpkin this year. She didn't like the costume at first, but seems pretty happy here.

 

Ariane and Ella getting ready to head out trick or treating. 

Our New House!

Well, it's been a little over a month now since we closed on our new house and we're getting settled nicely. It's been a lot of work and it's been a very stressful holiday season, but it's starting to slow down again. Anyway, this is it! As you can see, we've had quite a bit of snow so far this year and even a few ice storms. The house is on a nice, quiet street that's a circle with no through roads (yes!). This is nice, considering our Estey Street apartment was right next to an excavation company that started work at 6 a.m. each morning. The downstairs has two bedrooms, an office, living room and kitchen. Upstairs is all the master bedroom with vaulted ceilings and is very nice. There's also a full basement.

This is a view of our backyard and it backs up to more than 85 acres of forest that we can use to snowshoe, hike or cross-country ski. Our lot has enough space for garden and for Chandre to play in, which is nice. There's lot of plants back there, but since it's winter we don't really know what it's going to look like in the spring - and we can't wait to find out! We also have well water, which is great considering the town water tastes like chlorine.

Ariane's family was here for the New Year and her mom put out some great bird feeders. We've had so many birds to watch in the morning and it's wonderful. There are lots of Chickadees and Junkos, and we even have a few Cardinals, Bluejays and Woodpeckers that stop by. And the squirrels love the food too!

While all our furniture is here, we don't have enough to fill the place and we haven't finished decorating yet. But here's the living room with a beautiful real-hardwood floor we installed ourselves (one reason why the holidays were so busy). That's our greyhound Tao in the background there. We have lots of south-facing windows so the house gets a ton of sun and the plants just love it. The ladies who lived here before even left a few nice plants for us to have.

Here's a shot of the kitchen. It's pretty open and there's lots of counter space (more than Ariane or I have ever had). And best of all, we have a dishwasher now! There's even a washer and dryer downstairs (no more coin-op!). There were 7 of us here for New Year's and all the meals/dishes went very smoothly.

This is another picture of the back yard and the shed too! We're not sure what to do with it yet, but I'm sure it will get plenty of use. We're thinking of making part of it a little playhouse for Chandre. She likes that idea, and she really likes the house too. She didn't want to move at first, but now she loves it here. Happy New Year everybody and I wish you the best in 2009!

Update November 2008

Here's the whole wedding party on the big day, Jan. 19, at the Tower in Brattleboro. Across the top is J.P. and Daphnee, then Ariane and I, with Chandre and Tao at the bottom. We hike here all the time and it's really pretty. There's a big stone tower that gives a gorgeous view over the town and Connecticut River Valley.

Around March it's Maple Syrup Season in Vermont! Here's a local syrup maker creating the deliciously-sweet juice (yummy). They take the sap, which is really thin (like water), and boil it until it gets thick. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup! They use modern machines like reverse-osmosis these days to get most of the water out, then they boil the rest off.

Here's Chandre sitting on a cute butterfly chair in downtown Old Saybrook, Connecticut. We were in town for Jason's graduation party, and everybody was there! We saw Stephanie's parents, Paul and Sue, Jason's parents, Greg and Lisa, and a few other friends.

Kyle and little Ezra while we were visiting this summer, in July. We hiked up Horseshoe Falls, a few miles outside Portland. There were a few impressive waterfalls there. One had warn away the rock behind it so you could literally walk underneath the mountain. The little guy liked the hike too.

We drove to Montana after visiting Portland. Here's Ariane and I on the Two Medicine hike in Glacier National Park. We went there with mom and Paul and dad and Janen. It's so beautiful there, but we didn't see much wildlife. I still want to see a grizzly some time!

Here's Ariane kayaking on Whitefish Lake. It was her first time and she did great - didn't even fall over once!

We all went to breakfast in Portland at this great Southern-cooking place, and it was g-o-o-d! I don't remember what I ate, I just remember it being good. Melissa wasn't there, unfortunately, due to her bed rest. I'm sure she's happy that's over.

Chandre was Captain of the boat while Grandpa Rob takes a nap.

Chandre plays flag-girl on grandpa's boat.

This is Chandre in Wyoming at her grandpa Greg and grandma Lisa's house in Cody. She loves riding the horses there and says she wants to try barrel-racing next summer!

Here's Chandre, the cowgirl!

Here's Ariane with a super-cute Alpaca during a farm open house this summer. Alpacas are so nice and so soft and just all-around wonderful animals! There's lots of Alpaca farms around Vermont - they thrive in the climate around here.

Chandre giving Tao a hug.

This is called the Bridge of Flowers and it's just west of Greenfield, Massachusetts. It's a foot bridge over the Connecticut River that's covered with all different types of flowers. The Connecticut River also runs through Brattleboro and server as the border between Vermont and New Hampshire.

Chandre with a few friends from her kindergarten class. They marched in the Strolling of the Heifers parade through downtown Brattleboro earlier this spring. This parade is cool - hundreds of cows get paraded through the streets and they are all decorated with flowers. It's a fun day for everybody! Their class was dressed as strawberries and asparagus in support of local agriculture.

We went to Boston last month to see the Cirque d'Soleil. It was a fun day touring through Boston's historic areas. Here's a picture of the styline from the Quincy Market.

This area of town is a bit older.

We had a wedding party at Ariane's parents house earlier this summer and Chandre got to run through the sprinkler.

Fall in Vermont is just beautiful! This is a picture from the top of that Tower I was talking about earlier - where Ariane and I got married. This looks over the Retreat Meadows and into the Green Mountains. They'll start ice fishing here pretty soon!

Another shot from the Tower. This one is of downtown Brattleboro and into the Connecticut River Valley. Mt. Wantastiquet is in the background.

We hike a lot on the Retreat Trails, which are close to where we live.

We went apple picking this month and Chandre was thrilled they had ladders to climb! We brought a big bag home and made apple crisp and apple sauce. They were both delicious. There were also pumpkins here, horses and a reindeer to feed, and horse-drawn cart rides.

At the ski mountain they have fun summer things to do. Chandre had a blast jumping high in this bungee-trampoline We also slid down the mountain on a toboggin cart slide.

Ariane's sister Elsa got two new kittens recently and Chandre got to play with them when we were in Montreal this summer.

Chandre was a fairy princess for Halloween and she got quite a haul this year. It was a beautiful night and there were kids everywhere. We tried to dress Tao as her horse, but he wasn't too happy about it.

Chandre started karate classes last month and she's getting really good! They're learning lots and sensei says she's almost ready for the next belt. She's the smallest in her class, but is trying really hard. She's really cute!