Life begins at 40!

Skiing in UNB woodlot

Yoho sunset

ooops

silly Josh

Harriet hugging a goat!

McCains factory

the historic covered bridge

Bess isn't too well and sleeps most of the time now

Harriet made me cupcakes for my birthday.

My 40th birthday celebrations have started this weekend with a party. I invited friends to cheer me up as I embark on the downhill part of my life. When we woke on Sunday another foot of snow had been dumped on Yoho and was still falling, church had to be cancelled as the truck used for moving the gear to the hall was stuck at the back of a carpark which hadn't been plowed as it was the weekend. I was beginning to google what of the food I'd made could be frozen when the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon. 34 guests came and we had fun games finding out if the 39's and under or the 40's+ were superior, of course the 40's++++ won! A friend from church when introduced to Richard asked him who was the older sibling!!!!!!!! I can't work out if I look 30 or him 40! I got some lovely presents at the party including a tin of mushy peas ... yummmy just need real fish 'n' chips and I'm set. I'll open all the cards and parcels that have arrived on my official birthday. Harriet is sooooo excited waiting for her birthday on Thursday, some of her friends are visiting at the weekend.

Last weekend I took a day off from the market as it was so slow and we went to visit a goat farm. It was in a beautiful position near Florenceville and the goats were so cute. It certainly gave us lots of good ideas. On the way to visit it we passed the McCains factory HQ and an historic covered bridge. We borrowed cross country skis again and attempted to do the shortest route in the UNB woodlot. The woodlot is about 13km of primed ski paths which are free for the public to use. We did a little 2.5km circular route which was just long enough to build up a bit of a sweat and practice our techniques. Next time we'll try a longer route and go earlier in the day so we don't finish in the dark. The paths are so beautiful though just like Narnia, it wouldn't have surprised me if the snow queen had pulled up on her sledge and offered me turkish delight!

David decided to try offroading in his new truck last week, he went into a ditch. Thankfully truck and David were fine but he needed help pulling it out so went to fetch the boys who were home on another snow day to help dig. A friendly neighbour towed him in the end.

Last week was also 6 months since we arrived in Canada. Time just flies by so fast. Life is very different from this time last year but really good. We are not fed up with the snow yet, we love it! It's not too cold for us, houses are warm inside and you dress up warm for outside. We were only saying yesterday we haven't seen rain since December... that is definately a big plus. Also snow days are so peaceful except if they come with the wind. The days inbetween snow days are blue skies, crisp, bright sunshine, real outdoors days making snowshoeing, skiing, igloo building, sledging so much fun. We have lots more daylight too, the sun rises around 7am and sets after 6pm at the moment. It got to +1 degrees yesterday and we were too hot!!!!