For those of you who don’t know us in the Real World, we live “out of town.” We’re a whopping 6 km behind town (or about a 10 minute drive, for those who don’t speak in metric). In a Big City, 10 minutes is nothing. I know this; I used to drive down Hastings in Vancouver to get to work. But in a Small Town…10 minutes is forever.
We get comments from people almost daily about living “so far out of town.” I get tired of hearing myself repeating. “It’s only 10 minutes.” The way people talk about it, you would think we lived in a different time zone. Well, I do believe that some of our neighbours might live in a parallel universe, but that’s not my story to tell.
I think I need to stop telling people that we’re not really that far out (again, some of my neighbours are definitely “far out”), because we’ve got it good. And I’m not sure I want to have a huge amount of people move out here and crowd out the goodness. How good is it, you ask?
We have been blessed far more than I could have ever hoped for. We moved here in the spring of 2001. That was before 9/11, with the corresponding lower interest rates…and higher house prices. If we wanted to buy a place now for what we paid then…we’d be buying a wartime house. That had about 400 square feet of living space. And it would probably be infested with something nasty.
As such, we have a big house, with a big property. And our property backs onto Crown land (government land for you non-Canadians). We can go hiking out our back door. Or sledding, as we did right after my last post. Emily was sleeping, so we brought the baby monitor outside and hiked up the hill.
If you need a good workout, try carrying a 40-pound kid on one hip, and a sled on the other hip. In deep snow. Up a steep hill. While you both are wearing slippery snow gear. Gotta work off that Christmas baking somehow, I guess. The sun through the trees made for a beautiful sight, so I ran (trudged?) in to get my camera.
Matthew and Graham:
Matthew and Nathan whizzing by us:
Nathan eating snow and showing me his tongue:
Graham in all of his cuteness:
Man, I have good looking kids. I know I am biased, but really. I don’t know how I made kids that are so unbelievably beautiful. Sigh.
There are more pictures on our Flickr site, so check them out. Not a “Flickr Friend” yet? Just add me as a contact and I’ll reciprocate. What mom doesn’t want to show off her kids? And also protect them from sickos? Hence I only make them available to friends…so come join the party!
Notice there are no pictures of me. I am the family photographer. I was thinking (while looking through these shots) that instead of a nanny, we should hire a family photographer so that I could be in the pictures too. This photographer could be a nanny as well, I guess. A nanny with poo duty. Poo. Duty. One in the same? I believe so.
Oh, and the “sleds” we used? They’re made by Ski-Doo, and we got them at Costco. I have no idea what they’re called. They’re like boogie boards with two sets of handles, and they go like stink! Even better than the GT Snow Racers, according to Matthew.
It’s days like yesterday that make me not hate winter quite so much. And really enjoy my kids more. Sledding party, anyone?
I love sledding, looks like you guys had a blast!
Great pictures.
I hear ya about the whole 10 min thing…
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It is unbelievably cool that that is your backyard! I’ve seen snow ONCE in my life and there wasn’t very much of it….I’m jealous!
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Looks like fun! Yay!
I could use a good toboggan day. Gets you back to being a kids, if only for a little while.
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It looks just beautiful, Angella!!! I would love to have snow like that in our backyard. You are SO LUCKY!
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FUN! Looks like you guys had a great time. I saw those sleds at Costco and wondered how they were. Awesome!
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Looks like a hoot! We’ll be doing some of the same over Christmas at my parents acreage which is… get this…. 25 min out of town!
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That second picture is phenomenal. Matthew looks like a kid.
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That looks like so much fun and I love the rosy-cheeks on the boys! I totally know what you mean when people say you live out in the sticks…until, I got married we always lived out of town and people thought we were crazy and drove so much!
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I love the sledding photos. The only trouble is, I always try to take them head on and then jump out of the way at the last minute! the rosy cheeks are precious.
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Really looks like you guys had a great time. I’d love to live out in the boonies!!!!! Everything you need seems to be out your back door. You took some wonderful photos….great job.
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Really looks like you guys had a great time. I’d love to live out in the boonies!!!!! Everything you need seems to be out your back door. You took some wonderful photos….great job. sorry for the 2x
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That looks like a blast! Your kids are always looking SO happy… Especially jnjoying the snow with their parents! Awesome!
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Looks like you guys had a great time. You have so much snow compared to us down here in Trout Creek.
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That looks like so much fun. Kynan is fine in the snow as long as he doesn’t have to walk in it and he does not like sledding.
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Tonight is snowing in my town too…barely can want for the sledding, it is all I love to do in winter time.
Your kids are adorable…
And by the way me and my fiancee are on the verge to have a cottage in the sticks, only 15 minutes far out from a small town. I am dreaming seeing you in these pictures!
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Next winter, I’m visiting! I’ll bring some marshmallows for my hot cocoa.
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