Fall

Fall is always busy at the Evans house and being in Canada is no exception!  I am having a hard time keeping up with the schedules and laundry, let alone this poor, neglected blog.  

We started the season out with our very first visitors to our new location!  Chris' mom and Stepdad, better know as Nana and PopPop arrived in Edmonton at the very end of September.  after picking them up at the airport, we loaded the car down with luggage and our monthly Costco haul and headed up to Ft. McMurray.  The car has never been so full!  There were things on the roof and strapped to the back....it was a little Beverly Hillbillies-esque.  all that aside, we made it home in one piece and with new wildlife pictures to show for it as well!  We had our first look at Wood Buffalo, which are slightly different from their Plains Buffalo counterparts that we see in the US.  These homely, yet magnificent animals were almost hunted to extinction and are now a protected species.

The grandparents arrived during the busiest week of our Canadian adventure to date.  Lacrosse started back up and I was in full, crazy President mode and both of the bigger kids started skating lessons.  This took the schedule from spending 3 evenings a week at the community center for Chloe's dance classes, to five nights a week averaging about 4 hours a night!  Needless to say, they didn't see too much else while they were here!  We did find time in all of the uproar to have some beautiful family photos taken in the leaves.  I am hoping to find a few moments to have some of them enlarged and framed for the walls.

It was a lovely week and it was so nice to see familiar faces!  We were sad to see them go and it appeared they took fall with them, because about a week after they left, the snow started and it has been  winter ever since!

Halloween was spent Trick or Treating with about a foot of snow on the ground!  That didn't seem to slow the kids down any!  They were out in the cold for hours obtaining loot!   I guess that creature comforts don't matter when there is candy involved.  Aila was very excited about Halloween this year and came back with more than her share of sugar after only about a half an hour on the prowl.

The holidays are just around the corner and this coming Thursday, we will be the lone Americans on our street celebrating Thanksgiving, but we are looking forward to our turkey and traditions and celebrating all that we have to be thankful for.