Catching Up - Mer Bleue Walk

We stayed fairly busy while we were visiting my husband's family in Canada during the Christmas holidays. We went to the movies, went to a play at the children's theater, visited with relatives & friends, went shopping, crossed the river on a ferry, ate too much, opened presents, went to the gym, and spent some time outdoors. It was a good visit.

I love going for walks in the snow. My husband's parents, sister, and brother-in-law joined us on a walk at Mer Bleue Conservation Area. It is such a neat area to walk through. The wooden plank trail leads you across a peat moss bog. Along the trail, we like to look for beaver dams and tree stumps with beaver chew marks on them.

 The walkway down to the bog was covered in thick ice. It was slippery.

 They did not seem to mind running on the ice. I am not coordinated enough to do that without falling.

It was cold on the planks above the bog.

 If you looked carefully, you could spot the mounds of the beaver lodges.

 We were all bundled up to stay warm on our walk.

 Boogs and Daddy had a "who can go the longest without wearing gloves" contest.

 Daddy won about 15 minutes later. He made sure to gloat about it. Boogs was not impressed with Daddy's "Winner" celebration.

 There were many beaver gnawed trees. The park service put fencing around the trunks of some trees to discourage the beavers clearing out certain trees.

 Boogs pretended to be a beaver chomping down this tree.

 Boogs and Daddy found more sticks to play with.

 There were a couple of human-made lodges just off the main trail.

 Boogs decided to add a couple more sticks to this one.

 Boogs and Daddy played hockey on the icy path with small branches for hockey sticks and a piece of wood for a puck. The puck fell apart so they had to find a rock to use.

 There was fierce competition for control of the puck.

 There were even a few fights. I think the game was eventually declared a tie.

After we left Mer Bleue, we went to Tim Horton's for hot cocoa to warm up. Despite the cold, it was a really fun outing.

Catching Up - Annual Bird Feeding Walk

We have made it a tradition to take a walk to feed the birds whenever we are at my in-laws house for Christmas. Boogs loves going on the hike and finding the best spot to feed the birds. He is very good about waiting patiently for the little chickadees to land on his hand.

Boogs and Daddy decided they should attack me with snowballs at the start of our walk. Luckily, their aim was not so great!

 Grandpapa and Grandmaman led the way through the woods.

 The snow was very slushy. It was easy to make snowballs.

 Boogs and Daddy had a great time playing around with some sticks that they found.

 Grandpapa and Boogs patiently waiting for the birds to find their handfuls of seed.

 Boogs moved to another spot and soon had birds eating out of his hand.

 The chickadees were so fast, it was hard to get a good picture of them.

 I was able to feed a few at the bridge.

 We took the long way back to the parking lot.

It was a cold, quiet, and beautiful walk.

 

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Catching Up - Snow!

It has been almost two months since I last posted. I am just catching up a bit. Over the Christmas holidays, we went to Canada. Boogs was a little disappointed by the lack of snow. We went sledding the second day we were there. Shortly after that, it started raining and melting all of the snow. At least we had our sledding day.

Boogs and Daddy had a good snowball fight.

We went sledding at Mooney's Bay Park. There was not a lot of snow on the hill, but there was plenty of ice. It made sliding down fast and trying to get back up the hill difficult.

 Boogs and I shared a sled down the little hill.

 Boogs went down the big side of the hill on his own.

 The snow was so pretty.

 We found a half-broken sled and raced each other down the hill.

 Daddy and Boogs had fun sliding down the steep side of the hill over and over again.

When we returned to the house, Grandpapa & Daddy helped Boogs build a snowman. They had to hurry because it started to rain.

 Boogs is putting the snowman's head on while Grandpapa looks for the perfect arm stick.

 The finishing touches.

 The snowman turned out great.

 The rain really took care of the snowman. Two days later it looked like this.

 By the end of the week, the snow man was just a blob of ice.

It was amazing that the grass was so green in December.

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