Winter fun

On Saturday we finally went out Winterluding. Yes, in Ottawa Winterlude is now a verb. This year I was determined to take Emily to Snowflake Kingdom in Jacques Cartier Park on the Hull side of the river. It's a kids' winter wonderland with big snow slides, giant snow sculptures, this year a small historical village representing Quebec City 400 years ago, and of course Beaver Tails.


Above is Hope in the pink coat. She loves walking on snow, which made it a bit slow to get around, but she had fun (for awhile).

As always, I was amazed at the detail the sculptors could get in such large works, and made of snow, at that.


I couldn't convince Emily to take a ride down there or even the kiddie-sized version not seen here. Oh well, maybe next year.

Last year we stuck to skating but this year I wanted to make it to the Park before Winterlude was over so Emily could really enjoy it. There is still lots of time for skating and at this point, that's really for me, not her or Hope.

My dad and Donna were with us for the weekend. The weather was great, a bit brisque but sunny. It went well for a while but then Hope got really cold. It took me a while to figure out that that was the problem. You'd think I'd have some of this stuff figured out by now. So, we only stayed for about an hour and a half and then went home. It was time enough to see everything and have a hot chocolate and Beaver Tail.

Later that afternoon, Donna decided to take Emily back outside to shovel off the back deck. This is the third time we've (or Donna has) shovelled the deck this winter and yet look how much snow was back there! Emily tried to find her play equipment.... and the stairs.


After all that frolicking in the great outdoors, Emily was left a little red-cheeked. I could stare at that beautiful face for the rest of my life (and plan to) and never get tired of it.