Playground

Our house has the perfect location. There are no houses behind us, we have a view of mountains, and there is a playground right behind our place! Now that playground is a bit old and rundown, but we still enjoy it.

The rec director for Faro put in a lot of work this last year to find funding to update the playground. She was awarded grants of over $60k to have a new park built!! This fall, a lot of the playground will be taken down and over next summer all new equipment will be put in place. We are pretty excited to see what is in store for the new playground!

Faro is changing. No longer is it just a retirement town. Vibrant, young families are moving here and changing the whole feel of Faro. We are so glad this is the community we have chosen to put down our roots.

Town equipment removing the fence around the playground:

Our boys and their buddy Jack watching all of the action:

Tips for a Successful Moose Spotting Puddle Walk

Tip #1: Bring "Noculars" to help spot moose.
Two pairs are always better than one.

Tip #2: Always be on the lookout.
Urban moose could be anywhere.

Tip #3: Hit maximum speed to ensure "biggest puddle spwash evar!"
And to make sure you boots are completely filled with water.

Tip #4: Moose like to hang out by puddles.
Best drinking water in the Yukon.

Tip #5: Bring your friends along to help spot moose.
Always nice to see other kids get as dirty as your own.

Tip #6: The louder you splash through the puddles the better your chances a moose will come to see what the commotion is all about.
Or the neighbours look out their windows wondering what those crazy Went kids are up to now.

Tip #7: Moose like to fly.
Or so I am told.

Tip #8: Always bring a hot chick along.
An older chick to boot- Hunter is in love!

Tip #9: Make sure you leave the biggest possible mess for your mama to clean up.
This is why I have a rain barrel at the door, so my washing machine doesn't have to deal with all that dirt.

Now this is going to be an ADVENTURE!

We are in the middle of planning out a fantastic adventure for September. I am so excited for it!

For a week this September, we are packing up the quads, trailer, kids, hunting and camping gear and heading way the heck back into the mountains for a hunting trip. We are going with friends of ours who also have two young children. They are taking their argo and trailer.

It is taking a lot of planning of what to bring. We were short a few items (extra sleeping bag and thermarest) but thankfully we have lots of good friends to borrow from.

We plan on heading quite a ways back and setting up our base camp. Then we will head out hunting from that point. With four adults, we can trade off who is going hunting and who is staying in camp with the kids. I know that I would love to go out with Matt and no kids!! And we will take the kids out on hunts too. They have been practicing their moose hunting skills all year and are raring to go! Seriously- they play moose hunt all the time. They try calling in moose, shooting them with wooden spoons or whatever else they have in hand, and have even tried cutting up our rocking moose with a butter knife. My kids are awesome.

We had the tent set up in the living room this weekend just to help with planning for sleeping gear. The boys were so excited and of course wanted us to leave it up!

This is going to be one heck of adventure and I cannot wait for the next three weeks to pass so we can head out. Now hopefully the monsoon season is over by then!!

My Beautiful Backyard

Matt has been working in between the rain storms to finish up the planter boxes in the top level of the back yard. He is finally done! Now we just need to fill them up with dirt and they will be all ready to grow flowers and delicious veggies next spring.

Once the deck is on the back of the house, we will be bringing that wall in closer and adding a couple more boxes (left hand side of the first photo below). Thank you Matt for making our back yard look so great!

I have been in charge of getting the grass to grow, and I think I have done a fabulous job! A few years of babying it and it should be thick and lovely.

Next year we will be doing the same thing to the second level of the backyard. Hunting season is here and our priorities shift from yard work to filling our freezer. The yard projects are never ending! Tomorrow I will take photos of the progress in the front yard.

The gap on the right is where the slide goes down. Matt is also finishing up work on a tire climb right beside it.

And a new photo of the boys for my mom:
**if you want your kids to smile for a photo, have them yell pee instead of cheese! Works like a charm!

Five Minutes Peace

As a stay at home parent, most days I dream of five minutes of peace and quiet. I am sure other parents can relate!

Yesterday I was picking out the books for story time before bed when I came across a gem of a book. I have no clue where it came from. We pick up books at garage sales and friends are always giving us boxes of books. Books can sit on the shelves for quite some time before we get a chance to read them. I am thinking we have over 400 books for the kids in the house now. They are voracious little readers!!

I think every parent needs to order this book. The mother is hoping for five minutes peace while her three kids vie for her time. I loved it!


And if you are looking for an even better laugh, although you probably shouldn't read this one aloud to the kids, check this out! Over better yet, have Samuel L. Jackson read it to you before bed tonight.

Great Northern Arts Festival

We are finally home from our three weeks of chaotic travel! I will resume the blog posting with a post about the Great Northern Arts Festival. It was definitely a highlight of my summer!

I spent a week in Inuvik as an artist at the festival. The entire trip was paid for thanks to the Touring Arts Fund through the Yukon Government. What a treat! Each day meals were made for me, I spent the nights in the college dorm, and I got to spend my time doing what I love- sewing and visiting with people.

There were a number of other ladies from across the north that I got to learn new sewing tricks from. I spent a lot of time with the elders and they all seemed to get a real kick out of the fact that I sew with leather and fur yet I am as white as can be! It was good to sit around laughing and sewing with them.

Plus I had a lovely couple from Inuvik who read this blog stop in to say hi!

I sold a number of items and hosted two workshops. I am really happy with how much money I was able to make in just one week. Too bad all weeks aren't like that! I was impressed with the organization of the festival, the army of volunteers there were always there to help when needed, and the coordinator, artist liaison, and curator of the festival. All wonderful people that made the festival a huge success in my eyes!

Now I love my husband and children, but I sure did need that week away for myself. I didn't really even miss them! I did call the boys each day, but all I got over the phone was "Hi Mom. I miss you. Here's Grandma." So I think the feeling was mutual!

I will definitely consider applying for the festival again next year.

A cute little tyke wearing one of my headbands:

My little sewing station! It was right in the middle of the gallery where all of the work was for sale. I had a blast talking to all of the visitors to the gallery. People could pull up and chair and chat with me while I was sewing.

Part of the gallery (normally a curling rink). My stuff was spread out all throughout the gallery.

This display had some of my mittens, hats and handbags on it:

I completed this hat while I was up there and it sold the same day! Here is the happy owner wearing it:

The three participants in one of my workshops. I taught them how to make a pair of leather and fur baby booties:

The carvers in attendance were pretty darn amazing! Here are two mini mukluks that had been carved and were to be turned into earrings. I was impressed with the bigger of the two and then he brought out the wee one and I was blown away!

Here I am with two ladies from Canadian North Airline- one of the big corporate sponsors of the festival. They signed up to take my bootie making class!

My fur headband display:

The hat on the left sold!

Here I am with my finished parka cover! I was lucky enough to be able to take a workshop with an elder to make it. Nothing like sewing with an elder who speaks very little English! My stomach was sore from laughing so much that afternoon!

There were definitely parts that I did not enjoy from the week. The flights! Wow, those were the bumpiest flights I have ever been on. I went from Whitehorse to Dawson City to Old Crow to Inuvik. One the way back we only stopped in Dawson City before getting to Whitehorse. In Dawson City on the way up we had to turn around just before we took off on the runway since there were some bells and lights going off in the cockpit. I really did not want to get back on the plane later even when they said everything was fine! ahahha I nearly yakked on each flight.

I felt quite out of place up there too. I wasn't an artsy person (I just have no clue how to relate to that crowd), and I wasn't a partier (everyone kept asking me to come to the bar with them at night). I did not know a single person up there. But I am friendly and chatty and made some great connections with people. It also gave me time to reflect on where I want my hobby to go and life in general!

I was also a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see more of Inuvik. It was hot most of the days (+25) and I really don't do well walking around in the heat. But I did have a lot of time to sew!

Of course the positive experience far outweighs the negative. I am just kicking myself for not taking more photos!