If you take an 11 year old......

.....to the biggest mall in North America .....she looks like this:



We warned her the the mall was HUGE...but she had no way of imagining just exactly how huge we meant, considering that her idea of a huge mall is based on Prince Edward Island standards. *grin*

West Edmonton Mall isn't just a mall - it has an amusement park, hotel, waterpark, skating rink, animal show, and a million other things. You could spend a week wandering around in there, easily, and still not see everything.



This photo is dark on her, but I wanted to post it so you could see part of the waterpark behind her...there is also bungee jumping in there, but not in the photo..



Of course, we had to go investigate the amusement park! There was a ride there called the "Space Shot" - it throws you 120' up into the air REALLY fast! Cindy was just tall enough by a hair, so she hopped on with me...



Okay - *I* thought the ride was super cool....

(by the way - a tip, from experience...don't wear an ankle length denim skirt to an amusement park..you have to wrap it up into shorts for rides LOL)

As I was saying, *I* thought this was the coolest thing since chocolate chip cookies....Miss Cinders, however....



....did not. :-o ...Norm caught that photo - she does not look very pleased with this flinging-into-the-air business. She did insist afterward that she just didn't like "that moment there" ....and we all nodded and said "ahh, okay." ...But she didn't ask to ride it again. ;-)

She liked the funny spinning track thing though - NOT the upside down looping coaster that you can also see the track for...she was too small for that...I circled the thing she was in....it goes spinning and twirling through the park on its own track...



We didn't actually do a lot of riding because we didn't have much time and it's expensive if you buy individual tickets - bracelets are much better, but you need a whole day to enjoy them...

There was lots of fun to be had in the game room though...skeeball games....



...and "Deal or No Deal" games....



Fun for the boys as well...





...and games for everyone together....



A certain young lady was quite happy when the guys gave her all their tickets too.. (the tickets get exchanged for little trinket toys like whistles and whoopie cushions)...



A rock wall was climbed - she scaled it like a monkey...




Miss Cinders had her first Taco Bell meal - she loves tacos and was very excited to discover there's a McDonalds equivalent to her favourite meal. Yeah yeah, fast food is okay *sometimes*!



And was shocked to discover that this mall has penguins...





...and sea lions...



...and giant replica ships...





...and little bunnies that you could snuggle with...



There was also a baby buffalo there - but I forgot to get his picture. Cute, in a "so ugly they have to be cute" kinda way LOL ....

It's truly a massive mall - and even I, with my high tolerance for noise and general ability to zone it out, was just about done in by the time we left it. People people people people and NOISE.

They had a british import store there though - I snagged my beloved twiglets, along with some pickley stuff and marmite. Yum!

Long time - and never - see!

While we were out west, we took a trip to visit my brother, his commonlaw wife, and their son - I'd never met his wife or my nephew, and I hadn't seen my brother in ten years!







There's proud papa with his son! :-D




Isn't he cute? He's 18 months old and talks up a storm - in what seems to be mostly his own language LOL. *grin*






I rarely - and by rarely, I mean almost never - wind up *in* photos. I take them. And when I do wind up *in* photos, I usually hide 'em. But there ya go...that's me with my little nephew. :-) (heh, and my brother attached to his computer behind us - he's a computer guy, builds his own and all that)

I just realized that I don't have any clear pics of the three of them together - his wife was often busy doing stuff and didn't get in very many photos...I do have some of her and Cindy out back with their dog, Riker (she trains dogs for competitions)
...





That's out back where we all had Thanksgiving - it was his wife's mother's place; the three of them actually live a few hours away from there. Riker is a beautiful doberman - extremely energetic!

It'll be pretty cool to be living out not all that far from my brother - we'll be about 4 and a half hours away....

Hard to believe it had been ten years - the last time I saw him, he was practically still a teenager...now, he's a grown man with a family of his own!

(We're two and a half years apart - I'm older)

A bucket of news

If I'd just waited one more second, that picture would have been centered! Eh, timing is hard to hit when you're flying down the highway LOL ...I did well to catch him at all. *grin* (Yes that's Norm)

That background will become a very familiar sight for us - it's on Highway 63, the only way out of Fort McMurray most of the time... and it will become a familiar sight for us because... we're moving!

Yep yep. November 23rd, I'm flying across the country with two kids and five cats. I have less than four weeks to reduce the entire household to six 50lb suitcases and convince the felines that they like the carriers. Four ride under the plane in cargo - they go two and two in special 3X2X2 hardsided carriers like the extra large one in this picture - and one comes right on board with us in a soft sided carrier that resembles a duffle bag with mesh sides; looks like this one here. Yes, five - our sixth cat is going to a new home because she's too old and high strung to make this trip. Crazy Claire the kitchen cat.

We've got a house rental confirmed for Nov 1st - it's a cute house in a quiet neighbourhood in a fairly dead end court, so I'm happy with that. The place is furnished and has all appliances (even a dishwasher! I've never had one of those) and utilities are all included in the rent. Small fenced backyard, deck, sliding doors, weird vacuum thing that works through the walls.

This is crazy though, the amount of work I have in front of me...but well worth it..our family is going to be together again, yay!!

Career change for Miss Cinders?

I think they'll hire her, don't you? *grin*

(That was at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre )

We fly home tonight - overnight, actually. Hey, who needs sleep anyway. Heh.

Once I'm home on my own computer, I'll be rambling away on here about what we've been doing & sharing lots of pictures - it's been quite the trip....and, I actually got to go a few hours away and visit with my brother whom I hadn't seen for ten years! We spent Thanksgiving with him and his family...I have an adorable 18 month old nephew, too cute. I'lll also be able to catch up on everyone else's blogs - I've been peeking in now and then, but haven't had time to leave very many comments & this laptop frustrates me....'course that's just cuz I'm not very good with it.



Meanwhile, I have to make sure I snag a caramel machi-something from Starbucks before we leave....Linda, I think it was you who said their coffee was kinda blah? The regular stuff is, blech....but I love the pumpkin spice latte and the caramel mach-whatever. YUM! *grin*

Anyone need a tire change?

This is a Really Big Truck....with a flat tire...


And this is a Really Big Tire....




I'm not sure if that's the tire of THAT specific truck - Norm is asleep (night shift) so I can't ask him - but you get the idea. He's a tire guy and his days (and nights) are filled with Really Big Tires.

I keep looking at them and thinking what an awesome sandbox that would make LOL (anyone ever have a tire sandbox as a kid, or was it just where I lived?)

Most of the pictures that I take, I'll be going through and fixing up later at home - I don't have my own image editing software on Norm's laptop and I'm rather fond of it. It allows me to fix stuff like skin tones and off colour whatever and all that...I found these two pics when I went snooping through Norm's photo files on here. :-)

From the (almost) other side of the country...

It's not quite all the way to the other side - but's close. ;-)

After a lot of time spent going up up up and hanging around airports with delayed planes (of course), we made it to Fort McMurray. Yay! And Cindy was even greeted with a lovely display of the Northern Lights - it was as if they performed just for her!

I'm using Norm's laptop and having to backspace every few words to correct typos - this thing is WEIRD! No mouse, just a funny pad thing.

Managed to get one pic on here and resized....Here's Cindy this morning, standing down by the river/lake thing where the seaplanes sometimes come in....



I have some neat ones from inside the plane and from the airports, as well as a video of Cindy being very amused by the - as she called them - "straight escalators" in the Toronto airport....they're these weird people-mover sidewalk things....but those (and lots of others) are for later.....a) we have some exploring to go and do while the guys are at work, and b) I suck with this computer LOL

Leaving on a jet plane...

Okay so maybe not on an F18 Hornet. They're awesome though!

We're outtta here a bit later this morning - after I finish packing. I'm kinda known for leaving everything until the Very Last Minute. Even back in school, I was always the kid who was doing her project on the last day available - but I always pulled a good grade. I'm wired weird - I do my best under last minute pressure.

I should still be kicking around blogs a bit while we're out there - my cousin (also out there and sharing house with hubby) has a laptop that I have ever intention of snagging. Whether I can work it or not is a different story.

Hey guess what they have in Fort McMurray? A Starbucks! I have never had a Starbucks coffee - wait, they don't sell "coffee", do they. You have to order things like "A grand skim cocoa chipmunk marachino latte" or whatever. If I can find something on the menu that sounds like "coffee with a little flavour", I'll order it.

CHEC

The 24th edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival has been posted!

The poster above is the second place winner in the Canada Day Poster Challenge this year and I am particularly impressed with this one as it was created by a girl who is only nine years old!

This is what Elizabeth Yeoh from Ontario said about her poster:

I drew the shape of the maple leaf and inside are four celebrations in Canada, namely: National Aboriginal Day, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, Canadian Multiculturalism Day, and Canada Day. Like a rainbow, above it are the flags of the 10 provinces and the 3 territories. All around are the people, places, and things that Canada means to me today.

I think it's an awesome poster - and I'm tickled to see that she included the snowbirds - yay! (Yeah I love the snowbirds)

(I don't have a photo of Miss Elizabeth Yeoh like I did of the first place winner as they didn't publish any of the others.)