Winter 2012

It seems winter has come to an end here in Saskatoon.  (And as I am writing this, I realize that I have probably just jinxed myself.)  The snow is gone, so once again, we are left with the soggy ground...waiting for several nice sunny days to dry things up.  I am very thankful for the warm winter we had this year.  This time last year, we were getting ready to move into the house, and there was still a lot of snow on the ground!

Brogan playing in the mound of snow while I shoveled

One thing I loved this winter was waking up to see icy fog.  Probably not the safest driving conditions for Casey in the morning on his way to work, but it produces the most beautiful coating of snow in the trees.  Casey learned at work that it is called hoar frost.  (I thought it was whore frost, but some internet research set me straight.)

Close up of the hoar frost on the tree in front of our house

Hoar frost coating the tree

We have been fortunate to do a lot of fun things this winter marking a few things off of our "Canadian Bucket Lists".

Curling has become somewhat of an obsession in our household.  It is one of the things I had to do while we are living here, and thanks to Cargill, I got my chance.  We got a very quick lesson and then we were shoved into a match...thankfully we had a great skip (and all the teams had their handicaps!).  We even won the B flight and got a trophy!

Check out my awesome form (or total lack of balance!)

Enjoying my first Pil during a break

Casey throwing the rock...looked much more natural

We also love watching curling on TV.  One of my first memories of Canada was watching the Saskatchewan's women's team win the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (Canadian championship) when we were driving through Regina and getting situated in our temporary housing.  This year, we watched A LOT of the Tournament of Hearts...even forcing my mom to watch the finals while she visited.  This year, Saskatoon hosted the Tim Horton's Brier (Canadian men's championship). Thanks to some of Cargill's contractors, we had some great tickets to one of the draws.  Our seats were right in front of the Saskatchewan/Alberta sheet.  Saskatchewan had a rookie team representing them, and unfortunately did not fair well during the tournament, but we had a great time watching the match (and then hitting the Brier Patch afterwards).

Team Saskatchewan sweeping with Alberta's skip Koe watching

Another sport we are growing to love is of course...hockey!  We got to go to several Saskatoon Blades games this season thanks to Cargill.  The kids are even fairly entertained...Brogan likes the snacks and Neala likes to dance to the music.  The last game we went to had a doozy of a fight...we could feel it coming.  But we had to leave during clean-up because the kids were getting restless.

Everyone on the ice was fighting!

My mom came to visit in February to experience a Canadian winter...it was cold, but not near as cold as it could have been.  While she was visiting, we all went ice skating at the rink downtown.  It was Brogan's first time!  Thankfully, they had supports to push around (even adult supports!).  We all had a blast!

Casey helping Brogan around with the support

I don't need an adult support!!!

MeMa and Neala hanging out

MeMa trying out the adult support :)

Neala playing in the snow outside the rink

As the winter comes to an end, we are anxiously awaiting another beautiful Canadian summer.  This summer will be a busy one for Casey as he will be dealing with his big pelletizing project at work.  But we are hoping to continue crossing items off our Canadian bucket list with a trip to the Canadian Rockies.  Brogan will be busy with summer camps again this year.  And of course, we are hoping for visitors to entertain!!!