Don't Drink the Water

Here are a couple of pictures from along the canal. Wouldn't drink the water but it sure is beautiful.

Decrepit Beauty

We live a block off the Lachine Canal in Montreal's old industrial area. Now a Canadian Heritage Site, the Lachine Canal, in its heyday was one an engineering feat. The Lachine Rapids, in the St. Lawrence were too strong for freight boats, so the Canal was built as a detour into the port. With the Canal came industry and brick factories sprung up all along the banks of the canal. Today the freighters are powerful enough to make it through the rapids and the Canal is a historical site and a playground for small pleasure crafts. Also, the re-gentrification process is occurring all along the Canal as old factories are turned into upscale condos and lofts.

The pictures here are of an old factory which hasn't been re-gentrified but for some reason Steve and I both find its decrepit graffitied shell beautiful. Every time we run past it we always remark that we should come back and take pictures so yesterday, when the sun was shining and the sky crisp and blue, we did just that.

Winter in Montreal

We woke up yesterday to our first winter storm of the year. Not too bad considering its January 16th today and last week was +7!

All in all we received about a foot of snow which brought the entire city to a standstill... seriously, they drive like maniacs when the roads are dry and not even cars sliding backwards or sideways down the hilly streets slow them down. As JP would say, good times, good times!

Mont Gabriel World Cup

Well, the 2006-2007 World Cup season has started more with a fizzle than a bang as contest after contest gets cancelled due to the lack of snow. Seriously, no snow in Eastern Canada, the Eastern US and Europe!





Despite the lack of snow in Quebec and in spite of the abundance of rain that fell all weekend, the Mont Gabriel World Cup ran last weekend so Steve and I went up to the hill to watch it. (Mont Gabriel is about an hours drive from Montreal in the Laurentians.)





Dom's possy of friends from Montreal and Quebec City also came out to party and cheer on Jenn and the B210 Team and I have to admit, they do it a lot better than we do at home. Seriously, I wish I didn't have to say this, I wish it could be different, but the pictures speak for themselves...Check out the tents, the propane fuelled cheese fondue and the crowds of 30-somethings ripping it up in the pouring rain on the side of the ski hill.



And finally...


A big shout out to Dom because he got all of his skiers on the B210 team into the finals. Way to go Dom and all the B210 team!



Also, Congrats to Alex on your third place finish in men's moguls!

And Jenn...she finished first in the semi's only to be attacked by the slush gods after the first air who ate her ski and refused to let her ski past. However, she showed everyone who is boss in the women's bosse yesterday bouncing back with a second place finish in Deer Valley. Way to go Jenn!

New Years 2007

We celebrated New Years at the lake and the night included skating, hockey, lake rock curling, dinner, games and as always, great conversation!

Jasper

We went skiing in Jasper from the 27th to the 29th. The snow was amazing and the company even better. Such a good time and a great place to celebrate Steve's 26th birthday.

Our Baby Fix

Since it took me six year to twist Steve's arm on the matter of marriage, I'm guessing that it will entail another six years of arm twisting before he is ready for kids...but as Dave said at the wedding, Steve takes his time just because he's thorough!

Anyways, for now, we(me) fill our baby fixes by oogling our friends' cute babies and this Christmas we finally got to meet Dave and Nicole's new baby daughter Maddilon and of course, soaked up as much Osh time as we could. Osh didn't know what to make of Steve for the first little while!

We also got a night of Ami (no pictures though) and saw a picture of Lex's 5 month ultrasound! So many new little people to play with.

Winter at the Lake

The lake is one of my favorite places on earth and with the new cabin its become a four season resort! This Christmas we cleared and flooded a skating rink which was great for hockey, tag and lake rock curling. Also, this year the ice heaved and as such there is a beautiful ridge of ice all along the shore of the lake. Here are some pictures from the cabin this winter.

Home for the Holidays

Well, we flew home on the 9th and stayed until January 1st and every day was action packed! So much fun. I worked for a couple of weeks and then we had Steve's dad's birthday, the Roger's family dinner on the 23rd, the Gusa Annual Christmas party on the 23rd, Christmas Eve brunch with the Rogers on the 24th and a drop in at the Heil/Mark Christmas Eve Brunch, Christmas Eve dinner with the Henderson/ Heil crew, Christmas breakfast with my parents and grandparents at the lake, Christmas brunch with the Heil/ McSporran's at the lake, Christmas dinner with the Rogers, Boxing Day at the lake with Heil's, Roger's, Mark's and Wakals, then celebrated Steve's birthday on the 27th in Jasper and skied the 28th and 29th in Jasper...quickly drove back to Edmonton and saw a couple of other important people on the 30th followed by dinner at Steve's Grandma's before finally wrapping up the trip with a New Years event at the lake. We flew home on January 1st and have been unwinding from our Crazy Christmas trip home.

It was wonderful to see everyone and unfortunately not enough time to see everyone enough! More pictures of specific events to follow. Miss you all ...