Halloween Preparation

This weekend we went shopping for Halloween!  There are three aisles of costumes, decorations and trick or treat loot at Walmart which appears to be moving fast, we didn't want to miss out.  Top of the list was an inflatable decoration for the front yard.  Would you believe we found a 7ft inflatable pirate ship with three skeleton pirates on it?  Straight into the cart it went!

We also bought a pumpkin carving kit, pumpkin stencils, a battery operated pumpkin saw, flickering pumpkin lights, black cat solar lights, spider webs, spider web lights, a ghoul for the front door, gargoyle trellis for the garden and a big pumpkin shaped bowl for our trick or treat bags.  For our trick or treat bags we have two boxes of 100 chocolate bars, gum and popping candy, plus rubber rats, glow in the dark skeletons, spider rings and plastic flies. 

I think we are ready for our second Halloween in Lab City!

Cooper's First Day of School

Cooper started school today! He is in Kindergarten at AP Low primary school in Labrador City.  There are 16 kids in his class and his teacher's name is Mrs Buckley.  Steve and I both took Cooper to school today, he sat at the table and was happy for us to leave.  Well done Coops!

Cooper and Gavin, very excited on the first day of school

Cooper at school



Waiting at our bus stop - Nadia, Cooper, Mia, Georgie, Andrew, Gavin, Jack, Brock & Luke!



Relaxing in Hawaii

After a flying visit to Australia, seeing our Mum's, Dad's, sisters, aunties, Nanna and our friends we flew out to Hawaii.  We waited at the outdoor car rental stand at Honolulu airport and the consultant kindly told us that the car we booked would not fit all of our luggage!  As other travellers drove off in their Mustangs we drove off in our white Toyota Tarago van.  A short drive around Honolulu made us glad that the house we rented was on the North Shore and out of the hustle and bustle of the city.  It took us about an hour to get to the North Shore and we were over the moon with the house we chose on the Internet.

Hone Wai

Our backyard was the beach

Within minutes of walking in, Steve was walking on the beach and calling us to look at the Green Turtles feeding on the weed on the rocks.  Taylor even fed the turtles on our first swim, until we read that this was not a good idea.

Taylor swimming with turtles

We had a truly relaxing time in Hawaii.  The nearby historical town of Haleiwa was wonderful and had all we could ever need.  We did our grocery shopping at the Farmer's market on Sunday and ate out once a day at all sorts of small restaurants in Haleiwa which was also good for a bit of clothes and souvenir shopping.

Our visit to the Polynesian Cultural Centre

Australia Bound

We departed for our first trip back to Australia since arriving in Labrador City at the end of July.  We had gorgeous weather that week but on the day we were scheduled to fly out it was pouring rain.  We took our seats and were waiting on the Wabush tarmac at 11.30am for our Provincial Airlines flight to depart when the pilot announced that there was a problem.  The weather radar had failed and it was critical for the flight to Montreal on a day like today.  Off we got, back into the terminal to await furher news.  After a couple of hours we were booked onto the next flight out of Wabush at 6.30pm, meaning we would miss our flight to London that night, oh well, not much you can do.

Instead of catching our onward flight we booked into the airport hotel and spent the next day in Montreal.  It was Cooper's birthday so we went in search of some playgrounds.  We made the mistake of doing too much on our first day of holidays and by the afternoon we were hot and tired and we still had to get ready for our overnight flight to London.  Fortunately we all slept well on the flight and were excited to be in London the next morning.

We spent another three days in London, trying to see the sights with some rest time too.  We took a Thames river cruise, went on the London Eye, browsed at Harrods and by far the highlight for the boys was the Tower of London. Knights, swords, cannons, a castle, what more could they ask for?

Cooper & Kristy at the London Eye

Ryder and Cooper at the Tower of London

A Scorcher

We had our hottest day this year on Saturday, a scorcher at 27.6 degC.  Actually it did feel really hot so we decided to head down to Tanya Beach at about 11am on Saturday morning.  There were only a few families there when we arrived but by the time we left it in the afternoon it was the busiest place in Labrador City!

Now when I say beach I mean the sandy part of Tanya Lake.  The sand is a light brown colour and pretty coarse but it is like a beach.  Steve was extrememly keen and took the plunge out into the lake, he said it was the coldest water he had ever been in!  The kids don't seem to mind the cold water and were happy to play for hours in it.

For reference, it was the hottest recorded day this year and the coldest was -40.3 degC (without windchill factor) on Feb 14th.

Steve swimming in Tanya Lake

Tanya Lake in cooler days

Our first Canada Day

Last Friday the first of July was Canada Day.  We went along to the celebrations which were also the 50th anniversary celebrations for Labrador City.  There was a Newfie band playing and lots of free stuff for the kids,  we got flags, pins, tattoos and a show bag.  I was surprised when I arrived to see most people dressed in red or wearing Canada tops. 

In the afternoon we went to a Canada Day party with the some of the HSE team from IOC.  Fortunately the weather was awesome so we had a great first Canada Day!

Ryder waving his Canadian flag

Eating Fairy Floss

P.S. Steve has finally completed his dog sledding blog, check it out under April.

Our Cabin

We are now the proud owners of a cabin on Ashuanipi River!  It is very common for Newfie's to own a cabin but most people are surprised that some Aussies now have a cabin too.  I saw it for sale on the Labrador City Virtual Flea Market and suggested to Steve that we check it out.  A week later we are the new owners.

We had our first night at the cabin last weekend, we spent Saturday morning shopping for some essentials, such as new linen, and then Saturday afternoon we tidied up a bit so could enjoy our BBQ dinner and rest on Sunday.  The cabin has two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen and is very comfortable. It came with everything in it including a generator shed and generator, with a remote start inside the cabin, a very full wood shed, a shed for the skidoo and an outhouse.

We also had our first visitors on Sunday, Jeff and Simone (recently arrived from Karratha) called in, as well as Leighann and Richard and their three boys.  The kids had a great time mucking around outside.

Ashuanipi River is about 60km away from our house towards Churchill Falls.  The road has only been paved in the last few years and our cabin is on a dirt track along the river, about 2km in.  In fact, we are right before the train line and can see the iron ore trains from our cabin!  The train has to sound it's horn because of the road crossing, it is very loud but I only heard it twice on Saturday night and no one else stirred at all.  Just like Dale Kerrigan says in The Castle "Location, Location, Location".  No really it's not that bad and there are other cabins nearby too!

The living room with an oil heater and a wood heater.

Looking towards the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms on the left.

Our cabin from the driveway

Ashuanipi River, rail bridge