My Other Little Monkeys

We just got back from our annual trip to Banff. The hotel we stayed at was attached to a rec centre with a climbing wall and Shae was excited to go climbing there like she does every year. She has a real knack for climbing. She went climbing for the first time when she was 8 and loved it. Once again, the staff member who was belaying her commented on how fearless and agile and strong she is. It's just too bad there isn't a climbing gym closer to our house because she sure loves being up there.
























And this was the first year Connor was old enough to do more than a bit of bouldering around the bottom. He got to go in a harness for the first time and he was clambering to the top of the wall in no time. Completely fearless. He loved it too so now I've got another little monkey in the family!



































And of course Maira will be scaling those walls in no time but for now, she had to content herself with holding the rope while Connor got lowered down after a climb.
























And here we are at the top of Sulphur Mountain after riding up on the Gondola (Hudson stayed back at the hotel with Grammy and Jess was at his conference).

Halloween

This was the first year Shae decided to be something creepy instead of something pretty for her costume. And looking at these pictures, I think she ended up looking really creepy, like maybe too creepy...














































Shae's wearing my actual wedding veil, along with an old negligee of my mother's, and a bouquet of dried roses and black thorns.

Maira opted for the pretty type of costume and dressed up as a fairy:































































I got the idea for her tutu from a tutorial on Grosgrain

And Connor wavered between being a bank robber or a knight - Jess and I persuaded him to be a good guy instead of a bad guy. As long as he got to carry a weapon, he was good with that.














































I had fun playing with my new set of craft glitter to paint the dragon on the back of his cape:















The kids had fun trick-or-treating (of course) although Maira decided she was done after about half an hour because she didn't want to wait another minute to sit down and start eating all her candy. So she came home early and her bag is a lot lighter than Shae and Connor's.














Here's a picture of our neighbour's front yard without the snow and with all the decorations in place.














A couple weeks ago, their yard was vandalized and someone stole all their tombstones. Although they were upset, I love that they decided to make new even funnier tombstones. Here's Connor having a sword fight with the dad/zombie who lives in there...























And finally, here's the black light alley that one neighbour created in their front walkway with some appliance boxes, and a bunch of glow in the dark paint: