50 Things to do in BC Before You Die: #15 - Gawk at Squamish Eagles

Trusty The Phamlee readers welcome to post two of three from our awesome trip to Squamish yesterday.

Our second stop of the day was to check out the eagles in Brackendale. This is number 15 on our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list and I was pretty stoked to knock another one off has part of my plan for 2012 was to knock 3 more things of this list.

We probably could not have picked a worse day to check out the eagles because it was snowing pretty hard at the time we arrived so the visibility was quite poor; while I will check it off our list it is in the back of my mind to go back. It is a pretty neat set-up as they have volunteers with telescopes lined up so you can really get a good look at the eagles. While we were able to see the eagles through the telescope the pictures did not turn out too well, see below for that. They even had step ladders setup so the kids could look through the telescope too which was pretty cool

I was speaking with one of the volunteers and she mentioned the number of eagles that returned this year was quite low and it is all due to the lack of salmon in the rivers. Obviously, if there is no food source the eagles will go elsewhere or die. Keep this is mind when you think of the Northern Gateway pipeline which is proposed to cross a number of salmon spawning streams and rivers in BC and it does not take much oil to kill off a stream. Anyways, not too much to right about this adventure so I will just show you the view pictures we took, but we will be back.

BC Parks: Shannon Falls Provincial Park

To all you trustworthy The Phamlee readers this is the first of three posts I will do today regarding our awesome trip to Squamish yesterday.

While the main purpose of the trip was to go to the BC Mine Museum at Brttannia Beach (more on  that in post 3 on the day) our first stop on the trip was at Shannon Falls Provincial Park. While I have been here number of times before I really wanted to go again to officially knock it of our BC Parks list as part of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die challenge. The other reason I wanted to go today was I have never seen it in the winter when it was starting to freeze over so this gave us the chance.

The weather was gross yesterday as it switched between heavy snow and heavy rain with some brutal wind mixed in for fun. Even with all that the kids were troopers, most of the time, it was a quick walk in the snow up to Shannon Falls and they kids enjoyed it. I tried to find a few geocaches but gave up pretty quick when I realized it would be too hard in the snow.While the falls were not completely frozen over it still made for a nice view.  Below are a few pictures of this little stop...

More Chilliwack Weather & Some Random Kyah Pictures

So today the big story for us was the -30 degree temperature with the windchill, -14 without, and all the blowing snow. While I was at work this morning I was keeping an update on the roads in town via twitter and one after another they were getting shut down due to snow drifts, etc. So at 10:30 I left work just to ensure I could make it home. One of the pictures below is of a self portrait as I stopped on the way home to help some dude out. I was outside for maybe 5 minutes helping somebody dig their car out of a big snow drift. The road was next to a farm and had no protection from the wind and it was the worst wind I had ever felt in my life, even worse than mountain peaks in the middle of a snowstorm. When the wind really blew you could not see the ground or your hands and that is not exaggerating. It was pretty cool and in my opinion what winter should be! The fluff on my hat is usually black and my snot and eyes have never frozen like that before.

There are a few other random shots like our front steps which I had shoveled yesterday and our fort which is slowly getting covered by snow drifts. All the other photos are ones Kyah took when she was playing with the camera. She has a bit of a cold right now and I just thought she looked so cute in her self portraits.

I must also say that the City of Chilliwack has done a great job updating the public on the road conditions via twitter and even though our power has blown twice BC Hydro has had it back on within two hours both times; I feel sorry for those dudes out there working in this.

Our Awesome Forecast and a Few More Snow Pics

So we got a bunch more snow last night here in the land of Chilliwack. Sorry to you Aussie readers but once again the weather has proved to be more fun in Canada! Anyways the snow has now given way to really cold temperatures and I must admit I really enjoy battling the elements. Below is a screen shot of our forecast (windchill of -31 for tomorrow yippee!)  for the next few days (it is going to be very ugly when it rains and washes this away) and a few shots of the snow after I shoveled for the second time today. As you will see our awesome fort needs to be dug out which may be my task for tomorrow after work. The pics were taken with my phone so the quality it a tad poor. Enjoy...

Fort Woods & Birthday Pictures

The kids had their birthday party this past Saturday and we had it at the Chilliwack Gymnastics Club. The kids go there for their Gymnastics lessons, which they love, so we thought it was a great place for their party. The club had a supervisor to make sure no one got hurt but other than that the kids were able to go nuts and have a great time which they did. Pictures below...

Also, we got our first batch of snow on Saturday and the forecast was calling for lots more snow so Cohen and I decided to build a snow fort. While I busted my balls to build the fort Cohen made snowballs with the intent of throwing them at me. We got a decent size fort built after almost two hours playing outside and I was pretty stoked to see Cohen spending that much time in the snow and having fun.

Sunday we built the fort up a bit more and then Cohen and Kyah decided to use it as their base for a snowball fight. The fort is high enough now that they can duck behind it and it is almost impossible for me to get them; little buggers.

We got another big dump of snow today and as I assumed the kids were in a mad rush to play in it when I got home from work. While the snow was too dry to pack the kids still had a good time making snow angels and helping me shovel the driveway and sidewalk. All the pictures of our fun weekend below and wait until you see the awesome job Chelsey did with the cupcakes...

Snow Shots

Just some snow shots from my not so lucky Aussie friends and family. The weather forecast is looking better by the day.

New Year Geocaching!

The kids wanted to go Geocaching again today so we scooted out to Cultus Lake Park as it is nice and close. All the caches we found were around the Maple Bay campground at the far end of the lake and we ended up snagging 5 for the day. Since everything is shut down for the winter it was pretty cool wondering around as all the trails were covered in leaves and there were lots of trees down across the trails. I was super stoked at how good the kids were as we wondered around for close to 2 hours and they whined very little. They must have had a good nights sleep because the have been chasing their Zhu Zhu Pets around the living room for the past hour and they are by no means taking it easy; hopefully that means they will go to bed good tonight.

Pictures of our adventure as well as the beginnings of my "Chilli-Con-Cupboard" below; I made a wicked ham and bean soup yesterday so thought I would give Chilli a whirl tonight...

Year End Geocaching

It was a super nice day today so the kids and I decided to finish the year with some fresh air. Cohen has been asking for awhile to go "treasure hunting" and golfing again but the driving range in Chilliwack went belly up which is why we have not been out in while. Knowing there was a driving range in Abbotsford with heated stalls we looked for an area with geocaches out there to hit up also. We decided on Aldergrove Lake Regional Park as it has about 25 geocaches in a "small" area. I figured it would be a good spot as it would allow us to get a bunch of caches in a short period of time.

The park was awesome as the trails were all gravel and not too hilly so the kids were able to walk around for about an hour and a half with out whining. We found 5 geocaches today which brings our total for the year to 109. We also checked out a Glacial Erratic which is a piece of rock carried by glacial ice from its original rock outcrop; to us it is just a big rock but it is cool to see remnants of the ice age.

Anyways pictures of our day and a few from Christmas are below. Enjoy...

The Year in Pictures - 2011

With the natural disasters and Arab Uprising 2011 was by far a crazy year. Once again the Boston Globe has done an unreal job of capturing it all in pictures while making us thankful for what we have. Links to parts one, two and three below and like everything on my blog they are a must see:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Kids & Krafts...Plus some Hockey

Below are a few pictures of the activities of the past few days. Last Sunday once Chelsey and Kyah were all better they decided to go to Langley and do some shopping. With the rare opportunity of being lady free Cohen and I decided to take in an Abbotsford Heat hockey game. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of the hockey as well as at how nice the rink was. Based on what I saw I am surprised at the low attendance they get; I guess the fact that the Heat are Calgary's farm  team does have a huge impact. The game we saw was against Montreal's farm team so it was a better attendance than usual. Also, to our surprise it was the teddy bear toss for charity game which was fun for Cohen to see. While it was impressive it was no where near as cool as the Vancouver Giants teddy bear toss which you can check out here and I highly recommend it. You can see some pictures of our Heat game below.

Yesterday Cohen had to go to the asthma clinic in Abbotsford and for whatever reason the doctor gave both the kids this wicked toy pack. They had a bunch of crafty things in them and the Melissa and Doug stuff. Anyways, the kids wanted to do the "model" airplane that was in Cohen's pack tonight. So I pulled it out and let the kids have at it. I let them do all the painting and all I did was glue it together and throw on some stickers; pictures of that also below. Enjoy...

Chillin' at the Chilliwack Winter Fair

Today after skating the kids and I went to check out the Chilliwack Winter fair to see what it was all about. They had a couple food stands, some rides, games and of course the Rotary Train. We spent almost two hours there and the kids had a great time. The problem I have with these fair is that even a mild spinny ride makes me nauseous for a couple of hours. We went on some strawberry ride where you can make it spin faster by turning a wheel inside; not realizing how fast you can make it spin I gave it a shot, lets just say the kids enjoyed it but I am still paying for it.

Later on this evening I decided to take the kids to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. Having never been here before I was pretty excited to check it out. I must say the burger is probably one of the best I have ever had and the fries were unreal; the place is bloody awesome. I think the biggest trick is ordering the right portion size for your family as a reg fries was way more than enough for the kids and I. Anyways, as soon as we sat down Kyah started whining about being tired and wanting to go home. Having explained the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf to her numerous times for faking and whining I once again did not believe her; I just figured she was bored. She barely ate anything and when it was time to go Cohen had a "burger incident"and got really sad. Trying to get them out of the busy restaurant because everybody was looking at me I just got up with Kyah hoping Cohen would follow me out. Much to my surprise he just sat there crying, so while I was trying to get Kyah organized so I could go back in and pick up Cohen I heard the infamous "Blagh" and turned around just in time to see Kyah blow her cookies just outside the front door of the burger joint with everybody watching. So I had one kid bawling his eyes out and the other one puking; it was great. Pictures of the fair, not puke, below...

Sleepy Kyah Part Duece

Last night Kyah blew some chunks so it was somewhat expected that she would be tired tonight. We sat down and started eating dinner and I noticed her eyes getting heavy. Then she started whining and coming up with every excuse under the sun not to eat her dinner. Based on these action I knew she was close to falling asleep so I picked her up and dumped her in the shower; if Kyah naps for even 5 minutes she is even more of a nightmare to get to sleep so I do everything I can to keep her awake until 7:00 when she is sleepy. Anyways, when she was in the shower I noticed she was doing the "head nod" and much to my surprise she had fallen asleep in the damn shower. I think we can officially say Kyah will fall asleep anywhere. Below are some of the pictures of her dozing in the shower; I can honestly say she is sleeping and not sitting there with her eyes closed...

Carols, Cops & Cold Water

Another busy weekend around the Chilliwack location of the Woods Family. Much of yesterday's events were not too photogenic so this post is all about today.

Cohen and Kyah had their school Christmas play today and, unlike last year, they did not run off crying; they both did really well. There was lots of singing and "looking around," and they kids were great. They even had Santa come visit them after their play which was really exciting for them. I forgot to charge the camcorder so we only have still pictures but Chelsey did get some video footage on her phone. I will figure out how to transfer that on to the computer so I can upload it to the blog.

After that we went to visit a friend who is a Mountie as they were trying to fill their paddy wagon with food for the foodbank. We took some stuff down to donate and the kids and Chelsey had their photo taken with the Mountie. As a side note, the Mountie and his wife made us ribs for dinner last night and it was awesome. The kids played really well together, the ladies watched a movie and the men played Wii!

And before the events of the day got started I spent a few hours walking in the river with a fishing rod freezing my nuts off. All the pictures are below...

The Kids Gingerbread House

I bought a gingerbread house kit the other day when I was shopping and the kids have been all over me to build it. I told them we could do it tonight when I got home from work and they did not waste a minute jumping on me once I got in the door. I "built" the deluxe home and then let the kids do most of the decorating. The pictures below will let you see how it went. Enjoy...

Campbell River Trip December 2011

This past weekend we packed up Chelseys awesome mini van and set sail for Campbell River; I say Chelsey's awesome mini van because I always feel less of a man when I have to drive it! Anyways, we stopped at the mall in Nanaimo on the way up and as the kids and I were waiting for Chelsey to do her thing Santa came up and said hi to us; the kids were pretty happy about that then they said that was not the real Santa just one of his helpers. Sunday morning Nick and I spent some time trying to catch a Steelhead in the Quinsam River. It was a little early in the season but we thought we would try our luck anyways. We did not have much luck with the Steelhead but Nick did catch a nice little rainbow trout.

The Quinsam was a pretty nice river to fish and there were a butt load of eagles around and they were massive. It was pretty cool to see them everywhere but the bird crap was a little over whelming. The other bonus was that  the river flowed through Elk Falls Provincial Park so I can scratch another park off of our list for our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die Challenge. While I was fishing Chelsey and Kim took all the kids down to see the parade and hit up the park; Chelsey has some photo's of this on her phone so I will get her to send them to me so I can add them to the blog. Once we all got back together Chelsey, Steve (Chelseys Dad) the kids and I went down to the Campbell River Museum as Santa was there. Even when Santa is not there the Museum is still pretty cool as it has some good exhibits on the fishing industry and logging. Once finished there we went to the Maritime Museum as they had a craft sale going on there; once again I was more happy with the actual Museum and they had a boat there that we got to go on which made the kids happy.

All in all it was a great weekend with lots of great food and good company. Below are some of the pictures for your viewing pleasure.