Katie's 3rd birthday party

playing musical pillows

and pass the parcel or hot potato as they call it here :)
Katie's Dora cake that Helma made


relaxing after the party. 12 kids and 6 adults. :)

we drove to Telkwa and had a lovely afternoon together and I got a few more shots of Katie

hiking to Crater Lake

Rick Dykstra went with Helma and I up the ski hill and from there we hiked up to Crater Lake.

Hazelton

Katie in Old Hazelton. The other day she was reading the paper at Mom and Dad Vandeveldes and she recognised these same fish. There was an article about Old Hazelton.


Having lunch in the sunshine on the way..




Moricetown Canyon

Driving back along the Telkwa High Road

happenings in November..

Well the month started out exciting.. Ed and Chris were blessed with a healthy baby boy who they named Michael Glen. what a cutie hey!!



Katie reading with Derek a book called Katie and Grandma. She can finish all the sentences off from memory. Next step reading.


Aunt Ralpheena came to Smithers for her annual visit and we loved having her pop by whenever she got the chance. Katie loves Aunt Pheena too!!

Katie playing doctor. "are you sick Aunt Ralpheena?"

Grandma came over to visit one morning..

This is Dereks left hand. he hit it with a mallet at work and the first xray showed a break, two weeks later a subsequent one showed it was swollen tissue damage instead. In the last little bit it seems to be healing completely.

Us chatting with Dave and Julie on skype


Kara and Emma came to play one morning.


Katie only naps once a month now.. so these are now rare photos of her.

Katie helping do the dishes..

Grizzley Bears

One evening after Derek finished work we ate a quick supper and drove towards Lake Babine. It ended up being a 5 hour round trip but was well worth it. We had heard there were bears out at the fish counting fence and thought we'd go see if we could see the bears. When we got there they weren't in the river. But there were ppl all over the bridge waiting for the bears. So we got out to wait too. The conservation guys were even there keeping an eye on people getting too close to the bears. And as we waited a mother bear and four cubs came out of the bushes to swim and play in the river. we kept watching and taking photos and as it got darker the bears walked all the way down stream right under the bridge we were on. I have never been that close to a bear before and these were grizzlies. It was totally safe cos they didnt come on the bridge and we stayed at that vantage point.

the quality of these pics is not the greatest but thats what you see when you zoom in.

They are coming out of the water and walking closer towards us along the bank.



in the photo above it looks like that one cub wants to go up the trail..

If you look closely the mama bear has a fish..

One last look before the mama headed off downstream.

The conservation guys told us its actually not good that these bears don't even seem to be scared the humans are this close. They are too used to humans being around. These are the bears that will be a pain at settlements like Fort Babine and will eventually be shot.