We have been taking life slowly so far in this New Year 2013. Our holiday season was pretty busy and full of exciting adventures. It is nice to balance busy times with more relaxed times.

Earlier in January, the four of us were hit with the flu. It took us all a while to recover from it.

Jimmy was out and about with the kids around the neighbourhood a few days ago while I was at work. He captured some pretty pictures of Claire & Rhys being loving siblings….

As the kids grow older and become more adaptable we get to be more adventurous with our outings. We’ve been meaning to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge for a while and we’re now pleased to check this goal off of our ever growing list of things to do.

Originally built in 1889, the Capilano Suspension Bridge stretches 450 feet (137m) across and 230 feet (70m) above Capilano River.

In addition to the shock and awe (and fear) of the bridge, they have an awesome Christmas light display throughout their property. We walked the suspension bridge and also, the recently created cliffwalk, breath held and anxieties stowed.

Cliffwalk follows a granite precipice along Capilano River with a labyrinth-like series of narrow cantilevered bridges, stairs and platforms. It only has 16 anchor points to the cliff!

I was really surprised how brave the kids were, actually. They held our hands and just went for it. Kids can be so fearless. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve -feels like a new family tradition just got created!

We are spoiled living in North Vancouver when it comes to ski hills. Three are within 30 minute driving distance from us. Grouse Mountain is the closest, viewable from our balcony on a clear day. Grouse has a big Christmas theme every year in the month of December. You ride the Gondola up the mountain along with all of the skiers and snowboarders to the top where they have an ice rink, reindeer, sleigh rides, Santa’s workshop and lots of snow to play with.

Our goal this year was to get out and do lots of Christmas adventures. We were really exited to take Claire & Rhys up the mountain. It turned out to be a great day. It was super busy and the line-ups for the attractions were very long. However, the kids don’t notice those things so much and they loved the Gondola ride (a lot more than I did- they are so much braver than their Mom) and visiting Santa. Rhys is a very active little boy so while Claire & I lined up to visit Santa Jimmy was chasing Rhys through the snow and across the big ice rink.

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Grouse mountain- a view from the road:

Buying passes- busy!

Gondola:

At the top- so much snow:

We recently celebrated Claire & Rhys’ 3rd birthday. We held it at our local community centre where there is lots of room to roam and play. Claire & Rhys have been looking forward to their birthday for months. They made a special request….they had to have Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. Jimmy had a request as well…..it had to be a pizza party 😉

It was a lot of work but so worthwhile. I made the cupcakes the evening before the party and Jimmy sewed their birthday hats.

We had a great turn-out with lots of kids, good friends and neighbors.

We cannot believe it has been 3 years since Claire & Rhys arrival into our lives. What a fun and awesome 3 years it has been 🙂

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Trampoline:

Face Painting:

Pizza Party:

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Claire worn-out from the party:

and Rhys…..on a sugar high:

A few weeks ago we ventured out for a North Vancouver adventure. We decided to first visit Grouse Mountain. Specifically, the wolves that they have in their wildlife refuge. These timber wolves are movie industry retirees. We have gone to visit them before but they have always been hiding and we normally leave a little disappointed. This time both wolves were visible and quite close to the fence. Claire & Rhys were very excited to see them as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was a favorite story the last little while.

After visiting the wolves at Grouse Mountain, we drove down to Cleveland Dam for a little walk. The view from the dam is quite spectacular and watching the massive amounts of water flow over the dam is always exciting.

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So this post is a little late – it has been a busy few months! Trying to catch up now after looking through all our photos.

For Hallowe’en 2012 Claire wanted to be a princess and Rhys wanted to be a cowboy. At the last minute Claire decided she wanted to be a cowboy as well so thankfully, with a costume borrowed from Aunt Wendy, we were able to make all these costumes happen!

Jimmy has little cowboy boots from when he was a little boy and Rhys fit them so his costume was complete with little vintage cowboy boots.

We had two Hallowe’en events to attend which is good because Claire was able to dress in both her costumes.

Tired kids after a very rainy trick-or-treat adventure.