And bigger...and bigger...and bigger...

Sheesh. Must have had a growth spurt or something......but that's ok. It's all muscle, right? Right?

Shingles? Yes, please!

Earlier in the week, J's dad asked "Can you help me re-shingle the roof of the shed?". So Thursday was supposed to be a nice day outside and we had nothing much planned. Bright and early, the boys started taking off the old shingles from the roof of the shed.



Then, slowly, they started putting the new shingles back on.



J is now trained to re-roof our house when the time comes. Ok, maybe he'll need a bit of help....so he'll call his dad ;)

Re-roofing the shed took most of the day, so I took the opportunity to relax, nap, eat, walk, and take some pictures. Here is a close up of the peas (my favourite part of this picture is the little spiral vines):


Here is a close up of a sunflower:



Then I took a little walk down to the shore to take pictures of the eroded rock sculptures:


And finally, a picture we can someday enlarge to remind of us where J is from:

It was a nice relaxing day for me....and a day of hard-labour for J. If you ask him, he'll still say it felt like vacation. Anything is better than sitting at a desk all day!

NB 2011: It's the Pits!

For Christmas, we told J's family that we would build them a fire-pit. They have the amazing space for it in their gorgeous yard, and, well, you need a fire to roast marshmallows!

So off we drove to Moncton to get some paving stones, patio stones, decorative rocks, and a cast-iron fire bowl. After some hemming and hawing, this is what we came up with.

I think they liked it, because we had a fire that night....and the pit was used another 2 times that week!

New Brunswick 2011

Ah! What a wonderful vacation. I can't seem to get enough of New Brunswick...

We flew into Moncton on a Thursday night and spent the next couple days relaxing. I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired, spent some time in the sun helping some cousins build a play-structure and then on Sunday, we took a day trip to Prince Edward Island to see the sequel to the Anne of Green Gables musical, Anne and Gilbert. I had been looking forward to seeing this musical ever since my in-laws went to see it (years ago) and boy did it deliver. I now have the CD in my car and sing along as if I were one of the cast.

The day started out with us taking the Confederation Bridge which links New Brunswick to PEI. It's a 13 km stretch of concrete right in the middle of the Northumberland Straight. On either side of you is the ocean and it's amazing to think that the amount of water passing under that bridge every day doesn't seem to affect it. Am I ever glad we have engineers that design these things! It's designed so that it curves with the current, and then the mid-point is higher so that ships can pass underneath. It makes me a bit nervous because I had a dream once where we were in a really tiny car driving over the bridge and the wind blew us off the bridge. Luckily, our Toyota Yaris stayed on the bridge!

We made it to Summerside in about 1.5 hours and took our time looking around, checking out the little shops beside the theatre, and then going for a fish and chips lunch. Summerside is in a bay, and there was a marina with lots of sailboats.

The musical was fantastic. I cannot express that enough. It was everything I'd hoped for, as I grew up with the CBC's version of Anne of Green Gables. Although the play was only about 2 hours, they managed to fit in all the important points of the second movie. Ah. Gilbert! My one true love after my husband!!!

Driving back, we saw the typical red-dirt roads of PEI...can't you just see Gilbert chasing Anne down the road, telling her she needs to stop mooning about the start writing about the people and places she knows?

We could see the bridge in the distance because it's so big! Can you see it?

We made a pit-stop in the small tourist village just before going onto the bridge. There was a special request from one of J's sisters to buy a box of chocolate-covered chips. We were skeptical, but they were delicious! And of course, I had to pretend I was Anne.....did they even have sunglasses back then?