more pics

pictures from Christmas 2005

Well, finally I have a chance to write a little note on here, we have been busy, I just got back from Slave Lake at 3pm today (monday) and I start classes again first thing in the morning. Hal is still in Slave Lake working hard, I will see him thursday night.
So we had a great Christmas, our first visit was with Mitch and Kerry in Kamloops, we stayed the night at their house and had a really great visit, they have a really nice place, we were glad we stopped. Then on to Burnaby to see Earl and Tammy, it was also really nice to finally see their place, we had lots of fun, played a few games, went on some walks, went shopping and spent a day at Granville Island, they were great hosts, it was really nice to have a good visit and Briela enjoyed playing with Beatle although she got a bit too close to the birds so they had to stay locked up.
Then on our way up north we stopped in 100 mile house and had lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Hobs while they were on their way down, it was a nice break and nice to see them. Then up to Kitwanga, we had such a great visit, the only sad part was not having Earl and Tammy and Ryan, Meli and Mae with us too. Hal was complaining of heartburn on the 2nd day, I reminded him that eating over 30 buttertarts in one day can do that too a person! He can't get enough of his Ma's cooking. We had such a great time, its really too bad we all live so far away, it was sad to leave. Briela was sad too, her and Mikey are best buds when we are up there. Anyways, New year's Eve we had plans for a Fondue party at my girlfriends house with a bunch of other friends, we ended up going there for supper which was nice but at 1030pm Hal and I had to leave because Hal had to work the next morning at 8am... a wonderful start to his new job. One of the medivac planes hit a deer (don't worry, it wasn't a reindeer) on take off so he had to go to Valleyview (2 hours away from Slave Lake) to do a complete engine change and prop change, pick out deer pieces out of the landing gear, all sorts of fun!! Good thing it wasn't too cold as there is no hangar there and they had to make a makeshift shelter to work in. So anyways that is about it, still no snow, there wasn't any over Christmas and it is still +5C here today, we are ready for the snow, however I don't mind it not being cold! Hope all is well with you guys down under and everyone else reading this,
love you all and talk to you soon,
Hal and Lisa

Our most recent guests have departed (Rossi & Helmut) and headed back to Germany. It was really a great visit, they saw every interesting creature that there is to see in Australia in the wild. Kangoroos, Snakes, Bats, Spiders . . .

We had to do one last night out though, we hadn't shown them Sydney by night so we took them up to the Summit retaurant (Orbit bar) for a drink and a trip around the rotating disc that is the restaurant / bar. It was great, once we had finished there tho we had to top that with a visit to "Blue Horizons" the bar on top of the Shangri-la hotel. It has a view straight down onto the Harbour bridge and across to the Opera house. Just to make sure they remembered where they had been.

They left on Wednesday and on Sunday we got 2 new visitors, one planned (Tanya Feucht) and one unplanned (red-back spider). Tanya has been in AU for about a week touring around and who knows how long the red back was in the yard.

Here are pictures of the lot.

R


Mother & Daughters last night on the town. The view from the top!!


Our newest visitor (in the garden at least) My 2 beauties in the Blue mountains

Just a sample of the blue mountains, and their residents!