James, Sheryl, Fionna and Abby on the lake

It wasn't exactly the Iditarod, but...

Sheryl and I took some one-on-one time during the Easter weekend. We ended up going to the Couple's Resort near Algonquin Park, just south of where we are. We had a good time, eating food too fancy for parents to make, sleeping-in too late for parents to imagine and
playing board games with more pieces than any parent would consider laying out on a table.

We also got out cross-country skiing a few times and tried out dog sledding. For all of the relatives living in warmer climes, it's probably useful to remind you: We do own cars, and dogsled is NOT the way Canadians usually get around from place to place in the winter. This is considered "fun". (As much fun as being dragged about by yappy dogs who like to fight with each other a lot CAN be, ie LOTS).

We do, however, live in igloos. (Just kidding)

My dogs (you can see them in front of me) were named Blackie (the smart one), Mischka (the "decoration" dog, who actually looks like a sled dog but hardly ever does any work, except for that particular day), Bongo (jumpy dog) and Helix (jumpier dog). The front two are considered the Leads and the back two are called the Wheels, I think. And it may not look like we're going that fast, with no real reference point as we travel over white snow, but we're going faster than I would want to run at a sustained pace. Sheryl's behind me, waving.



Sheryl got Cowboy (the one who stares straight at the camera, and who needs to run NOW NOW NOW! to the point where he can pull the snow anchor out of the ground), Britney (another decoration dog), Crash and Toast. Toast is a dog who tends to run sideways while looking behind himself at the sled, ever since some other tourist let the sled get out of control and run over his back ankles twice. We heard this story and were joking about "Who do you suppose is going to get stuck with Toast?"



Sheryl, apparently. But he did fine that day. But MAN, do those dogs love to fight. All part of sled dogs figuring out who is toughest, apparently.

Here are more highlights from Science North. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we own a family membership.

We got complaints that there weren't enough photos of Abigail on the blog. It's a standard thing, of course, since she's the second child and there's bound to be less hard evidence of her on film due to her parents taking everything for granted. Ask any parent of, say, five children: "Do you have any photos of your second youngest?". Nope. they're lucky if they don't leave a kid at Wal*mart every couple of weeks.

Anyways...here's proof that Abby is still around: