Bear!

This post I found in my drafts telling me to retry to publish. It's from a month and a bit ago already! 

I am always a bit nervous to go for walks with just the dogs, Willow and I as we live in a park and there are a million animals among us. I feel a little bit more safe in the town site which is a five minute drive away. I wasn't even two minutes into my run when out walked a bear right in front of us. The bears are pretty slow moving and fat these days so he or she just looked at us and kept on walking right across the road. It made me realize that yes you always need to be cautious but I shouldn't be such a scaredy cat. It just made me more grateful that I get to share a piece of the Earth with such magnificent creatures. (Yes friends you may laugh at my hippie nonsense) I did however pay a heck of a lot of attention to any little crackle I heard in the woods after that.

It's that time of year where we have the whole park to ourselves. It's seriously the best. On the weekends the stores open back up but not many visitors come up anymore. We have been taking full advantage of the quiet. 

And I Will Swallow My Pride

I shazamed this song a while ago and then when I heard it on The Voice the other night I fell in love with it all over again. I think I like it even better with Christina

Before They Pass Away

 Himba- Namibia

Kazakh- Mongolia

Huli- Indonisia & Papau New Guinea

 Goroka- Indonesia & Papau New Guinea

I literally was so overwhelmed with beauty that I couldn't help but to get emotional while viewing these pictures. Jimmy Nelson spent two weeks totally immersed with each tribe, 33 of them, to give us a unique understanding of each tribes culture, traditions, beliefs, and way of life.

 I don't know what you'll take from all this raw beauty and purity but what I got out of it was how sad it is that we have all become so disconnected from one another. Maybe I am slowly losing it because I haven't been further than  up my road in days and am looking way too far into this, but it got me thinking.  No, I am not  suggesting to become a bunch of savages but I am game to become better connected to my "tribe", my people. Evolution is natural, it's important, but I hate where evolution is taking us. I find I am spending waaaaayyy to much time on my phone playing candy crush (extremely addicted),checking blogs, instagram, facebook, twitter, Pinterest that I have basically become a social media whore. I feel that these things make me feel better connected to people but are they? As my baby plays around me I am "imessaging or bbming" my friends. As my mother is trying to tell me a story I am pinning my dream home. I mean we are all guilty of this but sometimes I find it to be way to excessive and then I end up feeling a terrible amount of guilt. I definitely won't be giving up any of these addictions any time soon but I need to stop checking my phone when in the company of others. Everyone has their vices and needs, something to help them relax or check out so to speak, but this is getting crazy already. I am lucky enough to be able to stay home with my babe that I should be enjoying every waking moment with her teaching, exploring, playing and I do but I always have my phone in reach. I honestly am terrified for Willows future, our children's future. I am going to say this again, she spends way more time in nature than the average toddler and for that I am very grateful. But when we are at home I am spending way too much time on my stupid phone.  I mean, I catch myself daily and then I quickly hide it from myself, but seriously, how sad. What could be more important than my babe? What is going to become of these children when all they see is peoples faces pressed up to a screen? Are our children going to grow up and be socially inept?

Ok I need to cut this off somewhere because my babe has been napping for quite sometime and I do not want to become a total hypocrite. :p  I hope you enjoyed these photo's as much as I did and got a little something, something out of them.

I got all of these images from Jimmy Nelson's website Before They Pass Away. When you have a moment please do yourself a favor and check it out! The photos I have posted is just a little taste of what you will see. If you feel like watching some great videos please watch these that feature Jimmy Nelsons journey. I may have a new idol ;)




The preview at the beginning of this following video is a little cheesy but keep watching

There Once Was A Strawberry, A Buck, A Frog & Their Dogs

I hope that you have all recovered from all that candy binging over the weekend. I know that I have to get my butt on the treadmill ASAP because I had more than a couple of handfuls of Halloween treats. I am feeling extra squishy ;)

Sooooo I may have really gotten into character :) The others that were taken are far to embarrassing. 

Lily has gotten to chubby for her costume and poor Mapes doesn't even have one. We will have to do better next year 

I mean, how cute are these trick or treaters? 

This lil strawberry has discovered how sweet suckers are. She definitely has a full on melt down when we have to take it away. 

Steady As The Stars In The Woods

This song, this week

House Hunting Trip

We just got back from an oh so fabulous house hunting trip to our future home. We spent oodles of time exhausting our minds searching for the perfect nest to call home. There were definitely a couple of promising ones but we have also thought about building. It's pretty sweet to have Jon's work provide us with a house (with four bedrooms, so visitors are welcome right away) until we find a perfect match for us, waterfront no less!

It was nice to see so many playgrounds for Willow and I to hang out at. Every other block had a play park and their were so many moms trotting around town with their babes in tow. They just recently built a gorgeous community centre with a jam packed schedule with all sorts of activities for all ages. It's great to see that people are very active in their community.

When we weren't exploring the community we spent lots of time at the beach and enjoying the scenic  hikes the island has to offer. Ohhh and the smells, how I've missed that salty air. 

Needless to say I think we are going to be happy at our new little spot in the world.

So lush 

These ancient cedars were aaaaaahhhh-mazing

I love that this kid loves nature just as much as her parents

My feet were so happy 

The fog was so thick that our flight was delayed, we didn't waste our day at the airport. Instead found a sweet Provincial park to play in

Coast to Coast

Just 11 months ago we hopped on a plane and traveled from Nova Scotia and moved to Manitoba. I was super sad to leave the East Coast & was not ready to embrace the cold in the Midwest. But I did and it was fabulous. We got into cross country skiing to pass the winter and made lots and lots of trips to visit family. We had a whole bunch of friends come up and we were extremely happy to host them. I think because we were always traveling to meet up with our old pals and family we never made many friends within the community. A lot of days were really lonely with Willow & the fur babes just waiting for J to get home. I suppose I kind of did this to myself! We will have a fresh new start come December as we are moving yet again!

J got a promotion and is now going to be the supervisor for the Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island. We will make the move in late fall so we will have literally moved from coast to coast in just a year. We figured we are only young once and Willow is not in school yet so why the heck not. This leaves a few upset family members, yes, and I am very sorry!

 I am super proud of J for moving up that ladder as quickly as he did. He is a supaaahhhh staaaaahh. I have been doing lots of research on the area and it looks like J has another phenomenal "office".  Jon has never been out there and I lived on the island for 3 short months during my stint with Katimavik. I am looking forward to doing more exploring with my little fam.

Now starts the not so fun part of putting up our house for sale and house hunting in a new area. We have found a couple of beauties online but definitely have to check them out in person. Wish us luck!