Family

This is Carmacks!

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 13 Comments

So, we adopted a dog!!!!!!!!!! It was a bit of a world wind trip for us but hang on and I’ll tell you all about it.

We wanted to do something really epic for Canada’s 150th birthday, so we decided to drive half way across Canada to Ontario (we live in Nova Scotia) and adopt a dog. Well, it kinda went that way! He is an eight year old Alaskan husky with a little German Sheppard and Collie in him. He is named after a village in the Yukon. The village of Carmacks is one of the checkpoints in the Yukon Quest (major dog sledding race).

Carmacks

Photo credit: Snow Forest Adventures

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We’ve been wanting another dog after losing Maclean last year suddenly but it just never seemed like the right time. We had originally adopted Maclean in 2007 at the age of 6 from the company my husband worked for dog sledding. She was 14 when she died. So when the opportunity came up to adopt another dog from the same company we kinda jumped at this chance. Early June, we decided to drive 19+ hours on Canada weekend, meet Carmacks and bring him back if everyone got along.

Yes, we did this WITH the girls. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy trip with two kids and it wasn’t but we made the best of it. Canada Day weekend happened to be the only weekend we had free as a family and luckily, Saï was approved for two days off. Having those two days off meant he actually had a week off work (shift work).

We packed up and left right after Lilly’s last day of school, drove all night (yup, crazy!) and got to Ontario mid morning. We stopped in Algonquin Park at their visitor’s information centre, which I’ve been to many times before when we lived in Ontario. Poor Hilary got sick everywhere but was so happy and relieved to feel better. We ate out A LOT, played at a school playground, celebrated Canada Day, slept in our car, slept in two hotels and talked about the Provinces we drove through (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario) to the girls.

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Despite the challenges of a sick kid, little sleep and adopting a dog that had lived his life as a sled dog, we had a great and quick trip. He is settling in as a house dog but sure loves his walks. He is a very routine dog so change is stressful for him. He is also great with the girls and they love him. He didn’t like our stairs at first and hates loud noises but he’s working on it and zooms up the stairs with no hesitation now.

I almost didn’t want to share this story as I feel like it was a really crazy thing for us to do. Drive half way across Canada to adopt a dog when we could have adopted a dog here. BUT, we did it and don’t regret it at all. You’ll start seeing a few more dog pictures on here and Instagram. An attempt at a family photo was taken on my birthday last week:

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I’m really looking forward to running this fall and winter with him. Since he was a working dog pulling sleds, he’ll be pumped to get running again. He loves walks, squirrels and cats, LOTS of attention, freeze-dried treats and follows us around like he is our shadow. He is a quick learner and an amazing addition to our family.

Have you ever adopted a dog?

When was the last time you drove half way across your country?

 

 

 

Last Ski Adventures

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 4 Comments

We got in one more ski day!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that we like to do active things as a family. Ski, hike, snowshoe, swim etc. This winter our youngest Hilary learned to ski all by herself and even got up the big hill once. Our oldest, Lilly has been cruising around like she’s an old pro!

I really wanted to sneak in one more day of skiing with the girls before the season ended so we headed to Ski Martock yesterday. Even though we had a busy week, soccer game for me and late to bed Friday night for the girls, we still got up early and were at the hill just before they opened. That was a first!

We basically had the bunny hill to ourselves for almost 2 hours (very little people on it).

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Then we had Grandad join us again. My Dad is just loving skiing with his grand kids. I sure am thankful he taught and my siblings how to ski at a young age.

The girls got to hang out with Grandad in the lodge while Mommy got in a few solo runs. Spoiled with hot chocolate and cookies.

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We skied all day and it was a perfect day to be at the hill. With it being March break, I thought it would be nuts but it wasn’t. Nine runs on the big hill for Lilly and I did around 14. Hilary did 6 half hill runs and way too many to count on the bunny hill.

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I would love to get in another day but it might not sure if we can pull it off before the season ends next weekend. We had a great winter of skiing and the girls improved so much!

Do you get out with your kids? 

What’s your favourite family activity to do?

Are you ready for Spring?

 

 

 

T’was The Friday Before Christmas

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 11 Comments

And all through the house, not a kid was whining not even…

Just kidding. I don’t have any rhymes for this.

I’m so happy Christmas is finally here as it seems like we’ve been gearing up for it for a while now. Christmas will be different this year but we are trying to make the most of it.

Tree Decorating

We decorated our tree Monday night – kinda late but a lot of fun looking and talking about all the ornaments we put on the tree.

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Winter Solstice

Wednesday night my running buddy, Krystol and I got in a slippery 6k and enjoyed some of the decorated houses. We were scoping them out for evening trips for our kids. I was actually participating in the RunAtCan Winter Solstices run. We were running for Mental Health awareness as were 75 others across Canada (and a few US peeps).

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Early Christmas Dinner

I spent most of yesterday cooking and baking treats for my family as it’s the only day we have together until Boxing day! My husband, who is a Paramedic works all weekend (crappy, we know) but that’s just life and how his scheduled fell. We’ll have 2-3 hours at the most tomorrow and Sunday so Christmas dinner was enjoyed early. AND, leftovers today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Running

Since my husband is working this weekend, I snuck out for a quick yet slow 5k this morning. It was slow going as there were some slippery spots under the snow, so I wore my old yaktraxs which always twist on my right foot. Meh, it was better then falling on my ass. I did my PT exercises for my ankle – yes, that’s still an issue but I’m working on it.

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The best part now is to just sit back and relax with our girls. I’ve watched a few Christmas movies this week but looking forward to watching a few more bundled up beside our fireplace. The girls are excited for a Christmas Eve gathering at their friends house, seeing the lights on houses in their new pj’s and leaving cookies out for Santa. And of course Santa’s arrival.

It’s going to be a very different Christmas for us at a time when everything is so magical for the girls. Again, it’s life and we’re making the best of it.

Merry Christmas! 

When are you having Christmas dinner? 

Anyone else sneaking in runs before you travel?

What’s your favourite Christmas ornament?

I’m joining for the first time this link up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup.

Friday Five Linkup 2.0

Happy Holidays!

Friday Five – What’s Happening Right Now

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 13 Comments

Happy Friday!!!!!! I’m sure all those teachers who started back this week are happy to see Friday on their calendar (I would be). I love weekends because it means that I get to spend time with my family…and not at work. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job but I love spending time with my family more.

I’m going to hook up today with the Friday Five’s but not write about food. I’m going to write about five things happening right now.

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  1. Back to School started and was a great success. Lilly was really excited about her new teacher but more importantly seeing her friends. I asked her a bunch of questions last night and she was the most excited for the reading corner in her classroom! Apparently it has a large mat with the alphabet and 1 pillow with more to follow. Little things are big things.
  2. Bike Rides & Outdoors: I’m hoping to get out for a few bike rides this weekend since it actually made my ankle feel better when I went Sunday & Monday. Its’ been a pretty sad state for me these days. Contemplating workouts but just not having the motivation to even get in my workout clothing. The girls having been riding their bikes again so I’m hoping we get to take them on the trail…you know, change it up from riding their bikes on our street.
  3. Family: I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. It’s rare that we get a whole weekend together. I’m sure we’ll even watch some of the Paralympics too (have you seen those athletes – woah!).
  4. Running: I want to run, that’s no surprise! I may or may not go for a run in the next few days. I am going to run my double race at Maritime Race weekend but still on the fence between 5k or 10k on the Saturday. I’m thinking 5k since I’ll be running 5k the night before but so tempted by the 10k course 🙂 I have until Thursday to decide.
  5. Canva: I just discovered this website through some other bloggers. See the picture above…way cooler then I’ve done before! Look it up, you’ll love it!

Thanks to Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?! for hosting the Friday Five’s!

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I’m posting more over on Instagram these days and even opened up a second account that is just me and the family…almost no running photos (shocker, I know!).

What’s happening right now for you? Back to school for your kids, training for a race, racing this weekend, spending time with family, loving the weather lately?

Have a great weekend!