wildlife part 2

I just love seeing deer. Now I am lucky, because we were live I often see deer running across the road, or eating grass at the side of the road. But I've never been as close as to these one.

I know, after seeing some beautiful wildlife pictures, here I am showing you a picture of a deer carcass. You can even see part of the leg with the hoof attached. We found this about 12 inches off of the path we took on our hike! We are assuming a bear ate it.

wildlife part 3

One of the exciting things we saw were MOOSE! It was amazing to be so close to such a huge animal. The first picture of a moose and her baby. They were really far out so I could get a good picture.
The next couple of pictures was of a moose that was literrly 5 feet away from us. We had pulled over and was standing on the shoulder of the road just watching him for about 10 minutes. He had no fear of everyone (aprox. 100 people). And when you are travelling along the highway (that Algonquin is on) when one car stops about 50 will stop too. So as soon as we see one car pulled over on the side I automatically grab the camera, Andrew stops the car, then we try to figure out if that car is stopped b/c they see or something, or just pulled over to read a map or something. LOL

wildlife part 4

One of animals that I was petrified of seeing was a BEAR! I'm camping in nothing but a tent, with 4 young kids, what I am going to do against a bear? We went through 8 days at Algonquin and didn't see anything. We packed up and moved to our next campground. KillBEAR! Yeah, now that's a name for you. I got even more worried when the first sign you see is:

And then you look to the side and see:

Yup, that's a bear trap. They have some active bears in the campgrounds.

Andrew had brought along a long staff that he had made awhile back. And this staff went with us ALL THE TIME. If we went on a hike, we had it with us. If we were sitting outside it was always within reach. When we went to bed, the staff came in the tent with us. Hopefully one good smack on the nose would scare the bear off.

Here is Chance with the staff.

We went about 10 days when I was in the dinner tent dishing out dinner and Andrew's like "Amy, there's a bear over there". I didn't believe him at first, but then I looked out and saw him in the next camp site. I thought my initial reaction would have been to grab all the kids and throw them in the van. However, I grabbed the camera and went chasing after it trying to get a good picture with Andrew yelling out behind me "Amy, don't get to close. You're too close Amy. it's coming closer Amy". So he goes back makes sure the kids stay sitting in their chairs, grabs his staff in one hand and baby in the other hand. lol

I was very upset though. Because for some reason I could not get a good picture. I took the pictures without the flash (it was about 5pm) and they would all turn blurry on me. I tried with the flash and the picture would be black. I switched it to "night mode" and you couldn't see a thing. I turned it to "action mode" and still blurry. I was so angry because I could not get ONE good picture. We got so many other good nature/animal shots, and the BIG one wasn't working. So these are the best ones that I got. I did get some video's though. so if Andrew can figure that out for me that I'll post videos.


The bear got into some one's cooler.

The bear went to the corner of the campsite and dig a little hole and then laid down it in for about a few minutes just eating.

This bear was in the "middle" of this circle of camp sites And the people on all sides of the circle would yell and scream at the bear when it went near their sites. So this poor bear was stuck in the middle and it kept trying to get out, but it just couldn't. People just needed to let the bear go and get out, go back into the forest. When you have a bear that you are all scarring you have it trapped. You are looking for trouble. Because now you have a bear that was minding it's own business, to now an agitated and trapped bear.

Andrew went for a walk a few days later, and right during his hike in the middle of the Forest a bear comes RUNNING out and stops on the path way about 10feet away looking at Andrew! He started to walk backwards slowing as the bear watched him and he kept a tight grip on his staff. but after a few minutes the bear just took off in the Forest. As Andrew's tells me this my reaction was (and I can see that he is ok) so "did you get a good pictures?". Unfortunately he was too paralyzed to pull out the camera and for some reason was just more worried with backing away slowing and not scarring him. But when he did take the camera out it was too late as he went running back into the Forest.

The sad thing was that it had no fear of humans. So when they catch this bear they will probably have to put it down. So many people leave their food and stuff out on their sites which you can't do when you are in bear country. They tell you not even to dump your dish water or brush your teeth on your site. And the clothes that you cooked your dinner leave in your car and don't wear it to bed.

so far so good - cold turkey

I've been debating going cold turkey now for a few months now, but there are always excuses. We are going on vacation, too many big changes come up. I'll do it another day, really I will.

Well today, I finally did it. I put Terra to bed with no SOOTHER. Since Terra came with us we limited her soother only to bed and nap time. She never needed it any other time. And she really used that as a comfort item. As soon as you put the soother in she instantly closes her eyes and starts to rub her hair and puts herself to sleep. We have had no issues with bed time and sleep time and she has always been a good sleeper. Even if she found a soother laying around she would put it in her mouth and she would start to rub her hair. It was the cutest thing. But I've been looking up on how to wean a baby off of her soother and they all say cold turkey. So here we are, we laid her down, she started to pat her chest looking for her soother clip and then the screaming began. Oh boy, did she scream. I laid in bed listening and thinking about fellow blogger Karma whose baby is a few weeks younger then Terra who has been having problems sleeping lately. And her baby would scream and not go back to sleep. And here I have Terra doing the same thing, but yet I know what I could do to stop, but choose not too. I was wondering how long the screaming would last.

So how did it go? First night of no soother and she only cried for 15 minutes and she was asleep.

Question is: will she STAY asleep and sleep till her normal time (8-8:30) without waking up. We will see.

life with baby

I don't have pictures to go with this post, but they will be coming.

Our family LOVES camping. And by camping I don't mean some trailer with all the amenities right out your front door. I mean full blown TENT camping, making dinner out in the wilderness, then curling up in your nice warm sleeping bags. And having kids have not stopped that for us. Our first summer fostering we went camping with Chance who was 18 months old, and our foster boy who was 25 months old. I think we went for 5 days. It was a lot of fun. 3 years ago we had Joe and Manny and went camping with Chance who was 3 and half, and Joe and Manny were 25 months. Last summer, we drove 15 hours to Quebec to camp for 2 weeks with a 4 year old and two 3 year old. We had a lot of looks, and "man you are crazy". but hey, even to this day they still talk about that trip. We went to two different sites about 3 hours apart so we could do some more exploring - so many lasting memories were created.

This year, we do not let having a baby stop us from camping! So this year year we packed our bags with a 5 year old, 4 year old twins and a 13 month old baby and off we went. We spent 8 nights at Algonquin, pure wilderness camping. Everyone thought we were crazy taking them to Algonquin at this age, but they loved it. We loved it, and it was worth it all.

We then packed up from there and drove 2 hours along Georgian Bay and stayed at KillBear provincial park for 7 nights. Again, it was AWESOME! We got some looks and some comments about how they would never take their young children camping, that it's too much work, that we should just "rent a cottage" or something. But in all honesty, it was a little bit more work then just staying home or going to some cottage somewhere. But I would not trade it for anything, ok, yes I would - to stay another week or two sleeping in my tent.

So camping with 4 young children = work. But it was worth everything to give our children that experience. I am planning on doing quite a few posts on our 16 day adventure because so much has happened. But right now, I've got about 10 loads of laundry to do, dishes to do, cakes to bake, children to pack up as we are going away for the weekend and leave in like 16 hours. Oh, and maybe get a Little bit of sleep before I have to go into work tonight!

And there will be many pictures comming soon. But right now, I've got work to do, so you will have to wait until Monday!

Yes they ARE all MY children

There are some people out there that are SOOO RUDE! Ok, I understand not everyone know's the whole adoption language, and don't always know the most polite thing to say. But some times, I just want to slap people.

I was at soccer the other week. And this mom I was talking too has met Terra and Chance before at playgroup, but have never meet Joe and Manny b/c they go to preschool on Mondays'. So I see her at soccer and asks which one are Joe and Manny. So I show her which one they are. And her next comment was "Where do they get their dark skin from?". I was totally taken back. Most people assume they get the darker skin from me. But even if you are curious don't ask in front of the KIDS! I didn't want to be rude, b/c I know she wasn't TRYING to rude. So I explained that they are adopted. "Oh, where did you get them?". I said we adopted from the foster care system, "oh but from WHERE?" umm, Cambridge. I think she was looking for china or Portugal or something. She didn't seem quite content with Cambridge, because you know it's in Canada. I wish I could have thought of something else to say, without coming off as rude. But I don't want and NEED to explain to everyone that my children came to me via adoption. They are just MY CHILDREN.

I was at Zerhs last week getting pictures developed. And when you get digital pictures they always put your last name and last 5 digits of your phone number. When I am printing pictures for my children's birth family I will put a different name on the back and a different phone number, but explain to them at the desk that they are really mine. Some times they will ask why, which the lady did. And I just explained that I am printing them for my children's birth family and I don't want the info on the pictures. And she's like "oh ok, so they are really your children then. They are adopted!!!!!!!" Taken aback I replied, "well yes they really are MY children". "yeah I know, but they really aren't yours, they are just adopted. That's nice of you ti give pictures to their REAL family". So I said "yes, and once we went in front of the judge we were declared the full parents and we became their real family, forever". We are just as much the parents to these children as you are to theirs" She was going to make another comment, but I just left.

I just don't get some people.

blogging = free speach!

This has been something that has been bothering me for awhile, and it's finally came to a head. People who choose to blog KNOW that what they write/post is on the WORLD WIDE WEB, they know what they are blogging about could possible be read by anyone. And that is something that a blogger has taken on. They write about things that interest them, happened to them, or feel like sharing with everyone else. And that's OK! But what really irks me is when people take it upon themselves to say things on people's blogs that they really do not have a right to say unless their opinions are asked of, or they have something positive to say. I love reading people's blogs. I have a list that I read regularly, and when I find one that I like I will often go though and read their whole blog FROM THE BEGINNING. I've been known to spend a lot of time (mostly at work!!) reading back to really get to these people, and I will comment and say positive/encouraging to them. Or sometimes just relate a similar story. I do not agree with people who go onto other people's blog and criticize them. If I come across a blog of someone is constantly talking about abortion and how war is the greatest thing, lets go kill everyone. I WILL LEAVE! I won't sit there and read that blog and look to see what their newest post will be. I don't like what they say, so I keep my mouth shut, and don't' return to that blog. But some people feel like need to do the opposite. I've been on blogs where people are just writing about their every day life, what they believe in, then have a large amount of people tell them that they are wrong and don't have a right to write that stuff. but I'm sorry, it's THEIR BLOG! They can write whatever they want to. I recently came across a blog of a pregnant mother who at 20 weeks found out her baby has Trisomy 18 which is fatal to the baby. Sometimes they die while still safely in womb, other times they die minutes/hours after birth. and very rarely they will live a few days. This poor mother and everything that she has gone through has had people constantly accuse her of being a fake. And when her baby was born 2 days ago she posted pictures of her baby while she was still alive and people would send her pictures of her baby with devil horns/tail. I came across this blog a few days ago and read every single post that was written since she started since March and there is no reason as to why she would be lying. It's just really sad. She recently took her blog down after some people were being really mean to her. It's uncalled for. I've got other birth moms who blog anonymously, who people have come out and called them fakes and spread rumours about over other blogs/fourms too because they do not announce to the world their real names and show pictures.

Sometimes when reading my regular blogs people will write things that I don't agree with. and that's ok!

I just don't get it.
Blog = free speech. If you don't like, don't read!