Congratulations to President Joe Biden, Jan 20 - 31

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS TONS OF BABY PICTURES. :) (For us and our family.)

Wednesday, both Ray and I were glued to CNN watching the inauguration of Joe Biden. Thank goodness it was a peaceful transition of power. With all that happened 2 weeks earlier, I am sure everyone was on pins and needles. He will be a welcome change compared to "he who should not be named"!

Watching the entertainment part of the show later after dinner, I asked Ray for a little Carolan's to celebrate... he asked me "how big" lol Certainly got a laugh out of me.

Little Amelia is doing well and their dogs have adjusted well to the new member of Kristi and Jason's family. I think Zeus thinks this baby is his and goes over to Amelia every time she squeaks. Friday, the poor little peanut had to go to Victoria for a cast change, a 6 hour round trip. She had to be fed and changed on route and back home.

Don't bother me.. I'm trying to sleep. lol

Tummy time with daddy.

Story time with mommy.

This week, the lake has dropped substantially and is below the log on the stairs to the beach. Hopefully that is the last of the high water this year.

Saturday night we were supposed to get snow. I was prepared. lol Car fueled up, snow blower ready to go, and groceries bought. Woke up Sunday morning to rain, probably a good thing but I was kind of disappointed. :) We will see what the rest of the day brings. The forecast is for a little snow every day until next weekend.

More Covid cases on the island this week. Hopefully this gets under control soon. We were in our own "little bubble" on Vancouver Island for quite some time before the numbers significantly went up with community transmission. Mostly due to Christmas and people ignoring the rules, I think. Looks like our turn for Ray and I for vaccinations will be from May to July for our age group. The Federal Government is looking at restricting international travel more as we are now getting those highly transmissible variants here in Canada, that are from international travel. Canadians are being warned that going somewhere for "Spring Break" might make their admission back to Canada much more difficult so STAY HOME! Since some members of the provincial governments and federal government did not abide by these rules at Christmas, I don't believe a good example was previously set so not getting my hopes up that we won't be getting more of these variants here.

The snow for Saturday night and into Sunday really did not materialize. Sunday morning we had a thin white covering for a couple of hours before it was back to rain. 

Monday also showered on and off. You could see the snow line across the lake when the clouds lifted periodically and it is pretty close within a couple hundred feet.

Here is our Amelia picture in Aunty Jayne's sweater.

Spent the day in my kitchen, making beef bourguignon, homemade bread bowls and banana nut loaf.

Tuesday, Amelia went back to Victoria for another cast change. Here she is waiting for her turn at the hospital with Daddy. I'm sure it was hard to wake her up when she was so cozy.

Wednesday, woke up to everything white outside. By 9am though the roads had all melted. A good day to stay hunkered down at home. I made Shepherds Pie for dinner. A nice winter meal.

Thursday, Ray spent his morning in the shop finally starting a project, other than tables for his "machines". lol I did errands here in Lake Cowichan. With the Covid cases doubling in the past few weeks here on the island, most of them are in the Cowichan Valley, i.e. Duncan so I think I won't be shopping there anytime soon unless absolutely necessary. Nanaimo seems to be a safer choice at the moment.

Friday the sun was finally out. Gorgeous morning. Here is a picture my neighbour, Pat, took of the lake this morning.

After I was back from my massage, Ray and I decided to take a short road trip to Gordon Bay Provincial Park. The sun poked out earlier, but it was still nice to get out. Definitely chilly though. I guess Freya and I were not photo worthy as there were no pictures of us. lol

One lone kayaker.

On our way out of the park we drove through the campsite, the part that is open. There were actually 2 campers in there! One in a small motorhome and the other a huge tent. Wow, wet and cold. There were quite a few branches down on the ground from the wind. We sure wouldn't camp there this time of year.

Cuddles with Mom

All snug with Daddy while he is gaming. (Jason wears headphones.)

Saturday, a drizzly day. Ray in his shop and me in the kitchen. :) Freya on her mat outside the basement door. Not much else to report. Our neighbour took out 3 of the cedar hedge trees to build a bigger wood shed. It should still block the dogs from wanting to visit their yard. lol

Sunday, last day of January. Wow this month went by pretty fast. Woke up to another wet morning. Freya is really sore this morning and did not even eat her treats... hopefully she loosens up later. This damp weather is not good for her old bones either.

Doesn't look like the Covid lockdown will be relaxed in February.  The Federal Government has put more restrictions on international travel with 14 day quarantines when you arrive and Covid tests 3 days before you come, testing once you get to Canada and another test 10 days later. These new variants are being taken seriously and they only travel with people who travel. 

As you see other than seeing a bunch of "Amelia pictures" not too much is happening here at the lake. Weather has been cold and wet and we are staying home except for essential trips as requested by the Provincial Health Officer. Being somewhere warm seems a very distant memory. :) We were on the California Coast last year at this time.

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Middle of January and Amelia gets to come home ... wow Jan 15 to 19

 A sunny day finally. Our house though facing north, views the sunshine down at the dock, we don't get any into our yard until the sun gets higher in the sky, probably March. :)This was the only strip of sunshine we saw in the yard. The dogs enjoyed being outside though. The little sun we see on the dock in the morning is all gone by 1:30 pm.

Our little Amelia got her feeding tube out yesterday and is feeding well. She may be able to finally come home tomorrow. Fingers Crossed.

Look at those chubby cheeks.

Amelia update: As of Saturday morning she has her discharge papers so Kristi and Jason will be taking her home to Nanaimo this afternoon. Yeah for them. We will give them tomorrow by themselves to settle in and then deliver their dogs back to them on Monday.

Received some pictures from Kat, Stella is now 8 months old and crawling.

I can feed myself! lol

Mad face. lol

Here is a video of her motoring along. Won't be long before she is walking.

Other than that, we drove into Duncan to get Ray's Christmas present that finally came. A Dewalt 13" planer. One happy guy. :)

He has been working on the finishing of the oven install in the motorhome that we did last year. The installers made quite a mess getting it into the cabinet so Ray was going to fix it for me. They just stuck in pieces of wood that did not match etc. 

Ray's trim work. It just needs a little stain added to the joints.

Much better. Used a couple of extra cabinet doors we had that came with the coach.

Now will I get a chance to use it with all this Covid? That is a very good question.

Here is a picture of Amelia ready to go home. So cute.

I'm ready ... get me outta here!

Sunday was a gorgeous day. Baby Amelia settled in at home. Good morning baby.

Happy momma to be home.

Now which bed should I sleep in?

Baby Nest?

The baby box?

Or my crib? She sure looks pretty tiny!

Ray and I took a run out to Youbou for a drive to look at some houses with artificial turf installed. We are considering doing this for our small back yard. With no sun on the lawn 5 months of the year and all of the dog traffic it looks terrible at this time of year. Ray spends hours every spring reseeding, fertilizing and liming with the help of our gardener to finally get it looking fairly good by August and then it just trashes again. This year with 3 dogs it is in particularly bad shape so we are looking at options. :)

While driving out there I noticed a small sign, Spring Beach Recreation Site so we decided to walk it on the way back home. A lovely walk through gorgeous second growth trees. The beach at present is under water with the lake level being pretty high.

There are huge second growth fir and cedar trees through the site.

Yes, the lake is a little high!

Old stumps from the first time this area was logged.

Different kind of "nurse tree". It's growing ferns. lol

Yup that's a big second growth fir tree! They do grow back!

Once back home we managed an hour or so in the sunshine sitting on the dock. Have to take advantage of the sun when it's out. :)

Monday the dogs went back to Kristi and Jason's. I'm sure Freya will sleep for a couple of days after all the activity here for the past 24 days. lol Sure hope the Covid restrictions ease soon so we can spend some significant time cuddling our newest granddaughter. Had a pretty "for us" sunset.

Tuesday, sunny but cold and windy. After morning chores we loaded up Freya and took a short road trip to Kissinger Lake to see what campsites we could possibly fit in with the motorhome. lol Jason is considering going there when it opens in April and we will go too so Ray, Jason and Kristi can go fishing, Amelia and I can hunker in the motorhome or in their trailer. A lovely little outing. The camp host has started cleaning up the sites from the downed trees from the winter storms and is burning branches, probably last weekend from the looks of it.

This would be our "preferred" spot as we would get some sun on our solar panels and on the water. It is a double site but would fit us and Jason and Kristi's trailer.

The other one would be the one on the far left at the back that gets some sun.

It has been really nice getting outside exploring again after all the rain we have had over the last few months. Certainly rejuvenates you.

Not much sleep happening at Kristi's, I hear. :) New babies, especially preemies are awake every three hours and they are not supposed to cry very much as it takes too much energy away from them gaining weight. So, Amelia is being held most of the time. Here is Jason before his haircut today and after. I teased him that Amelia would not recognize him so he took the second picture. lol

Three weeks of staying at someone else's house and back and forth to the hospital!

Take that Deb .... no problem. lol

We have had a somewhat busy 5 days.