Ya I know we are slackers

But heck what can ya do eh ???

So here are some images to for your viewing pleasure

The lights are back here over town

A few shots from the walk Marcus and I had a while back

Snow!!!! not enough for the sled, but that wont be to long

Nic, Brit and I went for a walk up the river a few days ago. It was a great little hike

the colours are so vibrant

Hard to believe in a few short months this will be frozen solid

Well beaten path

Brittany standing in behind my pregnant wife with a rifle slung over her back... a true Northern Mom

Thats all for now

TTYL
M&N&?

Our baby!!

So instead of our usual "these are some beautiful pics of the scenery in Pang" this blog is devoted to "this is the scenery in Nicole's tummy" hahaha.

In the middle of August when the baby was about 12 1/2 weeks old I had an ultra sound in Ontario. Here are the pics of the baby then:

This next one makes our baby look like skeletor: LOL

And from the ultrasound I had two weeks ago when the baby was about 18 weeks in Iqaluit, Nunavut:

As far as I know that will be it for the inside view of baby until we get the true view in February. I am feeling much better and basically normal now (thank goodness). My tummy is getting increasingly bigger. Here is a pic taken of me about 2 weeks ago... it's bigger now...

Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Until next time.
ttyl
M&N

This year we were able to actually receive our sealift on time (actually a few days early)! As we are only here until Christmas we did not include as much as previous years but it sure was nice not having to unload it in a blizzard like last year!!

All the sealift crates sitting on the beach waiting to be forklifted up to everyone's homes:

Mike unloading the sealift crate with the help of Claus and our house guest Nikhel (sorry if that's spelt wrong):

Here are a few scenes from around town a few weeks ago:

The "Pang Pass" with just a slight bit of snow on top:

A batch of arctic cotton. This stuff can be found all over the land right now:

And a tuft of arctic grass:

Things are going well as we are settled back into the swing of things after a nice and relaxing summer. Had my ultrasound (as per the last post from Iqaluit). Everything went great and I am now almost half way through the pregnancy. Mike has been quite busy getting back into his parka making projects. He is definitely enjoying the new sewing machine we bought this summer.

We've enjoyed a beautiful and relaxing weekend as did the tourists that arrived on the cruise ship today.

Hope everyone enjoys their work week.

TTYL
M&N

Greetings from Iqaluit. That's right, you read correctly. I (Nicole) am writing this blog to you from the (Not so) grand capital city of Nunavut. I am here to commence my less then 24 hour whirlwind tour of this glorious place. If you're curious as to why I'm here it's because I'm doing my last routine ultrasound for my PREGNANCY That's right.. we're expecting our first child in February P.S. Thanks Uncle Dougie for your congrats, we receive the message via Uncle Ross
So my ultrasound is tomorrow morning and due to the fact that we don't have ultrasound equipment in Pang I had to fly out to Iqaluit for my appointment. Which in turn leaves Mike and Siku to enjoy the house to themselves as I write this blog from on of the main hotels here in Iqaluit.
So tomorrow the plan is to go to my appointment, pick up some fabric and hopefully get on the next plane out of here.

Aside from that, teaching is going amazingly well. It's like night and day the difference between downstairs and upstairs. Not that one is better then the other but it's just amazing what a flight of stairs can do in a school

Well I think that's it for now from Iqaluit. Wishing you all a great week ahead

ttyl
M&N

Some more of our summer...

I should mention that we still have some more to come until we get into our fourth year in Pangnirtung.

As you might have expected we once again were able to get out in the Kayaks that I made

Of course we made it to Long lake our annual canoe trip. This year we decided to go in and camp three lakes in, we ended up on Vixen Lake.

All loaded up and ready to go

Nic and I heading off fishing

Ian Came along with us again this year. Both Nic and Ian sat patiently for me to get the shot right.

Ian and I got out and did some exploring and came across a huge beaver pond... The beaver didn't seem to mind us there at all. In fact one came right over to us to look us over.

This other beaver did his tail slap for me.

We had some of the best weather... not to hot and not to much rain.

We were hours away from anyone on this small little lake, when suddenly a float plane flew in and docked at the next island away from us. The plane stayed only long enough to have a campfire dinner, and flew away. We all decided that next year we want to take a plane to the camp site to avoid the two long portages with gear.

As I already said there's more summer images to come..

TTYL
M&N

First installment of a few of my summer shots. Sadly as I write this I'm sick in bed so this post will be mostly visual, with very little writing on my part.
I'll start With the visit that Nic and I made to Lang Pioneer Village, in Peterbrough On. Whrn i showed some of the shots to a friend of ours he seemed very unimpressed...and then told us that the antiques i photographed are used still today at his house. I thought that was pretty funny, and told him next time We would save a few bucks and go to his house to see some history.
The old tractor

Random wagons and such.

More old stuff

The general store

Another wagon

A simple card game

And the old mill

It seemed everywhere we went this summer there were birds begging to be photographed...and as you might expect I obliged every one of them. these next bunch of shots are some of my favs

Theres a little taste for you all out there, when I start to feel better i will finish off our summer post with more pictures and stories. Also quite a bit has happened since we have arrived back in town so I wiull be sure to update you on that as well.

TTYL
M&N

Well back in the North are we.
We arrived 6 days ago and have been on our feet non stop for the entire time. I have found a spare minute to let all you readers out there know that we are back and the blog is still going to be used...as much as possible... to fill you in on our lives in the north. That being said this is all i will be putting up today, as you know we are crazy busy in the next few days i will put up a few shots from the summer, and of course from this our fourth year, 20km south of the arctic circle.

TTYL
M&N

Well...in the North We have learned that things don't always go as planned, and when this happens it's best just to go along with the flow.

To our great dismay the plane flew over pang and left us behind in the Fog. Luckily after many phone calls Nic and I were able to catch separate flights and both make it to Iqaluit. Sadly as i write this we had expected to be in a car heading home in Ontario, instead we are in a rather nice hotel room, and still unsure as to the flight plans for tomorrow. Not to worry though, we were picked up by friends here in Iqaluit and dropped off at our hotel. Not to mention while out for dinner we ran into some others. Also on the bright side all of our luggage is with us presently.
I think many people around the world are much worse off than us. So tomorrow Ontario bound are we...fingers crossed and all that stuff.

Now for a year in review... or at least some of our favorite shots and moments.

The colours of fall in the Arctic

This one is just one of my favs of the year

Need i say more?

This shot marks the first actual iceberg that I have ever seen.

When this ship came in Nic and I were both shocked to see a huge ship cutting the ice as it came through the Fjord, while the snowmobiles cruised along beside.

My Northern Wife...Crack shot don't you know

Nic actually winning the town Halloween dress up contest. Holy smokes that was neat.

Another great memory is more plural.
This year Nic and I became much more confident with the Ski-doo...we racked up tons of miles. From trips to the fishing lakes, cruising around town, and just exploring the Arctic landscape.

I fell in with a great bunch of guys and became quite the obsessive archer.

We also had a few visitors this year. One of my good friends from art school came up and spent a week or so and learned all things Northern. Here he displays some home made bannock while sporting a hand knit hat.

While traveling to the fishing lake one of the komatics hitches let go and got pretty wrecked. With a few handy guys and some random tools and supplies we managed to not only make it to the lake but back again.

Same fishing trip while Donald and me drilled holes for the anxious fishers

While out with Markus and Delia, we came across some Polar Bear Tracks.

We were also incredibly lucky to not only see and photograph ice bergs in the fall but also in the middle of winter.

Another one of our guests this year was Nics Mom. We both really enjoyed her visit, and were glad to show her why we love the North the way we do. Two moments stick out in my mind from her visit. One is a ride that i took her on, up to Markus' and my "cabin". We stood still, watched the clouds form amazing shapes and just enjoyed the silence while looking out over kilometers of tundra. The other moment that really sticks out, is the Nervous ride that we all had out to one of the icebergs. we crossed ice, a few small cracks, a big crack or two, and even did a few jumps. At the end of the journey Markus and I laid out some caribou rugs handed out some tea and looked at the biggest ice cube any of us had ever seen.

How bout when Nic came home and said " I got us a bear" ?

My first fish in Nunavut...three years of fishing!!!

Nicole after 3 years made it to the top of Mount Duval...even though i had to drive her with the snowmobile instead of hiking up.

Nic and I went out on a limb and bought our first new brand new vechile. As you can see she loves it so much it was hard to get her off of it...even to fish

I had an opportunity to play a few gigs with two visiting musicians in Pang to teach the kids to play. On this day we went to spring camp...removed the table and created a dance hall. We played for 2 or 3 hours straight, the dance floor was never empty.

After three years of looking a finally figured out where to go to find Arctic Hare.

On of the Last snowmobile rides of the year...Markus and I shared one great sunset.

Again another Sunset shared with Markus. This one....much less snow

This years solstice as like last year we spent with Donald and Meeka. The Sun didn't really co-operate but still a great night.

Thanks for all of you who still read our stories, even with our lack of posts and some times very boring Lives.

I'll leave you and the year with one last picture, and msg.

Yet again we have had a great year in the North and for all you out there that are curious....YES we are coming back for some more time in Pang.

We have found our time here in the North at times extremely difficult, whether it's waiting for parts to fix broken ski-doos, the distance away from southern family and friends, or being delayed because of the weather. While at the same time giving us some amazing stories and memories...Late night Tea sessions, quite hikes, and great friends, not forgetting the incredible landscape.

We love our time living near the Arctic Circle, but very much the same love spending time with our family and friends down south in the summer.

So to our friends in the North see you all in 2 months, and our family and friends down south. Hopefully we see you in the next day or so.

Our little Northern Family

TTYL
M&N

Typical. I sit down to type out the last post of the year and the internet here wont let me load the pictures. I guess that means I'll try again tomorrow. You remaining readers will have to wait a bit more for this years last post.

Sorry
TTYL
M&N

Just a few shots to tide you over. As some of you may know we have yet again finished another school year in the north. We will be doing our annual year in review as our last post of the year tomorrow, so check back in.

These few shots i was lucky enough to get a few days ago. hope you like them

TTYL
M&N