Algonquin

For our annual canoe-camping trip this year, we decided to explore the Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park. This area is made up of several small lakes (with interesting names, my favourites being Opalescent and Ooze) and the Barron river, so we did some of our longest portages ever! Mom is very proud of herself for carrying the canoe on her head the whole time!
Here we are at our daily activities.
Our very own water-spirits

Going down the natural slide

Cliff-jumping

Portaging

And, of course, paddling!

Paddle the Don

A few weeks ago, Mom and I participated in a fund raising event called Paddle the Don. The Don River flows through Toronto, and the participants canoe 10.5 km through the city. There are a few things to look out for when you are urban canoeing:

1. Large blocks of concrete
2. Man-made waterfalls
3. Low bridges
4. Rusty metal crates
   

Luckily, we managed to avoid all these and made it to the finish without capsizing once, although with a few significant new dents in our canoe! Next year, we will talk Renée and Dad into coming!

Birthday

On April 9th, my birthday, I began the day by getting up at 5:30 am (on a weekend!) to drive to Waterloo for the provincial u-14 water-polo tournament. Unfortunately, there was not mutch birthday luck for me, and we finished in last place. Well, I think (hope) we are starting to play better as a team and I had enormous fun playing teams from all over Ontario!

When we got home at 10pm, I opened my presents and ate delicious chocolate cake!


The crazy fire-eater

Titan's Cup

Last weekend, the Golden Jets went to Ottawa for the Titan's Cup tournament. This tournament was open to girls and boys under 14 years old, so most of the girls couldn't come. We didn't do so bad, and we won 2 out out of 5 games. In the end, we ranked 6th of 8! Between games, we had snowball fights and went skating on the Rideau Canal. Mom, dad, Renée, Arthur (our goalie) and I skated 12 km in all and stopped for Beaver Tails halfway (yum!). We met up with other team membres Freddi, William, and Cameron and played tag on the ice. Poor Cam had lots of trouble staying on his feet, especially with Freddi and me «helping» him! All in all, lots of good times and I can't wait for our next tournament!



Me (left), Arthur (center), and William (right).

Christmas, before and after

We have been so very busy, what with skiing, snowshoeing, fort building, helicopter flying and all those things we do around Christmas, that I have not had time to write! Since une image vaut mille mots, as we say in french, here are some pictures.

Renee as we know her.

I did not push her!

Liliane asks "What do you mean, a box of Christmas dolls? What are Christmas dolls?"

Presents!


Helicopter


The fort, complete with entrance tunnel, escape slide, and snowball stock!

Tournament

Today was my team's first ever water-polo tournament. We lost rather horribly (2-11, 3-15, 3-8, 0-11), but I did learn some very valuable kicking, shoving, elbowing and bathing-suit yanking techniques. From left to right : Léa, Mia, Megan, Nicole, Freddi, Karolina and me. Here are some action pictures!
(I am numbers three and eight)








Sunk! I am the black blob under the water.

Water-Polo

We are now getting ready for our first big water-polo tournament, which means new t-shirts, insanely tight bathing suits that require two people to zip, and intense practice. Am working hard.

Here is the (awesome) Toronto Golden Jets apparel!

Bells on Bloor

This year was my first time participating in the annual Bells on Bloor parade. This is a sort of protest to put bike lanes on Bloor street. Everyone brings a bike and a bell and rides down the street. There was a HUGE amount of people, all chanting and screaming at the same time. Some even brought trumpets and gongs that they hooked to their bikes. Dad made a video by attaching his tripod to his bicycle (mom was sure he would knock over some poor pedestrian). I will post it if he finishes editing before next year. Meanwhile, here is a picture!

Skating

First, I must apologize for my long absence on the blog plan. I have been so wrapped up with other things, I just haven't found the time! Now, without further excuses, I will begin.

We are so lucky in Toronto, in terms of winter sports. Just recently, I have experienced two very different skating types. The first, on Grenadier pond in High Park, the second, in Nathan-Phillips square. On the pond, we did not have to move a skate to go south: the wind did all the work. We found ourselves pushed at great speeds, effortlessly. On the way back, different story! At the square, we went around in circles, under the lights of the city, the town hall towering above us, but whether out in the open, or in the middle of the city, skating is always enjoyable.

Vallée des fantômes

High in the Monts-Valin, there is a special place called La Vallée des fantômes or the Valley of the Ghosts. This snowshoeable trail is well known for it's incredible precipitations (up to six meters of snow!). When snow falls, the evergreen trees are so covered, they really look like ghosts. As for the others, their branches are delicately covered with crystals of ice, transforming them into «mummies». At last, after a climb up to an altitude of 980 m, we are faced with a 369 degree of the valleys around. No words can describe it well enough, so here are some pictures.

Unicycling

Lately, our babysitter Celeste has introduced us to the unicycle club. Me and Rennée are practicing very hard on borrowed unis, but dad, who seems to have some experience already, is planning to try Unicycle basketball soon. This is a sport that the club organizes at the end of every meeting and looks EXTREMELY difficult. I can ride half the gym without falling now, but it is a lot of work. I will post some pictures as soon as I figure out how to plug dad's camera in.

Francourse

Yesterday, the third graders and up from our school headed out to Brampton for the annual Francourse. This is a 5k race for kids from first grade to eigth, and this year, 1000 kids showed up. Unfortunately, it just so happens that on that particular day, it was over 30 degrees C and the whole cours was in a field, under the bioling sun. Still, I finished in 32 minutes and Renée in 30. The fastest runner was a third-grader from our school, ending in 17 minutes!
All our friends tiered, sunburnt but happy after the race.

Higher!

I got my pogo stick for Christmas. I have been practicing for around three weeks, interrupted only by eating, sleeping, and a case of appendicitis. The record for this house still stands at 143 jumps and 16 bruises (but I have a suspicion that the bruises might come from throwing myself onto our ice slide at school). Now I must be off to continue my training!