Yes, the weather's still pretty lovely around here, with the sun still shining as the nearby mountains are dusted with snow. 

Check this out.  And be entertained.

Randomness...

Uncle and niece collaborate to set up a tent in our furniture-less living room for the ultimate indoor camping experience.  That's right.

Harold whips out the camera on the streets of Downtown Eastside Vancouver.

So what about that trip?

A little update for y'all, in case you are wondering why we appear to have lost our minds, having taken time to plan a gargantuan worldwide voyage and proceeded to spend four months in Mexico and fly to Canada, with no plane tickets purchased for the aforementioned odyssey as of yet. Huh?

It turns out that life, as it is wont to do, got a little complicated.  For a number of reasons which constitute a separate blog post (or ten...), settling in Canada has been priority one for a couple of years now. Fortunately, in August, Canada granted us permanent resident (citizenship comes in a few years) status earlier than expected, necessitating a trip to the Great North right away to get established in our new country. For those of you (like my husband and me) who never paid a great deal of attention to Canada, upon arrival we discovered we didn't really know how to go about living in this unique, large, sparsely-populated (yet we live in an urban center...) northern land.  We will proceed to learn about that, in addition to completing paperwork and tasks that will form the foundation for our lives in our new home.  Harold has begun work in the construction business in these parts, and I am exploring nursing, Canadian style :)  Then, in several months, we will begin our long-delayed honeymoon with a new home base to welcome us back at the end of our journey.  Sweet!

Ice sports are a way of life in Canada-what better time to hit the arena and perfect our skating skills (or rather, try not to fall all over the place)...?  Yay-we survived! Turns out our landlord already has a plan for his three-month-old son: get him in skates by age 2 1/2. He'll be fierce, no doubt.

I never shared our other vehicle with y'all: an adorable 2000 "bochito" (Bug).  Acquired in August 2012, it resides in Oaxaca City, helping with the family food business and hopefully hanging in there to transport us during our next visit...