WOW, this has been quite the week. I’ve met some incredible bloggers through the Ultimate Blog Party and tweeps along the way! My hubby is happy this day has come… I might have overdid it just a bit…. I’m already planning for next years! Thanks to 5 Minutes for Mom and Happy Panda Baby for all that you did!

I will be pulling the winner of the $150 Canadian Tire gift card tonight (April 17) and announcing the winner on Monday (April 19), I need a day off!

So to celebrate the last few hours… I’ve decided to double your entries!!

To get 2 entries for the price of 1… all you need to do is… DIGG, Stumble, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook… basically share my sponsors site, Canadian Tire Travel Insurance then go onto my original party post where the giveaway is listed and leave 2 comments for each time you share it. First leave me comment telling me what you did and leave the link, for the 2nd comment just say this is my bonus entry for ________ (doing what you did). *1 Tweet Max*

How does that sound?!

We might as well go out with a BANG!!

Here are the links you’ll need again:

Canadian Tire Travel Insurance – http://www.travel-insurance-worldwide.ca/

My Party Post – http://canada-travel-worldwide.com/2010/04/ultimate-blog-party-2010/

This contest is open to Canadian residents only. All entries will be verified. The winner will be contacted and will have 48 hrs to respond before another entry will be drawn. Random.org will decide the winner.

Natural Beauty

My hubby took this last summer –

he took a group of teenages camping in Temagami for a week.

Did you want to participate in Wordless Wednesday?

Click the link and add your blog to their Mr Linky.

I have been preparing for the Ultimate Blog Party for a couple of weeks now. Today alone I’ve been huddled over my laptop making sure my posts are all ready to go. This is very exciting for me on a few points. I’m participating through two blogs this year. My own personal family blog has been going since January 2006 and this blog… which I’ve dedicated to all things related to travel… I only started last summer. So it’s still a baby.

me with 2 angels

The blog has been many years – if not a decade in the making. After coming home from backpacking through Europe with my husband and nearly newborn almost 11 years ago. A friend of mine had a travel blog in which she was documenting all her travels. She is an artist and moved over to Spain and a few other areas. I wish she still had that blog, it was so wonderful to live vicariously through her… anyway, my point was… She encouraged me way back then to write about my journeys on the road. Traveling is great – traveling with kids is a whole other adventure! So Sara… this blog was dedicated to you.

Jumping for Joy

We pretty much take our kids with us where ever we go. We’ve flown with them dozens of times, usually always back to British Columbia, where I was born and raised. We’ve also sent 2 of our kids, the oldest mind you, on their own flights … all by themselves to visit my family in BC. My parents love to travel as well and have taken half my kids to Disneyland, the other two have to wait a little bit longer. They’ve had quite the life so far and they’re only 11, 9, 7 and 4!

It’s not just to exotic places like Vancouver do we travel as a family. We’ve taken many road trips through the United States. We’ve even driven across the country in an RV. That was the trip I probably turned grey afterwards… 4 small children, my hubby, me and my father-in-law… all inside a 24′ motor-home for over 2 weeks. Did I mention the youngest was 5 weeks old at the time?!

Ah… sweet memories! That’s what I’ll be sharing on this blog. I hope you stick around – take a look through my past journeys and come back again real soon!

If that doesn’t entice you… MAYBE THIS WILL!!

I am giving away a couple of prizes on my family blog, over on 5 Minutes for Mom prize page and on here! I’m in the giving mood!!

How would you like a chance to WIN……

A $150 Canadian Tire Gift Card

*Sponsored by the lovely folks at Canadian Tire Travel Insurance, where they have several insurance companies compete for your travel insurance, and when they compete, you win! Contact Canadian Tire Travel Insurance for a free quote today! This prize is available to those living in Canada only.

There are 2 very simple ways to enter:

1. Become a fan of Canada Travels on Facebook
1. Become a fan of Shasher’s Life on Facebook

AND / OR

2. Follow on me at Canada Travels on Twitter
2. Follow me at Shasher’s Life on Twitter

*If you do both please leave 4 separate comments so you can have 4 entries!*

For additional entries you can do ANY or ALL of the following – but be sure to LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each thing that you do – each time you do it!:

* Follow this blog on Networked Blogs.
* Follow Shasher’s Life blog on Networked Blogs.
* Add my travel blog button to your site or add me to your blogroll and leave me a link.
* Follow me on Twitter and tweet this giveaway (as many times as you like – leave a comment on this post for each time you do!) Use @thiscdntravels in your tweet if you would like me to retweet for you.
* Share this giveaway on your blog, Facebook or another social networking site of your choosing
* Share each of the fan pages with your friends! Just tell us which pages you shared and how many people you shared it with.
* Subscribe via Email (on my right sidebar).
* Stumble, digg, tag, bookmark, vote up, thumbs up, favourite, or anything else you can think to do for this prize’s sponsor, Canadian Tire Travel Insurance or this giveaway on this site (as many as you like, just come back to tell me what you’ve done).

This giveaway is open to readers in Canada ONLY. I will choose a winner on April 17, 2010. Don’t forget to leave a link to YOUR party post in your comment (if you are participating) and A WAY FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU in case you win!

*Winner will be chosen with random.org and notified by email. Winner will have 48 hours to reply to my email or I will have to choose a new winner.

*BTW, my boss is giving away an iPad to a Facebook fan! How cool is that?!! Become a fan today for a chance to win!! You can follow White Cloud Marketing on Twitter too.

* Domino’s Canada is giving away Free Coke, a 40″ Samsung LCD TV & a PS3! You simply need to click the link to  fill out their online form! You can enter and share on Twitter too! *Canada only*

* Voice on the Go is giving away free long-distance for a month to everyone who fills out their form. They’re welcoming #UBP10 participants with a grand prize of free long-distance for a year! Follow them on Twitter or Facebook. *Open to Canada and the US*

* Select Taste, a corporate food catering company in the Greater Toronto Area, is offering a 25% discount and you could win a corporate lunch at your office for 10! Follow them on Facebook. *Open to Mississauga, Etobicoke, Oakville and Burlington, Ontario ONLY*

* Cottages of Paradise Point, a vacation rental in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, is giving away an iPAD to one of their Facebook fans, join their fan page to win!! The draw will take place on June 30th. *This is open to the US and Canada*

——————————————————————————————————-

*This giveaway is now closed.  A winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on Monday. Thank you to all who entered. It was extremely overwhelming to my inbox!! For my very first giveaway… not bad EH?!**

I am participating on my family blog in the Ultimate Blog Party that 5 Minutes for Mom is putting on April 9-16 and so I thought I should do the same thing here. A friend of mine works for Canadian Tire Travel Insurance and he heard about my participation in the blog party.  So the other day, he asked those in charge… if they’d sponsor a giveaway prize!!! So what a better place to give it away than on my travel blog, right?!! Makes sense eh?!

Yeah!! During the UBP week, you could enter to win something from Canadian Tire Travel Insurance! We’re working on the final details right now. **UPDATE** he managed to get me a $150 Canadian Tire gift card to giveaway!!!!!** I can’t wait to start the blog party, it’s going to consume a lot of me for the week!!!

I’m sooooo excited!!

If you want to participate on your own blog, there’s still time to do it and click to 5 Minutes for Mom’s instructions page on what details you should know!

In June of 2007, I surprised my baby sister in BC by flying out for her birthday, she was turning 33. I took my baby with me, Jake was almost 2 at that time… meaning he was free. Oh how I long for the return of cheap travel! Now I have to pay for 6 full airfares and flying within Canada is not cheap!! Rabbit-trail…. Anyway, it was hard keeping the secret from her but I managed to do it.  This is a review from that trip home.

After a wonderful 5 hour – across 5,000 klm – flight from Ontario to BC, my mom picked us (Jake and myself) up from the Vancouver airport and off to their place we went. To all my friends and family from there… sorry I couldn’t see you — we were only there for about an hour before we packed my stuff into my parents RV and we were off.

Jake was a good traveler – the second helping of Gravol kicked in nicely. Now don’t sit there and think, “What a terrible mum – she drugs her kids!” Yes, yes I do! I’ve flown with kids for over 11 years – at least 1 or 2 times a year… and most of the times, I’ve flown with them as the only adult! I’ve learned a few good (doctor approved) tricks over the years. If you’re interested – I’ll share them with you another time.

Back to my travel log.

We drove for 3 hours that night before I made my Dad stop and sleep for the night, it was just after midnight!  I was worried about him falling asleep at the wheel and as much as I was keeping him awake – I couldn’t keep myself awake (remember it’s a 3 hour time difference for me, midnight in BC is 3am for me back home). We slept – wedged between two giant semi trucks – at the side of the road in Clinton. It seemed like moments after I closed my eyes my Dad was at the wheel again. I stared hard at the clock trying to focus… it was 5:40am. I crawled into bed with my mom at the back of the RV at 5:45am but couldn’t get back to sleep.

It was a slow go all day long. We were carrying a heavy load behind the camper, my sister’s new-to-her 1967 Chevelle on an already 2,000 lb you-haul-it trailer. The RV didn’t want to move very fast. Downhill we were going 45 miles / hour! Up hill… if we rocked back and forth (just kidding) we could make it to the top doing around 30 and that’s no joke! Something that should have taken us 8 hours

in a regular car or 9 or 10 hours in an RV with no heavy load… took us 15 hours in total – discount an hour or so for dropping the tailer off and grabbing lunch in Quesnel. We pulled into Prince George just before dinner time yesterday.

La didn’t know we were coming. I only told her hubby a couple of weeks before. I wanted it to be a true surprise. My Mom drove Lise’s new car into her driveway and Dad drove the RV right behind. He started honking the horn to get the family outside. Mom got out of the car and Lise ran up to her crying. I stayed hidden in the back of the motor home. I couldn’t wait any longer – I gingerly walked around to the front of the vehicle and said nonchalantly, “Hi!”

It took her a minute to comprehend what was going on. She screamed and cried even harder and screamed some more. She grabbed me and held on tight, I thought she was going to faint at one point, she didn’t want to let go. Her hubby was just smiling along… she was surprised! My dad tried to get pictures of her face but I don’t think the angle was right, I should have picked up a video camera. It was priceless!

Her hubby had the BBQ ready to go and so we had a wonderful steak dinner with all the trimmings just as if we were eating at The Keg. It was a great first night of my time with my sister in the “Prince” as locals call it – a place where the national bird is the Mosquito!!! I should have brought my bug suit!!

This has to be the most memorable trip home, surprising my sister like that was priceless! You have to understand what she was going through at that time in her life. They had recently moved to the north, leaving both of their families behind and her husband had been diagnosed with CIDP – it was a hard winter for them. She needed her big sister and I needed her. It’s a battle they haven’t won yet but I continue to pray and support them as much as I can living over 5,000 klm away.

I have a photo album on Facebook if you want to check it out.

Have you ever been to Canada during the winter?

Whenever we travel abroad and tell people that we’re from Canada, they always ask us, “How cold does it get?”. That’s what most people equate with Canada… COLD!  Over the years I’ve had to defend my beautiful country more than a few times against the stereotypes like; we must live in igloos, ride on dog sleds and it’s always snowing!

Canada is not like that all year round but we do get our fair share of cold during the winter depending where in the country you live. Canada Eh, it’s a large place!

Well… we just so happen to live in a snow belt in Ontario so we tend to get a whack of snow during the winter months and even into the spring for that matter!! It has snowed on Father’s Day not so many years ago. So my hubby bought his very first snowblower this month, I’ll post a few winter shots for you to get the reason why he’s so excited.

Last year it was impossible to find a snow blower at a store anywhere after the first snow fall, we had mountains of snow and massive drifts at the end of our driveway that were higher than our mini-van.  We lost our eldest son a few times as he tried to shovel out the driveway.  So this year my husband wasn’t about to get caught having to push that heavy white stuff around again.

After 13 years of marriage and of shoveling thousands of pounds of snow around – I think he deserves it. No… I know he does!  Happy snowblowing hunny!