Since Cinderella and her Prince were in their wedding attire, we decided to throw them a
​proper wedding. Thankfully it wasn't raining outside yet, so we set up on the picnic table.
Teagans's doll was maid of honour, while Gus and Natalya's ponies were bridesmaids....

Cinderella and her Prince took their first dance....

While everyone watched...

"Wow, what a beautiful cake!"

The couple posed with their cake...

The Maid of Honour cut the cake...

But Gus didn't have any room for cake. He'd already eaten himself under the table...

"I'm stuffed, and can't eat another bite!"

It's handy having so many doll props, making it possible to quickly set up fun scenes with the girl's dolls and ponies. After processing the photos, I let each girl choose their favourites, and then I print them out so they can take them home and insert them into albums, and write stories about them.

The girls came again this morning. Rachel, who doesn't usually bring a doll along, brought her Cinderella and Prince dolls, as well as Gus the Mouse. I love her Gus!  Just had to take advantage and take some fun pictures with him.....

​He quickly found the cheese drawer in the fridge....  "Wow, lots' of cheese! I'm in Heaven!"

...and started stuffing himself......    "Ahhhh....I can't eat another bite!"

The Prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan are over 1,000 kms of, flat, and rolling farmland. The seemingly endless fields of grain have already been harvested, so only the vast fields of stubble are left in autumn. For variety, and to take a break, we stop in some of the towns to check out their grain elevators. Few of the old wooden structures are still left. Many of our favourites have been taken down in recent years. First stop is in Chaplin, Saskatchewan...

There's a cool breeze this morning....

Coco loves all the long trains, and as luck would have it, one passes by as we are there....

Next stop is Herbert, to check out their grain elevators. I caught the reflection in a pond on the north side of the tracks. Contrary to most people's image of the Prairies as being one endless flat, dry expanse, Saskatchewan is mostly gently rolling hills dotted with countless ponds and marshes.

Waiting for another train.....

As we approached Thunder Bay, the boys were excited to stop at the Terry Fox Memorial.....

The memorial, just east of Thunder Bay, commemorates the spot where Terry's cross-country Marathon of Hope ended. Terry Fox, who had already lost one leg to cancer, had started running across Canada in April 1980, to raise awareness and money for cancer research, but when his cancer returned in September 1980, he was forced to abandon his run, and died back home in BC several months later.

The memorial was originally just a statue on a pullout along the Trans Canada Highway overlooking Thunder Bay and Lake Superior, but they have since made a much larger park, on the other side of the highway, higher up the mountain, complete with a huge parking lot, manicured lawns and garden.

Next stop along the Trans-Canada through Northern Ontario, was the small town of White River, where we stopped to learn about the Canadian roots of Winnie the Pooh. In a roadside park they have erected a larger-than-life statue of Winnie the Pooh. Holly was eager to take a look....

"Wow! Winnie the Pooh is Canadian!", and Holly wanted her picture taken with his statue....

I think it's time to start at the beginning of our road trip and systematically work my way through it. It's getting too complicated trying to remember what photos I've shared, and which ones I haven't, so it's time to get organized.

The province of Ontario is HUGE - it takes 2 1/2 days to get across it to Manitoba - so we need to stop at various places, especially ones interesting to kids. After a day and a half of driving, everyone is more than ready for a break, so we always stop at High Falls and the Big Goose in Wawa, north of Superior. It was raining a bit at the Falls, so only Owen and Holly went out to look

I've started the first trip album in Favourite Photos 2015. You'll find everything that's posted here will be posted there as well, usually along with extra pictures. As I'm going to cover all the photo shoots in order, one spot at a time, it will take awhile to get through the whole thing, and I'll be interrupting for other more current photos and things.

For the past few days, I've been busy trying to tie up loose ends with all the photos taken before we left on our trip. I've been processing all the photos from the many photo shoots that weren't processed, and updating and creating new albums on the Favourite Photos 2015 page.

​The following albums have been completed....just click on the thumbnail to go to them

The following are all brand new albums. Just click on the thumbnails to go to them....
​

All these albums are also up on my 'Favourite Photos 2015' page.

So now I'm caught all up with the photos I took before our trip. Except for the costume photos for the Gallery 2015. Those are still on my 'To Do' list. I've been rather negligent in keeping those up-to-date this past year, so there are LOTS to catch up on. 

Soon I'd also like to create the albums for pictures of our recent trip, and start posting photos - both in the albums and here - in the order I took them, as we went across the country and back again. 

I had packed all kinds of props for our trip, trying to foresee what would work in the various places we'd be visiting. But with the weather being so bad, my group didn't have nearly the opportunities for hiking, or picnicking. No one went on any bike rides, and they weren't able to watch the fishing boats come in on Vancouver island. They weren't able to hike to the amazing Cavell Glacial Lake because an avalanche of rock and ice in August wiped out the trail to it.

​But one prop that got a lot of use was my brand new picnic table. Jan made it the weekend before we left. I figured every park and campground has picnic tables, so it could be used anywhere...

The picnic table proved extremely useful. At Bow Lake the kids started to lay out a picnic,
​but it was too windy, and then it started to snow, so they ended up back in the RV....

It made a great seat at the Prince of Wales Hotel, to sit and enjoy the mountain scenery....

...and for a quick lunch at the Vermillion Lakes in Banff....

And of course, no campsite would be complete without a picnic table....

I need to apologize for how these Blog posts are appearing in bits and pieces - if you come here and a post seems incomplete it's because it probably is, and I'm in the middle of trying to get the whole thing posted. When I was away, Weebly made some major changes, and as usual all their 'improvements' only make it more complicated and difficult to post stuff. The elements I need to drag into place constantly refuse to go where I want them, then get stuck, and I lose access to all the Element Options, so I have no choice but to "Publish" my incomplete post, then try to "Update" the rest in afterwards - sometimes in several stages.  So if you come here and the Blog post is different, or longer, with more pictures than it had last time you came, that's why. Posting has become a long complicated process, but it does eventually get done. So, please bear with me.

I'm having the same issues with creating new album pages, so they go a lot slower as well. I'm trying to catch up with incomplete albums with pictures from before our trip. Yesterday I completed the two newest birthday albums - the Manuna Mice, and Bonnie's Birthdays. I still have to tackle the Lily album, and the one for Elin's birthday. Then there's all the Fantasy costume pages. Lots of work to do.

Today is Bonnie's birthday! She's turning five, just like she will every year.

Back in February, Lisa made a special dress just for Bonnie,
​in addition to making her own birthday dress....

Bonnie was looking forward to wearing it on her own Birthday.

Lisa decided, that with such an elegant dress, Bonnie needed an equally elegant cake

Time to light the candle.....

Happy Birthday Bonnie!

Bonnie with all her friends....

Some of the most spectacular scenery of our entire trip, was on the last three days as we headed home through Northern Ontario. There had been almost no colour change when we passed through several weeks earlier, and it was wonderful luck that autumn was very late this year. So many of the forests along the 2,000 kilometres we drove in Ontario, were in peak colour. We stopped in several places along the way to take photos. Like here, north of Lake Superior....

...and near Wawa....

Wild blueberry bushes turn bright red in autumn, and are the perfect scale for my dolls.....

The maple trees were especially magnificent....mostly in yellows and orange...

I love how the white bark of the birch trees stand out against the coloured foliage.

Colours were especially nice just north of Sault Ste Marie...