Life in the Canadian Prairies!

I have been experimenting with linking up to other people's blogs lately and I'm going to try another one. I just discovered Kelly's Korner last year and today she is doing a "Show Us Your Life" on your country. Since a lot of her readers are from the States I thought I would do a post on what life in Canada, specifically Edmonton, Alberta in the Canadian Prairies, is like. (By the way, I define "The Prairies" as the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.) Check out other awesome descriptions of life in Canada here (after I read this one I almost didn't do this post!) and here (we only have a few similarities in our life paths -- moving for husband's grad school, two year old child and a newborn, living in Edmonton, etc, etc!).

Anyways, I've lived in Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, British Columbia and now Alberta, so I feel like I've experienced a lot of different parts of Canada. I love the diversity of this country, from the prairie wheatfields...

(those of us from Saskatchewan are as loyal and
devoted to our Saskatchewan Roughriders (in the Canadian Football League)
as Kelly is to her Hogs!)

...to the Ontario lakes and Canadian Shield...

(Lake Superior, one of the five Great Lakes)

... to the mountains and oceans. Sadly, I have no pictures on my computer of any of our oceans :(

Our weather, especially in the Prairies, can be just as diverse. From REALLY cold (-27C (around -17F) with windchill when the bottom picture was taken in February 2011) and snowy...

... to really hot and warm (around +30C (86F) in these two pictures, taken July and September 2011).

We look forward to the first day of Spring...
...and we enjoy raking leaves in the fall.

We celebrate Canada Day on July 1...

... and we love our RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), represented here by a moose and a bear (which we run into from time to time in our wilds. Or if you're my mom, when you are out for your morning walk!).

And we love, love, love our one year maternity leaves so we can stay home with our babies.

If you come to Edmonton you can visit the West Edmonton Mall with it's indoor hockey rink, water park and amusement park. And of course, the shopping too!
According to Wikipedia, "West Ed" (as locals call it!) is the "largest in North America and the fifth largest in the world. Until 2004, it was the largest mall in the world." We have the space to build things BIG so we do! Many towns have their "BIG" item in Canada. Like The Egg in Vegreville, Alberta...
... and the nickel in Sudbury, Ontario...
...and the moose in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan...

One of the things I really like about Edmonton is that it is on the North Saskatchewan River and so we have bridges for both cars and pedestrians..

... and the River Valley Ravine to walk, run and bike in.

I hope that gives you a bit of a picture into life in Canada, and specifically The Prairies.