Welcome to Ontario!

Welcome, BlogTrotters to Ontario, Canada!

Ontario is Canada's second largest province covering more then one million square kilometres and is home to 250,000 lakes which make up around one-third of the world's fresh water.

This is Ontario's coat-of-arms. The green shield symbolizes the land with the three gold maple leaves. The banner symbolizes Ontario's ties with Britain, and the moose, deer, and bear represent the abundance of animal life in the province. The motto is translated to "Loyal She Began, Loyal She Remains."

Ontario is also home to both our national capital city, Ottawa, and Toronto - the fifth largest city in North America. We live about two hours north of Toronto, and four hours south of Ottawa.

In the warmer months, my family loves to spend our time in the water. This is my oldest daughter and my husband at the lake located five minutes from our house.

We introduced our youngest daughter to the water last summer by bringing her to the sprinklers in town. Next summer she will be big enough to go to the lake with us.

My family prefers to spend our time in the country. This is my mama's house, where I also happened to have my wedding last summer.

This is my daughter/flower girl in my mom's yard, still looking grumpy from crying her eyes out during the ceremony.

Something else I really love about Ontario is the obscene amount of hiking trails. Hiking is one of our favourite things - we love it so much we even made our wedding party go to get our wedding pictures done on our favourite trail 15 minutes from my moms house. And even then we weren't far from water. This picture was taken at the top of a waterfall - we are standing on a dry rock while the water flowed around us. Yes, my dress got wet. And it was SO worth it.

Ontario is home to the Muskoka region, where my husband grew up and his family still lives, and where we spend the majority of our free time. Muskoka is so cool, it even has it's own chair. This is my daughter standing on the biggest Muskoka chair in the world, located in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

As I went through my many photo albums searching for pictures to do this entry, I realized that I had no pictures of the Canadian winter. Like most Canadians, I actually hate winter and the snow with a passion. I hate not being able to get to places when I need to due to the weather, I hate having to clean a foot of snow off my car every morning, and I absolutely hate the feeling of wet cold pants. So, naturally, I don't very often take outside pictures in the winter. But, I figured the folks at BlogTrotters would want to see what our weather looks like at the moment, so yesterday I went to take some just for you.

This is a common sight along the roads in Muskoka. Many roads in this region are lined with the granite rocks - they are one of my favourite sights. In the winter, they look particularly nice blanketed in snow, and sometimes even with gigantic icicles hanging off them.

I love how our roads look in the winter when they are lined with snow-covered trees.

One of the things I hate about winter here are some roads that become inaccessible in the winter.

But one of the things I love is the wildlife.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to see sets of two deer, TWICE, for a total of four deer.

Ironically enough, although you see a deer crossing sign every couple clicks (km's) here, there were none in sight for when we actually spotted the deer. I guess deer don't read signs after all to know where they are supposed to cross. Silly deer.

I love Ontario, my home. We have so much to be proud of. Sir Fredrick Banting - who discovered insulin, was born in Alliston, Ontario. Heart valves were transplanted for the first time in Toronto in 1956, and the world's first successful double lung transplant also occurred in Toronto in 1986, which is a great thing considering my mother-in-law is currently waiting for one. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in Ontario - another great thing, because I would be lost without my phone. We also have incredible women in history, such as Laura Secord who made an amazing 18 hour walk in the Canadian winter to warn the British Forces of an impending attack during the war of 1812 - causing us to win that battle.

Again, I love my home so much. There's no place I'd rather be. Even when I have to clean a foot of snow off my car in the morning.

Thanks BlogTrotters for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your view of Ontario!

p.s. - no deer were harmed in the making of this blog