Our Adventures

You can tell it's been busy around here when I haven't updated my blog in over two months. Sorry for you dedicated readers out there, if you're still there. Now, you ask, what have we been so busy with, well that's hard to answer. I know we have been busy but it's hard to say with what, I guess just with day to day life mostly. We did have a few fun events these past couple months though.

The weekend after Thanksgiving Chris' parents came out so we could go down to Seattle for the Patriots game. It was a really fun game to watch (from our nose bleed seats) but the Patriots ended up losing in the end. Chris and his dad didn't cry too much because it was a fun experience just to be there. We also spent a day shopping before that at the outlets of course.

On the 31st of October it would have been my dad's 80th birthday. I had been thinking of it for quite a while and decided to get a tattoo for my dad on that day. I pieced together old signatures from random papers that my mom and I still had and got his signature put along the side of my foot. The tattoo artist was very impressed with my tolerance for pain because she said it is one of the most painful spots to get a tattoo. I'm really glad I did this, it's a piece of him with me forever.

At the beginning of November I had a hysteroscopy which is a test where they put a scope with a camera into my uterus. They also took a biopsy just to make sure everything is healthy. As far as I know everything was normal in there. That was the last test before we move onto our next step which we think will be in-vitro fertilization. At first we had considered adoption but after thinking about it more, we really want to have a child of our own, the wait probably won't be as long as adoption and in the end the cost will be the same or less. So right now we are in the process of waiting to hear back from the clinic that gives us an orientation on the process and hopefully in the new year we can get started and hopefully be pregnant soon! One day I'll write a post about our process with this whole topic but that's for another day.

On the long weekend in November we had family come again, Chris' parents and Ryan and Randi. Chris' cousin Megan had her wedding out here so we were able to see lots of family that weekend. Our house became a stopping point for people which was great because we were able to see everybody. We  had a big cousin party watching the Rider game, enjoyed the nice weather with walks by the river and got to spend a day with Andrew, Janette and Maia (who we met for the first time that weekend). It was busy and it went fast but it was a great weekend.

Chris once again did Movember and I had to suffer through him having a moustache all November so I'm glad it's December now. The Christmas decorations are up, cookies are baked and we are ready for a break! I spent a day making 4 different types of soup to freeze for meals over the winter. It took a while but now my freezer is stocked with delicious soups. Chris has started coaching basketball again and they've had a few games. He's already seen them improve and sees a lot of potential in them. Outdoor Ed for Chris is going good. They had a two night overnighter a few weeks ago and got to experience a semi-winter camping experience. I've been non-stop teaching at various schools. I had an interview for a library position until Christmas but didn't end up getting it because of a few key words I didn't say in my interview. That was quite disappointing but since I'm so busy working it doesn't really matter. I just hope to get a small contract soon so I can start moving up the ladder a bit. This year we're hosting Chris' staff Christmas party, should be a late night with a lot of people in my house so we'll see how that goes. We're looking forward to getting out to Herbert for a week to see everybody at Christmas and to also have that week after before school starts to relax and hopefully hit the slopes too.

The last couple months

It's officially the first full week of school and things are starting to get into a routine. I've worked one day so far and have another afternoon today. Chris has been busy, busy, busy with school and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. The last couple weekends we've been able to take a break though and enjoy the beautiful weather we're still having be hiking up some mountains. A few weekends ago we hiked up Elk with Ryan, Cheryl and Rayna. It was a good hike but very cold and windy at the top. While we were at the top the boys collected some delicious huckleberries which we had with ice cream the next day. When we got back to Chilliwack we enjoyed our first meal at the Wild Cat Grill food truck, a great place to eat!

This past weekend we headed to the Coquihalla area and hiked up Needle Peak. It was quite a push to get up the first part but then we were hiking along a ridge and got to do some fun scrambling over rocks to get to the peak. This was one of the best views I've see from a peak before. There were mountains surrounding us in every direction and it was a perfect temperature to sit on the peak and just take it all in. Definitely worth the effort to get to the top and one we will do again sometime.

Hikes
As many of you know Chris has started up the outdoor program at his school with another teacher. He is really excited about this program and they were interviewed before the school year about it. If you didn't get a chance to read it here's a link to the article. It's going to be a busy year getting everything figured out with the program as far as planning and costs and how to teach while outside but it seems like they have a good idea of what they want to do and it'll be a great thing for the kids that are in it.
Outdoor Ed

Two weeks left of summer and then back to the daily grind. We've definitely had our fill of good times this summer so I'm okay with getting back into a routine. Right now Chris is doing a 20 hour wilderness first aid course so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on our latest summer adventures. About a week and a half ago we headed out to Chilliwack Lake, got a prime camping spot and set up our stuff, then went out on the lake for a canoe ride. We canoed almost to the end of the lake, found a good little beach for lunch and enjoyed the fabulous views. We tried to let Molly swim to shore when we got close to the beach but she just wanted to get back on the canoe and almost got run over by the boat, she eventually figured out that it was safer to just keep swimming straight. Not sure if she realizes yet that her lifejacket will help her float. Chris also went for a dip but not for long because it is one cold lake. We paddled back and went to our site and had a nap before Ryan, Cheryl and Rayna came to join us for the night. We enjoyed a hot dog and corn on the cob supper and roasted marshmellows with chocolate over the fire. This was Rayna's first camping experience and other than waking up because she was cold she did really good, now we know we can go camping with them more!

Last weekend we drove into Vancouver to see the Riders get whooped by the Lions. It was cool to see the new stadium and we did enjoy some delicious pizza after the game but the loss and seeing that our car wasn't where we had left it, made the trip a little less worth it. We parked in a spot that is free on the weekends and evenings but we supposedly parked too close to the curve in a road (even though there wasn't a sign saying not to park up to that point) so our car got towed and ticketed. An extra $150 later, I'd say I don't need to go into Vancouver for another game anytime soon.


More Summer Fun
This last week we did our first bigger canoeing trip out in Manning Park on the Lightning Lakes Chain. Although it's possible to canoe these lakes they aren't necessarily made for portaging but we had read some reviews on people who had done it and thought it would be worth a try. Our trip took about 4 hours one way, with three lakes and two portages, one about 600 m and the other 1.5 km. Chris carried the canoe using the yoke and I carried as much bags and paddles and dog as I could. It was quite a bit of a work and portaging to the 3rd lake probably wasn't worth it since that was the longer portage and the lake only took us 10 minutes to paddle across. We tied up our canoe in the last lake and hiked to our wilderness site and set up in a nice little spot by the creek. We were enjoying the peacefulness of the site thinking we had the place to ourselves when a group of 10 people with their kids showed up at around 7:30. It wasn't too bad except for some little girls that kept wandering over to our site to see Molly while their parents set up and made supper. We did end up enjoying our fire once the families were eating and then I snuggled up in my sleeping bag for night with Molly curled up in the foot of my bag. Our trek back in the morning seemed a little shorter than getting there because we had figured out our system by then. Our canoe is more broken in now, with a few more scratches than it had before but I think we'll be ready to do a bigger canoeing trip next year that has more canoeing and less portaging. We will definitely come back to Lightning Lake and just paddle around the lake though.

It's good to know that with all we've done this summer, there is still three weeks left to go. The week between our road trip and leaving for Herbert we had a our year end two pitch softball tournament. When our team leader first entered our team into the league, he put us in the D division, our name was the "good tryers" and he didn't expect us to be too good. But we did really good for our season, only losing around 5 games out of 30 and by the time our year end tournament came they had put us with the A division teams. We had a lot of fun over the weekend, playing some really close games, only losing one in the round robin. We ended up coming in 2nd place for the whole tournament so we were pretty proud of how we played. It was a lot of fun to play on this team, even though the rules are a little different than baseball, we enjoyed getting out during the week and playing ball. We also had a going away/birthday party at Denis and Andrea's one night. It was great to have everybody together, we enjoyed a good meal together and a perfect night to sit around the fire.


Fun with Friends
We left for Herbert on July 24th and drove straight through with no major problems or traffic. The first couple days at the farm were just with Chris' parents so we had a good time relaxing, going for walks/runs, babysitting Cole together one evening and Chris and his dad helped clean up a neighbours yard that a tornado had hit just before we drove out. That Saturday we all headed to the Rider game in Regina. It was looking like it was going to be cold and rainy but it ended up being just the opposite, blazing hot with not a cloud in the sky. We eventually got shade in our section and then it was a perfect temperature to watch the game. The game was good until the very end when the Riders blew it but it was fun to be back in Mosaic Stadium for a game. On Sunday, Ryan, Randi and us went down to the lake to her parents trailer and spent the day on the lake enjoying the sunshine. A group of people including Randi swam across the lake in water that was not too smooth. I decided to jump in at about a half a mile left and swam with Randi for the rest of the way. The boys also decided to motivate Randi in the middle of the lake by jumping off and swimming with her but they didn't last too long. We also went out tubing and flew our kite, ate some delicious ribs and just lounged around in the shade at their site.

On Sunday we had a quick visit with the grandparents and then we drove out to Elkwater Lake on the Alberta side of Cypress Hills Provincial Park. We spent three nights there with everyone and had a lot of fun. Most of our days were spent down at the beach suntanning, swimming, playing catch, eating ice cream and building sandcastles for Cole to destroy. We each prepared a supper or a brunch and ate some really good meals. At night we huddled around on one of the cabin decks for a fire. We played tennis in the evenings with Ryan and Randi and now I want to play it all the time. Everyone had their chance to go for a stroll with Cole as he was always on the move, always wanting to go somewhere and pointing to let you know. It was a great litte getaway with everyone and we hope to do it next summer.

The rest of the time at the farm the boys helped get stuff ready for Harvest, I came along in the grain truck to haul wheat but most the time I spent reading my book or watching some of the Olympics. Friday night we hung out at Chris' other grandparents with them and some of the cousins/aunt/uncle. Then the big Herbert 100th celebration weekend began. Saturday we went out to watch the parade. There was definitely more in the parade this time then I've seen before, I'd have to say the fire department one was my favorite. After that we walked around, got some pulled pork for lunch and then rollkuchen for dessert (which I'm making my own of today because I like fresh stuff best). We spent a little time at the park trying to find people Chris knew and then we went to the Rodeo. I remember going to the rodeo years ago but this one was more fun to watch for some reason. After the rodeo all the cousins headed out to Al and Val's farm. We went to get Molly and after getting attacked by one of their dogs, she had fun running around for hours with their other dog. The boys played some football in the yard after supper while the girls watched in amazement, yeah right. We ended off the night with a rousing game of catch phrase which we of course let the boys win or we wouldn't hear the end of it. Sunday we relaxed at the farm and then went to the lake for a bit. In the evening we went to see some of the Falk side family and enjoyed some pizza together and a good chat on the deck in the evening. At 10pm we all walked to the Herbert School and set up our chairs to watch the fireworks. They were literally shot off only 50 meters away from us so it was pretty amazing to be so close, you could feel the pounding in your chest when a big one went off. I was quite impressed, probably some of the best we've ever seen. Monday the boys went golfing in the morning and Chris helped his dad for a bit on the farm. That evening everyone came over for a weiner roast and we took a few family pictures. Ryan and Randi left that evening and we left the next morning, driving straight through again. It was a great trip filled with lots of fun times and now we look forward to Christmas, just booked our flights yesterday!


Herbert Summer
Since we've been back we've kept it pretty low key. Watched Olympics, played tennis, did yard work, Chris has started planning for his outdoor ed program, did lots of laundry and enjoyed this hot weather we still have. A few days ago we helped pack up Denis and Andrea's house as they made the trek to Canmore. With a 26 foot truck it was a just enough to fit all their stuff. It was kind of surreal, it doesn't feel like they are actually gone now but we hope to see them again soon whether when they visit or when we visit them. Now with three weeks left it's crunch time for  Chris to get ideas and things organized for the next school year so we won't be doing as many fun things. We do plan on taking our canoe out a few times though and going on a few hikes. In the mean time I'm going to try and soak up as much sun as I can because before I know it summer will be over.

From July 1-15 we took a road trip down the coast through Oregon and California and then back up through Arizona and Nevada. It was a great trip, filled with lots of memories and we saw a ton of amazing things. Get ready for a long post, this is more so for me to remember what we did when I look back at this years later.

July 1-3: Oregon Coast
Our first stop on the trip was a place we like to go in Oregon and have been many times, Cape Lookout State Park. The campground is right beside a beach and has lots of places nearby to explore. Once we got camp set up we took a stroll down the beach and enjoyed our first campfire. The next day Chris decided to run the length of the beach only to find out that it was 18km round trip. Let's just say he was pretty hungry by the time he got back for breakfast. Then we headed out to the little town and beach of Oceanside. There's a cool tunnel in the rock there that takes you to a smaller more private beach so we headed over there and read our books for a few hours enjoying the sun and breeze by the the ocean. That night was probably our worst night of being in the tent. It rained a lot more than we expected and we just happened to put our tent in a spot where the puddles liked to form. Our stuff got quite wet but it dried out fast for our next stop in the Redwoods.

July 3-5: Redwoods
Our campsite at the Redwoods was probably my favorite. There were so many cool little sites, some like ours that you had to go up a few steps to get to and then it felt like you had the place to yourself. We spent our first night strolling the campground and having snacks by the fire. Our full day at the Redwoods was one of my favorites of the trip. We started out by driving to Jedediah State Park where we drove down a narrow dirt road amongst the massive Redwoods and then did a little walking loop to see some big trees. Then we headed back up the road a bit and did about a 3 hour hike into the Redwoods where we ended up at the Boy Scout tree which is a huge double Redwood tree that was amazing to see. Once we got back from our hike we went back to our site for a bit and had supper. Then we headed down to Enderts Beach, where we had to climb through a hole in a sea rock to get to some cool tide pools that were full of things like starfish, mussels and sea anemone. The beach was basically all ours, I could've spent all day there. Once the sun started setting though we headed back up and went to the more accessible part of the beach to watch the 4th of July fireworks across the bay at Crescent City. It was quite cold sitting on the beach with the wind blowing but just when we were thinking there weren't going to be any fireworks, the show began. The next morning as we made our way down the coast we were sure to stop at one of the drive through trees and pay our $6 just to say that we have drove through a tree.

July 5-7: San Francisco
Our first night in the bay area was not in the city. We camped in probably one of the most original places ever. First I had to remember the combination to a lock to the gate that led us down a very narrow road right on the cliffside to a parking lot on a bluff jutting out into the ocean. Then we used the provided wheelbarrows to haul our stuff to our site on the bluff where it was wide open and the ocean was all around (good thing it didn't rain). We ate our cold left overs because it was so windy we couldn't get our stove to stay on and a fire was out of the question. After me laying on the tent so it wouldn't blow away while Chris set it up we headed back up the narrow steep road to Stinson beach which was a town we could see from our site. We walked the beach a bit but it was very cold in the wind so we decided to pack it in early and get into our tent where it was warm. The next day we drove to a spot that was supposed to be a great lookout of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. Unfortunately the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything. We waited an hour to see if it would clear but it didn't so we drove down towards the city and by that time you could see most of the bridge as you got closer to it. We took a few pictures at a lookout and then made the trip across the bridge and parked so we could walk on the bridge for a bit. The wind was pretty cold but it was worth walking on the bridge and the fog even started clearing by the time we left. We made our way into the city and tried our hand at driving down the "crookedest" street before finding a decent place to park. The rest of the day we spent strolling along the Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. We had our first try at eating In N Out and bought a kite at a very cool kite store. We were planning on riding a street car but the lines were so long that we just took a picture of one that was sitting on the road. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of San Francisco, it's definitely a city I would go to again. Of course before we headed to our hotel we had to check out the baseball park where they hit home runs in the bay behind the park.

July 7-10: Anaheim
The weather up until this point had been nice enough but not hot so we were ready for some nice hot weather by the time we got to Anaheim. We were not disappointed. Our first night in Anaheim we went to the Angels game with Kevin and Alysha and her family. It was a beautiful night for a game and we had tickets that let you eat endless amounts of hotdogs, pop, nachos, ice cream, peanuts and popcorn. The game wasn't too exciting but it was fun to be there. Our next day we were up in time to get to Disneyland when it opened. It felt like we had the park to ourselves as we went from ride to ride with very little line ups. The last time I was there they were just building Indiana Jones and didn't have such things as Fast Passes so this experience was much different, not having to wait in line for hours to get on the ride you wanted. We went hard in the morning going on all the rides that might get busier later in the day and then we headed back to the hotel for a nap and a little dip in the pool. We came back in the evening for more riding and watching the fireworks at night. I'd have to say my favorites were still the same as always, Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. Although I really used to like the Haunted House when I was really little, not quite as good this time around. The next day we did the same routine except this time we went to California Adventure. Chris and I liked this park the best. There was not as many little kiddy parts and the Disney part of it was pretty cool like Bugs Life and Cars. It was a little busier this day but we still got in a good amount of rides in the morning before heading back for our afternoon break. My favorite was the big roller coaster California Screamin' and the rafting one, Grizzly Mountain. One ride that was not my favorite was the Tower of Terror where you go up like 20 floors and then just drop and go up and drop again without knowing when or how far you're going to drop. I only went on that one once but I had a good time with Cole in Bug's Life while the others went on it again in the evening. We also watched the World of Color show that evening which was quite impressive to see. It's a whole bunch of fountains that they project cartoons onto and it was pretty cool to watch. This part of the trip was great seeing Kevin, Alysha and Cole; taking all the crazy rides together and making faces at all the cameras on them, pointing at everything with Cole and asking him where his nose was, definitely lots of good memories.

July 10-11: Grand Canyon
We started entering desert land on our way to the Grand Canyon. The views shifted from green and ocean to brown and dirt. Our hottest temperature we saw on the trip was during this drive at 118 Fahrenheit, which is around 48 Celsius. Good thing for air conditioning. This part of the drive was actually interesting because of all the different desert like mountains and we even some some pretty big dust twisters at one point. We got to the Grand Canyon later than expected so we didn't head to our campsite right away but instead went to check out the canyon. It was quite cloudy when we got there so the canyon was very full of shadows but it was still quite the sight. We took a free shuttle as far up the canyon as we could to watch the sunset and then by the time we got to our site it was around 9pm so Chris set up while I made some supper. The next morning we got up early so we could hike down into the canyon and I'm so glad we did. The first day there I felt we were kinda of jipped on what we got to see and do so this made up for it. The temperature was perfect at 7 in the morning to hike and we saw some amazing views from just hiking down a mile into the canyon. Then we quickly packed up and went for one more look of the canyon before heading back into the desert and driving to Las Vegas.

July 11-12: Las Vegas
On our way to Vegas we stopped briefly at the Hoover Dam to check out how massive it was. We didn't spend too long there, just enough to drive over it and get a few pictures. I had got a good deal on a 5 star hotel in Vegas through Priceline and it sure was worth it. That hotel room was probably the fanciest we'll ever be in, on the 36th floor, huge bed, kitchen area with a little stove top, and even a light switch to roll down the blinds. We thought going into the city around 5pm would be a little cooler for walking around but it was still blazing hot as we stepped out the door. Walking the strip we took as many chances as we could to get to air conditioning. We figured we had to try some sort of casino game so we took our try at some black jack. I was on a roll but Chris made me stop when I had won 5 dollars. He lost his money on the first try. After supper at the Cheesecake Factory we walked the strip at night, checked out the fountain show at the Bellagio and then headed back to our hotel very tired and sweaty. Both of our best sleeps on the trip were in that hotel, it was the best part of Las Vegas. I'd say it was good to see Vegas once but it's not somewhere I need to go again. I thought it would be a lot more impressive and having people at every block try to hand out "escort" cards to Chris was not very much fun.

July 12-14: Yosemite
This drive was probably the most boring of all of them. The desert wasn't as interesting to look at as on the way to the Grand Canyon but once we got closer to Yosemite we had some fun on some mini roller coaster hills. Driving on the Tioga pass through Yosemite was great, we had our first look at the amazing rocks and boulders that Yosemite is so well known for. We only had a campsite booked for one night so the next morning we headed to the first come first serve site down a long narrow road and ended up finding a good little site. We quickly made some breakfast and then headed past the valley to our hiking spots at Taft Point and Sentinel Dome. This was a good little 3 hour hike on the big granite rock hills with great views of El Capitan (a big rock climbing face) and Half Dome (the most prominent rock in Yosemite). We had a great time taking in the views of Yosemite on that hike. We then drove a little farther to a lookout that the non-hikers go to to get a closer look at Half Dome. On our way to the valley we stopped by the river and scrubbed off the sweat and dirt from our hike. We had some tasty pizza in the valley and then went to check out the lower and upper Yosemite falls. These falls are the largest in North America but don't have a lot of water in them in July. Then we got a little frustrated trying to find our way back to the car to make it in time to see a sunset. We just got the tail end of a sunset that I had really wanted to see at Tunnel View. We tried to pack too much into one day so I guess we'll just have to go back one day so I can see my whole sunset.

July 14-15: Drive Home
Our drive from Yosemite to Salem, Oregon took about 12 hours but we wanted to not have too long of a drive home the next day. Chris got to see an area of Oregon where they harvest grass seed so he was pretty excited about that. We made a quick stop at the outlets on the way home and of course Chris found stuff but I didn't and we were home by around 4pm. Got a lot of loads of laundry started and it was good to be back in my own bed. It was an amazing trip and we hope to see some of those places again, probably just not on another big road trip like this. Now onto Saskatchewan in a week!

Road Trip Pics

The time for fun has almost come! We have been super busy these last couple months with work and in only a few weeks we will be able to have that much deserved break. I'm getting a little early break with two days off because of a nasty head cold but I don't mind because I've been working non-stop. This spring has gone quickly and with some moments where it was hot enough to feel like summer it definitely tricked us and made us want summer even more. 

Yard work has begun at our house. The sun is shining every now and then and we've tackled trimming our hedge and all our shrubs. Today Chris is starting the power washing and then it's onto repair (hopefully) our grass. On the Easter long weekend we trimmed our massive hedge, well Chris trimmed and I raked and bagged all the trimmings. I think we ended up with 25 bags or more so it was a big job but it was nice to  be out in the sun. I should've taken a before and after picture because it looks pretty good now. 

We've joined a two pitch softball team this year with our friends Denis and Andrea. So far we've played three games, two we lost by one and the last we won by over 10 points. It's been fun to get out and play even though 2 of the 3 games have been in wet conditions but here's hoping our Wednesdays will get sunnier. Chris is also in a basketball league that plays on Saturdays. It seems he is the minority in this league because it was originally formed by Filipino's in the area. They seem to take it pretty seriously, their very first game of the "season" took over 3 hours with the anthem and an opening ceremony for all the teams. He's been enjoying it but seems to come home with a new injury or soreness each time so we'll see what he has done to himself after his game today. 
Last weekend we hosted a co-ed baby shower for Ryan, Cheryl and their newest addition Rayna. It was fun to have everyone there, not just the girls like a normal shower. We started the evening off with a potluck and then played some shower bingo and 20 questions for Ryan and Cheryl to see if they could come up with the same answers. Supposedly, according to Ryan, babies start eating solids at 1 year. They did get 11 out of 20 questions the same so I'll give him some credit. After the games and dessert we watched the mounds of cute baby girl clothes appear and then we gave the boys freedom to go play ping pong while us girls talked in the living room. The week before the shower I also took some baby photos of Rayna. She wasn't the biggest fan of it but I'm glad the pictures I got show how cute she really is and make her at least look like she was having fun (she wasn't crying the whole time). 


Rayna
Tonight Ryan and Chris are attempting to make Cheryl and I a fancy lobster supper. We'll see how that goes, not sure how skilled they are in the cooking department, especially with live animals. Kay time to get out in the sunshine while it lasts!

March has been an interesting and busy month that has flown by very quickly. At the start of March all BC teachers were on strike for 3 days so we went out in front of Chris' school those days and held our signs and walked along the sidewalk. The first day was pretty brutal with very cold temperatures and gusting wind and rain. I think it took me a good 30 minutes in the shower to get warmed up. The other two days were pretty good, one of them Chris and his co-worker Joel decided to make bacon, sausage and eggs to kill time. I think they were the ones who ended up eating most of it though. With basketball season wrapping up we decided to go watch some AAA provincial games with our friends Denis and Andrea and their newest addition Felix. It was a good night with some good games and good company.

Our March and Spring Break

This month I went snowboarding more than I have in the past two years. First I went up to Whistler with Chris on his school trip at the beginning of the month. Having not snowboarded for over a year it took a while getting things adjusted and feeling right so I didn't last too long on the hill. Then we went to Hemlock with our friends Paul and Jen which was much more enjoyable on my part because my bindings were now on my board properly and I was on groomed runs instead of piles of powder that I had to carve around. The last trip was this past week on spring break. We had the chance to stay with some of Chris' friends from work in their condo up at Whistler. The day started out beautiful and after some adjustments my boots and bindings were feeling good. Chris and I decided to go off on our own so we went to the peak. Little did we know that the run we took was a narrow road all the way down that included a bunch of uphill parts. Not knowing when the uphill parts were coming and having little room to carve made the run very frustrating for me because I wouldn't get enough speed and would have to take off my board and then walk up the hills. After that, I was pretty much done but we did a couple more runs where I was more comfortable and then I headed back to the condo. The rest of our time at the condo was lots of fun though, we got to enjoy the hottub, play with some really cute kids and just relax.
We also headed down to the States for a day on our spring break and got a few things like a spring jacket, baby gifts, fancy basketball shoes for Chris and a few other items. Our last weekend of the break we had a date night and went and saw the Hunger Games which was very good and enjoyed some burgers and fries at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Sunday I planned a baby shower for Andrea and Felix and decided to have a little fun and go with a sports theme. I made some baseball and basketball cupcakes, football strawberries and even a little banner with his name. I'd say that the shower was a success. During our break another exciting thing happened and that was the birth of Rayna, our close friends Ryan and Cheryl's daughter. She was born on St.Patrick's day so when we got her a green stuffed Turtle I thought it was suiting to name him Patrick.
It has been a good break, it went quick and it was busy but it was good. I'm glad I got an extra day today to relax before going back to work. The great thing about spring break is that after that the months go by so quick and then it's summer! Can't wait, time to start planning our next adventure...

It has been very non-stop around here lately. Lots of things going on but now things are starting to slow down. The big event in January was my 30th birthday. My good friends came over and brought lots of great food and played some games with us. Let's not forget that Chris specially made me a New Kids on the Block playlist to bring me back to my younger days. We also had Rock Band set up in the basement and would every now and then hear Chris screeching underneath us. It was a great evening with great company and I even got presents, which I did not expect! Thanks for everyone that came. Another fun thing that happened was we had a really big snow fall in January that closed the schools for almost a week and let us take an unexpected breather which was great. The snow started melting just in time so we could enjoy a Canucks game with the tickets that my mom got Chris for Christmas. It was a good game and even better because the Canucks won.

Winter 2012
February was very busy with Chris' basketball games, him planning an outdoor program for next year, me teaching lots and other little things in between. Chris' team placed first in the District but lost their first game in the Fraser Valley's so that's as far as they got. It was a fun season for him I think but he's glad that he can focus more on his classes now. Last week Ryan and Randi came for a visit during their reading break. We made the most of our time by taking them up to Whistler to experience a real mountain. The boys went snowboarding and had a great time in the fresh powder. I think Chris wore Ryan down pretty good but now he knows what it's really like to snowboard. Us girls went cross-country skiing around Lost Lake, just beside Whistler Village. We got our workout too covering over 8 km in around 2 hours. It was a perfect day, fresh snow, no wind and beautiful views. We had quite a few hours to wait for the boys to be done snowboarding so we wandered the village, hung out in the lobby of the Westin and pretended we were staying there, then bought a scrabble card game and played that in Starbucks until it was time to meet the boys. We had some supper at The Old Spaghetti Factory with a waitress who must have been pretty new because instead of refilling our cup she would leave it empty on the table and bring a new full one so we had a nice stack of glasses piling up on our table. The next day we drove down to the Seattle Outlet Mall and spent the day finding some good deals, even though I didn't get what I was looking for the others got some good stuff so it was  a successful trip. We had to work the next day but that's okay because Ryan slept in until 11 anyways. Then we enjoyed the evening together playing some games. It was a short trip but a fun-filled one!

We have definitely got back into the swing of things after our break and it very busy but our break was a pretty good one. Before our break we enjoyed a night of games with our girls/guys night people. Trevor and Rebekah introduced us to a very simple yet entertaining game where a team hides a ring in one person's hand and the other team has to guess whose hand it's in. The Friday our break started we headed up to Whistler with Ryan and Cheryl for a three night stay on the hillside for some snowboarding and cross-country skiing. Although the weather was very warm and snow was melting at ground level, we still had a good time. The boys snowboarded for two days while us girls ended up going to the tube park one day and just wandered the village the other. We planned on going cross-country skiing but it was too melty for it to be worth it. The rest of the time we all spent relaxing in the hot tub, watching movies, playing games and strolling around the village.




Winter Fun
Chris and I had almost a week before Christmas and heading to Herbert so we just took it easy for most of the days. Christmas Eve we had our little present opening time with just the two of us and Molly. Then my brother and mom came over in the evening and we had a turkey supper and opened a few presents. The next day we flew to Regina and were in Herbert by supper time. That night we opened some presents, tried the impossible puzzle and just enjoyed each other's company. The next couple of days we spent with everyone at the farm, we tried tubing one day but the snow was not satisfactory so Ryan tried rolling down the hill which worked but didn't make his head feel very well after. We also had lots of fun playing with our nephew Cole and got to see him start crawling. It did end up snowing one of the days and so we headed out on the old school cross-country skis and starting skiing around the farm. There were only a few spots that actually worked well so we made a track in a field and started a game of tag. We also had the chance of visiting our friends Mark and Erynn for a little while and got to meet their brand new baby boy Toby. New Years Eve we went to Chris' aunt and uncles where we had supper and then rang in the new year with me kicking all the  boys butts in poker. The last two days we were up in Saskatoon. We spent the 1st with all the Braun's and played some intense bowling and then enjoyed an evening of games, puzzles and catching up. The last day we spent with Ryan and Randi, starting off the day with eating at Kelly's Kafe which was rated very good under breakfast restaurants. When we got there Randi and Chris were ready to turn around and go somewhere else because it was located at this old factory-like building but we sucked it up and went in. It was a very eccentric place with very random decorations but the food ended up being pretty good and we didn't get food poisoning so it's all good. In the afternoon we were all pretty tired so we watched Tangled (the boys even voted for this one) and then we very briefly met up with the Willms' (who just got back from Hawaii) at Tim Hortons before we headed to the airport. It was a great trip and we were back to work the next day (I didn't end up getting called so that was kind of nice to have that day to recuperate).



Christmas Break
These first two weeks back have been very busy and I think it will continue this way until Spring Break. The next big event in our lives, my 30th Birthday! Saying 30 feels old but I guess it's good that I don't feel that old. Looking forward to having fun with our friends and eating some cake.