mkginbc

Mom and Dad

2012-01-02T20:24:00.001-08:00

Marc and I just came back from a great 3 days at Silverstar (more on that to come) but the previous week we welcomed my mom on boxing day.

It rained for most of the week, but the sun did come out a couple of days, albeit briefly. Here Ty is all ready for a walk in the pouring rain. A rain suit is a must have for kids in the Lower Mainland just as much as a snowsuit is for the Prairie kiddies.
We had Christmas #2 with my mom here. Ty is sure getting to enjoy opening presents! Although he was a little afraid of the VERY REAL looking chainsaw toy from Brad and Raquel. :)

My mom and I took Ty to the train at Minter Gardens to see the Christmas lights again. It was just as much fun for him the second time.

Ty basically had 3 Christmas's this year as I totally forgot to give him his stocking both on Christmas day #1 and #2. "On the third day of Christmas my daddy gave to me . . . Granny's stocking stuffed by mommy."

He looks like such a little boy in this picture!!! Where did baby Ty go???

While my mom was here Marc and I headed to Harrison Hot Springs for the night, using a gift certificate my dad had gotten us for our anniversary. We went on two very nice walks and spent a lot of time in the hot springs. Thanks mom and dad!
Ty praying for his parents to come back . . .
He actually did nothing of the sort and barely acknowledged us when we got back because he had so much fun playing with MAMA (Grandma). (Ty also calls me mama but distinguishes mama from MAMA with a deep husky voice)

On New Years Eve, Ty "helped" mommy make caramel squares for a party. If "helping" includes getting caramel sauce and flour all over my shirt, then his first baking venture was a great success!
A family walk on the trails behind our house.
I also wanted to include some pictures from late November of my dad's visit . . . Actually technically this was Ty's first Christmas here. Here he is with his gift from my dad. He loves this car garage and plays with it daily.

Here is my dad putting together the above garage. If you know my dad or myself, you know we are both not very mechanically inclined nor spatially gifted. I do think it was quite a feat of engineering that my dad managed to put together this fine piece of child machinery and wanted to capture this moment in time as it may be a long while before it happens again. ;)

Ty enjoying a festive beverage.

Ty got his hair cut by Nana in Hawaii. Here is a cute before and after shot.
Ski pictures to come!

aaron and su

2011-12-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

in the last week before christmas, we had the privilege of hosting aaron and suliana, our friends from singapore. it was su's first time in canada, which made things more fun, but also put pressure on us as hosts to present our country well. ;-) the G clan, equipped with our beautiful surroundings, is up to the task!

aaron and su each had a lot of fun playing with ty. he loves guests, especially fun ones, and was a joy to have around.

aaron even came bearing gifts. here is ty demonstrating his new squeaky shoes. all the rage in singaporean playgrounds.

bearing in mind our responsibilities as canadian hosts, as well as our proclivity towards long baths in the great outdoors, we set out for clear creek hotsprings, north of chilliwack and east of harrison lake.
along the way there were opportunities to illuminate su regarding canada's once again burgeoning resource economy.
aaron, being a former tree planter and canadian hero, had many gems of wisdom to bestow. pictured above, he is almost certainly explaining how one can examine the rings on the tree to determine, not just the age of the tree, but also derive information as to which seasons in the tree's past had been particularly harsh or nourishing, thus perceiving a rough map of the recent climate of the area.

after a slightly bumpy ride, we arrived at our destination and convinced our friends, newly arrived from singapore, where it is 31 degrees and humid every single day, to strip down to their bathing suits in the canadian winter. they were easily convinced of course, the rewards of such actions being evident in the clear steaming tubs in front of them.
ty had a great time marching around the rim of the tub and jumping into aaron's arms.

su had never heard of superheating in a hot tub and then cooling off in the snow, only to return to the tub and luxuriate in the prickly warmth. she saw me do it, so she had to give it a try. she convinced aaron to accompany her, rather than the other way around.
kylie and i were very impressed. her first trip to canada found su lying in the snow of her own accord. that shows strength.

later, while wandering by the creek, aaron spotted a log crossing and proclaimed his intention to fulfill his canadian manly duty and cross the creek, dam the consequences.

aaron's show of patriotism ignited my own sense of duty to my country, so i joined him on the log in a show of unity against the enemies of freedom.
we threw a few snowballs and took a few pictures and finally hopped back in the 4runner to return to the shores of harrison lake and on home to chilliwack. we saw a few deer on the way, as well as swans, a marmot, numerous canada geese and several squirrels. it was a great trip back, as we got to hear more about su and aaron's life in singapore, as well as su's family and her studies.
we don't get to see aaron very much, and this was our first time meeting su, so we made the whole time count. our days were packed with coffee, cognac, walking and talking, but all too soon i was speeding them on the way to the airport. i trust that other canadian hosts took up their patriotic mantles and continued to show our singaporean friends a fantastic time.

happy new year everyone! 2012. wow! it feels like we are living in the future.

merry christmas!

2011-12-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

well, we had a chilliwack version of a white christmas this year. foggy and sunny at the same time! what a beautiful christmas eve.
after a lazy day, we went for a lovely walk to the park and through the cemetary by our house. the sunlit fog was spectacular and made a great photo backdrop.

after a nice walk we drove to our church for a potluck christmas dinner and a wonderful, personal candlelight service.
in the evening, we continued our own christmas traditions with a tasty chocolate fondue. kylie even melted down her bernard callebaut chocolate K. what a sacrifice!
it was fun to help ty unwrap his presents. this has been the first occasion that he is aware that these presents are for him. he may not understand much about christmas, but he understands a new truck!
happy holidays everyone! we hope the season is treating you well. a special christmas greeting goes out to mrs. wisse. we are very sorry we couldn't come caroling this year. thank you so much for all you have done for us and for taking a special interest in our lives.

merry christmas!

farewell tropical sunshine

2011-12-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

this post is being started on the airplane home from maui. we arrived at the airport in time to pick up some pizza to supplement the airplane food, although hawaiin airlines did come up with a pretty good turkey sandwich and brownie for dinner. i wanted a bloody mary, but while the tomato juice and tabasco sauce was free, they wanted $7.50 for a shot of vodka, so i opted for a virgin. to which historico/religious mary does the eponymous drink refer to? kylie is better equipped to answer that question.

a long flight affords me the opportunity to further elucidate details of our time in hawaii that have been previously glossed over, as well as occasionally and egregiously forgotten altogether.
first up, tyrn james. he was fantastic on this trip. he had a great plane ride over, and he is currently sleeping in his seat on the ride home. he is a pretty easy kid and a good traveller, and this trip has borne that out. aside from getting up at 5:30 every morning (we'll come back to that) he has been a pleasure to have along.
certainly beach vacations are different with a toddler, but the rewards come in new ways. instead of trekking all over the island looking for the best snorkelling and surfing sites, we have spent most of our beach time running up and down the shore getting swamped by waves or building sand piles (you couldn't call them castles).
for the second week of our time in hawaii, we moved north to lahaina where we had found a one bedroom cottage well outside of town.

ty's early start time produced a pleasant byproduct; every morning i would take him for a run or a hike to allow kylie to get back to sleep after her early shift. our place outside lahaina backed onto beautiful volcanic slopes cleaved with steep valleys. two mornings we ventured out before sunrise to experience dawn in the mountains.

some friends of julie and lowell's, named ryan and adele, were staying in lahaina as well, and we got together on a few occasions to play on the beach and use the hottub and kids pool. on the first day of our arrival, the resort was serving wine, baked brie with cashews, grapes and cream cheese and mushroom pastries in the lobby. we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and i ate a lot of brie.
ty really enjoyed both ryan and adele. despite the fact that we had never met them before, we were able to leave ty playing in the waves with them while kylie and i borrowed their snorkeling gear to check out the reef just off the hotel beach.
the pool was a great setup for kids, with a swimming pool, wading pool and hottub all juxtaposed, meaning everyone could be where they wanted to and remain within supervisory distance.

kylie celebrated her birthday while we were in hawaii. she had an excellent day, starting with breakfast on our front deck.
after that we went to the beach, then kylie left for the spa while ty napped. in the afternoon we returned to ryan and adele's hotel and poached their hottub, even though they had already checked out.

in the evening, we went out for a nice dinner in the harbour and took ty for gelato after. he much preferred kylie's coconut cream to my dark chocolate.
but alas, contrary to our previous experience, holidays like this cannot continue until we are sun sated. we are now back in chilliwack and i am back at work. it has been an easy transition though. today i went for a bike ride in the sunshine, and for our first two days back in BC, we played host to aaron and su, newly arrived from singapore. we enjoyed meeting su for the first time, and touring her around our corner of canada. more on that to come.

Maui Part Deux

2011-12-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

The second half of our week here in Maui has been spent hanging out with Fraser and Ty in our place, drinking coffee that Julie and Lowell bought for us everyday (mmmm coconut lattes) and going to multiple beaches.

Thanks to Julie for forever capturing my very brief moments of paddleboarding! :)

We went back to Little Beach to catch some great boogie boarding waves and Ty participated in the 'spirit of the beach.'

Ty started off our week here being quite tentative in the water. He would go to the edge and get a bit wet but run out right away. Today he was throwing himself into the big waves so he could turn around and crawl out of them, only to be dragged back into the water laughing. He is definitely a water baby! Yesterday he spent close to 3 hours straight in the ocean or pool and would have kept going if it wasn't bed time. Crazy kid!!
Having two babies on a vacation creates A LOT of diapers! Smart Julie brought her diaper genie insert and here Marc is showing off our diaper tube.
On Saturday we said goodbye to Nana and newly christened Papa as well as Auntie thts and Uncle Lowell and cousin Fraser.

Ty has spent the remainder of the week asking for Nana, Papa and thts and where they went. He also constantly asks where the moon is.

We have shockingly spent a lot of time at the beach this week too!

Marc has a lot of jumping shots that have been on this blog previously. I am not sure I enjoy his new choice of what to jump over.

Ty has absolutely loved Hawaii and we have had such a great time with him here this year. He is a super fun kid and loves new adventures!! On to the next one . . .

maui wowie

2011-12-05T23:18:00.000-08:00

priority number one: let me assure all of you vitamin D deficient canadians that ty is taking every precaution in limiting his exposure to tropical steep angle photons.

we are safely in maui and have collected our various relatives and hangers on. so far we have participated in swimming, boogie boarding, frisbee, running and eating lots of american priced cheese (US costco is bad for my arteries, but sooo good for my mouth).
i would like you all to note lowell's sweet dumb and dumber hairdo in this picture.

ty is loving the sand and the water, and after a few good poundings, has developed a healthy fear of large waves.
our evenings have been quite enjoyable as well. it is nice to have tante yulie around to entertain us all with her austin powers routines.
it is also fun to watch tyrn and fraser interact. except when ty throws his cars at fraser's little face. but look at those eyes... he didnt mean it. he couldnt have.

on sunday night the family ventured out to little beach to party at sunset. the sky was on fire, and pretty soon the beach was too.
every sunday night there's a party on little beach, featuring a drum circle, fire dancing, frolicking in the waves and general debauchery. we participated in the frolicking and drumming, but shied away from the fire and debauchery.
did i mention it was a clothing optional beach? don't worry... with a little darkening and some artfully placed retouching, this blog can remain family friendly.

Portraits from November

2011-11-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

And Halloween:

Ty's candy haul this year was epic! One KitKat and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Don't we all wish we were so lucky to be such a cute penguin who received SO much candy!! ;)

We made and decorated Pumpkin Cookies with Maddi and Adriel. Maddi ate only the icing off her cookie. ;) Check out Ty's ubercool track suit that used to be my brothers: (It even says Brad on the back)

Shots Marc took in Hope. One looks delicious! The other not so much . . .Diner Breakfast

Erythema Migrans = lyme disease

November walks:

I love this time of year!

Dining with cousins: And lastly. Pregnancy cravings finally got the better of me. ;)

A lovely month so far! Only two more weeks and we're off to bask in the warm waters and sunshine of Maui!!

crazy little thing called ty

2011-11-19T22:34:00.001-08:00

clear creek hotsprings

2011-10-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

as october continues to give us nice weather, kylie and i have been outdoors every chance we get. our trip to clear creek hotsprings was planned for the only rainy day in the forecast, but as we drove out of the rainy fraser valley and out along harrison lake, the clouds parted and the sun appeared!
the drive out took us less than 2 hours. east harrison forest service road was beautiful in the sunshine with the fall colours coming on. the last 30 min was pretty bumpy and a bit technical. i had a wonderful time driving, and ty enjoyed the ride, however, kylie wasnt buying the whole "but the journey IS the destination!" thing.

these springs arent quite as natural as sloquet creek. there are two nice homemade wooden tubs and 3 old hottubs in various states of repair. the view is wonderful though, and the setting is perfect.
the wooden platform was great for changing, but ty found it pretty slippery! the top tub was piping hot, while the middle one containing kylie and ty was just slightly cooler than your average public pool hottub. each tub in the line is slightly cooler than the one before. all with a simple system of siphoning pipes. impressive backcountry engineering.

after a good long soak it was time to throw some rocks in the water. i love this picture's clear portrayal of ty's determination. he had just decided to abandon rock throwing and go find mommy, who we had left soaking in the tub. as i hefted the camera to capture a throw, he dropped his rock, executed a neat about face and began marching toward the springs muttering "mama... maMMa"

after one more soak, we threw everything and everyone back into the 4runner and drove down the valley and back to harrison lake.
the road descended to a couple logging camps and then led to a beautiful beach where we sat down for a snack. kylie had purchased a selection of scones from our favourite bakery. moist pumpkin spice scones are delicious on a beach in the evening sun.

the beach also offered numerous gnarled rock formations to jump around on. we stayed until sunset and then drove home in the dusk.
on the way home we saw a black bear crossing the road. no picture, but i did take a picture of these tracks on the beach at jespersen dyke, one of our favourite running spots.

Lethbridge

2011-10-16T21:30:00.001-07:00

This crazy lady just had a birthday! Thus, we headed to Lethbridge to help her celebrate

Nana picked us up at the airport and helped welcome Ty to Calgary by helping him ride a horse in true Stampede fashion. We started out the week staying with Nana and Grandpa and headed to Crazy Cakes for their classic spudnuts on a rainy Thursday morning. (Can you believe that I grew up in Lethbridge and had my first spudnut at 32??!!! Me either! Good thing Ty is making up for lost time and trying them at 1!)

We also got to meet our new nephew Fraser while we were there. We welcomed him in party hats in classic Julie and Lowell fashion!!

He's wearing one of Ty's sweatshirts in this picture! I love sharing Ty's clothes and seeing other little bambinos enjoy them.Fraser junior is cute!! (He also met Fraser senior this week, see Fraser Sr. later on in this post)

Ty and Fraselnut (Or Fraselberry' (as the French ‘fraise’ means ‘strawberry’), 'Fraselator', 'Frasenator', 'Fraser the Laser', 'Fraisin', 'Frasel-rock' (like Fraggle Rock), ‘Crazy Frazie’, 'Frazie Fraze’, and 'Frasel-boy'. These are all on top of the popular ‘Fraselnut’ (which has somehow evolved into ‘Fraselnut butt’ at times). All those nicknames were taken from Julie's blog!! This kid isn't going to know what to call himself! :)

Ty helped drive out to the Crownest Pass for Grandma's birthday weekend. He looks like his daddy when he's about to take a curve a little too fast for my liking.

We did a couple of hikes while we were there. Ty attemped his first summit of a rock. ;) He didn't make it. Simultaneously his father was trying to give me a heart attack by jumping off the rocks. First comes climbing, then comes jumping. AHHHH . . . the things I have to look forward to.

We had a great weekend away visiting with Brad and Raquel and my mom. Ty and Maria had a fantastic time playing together and kissing and hugging, as all cousins should when they are under 5.
My mother may take offense to this but I think her and Ty are in the classic 'sasquatch' pose here. Look out Crownest Pass, there is a pink and green monster roaming your hiking trails together!

We also went for a very nice alpine hike behind the visitor centre in Coleman. Pretty scenery and lots of creek crossings! I only got my feet wet 3 times.

Brad and Marc also did a quick summit of Goat Mountain one morning and had fun repelling down the ropes left by power line construction workers.

Thanksgiving Monday was a beautiful day with no wind!!! so we headed down to Indian Battle Park for a walk with my dad.This family was having a lot of fun!

Marc spent some time biking in his beloved coulees and went out one day with Fraser Sr.Speaking of Fraser . . . we continued our Lethbridge visits in Vancouver on Sunday by hanging out with him and Kally on Sunset Beach in Vancouver. A great way to ease us back into BC life after two great weeks in Alberta!!

harrison lake

2011-10-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

after returning from the desolate east, it was time to refresh and revitalize utilizing immediate proximity to the healing waters of harrison lake.
harrison is 60 km long, with both shores offering a myriad of beaches and coves perfectly suited for front country camping. unfortunately this fact is better known in surrey than it is in chilliwack, and thus in mid summer the beaches are often covered in garbage, 4x4 tracks and toilet paper. luckily, camping midweek at the end of september allowed us our pick of empty beaches and the garbage was almost nonexistant.

this summer we have officially established that ty loves camping. his favourite activity is probably throwing rocks in the water.
he also enjoys walking on logs. i sort of regret teaching him this; he witnessed me hopping from log to log and soon enough he was clambering on himself. at least the beach provided a soft landing.
when all the natural stimulation was just too much for him, he could sit down and read a good book.
speaking of stimulation, niko loves camping too. he enjoys digging sticks out of the lake, harassing squirrels and keeping an eye on tyrn. i think he was up all night keeping watch, b/c he flaked out every morning when we got up to take over.
this particular cove offered an endless supply of dry driftwood. we cooked over an open fire, making bacon and eggs, grilled cheese, hotdogs and mini cherry pies. mmm...

having my kayak along allowed me the opportunity to commune with some playful seals in the afternoons.

harrison offers amazing views, real solitude and hotsprings! we didnt get to the springs this trip, but we hope to be back in a a few weeks.
goodbye harrison! thank you for treating us so well. i feel both refreshed and revitalized.

bike a neering

2011-09-25T21:09:00.001-07:00

the snows have held off long enough for my friend kris and i to embark on an alpine mountain biking excursion. the trail we chose linked 2 peaks and meandered down a long ridge between them.
the initial climb took us about 3 hours. we started up the flank of the mountain in dense new growth and then broke out into this beautiful open alpine forest working on its third millenium.

from there the trail transitioned to rough scree and we did some serious bike a neering. the wind was howling over this saddle and a bike slung over your shoulder acts surprisingly like a sail in those situations.

from the saddle we dropped our bikes and scurried up to the peak and back. after that we just had to clear a bit more scree before the next several hours were filled with this:
an incredible long winding descent through alpine meadows and old burns.
then rolling cross country trails slowly giving up elevation as we descended into a backcountry river valley. our initial plan was to visit the second peak and return directly to the car, but on the trail we encountered an old wooden map that showed another route down around the backside of the mountain instead. feeling adventurous, and not ready to finish our day, we opted to add another loop to the journey.
our beautiful pine needle and packed dirt trail meandered down the flanks of the mountain in an extremely pleasant fashion but although the valley continued, the trail ended at the border so we doubled back lower down, crossed the creek and followed an old doubletrack/singletrack/creek bed out and around the backside of the mountain and back to the road.
the round trip took us 8 hours and brought us through wonderful and varied terrain; both the views and the trail surface changed continually. high mountain trails have a glamour all their own. once again i feel so blessed to have these opportunities within an hour's drive of home. maybe there will be time for one more alpine ride before the snow hits!

observations on toronto

2011-09-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

borrowing a page from my sister julie's blog, i have compiled a list of observations on toronto, a city i had occasion to visit this past week.

1. being a born and bred albertan, now west coaster i was fully intending to hate toronto, but it won me over. turns out it is quite an enjoyable city, with excellent food.

2. people move faster in toronto. i noted this almost immediately upon exiting the airport. everyone was moving about 15% faster than they would, had they been executing the same task in british columbia. this includes, but is not limited to, crossing crosswalks, ordering sandwiches, going through automatic doors, exiting parking spots and skidding to a stop through crosswalks.
which brings us to the next point:

3. there are a lot of bad drivers in toronto. and not just because it is a populous city. i saw more spastic driving in downtown toronto than i have seen anywhere else. midintersection accidental brake stands, 5 point parking spot exits and numerous rim/curb abrasive encounters.

4. the food downtown is fantastic. i stuffed myself with shwarma, falafels, and baklava, unavailable in chilliwack, as well as roasted chicken pitas and philly cheese steaks. there was carribean, indian, lebanese, or thai food on every corner.

5. the waterfront is quite nice. my friend dave mentioned that the toronto waterfront was notoriously ugly, however the portion that we explored was lovely.
6. i have it on good authority that the greater toronto area produces more pollution than the oilsands.

7. at night the streets are all jazzed up like brussels. apparently some people are up in arms about the corruscating light show on the cn tower. maybe its extra glitzy right now b/c of tiff? but you dont install coordinated purple backlights in the top 5 floors of your office building just for a film festival.

8. torontonians are fantastic hosts! in my random study, with an n of 2, i can reasonably conclude that all residents of downtown toronto are warm and welcoming and are happy to share their apartment with you and walk you to work and show you the best shwarma places.

Labour Day

2011-09-06T20:52:00.001-07:00

Shareen and I spent this past long weekend helping it live up to its name - we did some hard labour canning 60 pounds of tomatoes (which we turned into sauce) and 20 pounds of peaches.

We started Friday night by boiling all the tomatoes down . . .

And the next day adding spices and carrots (for thickness) then blending them all into sauce. Lots of work but well worth it. mmmmm

The next day we started on the peaches. We put them in the sun to ripen faster. Lucky Shareen did most of the work while Marc and I went to a BBQ. Thanks Shareen! Unfortunately we were so frantically trying to finish the canning, we didn't take a picture of the final product. Close your eyes and imagine 18 large jars of juicy Okanagan Peaches. Tasty!

While also doing the majority of the canning, Shareen also babysat Ty so Marc and I could go out for dinner. Here she is being paparazzi auntie!The whole weekend was not hard labour though. Shareen introduced us to Mexican Bulldogs. . . a margarita with an upside down corona. mmmmm Best enjoyed on the patio with a silo in the background.

Last week we also headed up to Sheridan Lake to a friends cabin for a couple of days. No worries, lots of relaxing there too! The kids had a great time and so did the adults.

Hiking to a (sort of) nearby waterfall . . .
Uh Oh . . .

Enjoying the water:

Hope you all had a great weekend that involved lots of relaxing and not too much labour. ;)

Staycation**

2011-08-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last couple of weeks having a wonderful holiday here in Chilliwack. We spent four days camping at Cultus Lake with some friends. This was our first time actually camping at Cultus and we loved it. As much as we loved it, Ty loved it even more. He was in his glory running around the campground looking for sticks (he has become very discerning when it comes to sticks, he definitely has a preference for large ones with interesting points), playing in the sand and making his mother and father (well particularly his mother) worry about him taking off and falling down an embankment.
Here is Ty helping me get ready for camping by dumping the sugar all over the floor.

Food tastes great while you're camping!

Here is the car all packed for camping with the high chair on top. We know how to camp in style!

Marc went for a run up Teapot and meandered around Seven Sisters while we were camping. He also took the kayak out a couple of times. His new cyclometer app records his routes, times etc... Here are his routes:

Yes he did run 11 km and yes it was uphill. Crazy kid!

While Marc was swimming, biking and kayaking, I relaxed on the beach:

Here is this years classic of Adriel:

Last years:

After we headed home from camping we continued our staycation here in Chilliwack with a visit from Brad and Raquel and our niece Maria.

We celebrated Raquel's birthday while they were here with raspberry, blueberry, peach pie.

One day we headed up to Lindeman Lake for a hike. Ty is getting very good at navigating down steep slopes. As evidenced, I am trying to hold him back. ;)

Brad and Marc crossed the lake on a log to check out the sunny side. Niko stayed on the side with the women and children until Brad decided to take a dip. Niko immediately cried, jumped in the water and swam to "save" him. Niko trying to "save" you in the water usually includes multiple scratches all over your body.

Maria and Ty absolutely adore each other. It is so cute to watch. They constantly hold hands and kiss and talk in a language that only they can understand. Holding hands

Kissing Cousins

Definitely a great two weeks!!

**While Brad and Raquel were here we read an article in the Globe and Mail about worlidays (a holiday where you are at home but doing some work and sending the occasional e-mail.) While this definitely was a worliday for Marc (he has lots of studying to do) I much prefer the term staycation!!

welch peak trip report

2011-08-18T09:59:00.001-07:00

a lot has happened since our last post: a camping trip in cultus, kayaking, and now a visit from brad, raquel and maria, but i want to get some pics up from our scramble up welch peak in the cheam range, so those things will have to wait.

welch peak is one of two mountains easily accessible from williamson lake, the other being foley. as the directions to the new williamson lake shortcut hike are always a little vague in the books, i will describe it briefly here. take chilliwack lake road to foley creek forest service road on the left (just past the jail). turn right after the bridge (left goes to cheam). continue on the main road, staying along the river until you pass foley lake on the left. keep low until you come to the gate. this gate is currently open 24/7, but i dont know for how long. after that it is right, right, left, left and you end up in a turnaround with 2 quad tracks exiting. take the RIGHT quad track and watch for the start of the flagged trail up a creekbed to your right approx 3 minutes in. after that you cant get lost.

the trail starts in a valley and enters the forest on the edge of a cutblock, climbing quickly and popping out into a wonderful alpine meadow. it was full of wildflowers, blooming insanely late this year.
from williamson lake, the routes up welch and foley are myriad. we chose to avoid the southern gendarme and head straight up the snowslopes to attain the ridge.
the snow brought us almost to the top of the ridge with ease. after that it was a quick scramble up mixed brush and scree to a whole new view.

here is brad deriving energy from "the still". you can see baby munday in the left background.
once on the ridge you are confronted with a beautiful spine to work your way up.
this portion was wonderful. solid rock and multiple mini pitches with occasional exposure.
after the initial slopes, the mountain became much steeper and the climbing more technical. the amount of exposure increased dramatically. hold on marc.
the snow pack has stuck around super long this year. the same snow that made attaining the ridge so easy stymied us near the summit. in a few places cliffs forced us off the ridge onto the east face. sometimes we traversed rock, and a few times we crossed high snowfields. at this point the rock became much more crumbly and we got into a few scary sections.
just under the subsummit the way was blocked by a sketchy corniced snowfield that extended down the ridge. working down and around it was possible but dangerous, as was traversing the tip. as both of us are new fathers, brad and i elected to swallow our pride and turn around just short of the summit. no big deal. it was a wonderful day with amazing views and we will be back.
the route down was awesome. descend the spine, climb the southern gendarme for fun and then weeeeeee... glissade all the way down to the lake. perfect snow for a little boot skiing. chilliwack is a wonderful place. i still cant believe i have peaks like this an hour from my door.

next up: camping at cultus. another wonderful thing about chilliwack.

By the Numbers . . .

2011-08-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

My dad recently finished his 35th year of teaching and to celebrate his many years of service to the Lethbridge School District, he wrote a poem. I borrowed his idea here . . .

6176 - Number of kilometers traveled

After spending the first 10 days of our trip in Idaho and South Dakota we headed back to Canada for the second half.

90 - Estimated number of hours Ty spent in the car
468.8 - Number of white butterflies per square kilometre in Southern Saskatchewan **
Our first stop was in Creelman, Saskatchewan to visit the farm where Marc's mom grew up and where his Aunt Cheryl lives now. We stopped in at the Weyburn Hospital to visit Uncle Billy and Bette even gave him a hair cut!
3 - Number of points Julie and Lowell beat me by in Bocce
We played a game of Bocce where I started off strong and ended poorly while Julie and Lowell lulled us into a false sense of security with their horrible bocce skills then surprised us all with a win from behind in the last few rounds!

1 - Number my niece Maria turned when we were in Lethbridge.

Brad and Raquel had Maria's party at Popson Park in Lethbridge. It was the perfect spot to have a party! Lots of land for the little kids to roam on and a great picnic shelter for the adults!

Maria taking a swipe at her pinata. Her parents look really into it. ;)

Ty loved exploring the Old Man River valley. Thankfully no rattle snake bites!!

3 - Number of tiny pictures sent to me by my mom. They suit the tiny subjects! (Well not so tiny anymore, Maria did just turn 1!)

24th - The date that Pete started out his birthday in Saskatchewan and ended it in Lethbridge

10 - Number of onion rings on the MASSIVE tower that we ordered while visiting with Fraser and Kally.
And no, we did not finish it. As much as it pained Marc, we left the last 3 onion rings!

13 - Number of pictures taken on this trip with Ty's tongue hanging out. I will just give you some highlights . . .

Priceless . . . Ty pooping in the bathtub then doing a faceplant in it as I tried to keep him out of it while cleaning it up. Julie and I have never laughed so hard!
**Highly educated estimate

family reunion

2011-07-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

our previous post had us in idaho, and after a beautiful drive from idaho falls through jackson, wyoming and past the grand tetons we arrived at beaver lake campground in custer south dakota for the g family reunion.
my side of the family is big and pretty boisterous. we certainly had a presence at the campground, mostly positive i think. on the first day we had a friendly game of keepaway that took over the pool as keepaway tends to do. people enjoyed the intergenerational aspect of the game, as well as the spectacle of me with a monkey grip on my 6'6" cousin's back, pinning his arms so his son could peel the ball out of his fist.

beaver lake campground had a beautiful little hall we booked for the duration. we met there for morning coffee and for supper, otherwise people wandered at will.

my mom booked our family a little cabin that slept 6. it was perfect for our needs. the air conditioning was great for afternoon naps and the tight quarters and kitchenette made for lots of time with our immediate family. the schedule of the reunion (also planned by my mom) allowed for lots of time with various cousins, but made it easy to seamlessly include a parallel vacation with just my parents and julie and lowell.

custer is surrounded by parks and monuments and beautiful lakes. we saw and did what we could during the four days, but i would really like to come back to this area for longer. the landscape is beautiful and varied.
julie and lowell were struck by the solemnity and respect of honouring the leaders of a great nation in pure granite, while ty experienced more of what the nostril carvers would have felt like.

one day half the family did a hike that ended at sylvan lake, and the other half met them there to swim.
the gnarled rock formations that pepper the area stick right out of the lake. they are very scenic and make for great bouldering. there is a $200 fine for jumping off them, and reasonably so, as more of those bumpy granite spires lurk just below the surface, but to pass up such beautiful cliff jumping was a shame (the warden was literally lurking in the bushes waiting to bust jumpers, even safety conscious ones).

there were many musicians and accomplished singers present. instruments were lying around and music was present every day.

the black hills are known for their mountain bike trails. every morning we went for an early ride. the trails we found were a mix of nice singletrack, doubletrack and wide gravel. apparently every community in the area maintains its own network of singletrack, which we didnt get to sample... another reason to return.

in addition to a pool, the campground had a waterslide that we booked for an evening. it was the second night and provided a wonderful way for multiple generations to get comfortable with eachother. speed and splash maximizing tips, as well as cheering and teasing quickly developed across age gaps and beyond immediate families.
the older generation made a strong showing at the slide. matching the younger ones for speed, and exceeding them in splash.

a meaningful time with wonderful people in a beautiful place. thank you mom and aunt wilma for organizing such a fantastic event. we love you!

road trip

2011-07-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

currently kylie and i are in idaho falls, staying at a best western with a pool and internet access, directly across from the eponymous falls. the front desk/manager guy is about 26 and i think he deserves a raise, or at least a promotion. what a tough job.
the last 4 days were spent with kylie's granny and gramps in nampa, as well as brad and raquel and grandpa greg, in nampa idaho, just outside boise. it has been hot and sunny, and granny and gramps live in a beautiful spot overlooking lake lowell. yes lowell, you read correctly. you have a lake named after you in acreage country, heartland USA.
the most enjoyable thing about nampa was observing the love shown by grannie, gramps and grandpa for their new grandchildren, as well as watching the two kids, tyrn and maria interact and enjoy eachother.

yesterday we spent the afternoon at the waterslides, savouring a compromise between playing with the kids in kid friendly pools and slides and ditching them to catch some adrenaline on the slides for those over 48".

kylie and i also officially celebrated our 10th anniversary in nampa. this was our second day of celebration, having already gone out in style back in chilliwack. the food, drink and company at brick 29 in nampa was unparalleled; although we have celebrated anniversaries in much more exotic locales, this one was still both memorable and delicious.
now we are off to jackson wyoming and then to custer, south dakota for a g family reunion. mountain biking, hiking and eating... all things the g family is good at and all things that i fully support.

congratulations josh and vicky!

2011-07-08T10:50:00.001-07:00

our good friends josh and vicky were just married in kenya. we are sad that we could not attend, but so happy for them and excited for their life together. nice work josh!

Ty's new hobbies

2011-07-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

Birthdays, Canada Day, Ice Cream and Hats!

2011-06-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Marc celebrated the entrance into his 34th year this week and definitely did it in style! He started the morning skyping with Fraser, followed it up with a breakfast of cornbread, bacon and strawberries then drove out to Vedder for some biking. Afterwards we made our way to Harrison Lake for some kayaking sans Ty. (How many kayaking pictures can there be on this blog!!)

After some lovely quiet time on the lake we headed to the German restaurant, Black Forest for dinner. Marc ordered bratwurst to start and schnitzel for his main. I thought his eyes were MUCH bigger than his stomach but he definitely persevered.

Starting the bratwurst with an empty stomach!Then came the schnitzel!Enjoying the greasy goodness!I watched in awe as Marc continued to happily down his schnitzel.

His last bite, still happy!Marc even mentioned that he would like to eat ice cream after his bratwurst AND schnitzel, even though he knew that I had chocolate crepes waiting at home! Ty tried them out for daddy.

This week we returned to Harrison for some Canada Day festivities. Even though it was a bit cool, Ty loved the water and fully embraced his Canadian heritage by wearing his red moose shirt. Marc has his Canadian heritage permanently tatooed on himself. He was doubly patriotic!

Yesterday we took Ty for his first ice cream cone. Needless to say, he loved it!!
I leave you with Ty experimenting with the various hats around the house. We are headed to the states this week, I think the 35 degree heat in Idaho will be a shock to our system!! Even though we have had a bit more sun lately both Marc and I feel like we have just entered spring!!

summer

2011-06-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

this is our first summer in our new place and we have been enjoying our yard as well as the surrounding area. this is the dyke holding back the roaring fraser river a few kil0meters north of our house.

we had a bbq on the evening of the summer solstice, fully utilizing the deck and the backyard. kylie and i are blessed with pretty awesome friends. there are kids all over the place now!

after kayaking on harrison, and biking and driving along hope river road to our house every day i decided to get a kayak. we have a river (more of a slough in the winter) running along the bottom of the mountain we live on and i wanted to explore it, so i found a good deal on craigslist and drove out to aldergrove to pick up my new boat.
this is the beginning of our street from the water.

the waterways offer a different route through the countryside and i enjoyed exploring tonight. there will be a lot more in the future. i threw the kayak on the roof and drove less than a minute back to our driveway. i wanted to walk down the street with the kayak on my head, but kylie saw my wobbly start as ungainly mr. kayakhead and predicted downhill disaster. perhaps i will fashion some sort of head mount.

harrison retreat

2011-06-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

kylie and i just returned from our 27 hour retreat at harrison hot springs. kylie's mom is in town and offered to babysit ty so kylie could have her first baby free night since he was born.
we stayed at the resort in a room facing the lake. it was idyllic. having the afternoon and evening of wednesday, and the morning and afternoon of thursday available to us, we packed two full days of activities into just over a day. it is amazing how much you can do when you don't have to pack a kid and his accoutrements around.
we managed to go for two kayak trips, have a picnic on the (tiny) beach, soak in the mineral springs on four separate occasions, go out for dinner and watch (the first 2 periods of) the stanley cup final, have an amazing buffet breakfast, go out for coffee twice and afternoon tea once, go for a walk on the beach and finally go for a walk in the cheam lake wetlands.

on our excursions we saw a seal (above), a family of crested river ducks, a bunch of rabbits, a deer and two brand new fawns and a legendary sto:lo chief who was turned to stone. can you see him and his torso sticking out of the water in the below picture?
we are blessed to have such an amazing retreat less than 40 min drive from our house. thanks cherri for the babysitting!

Finally some summer weather!!!

2011-06-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Although it is cloudy tonight as I type this, we have been experiencing some lovely weather in the past couple of weeks. We have enjoyed lots of walks in the sun and even found a new one close to our house.

Shareen and Craig passed through Chilliwack last week on their way home from vacationing the states.

Here is Ty showing Auntie Shareen the path on our new walking spot along the dyke:

Ty really like to walk on our walks right now. Imagine that! He is getting better at walking with us rather than stopping to eat rocks and throw dirt. Although we have found that he is much more difficult to do come training with than Niko. ;)

Eating pulled pork sandwiches on the deck

On the second day of Shareen and Craig's visit, we walked up to the cemetery across the street from our house. It was quite hot and Marc got a sunburn on his back while weeding with Shareen. (He remembered to sunscreen his front but totally forgot that he was wearing a tank top since it has been quite a while since it has been nice enough to sport one!) Ty however was sunscreened up and down even in his hair. For some reason this hair style just makes him look brilliant. ;)

Swinging with the boys:
Ty has been to this park quite a bit since it is right across the street from our house and he is now starting to understand the concept of "going home." Every time we start walking down the path to go back home he runs the other way and as soon as he is scooped up he cries most of the way back, either hiking pitifully through his tears or letting Marc carry him home.

This particular evening he was in a delightful mood after dinner on the deck:

We have been enjoying watching (some) of the hockey games, depending on the score. :) This particular night, Vancouver won and we enjoyed the game from our deck with some friends!

"What should Mommy finish this post with? I know, I know!!! Pictures of Niko!!"

Niko has gotten his annual spring shave this week and this is by far the most beautiful he looks!! Before and After:

MUCH better than this:

UGH!!

It's Race Day!

2011-05-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

I completed my first 10k on Sunday! I never would have believed 10 years ago that I would be a runner! Okay maybe not quite a runner but perhaps a runner in training.

Crossing the finish line. The times above the finish line are not my correct time, nor is the time published online. hee hee On our way to the start line, I handed my friend Ang my bag of pins and race tracker for my shoe so I could put my ipod arm band on. When she gave handed them back to me she actually gave me hers. Thankfully she is a much better runner than me and my time looks great online!! :)

Yeah, I'm done!! I was so happy to see Marc and Ty at the finish line. Marc was very supportive of me doing this race and was ALWAYS willing to take Ty so I could go for a run. Thanks Marc!!! Little did he know that I was actually going for breve lattes.

Relaxing after the race

Ty showing he is so proud of his mama he is playing her like a drum. He also used these sticks to taser a man relaxing with his grandchildren.

Well I cannot really say that I enjoy running, but I do enjoy being done running and having to replace the calories lost with pizza and oreo ice cream sandwiches on the deck with our friends!!

Catch Up

2011-05-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

We have definitely been neglecting this ol' blog of ours but that means we were out enjoying life and there is nothing wrong with that! My dad came for a visit in April and had a great time playing with Ty and reading the same book over and over and over again. ;)
Auntie Shareen made Ty this super cute T-rex tail for his birthday. He loves it and really likes wearing it. I think he feels like a scary kid. ROOOOAAARR!
Sunny days here have been few and far between but we have definitely been spending time outside and on our patio when they do come around. Ty enjoys the patio rain or shine!!!

Ty showing Daddy his developing climbing skills.

This is the first sign of spring in our house. Marc adopts his warm weather attire - no shirt!

Ty's personality is definitely starting to emerge! He is very social, happy to be picked up by anyone. He also loves beer cans and toothbrushes at this stage. I was just remarking that although Ty doesn't take a bottle or a soother to calm down, he definitely is happiest when he has a Hell's Gate can in one hand and a toothbrush in the other. Here the toothbrush has been replaced by the mallet . . .

Wearing Mommy's hat from when she was a baby

This picture makes me chuckle every time I look at it. I shall call it "The Pantsless child enjoys his beer can while dog plays with puppy cousins stolen toy in the foreground."

Carlynne came for a visit on the May Long weekend and we got A LOT of photos and pictures hung. We love this extra homey touch for our house. Thanks so much Carlynne, we love it!!

Carlynne came up with this classy way of showcasing one of our bedouin hangings. Marc really wanted to display it, but I had deemed it too "college". She cut the centre into 4 pieces and framed them, and then flipped them ipsilaterally.
The picture to Carlynne's left is one she painted for us in Kenya. We have many fond memories of matatuing through Africa with her.
Thanks again Carlynne. Well presented.
We wish you all a wonderful last few days of May! May June bring more sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mothers Day

2011-05-09T22:39:00.001-07:00

on mothers day we went for a stroll through minter gardens and then out for a nice dinner.
bright but cloudy, and with the flowers in new bloom, it was a perfect day to take pictures.

it was a wonderful mothers day. which worked out well, because kylie is a wonderful mother.

Refinishing Furniture

2011-04-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

While Marc's parents Peter and Bette were here, we had lots of visits and spent a lot of time refinishing 4 pieces of furniture! The main piece we did was Marc's grandfather's desk. This desk came on the boat from Holland when Pete was 3. It was Marc's grandfather's office desk in Amsterdam and in Edmonton and was later used by Marc's uncles Morris and Tom and finally as Pete's studying desk while they were in university. Eventually it came down to Lethbridge to be Marc's desk growing up. We have talked about refinishing it for quite a while and finally the time has come! 3 generations sitting on the desk before the refinishing

The desk chair is from Marc's other grandfather. It was his after dinner relaxing chair in the kitchen of their farmhouse near Creelman, Saskatchewan.

The process starts . . . Here we are stripping a book shelf that has been in Ty's room and was in Marc's house growing up. Bette said she has wanted to refinish this book shelf since Marc was a baby. The little white desk Marc played with growing up.
We also cleaned up and varnished this wooden chair that we bought this summer in Lethbridge.
After stripping was finished, we started varnishing. I was very thankful for Grandpa to look after Ty during this whole process.

Marc inspecting our handiwork

The finished products! After many hours of stripping, sanding, varnishing and varnishing some more. We love these pieces!! Thanks so much for all your help Pete and Bette. Here is a before and after series of the desk and bookshelf.

The nice grain on the back of the bookshelf.

While we were at it, we also stained the babygate Marc made for Ty.

The finished chair.

Ty being entertained in his new desk.

Grandpa's desk before and after. It has a nice golden shine now, and the revealed grain is beautiful.

My favourite pieces - Daddy and son desks! So many memories in these pieces already and so many more to come!

out and about

2011-04-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

ty loves being out. outside, out to the store, out on a walk... he is much better behaved when he has a chance to get out of the house. if he can get dirty, even better. luckily we have been able to take advantage of some recent sunshine to get out to the beach.

these first few are from earlier this week.

niko and ty play their own version of fetch.

these pictures are from today. the sand is easy on niko's paws and ty loves to play in it, so we will likely be here a lot if the sun comes back.

yesterday i took ty with me to home depot. he had a great time toddling down aisles, beating carpets and putting paper in a box. it's funny, i think when i go out with ty i am the recipient of some reverse sexism or something. people love it. everybody's got something to say, to me or to ty. fun for both of us anyways.

"forget about your blinds dad. check out my sweet scraps of paper in a box!"

Visitors Galore!

2011-04-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

March has been full of visitors! No sooner had my mom got on a plane and headed back to Lethbridge, Marc's parents arrived from the windy city and his sister Shareen sailed in from Victoria.

Ty had lots of fun playing with Nana and Grandpa and going for lots of walks with Grandpa and the dogs!

We also had lots of visits with relatives and former Lethbridgians transplanted to the Fraser Valley.

Just as this party was finishing up and we were all saying goodbye in the entry way, three mystery guests arrived! Their parents don't know they're in town yet but we had a wonderful time reminiscing and catching up!

Marc's parents and Shareen are not only great to have around but they are also very handy and productive! We changed lightbulbs, filed down doorways, made granola and refinished furniture!! (Post on refinishing furniture to come!)

We did also make time to have tea downtown and watch Ty play his version of peekaboo - put the towel over your head and crawl around with your hands out hoping that your mother and aunt will set you on the right path. If you're lucky kid, if you're lucky! ;)

All in all a great week!!

Things I have loved about today . . .

2011-04-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

1. The sun, glorious sun!

2. Ty flirting with all the clerks and customers at Walmart. That boy knows how to turn it on!

3. Starting and finishing "The Blue Castle" by Lucy Maud Montgomery while sitting on the deck with Ty for two hours while he played with sticks. Why have I never heard of this book before?
Lovely!

4. Marc coming home and going for a walk in the glorious sunshine.

5. Enjoying my own "Blue Castle" on the deck of our new house with a lovely dinner of bread, meat and cheese and crackers.

mmmm Blissful. :)

life in pictures

2011-03-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

ty had a great week with grandma. he started walking, and she taught him how to go down stairs backwards and how to feed himself with a spoon.

after a recent reminder of how tasty yorkshire puddings are, kylie made a stunning first attempt. light and airy, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
just to solidify the knowledge, she followed it up with another beautiful batch the next night to go with the leftovers. fantastic.

spring has finally arrived in the valley. time for summer tires! super grip, but only over 4 degrees.

Birthday Fun!

2011-03-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Ty started out his birthday party day by showing off his new trick that Grandma taught him . . . Climbing!! :) This picture nicely encapsulates the hanging diaper as well. This is essential for climbing at the one year level.
Here is Ty's Turtle Cake. This picture captures the last couple of days here well! March Madness on in the background, Ty's birthday and what took the most time - his cake!
The guests arrived . . .
Spring is here! Enjoying our deck for the first time this year.
There were lots of kids at Ty's party and game chaos ensued. . .

Time for cake!

Mmmm Cake!

He was much more interested in cake this time, but the candle still trumped all!
Ty was excited to see all the new climbing implements (aka presents) all his guests had bought him. Seconds after this picture was taken, Ty's head made a very loud clunk on the floor. . .
Hence him double fisting cookies while opening presents . . .

Winding Down . . .

(Bonus points if you can tell me where the tape and the i phone are in this picture as well as how many children it contains.) :)

Happy Birthday Ty . . .

Sun and Son

2011-03-18T21:40:00.001-07:00

The sun finally came out this last week, just in time for us to enjoy the birthday of our son!! We have been having a great time enjoying the first glimpses of spring as well as our new one year old!!

This was Ty's first time crawling on and touching grass. He was quite tentative at first but as soon as he became accustomed to it, he was eating moss and sticks and rocks!

We have had some crazy weather here lately. Days of sun, rain, wind, hail and sometimes all at the same time!! Here it was pouring rain with some brilliant sun shining down on the valley. (In Chilliwack this is what we classify as brilliant sun. ;) We are definitely hurting in the sunshine department right now!)
Ty's had some fun playing with his older girlfriends recently . . .
And a pink and purple soother. Hmmmm

And a bit of drinking and driving . . . Uh Oh! He also happened to pour coffee all over his books and beer all over his pajamas the morning these picture were taken.

My mom arrived yesterday to help Ty celebrate his birthday.

Skyping with Nana and Grandpa, singing "Happy Birthday!"
He liked the candle more than the cake. What kind of kid doesn't like cake and icing? Not his mother's son, that's for sure!! He wouldn't even eat the icing when it was mixed in with sweet potato!!! (I am giving a lot of my bad mothering practices away in this post aren't I? Judge not lest ye be judged.) ;)

Today we were busy preparing for Ty's party tomorrow. You will have to wait to see full cake pictures later this week!

recent images

2011-03-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

finding new spots on the fraser

ty with his buddy quinton

the record amount of niko hair pulled out in a single pinch (he is blowing his coat, it's not always like that)

little peter frampton

Weekend O Visiting

2011-02-22T21:26:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Marc's sisters Shareen and Julie and Julie's lovely husband Lowell came for a visit. It was a short but sweet visit and we tried to pack a lot into two days!

On the night they arrived we had a belated birthday dinner of tacos for Shareen. I basically replicated the meal that Shareen and Craig made in Hawaii - tacos with all the fixings! (Shareen even made the guacamole for her birthday dinner!) We had chocolate chocolate cake for dessert. The cake picture is a bit shaky because Niko started howling while we were singing Happy Birthday (just like he did here) and I was laughing too hard to get a good picture.

After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon we headed out to the Cheam Lake Wetlands for a walk on a sunny Sunday.
We stopped along the way to feed Ty some applesauce and Marc, Shareen and Julie attempted to make Ty laugh during our break . . .

To no avail:

They danced:Put on music:And danced some more:He didn't even move a muscle!

"You people are crazy"

You may have noticed our cute toques in some of the pictures. Shareen made these for Julie and I (and herself of course). Aren't they cute?!!

Last night we rounded out our visiting weekend by heading to Abbotsford to visit with some old friends from Lethbridge.
I don't think Chris reads our blog anymore so he won't have the privilege of seeing this most flattering picture of him. His loss!

This is the start of our visitor season . . .we have a few more to come in the next few weeks. But let's be realistic, they aren't coming to see us, they're coming to see this guy: ;)

our dinner - a portrait

2011-02-20T11:34:00.001-08:00

Things that have made me happy this week . . .

2011-02-14T21:12:00.001-08:00

1. A surprise date with Marc for tea:

2. Ty: (Of course!)
3. A great visit with my Dad!

4. The view from Chilliwack Mountain:
5. Pictures of my niece Maria:
6. Ty laughing

7. An e-mail from our former tenant in Edmonton. We had major sewage issues when we first moved into our house in Edmonton, all of them in the basement where three very patient first year university students lived. These sewage issues involved sewage backed up into the bathtub and sewage all over their floor. I (and Bethany, Amy and Chandra)have fond memories of Marc hosing down their laundry in our backyard that had somehow become covered in poop. I also remember Bethany and I walking down the icy winter roads with a wet vac filled with sewage looking for an open sewer drain to dump it into. Bethany is now a mom and has her own tenants and sent us an e-mail this week saying they had poop problems in their basement in the first few days of having a tenant. Marc and I had a good laugh and reminisced about our Edmonton house and being first time land lords cleaning up poop and cigarettes in our basement. We feel for you Bethany and pass the methane fueled torch to you! Oh the memories.

Crazy Child

2011-02-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in a previous post, Ty has a new picture taking face. He does it all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean ALL THE TIME!!!! As soon as he sees the camera he looks at it and makes this face. I think it has something to do with the light that comes on first (although he does it with my iphone too and there is no light on that one) but I also think he takes after me and my love of making faces for the camera. Crazy kid!

I took this set tonight:

Here's a couple more:

There are some pictures of Ty not making faces. Here he is brushing his tooth for the first time. He has also discovered drawers. Uh Oh!

extreme makeover: home edition

2011-01-31T23:04:00.000-08:00

after four months in our new house our kitchen is finally the way we want it. we still have to hang a few pictures and hooks, but looking back at the before shots, the difference is striking.

here is the kitchen and living room when we looked at the house this past summer.

now here is the same space in the winter after much work.

here is an example of the pink tile so beloved by the house's original owners. floor, counter and backsplash. also around the fireplace and in the window wells.

the new tiles come in lots of colours, but no pink.
kylie came up with the idea and the colours for the backsplash, but we had professionals come in to tear out the old tile, cut out and replace the drywall and then install a backsplash more in line with our sensibilities.
it sounds weird when you describe it as a bunch of colours of tile randomly placed with a bit of stainless steel thrown in for sparkle (or flair... we have at least 11 pieces of flair). but we like it, and we're the ones that count i guess.

tyrn likes it too.

now on to the garage. my goal here was to come out with a burst of constructive energy early in our tenure on little mountain, creating an effective work space in the garage to facilitate projects elsewhere in the house and yard. it took a little longer than i had hoped, but after turning this space:

into this space,

it was much easier to turn this side of the garage into efficient storage.
building the shelves was extremely enjoyable. 2x4s and wood screws are like lego for adults; with the added pleasure of a cordless impact driver. it was nice to have the island cabinets from the original kitchen to remount and store cleaning products, toxic chemicals, painting supplies and lightbulbs in.

we still have lots of room on the shelves.

in closing i will offer two pictures of our latest pastime. watching ty take my toque off.

it is just a little bit longer than his arms, but he is getting the knack.
other than playing with ty, our days lately have been spent working, running in the woods with niko, organizing the house, reading, cooking tasty meals and eating lots of chocolate. can't complain. it was even sunny today. life is good.

Catch Up

2011-01-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

We have been neglecting our blogging duties as of late. I am getting over my "man cold" (Marc's words not mine, that he quickly "ate" after seeing me incapacitated on the couch vomiting and coughing up a lung) ;) and we are getting used to the January days of rain. We haven't brought our camera too many places lately. I even forgot it when I went to Lethbridge just after Christmas. Ty enjoyed lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Maria. (Oh and Uncle Brad and Auntie Raquel too!)Here are a few pics of my trip there:

While I was gone, Marc got lots done around this house. Including this: Look familiar?

Ty received a new car for Christmas from my mom. (Hopefully I won't be typing that after his 16th birthday!) I didn't bring it home with me because of its size. Although my mom did ask if I could bring it as my carry on. Ummm no. ;) Ty was so excited to see his car in Chilliwack when he woke up from his nap. He's a crazy kid! (Not so much a baby anymore!)*

*I must admit after re-reading this I noticed that my predilection towards brackets is out of control this post!!! Send help.

country roads

2011-01-20T20:59:00.001-08:00

malak aleki maka*

2010-12-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!!! The G family of 3 celebrated our Christmas in Chilliwack this year by ourselves. We had a really nice week this week paired nicely with visiting and enjoying decorating our new house and eating the 3 C's. (I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 3 C's at Christmas- Chocolate, Christmas baking and Cheese!!!)

Lights at Minter Gardens
Visiting
"Come on Santa, let's go for a ride!"

Marc and I and Ty went to church last night then came home, put Ty to bed and had fondue and opened presents. If you look closely you will see what was supposed to be brie fondue transformed into a brie pancake. ;)
Before Church we attempted to take the obligatory in front of the tree shot with the camera. It's a good thing we have many years to perfect these!

On Christmas Eve, UPS came through and delivered the stocking my Granny knit for Ty. Thanks Granny, we love it!! You can't see it in the picture but his name is knit in green on the top.

For Christmas this year, Ty gave me the gift of starting to make faces for the camera:

*This post was supposed to be the second post about Hawaii but I got carried away with Christmas pictures. We are enjoying being a family of three this Christmas and feel very blessed this year!

**I bought Marc a remote control helicopter for Christmas and didn't realize it came with missiles and he is currently shooting me with them. If this post seemed hurried and disjointed, blame him!

Check this out!

2010-12-18T10:20:00.001-08:00

Our friend Duane who took our great family pictures this summer is raising money for our brother in law Lowell. Lowell is legally blind and Duane is trying to experience what Lowell experiences by wearing modified glasses for two weeks. Check out Duane's blog and explanation of his initial plan here and updates here.

On another note we are back from Hawaii and entering Christmas craziness!!! Check back for more pictures soon.

tropical g family christmas

2010-12-10T00:01:00.001-08:00

since our last post, the entire G family has arrived in maui. my parents, sisters and all of their husbands are all here and we are living as one happy family in the penthouse of the kamaole beach royale. it is a beautiful space with a huge rooftop balcony overlooking the ocean.
we have been seriously active here, with every day containing snorkelling and boogieboarding and walks on the beach. we have a longboard, but havent been surfing yet, as all the surfable waves have been huge and crowded with people who know what they're doing.

my dad is typically a pretty cautious guy, but give him a boogie board and he is out there getting pounded by the waves, even when the signs say, "caution! dangerous shore break."

i love this picture; my sister carlynne, arising from a tumble, taking a breath and not aware that she is about to be destroyed by 2 back to back waves taller than her.

yesterday we went snorkelling and rented an underwater camera.
we took a few pictures of fish, but mostly took pictures of eachother underwater. everyone knows what tropical fish look like.

a few nights ago we had our family christmas. my mom cooked up her classic christmas dinner and ty opened his first christmas present.

kylie put the entire dinner in the magic bullet and fed it to ty. it was a hit.

my sister julie is a great photographer and took some fantastic pics of ty on the beach. you can see more of her pictures on her blog.

this is tyrn immediately after he had been swamped by a wave but before he started to cry. pure surprise.

did i mention our balcony has a hottub? ty and i have enjoyed boozing it up while discussing fiscal policy and renal physiology with dan.

finally i have to make everyone aware that krups espresso machines can spontaneously explode, covering the entire kitchen in coffee grounds, burning your forehead and making you swear in front of your mother.

welcome to maui

2010-12-03T23:11:00.001-08:00

i think i see hawaii mommy!

yep, definitely hawaii.

do we have to wait 30 minutes before swimming daddy?

with a relative paucity of randomized controlled trials on the subject of postprandial oceanic intestinal spasms causing accidental aqueous asphyxiation, i say go for it son!

ok dad!

ty loves the beach!

Fairweather Bloggers

2010-11-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

We have been fairweather bloggers as of late, I was thinking about why tonight and while I can come up with many reasons - busy moving, putting our house together and many guests and visitors, I think the main reason is that Ty is becoming SO MUCH fun!! Both Marc and I are enjoying him so much right now, he is crawling and laughing and clapping and waving and both Marc and I are completely enthralled with him!

My dad came for a visit a little while ago and Ty really enjoyed his time with Grandpa. We enjoyed going for walks and my dad bought Ty a toy that he loves!

I made baby food with my friend Launa, her little guy is 10 days younger than Ty, he is pulling himself up to stand on furniture. Here is Ty trying to learn the basics.
Ty really likes blueberries. So does his chin.

And for some very strange reason that is only contained in his baby brain, he has started squinting his eyes and screeching.

We haven't posted pictures of our house yet, it is still a work in progress but here you can see our kitchen/living room area. We had a grambelkwaak dinner the other night (that is a combination of our last names, so fun!) and there were 10 people here for dinner. I love having a bigger room for hosting!

We are headed to Hawaii next week, whoo hoo!! We will think of you all while we are laying on the beach in the sunshine. ;)

valley to sea to sky

2010-11-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

last week on a sunny wednesday i drove up the newly improved sea to sky highway to squamish to have our subaru's suspension serviced and also to do some biking.

it was a beautiful day and i pedaled from the shop through the woods and out to alice lake, up a hill and down a trail called "hidden squirrel, flying monkey"; it sent this monkey flying more than once.
it was so fun i went back and did a second loop down "midlife crisis", impervious to the irony as i am only 32... even though the purpose of the trip was to work on my sports car.

i made it home in time to go for a walk with kylie, ty and niko at sunset. kylie used to fret about me being on the highway all day, but not anymore now that lowell has introduced our family to mobile me. kylie can just press a few buttons on her phone and locate me on google maps at any time.

the next day i was wondering where kylie was in the process of picking up her dad, so i checked. here she is parked in the handicapped spot right in front of the airport doors. crazy eh?

we are catching up in our lives, but still way behind in our posting. i know that the citizens have been agitating for pictures of our new house, but that is still a ways off. we are not done renos yet and we still have yet to chronicle kylie's dad's visit. however our bedroom is mostly together, so i will put up a picture of that to get the ball rolling.

november sunshine

2010-11-03T18:06:00.001-07:00

there is sunshine in chilliwack and we are finally feeling settled and a bit more peaceful in our new place. currently we have no kitchen sink and our backsplash and fireplace are ugly, but otherwise our house is fully functional. niko has been getting gypped in his walks recently so yesterday kylie and ty and i had a picnic on a beach by the fraser.
there were lots of dead salmon scattered about, but niko didnt roll in ANY of them. good boy.

this morning after my night shift i took niko mountain biking for the first time in months. replacing biking, my recent hobbies have included renovating, unpacking boxes and yardcare.

today was a gorgeously sunny day and the moist earth and newly fallen leaves made for great (albeit slightly unpredictable) riding.

on the way home i had a bizarre craving for mcdonalds fries and stopped in (covered in mud) just after school let out. it was an interesting cultural experience, akin to spying on a junior high cafeteria i suppose, but feeling like i was in a different country observing a foreign people (none of THEM were covered in mud).

finally, watching the sun set on the valley from our new deck was spectacular. we are really digging this new house, and the view from our kitchen and living room is one of the best parts.

Craziness

2010-10-30T18:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a bit insane around here lately between moving, renovations and cursing every piece of technology that has been installed or purchased for this house. (This includes 3 iphones, Bell Cable, Shaw Cable, a landline, a lawn mower, 2 computer chargers and a mastercard machine.) **No we didn't purchase a mastercard machine, mine just rendered one absolutely useless. After a week of having TV, phones and computers stop working on us, I told the clerk that it was me and I should probably not touch anything else in the store - especially since it was a phone store!!)

There is currently an oven, sink and gas range on our porch. (If you are my facebook friend you already know that!) We will hopefully done major renos to our new house next week and I will post some pictures. We are loving our new place and are enjoying settling in. In between the craziness my mom came for a visit and we headed back to Lethbridge while Marc went to Alaska. (I apologize to those of you I did not see in Lethbridge, I kept this to a family only visit.) :)

Grandma feeding Ty in our new kitchen

Mr. Blue Eyes

We still have to go for walks (poor us) because of Niko Bear. The weather was beautiful when my mom was here.

My mom and I headed to Lethbridge. Here we are waiting at the Abbotsford airport. Ty wanted to share my apple.
We spent Thanksgiving with my family and Raquel's family. Here is my lovely niece Maria.

And my papa.
Julie, Lowell and I got out for a walk one day and went to Broxburn Restaurant to celebrate Julie's birthday. Afterwards we picked strawberries and posed Ty in the pumpkin patch.

Here's to less craziness and more posting this coming month. Happy Halloween everyone!

great white north

2010-10-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

last week fraser, arie and myself met up in whitehorse, rented a sweet RV and drove up over the pass and down to the coast. ostensibly we were fishing for coho salmon on the rivers of haines, alaska, but really we were just hanging around outside watching the eagles and the bears.

chilkoot lake, where we camped for the majority of our trip.

it's a good thing that the fishing was more of an excuse than a reason, b/c the coho declined to show up this year, or at least not in numbers that made them easy to yank out of the water. there were a few fish in the river, as the bears can attest.

grizzlies came down to the river every day to fish for salmon. we were privileged to watch a mamma bear fishing while her cubs gambolled on the river's edge. she did a bit of teaching, but mostly the cubs played while she trolled the river.

there's mamma on the right, with one of the cubs sitting on a stump on the left bank.

here is arie and i fishing the chilkoot river just downstream from the bears. i neglected to take a picture of the bald eagles, but they were continually swooping up and down the valley fishing and irritating the resident gulls.

arie got fed up with not catching anything and tried the bear's method to no avail.

after striking out on the chilkoot, we drove to the other side of haines and tried our luck on the wide and shallow chilkat. nothing there either, but the views were great.

after returning across the mountains and camping illicitly in kluane national park we dropped arie off at the airport and proceeded to lake laberge, where we didnt fish at all.

finally fraser and i returned to whitehorse to prowl the antique shops, visit some of his old friends and explore the nearby canyon.

so, no fish, but still a great fishing trip... as fraser and arie kept repeating, "a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work!" amen.

Bathroom Reno

2010-09-17T21:39:00.001-07:00

Marc and I just took possession of a new house. We CANNOT wait to do our bathroom like this!!

My Summer Vacation by Tyrn James

2010-09-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is Ty weighing in for the first time on mom and dad's blog. It is almost my six month birthday and mom has spent the past six months teaching me to read and write. Here is my debut essay, fitting for the first week of school . . . I cannot believe that my first summer has already gone by. It was a busy one! Mom and Dad took me many places - Idaho, Yellowstone and now Lethbridge and Edmonton. I saw lots of my favourite relatives this vacation. **

Like Grandma!

And Grandpa!

And Nana and Grandpa.

And Auntie Julie.
I love men with beards. They make me giggle. Uncle Brad's beard gave me a laughing fit, so did cousin Nevin's!

I met my namesake Tyrn. He saw in me the potential to become a drum superstar and gave me my first drum lesson. First lesson: How to suck the sticks.

I also met Ty's mom - Grandma Deb. She LOVES me! What's not to love though!
This vacation involved many firsts for me . . .

I tried rice cereal for the first time.

Had my inaugaural trip to Jasper.
Saw mommy and daddy's old house.

Visited LOTS of people. Mom and Dad know too many people. I obliged them and was very cooperative and acted cute and cooed for them all.

Mom and Dad played Outburst with their friend. Take a look at this card, it made them all laugh. I don't really get it - Who the heck is Warren Beatty?

Oh I almost forgot! In the middle of our family vacation we had family pictures with the big G's! (That is how I refer to daddy's side of the family.) It was rainy and cold - 6 freakin' degrees! (Oh sorry, mommy doesn't like it when I talk like that) I was freezing but I cooperated to the best of my ability - I am only six months you know!
You can look at Auntie Julie and Uncle Lowell's blog if you want to see more pictures.

The next few months will be busy for mom and dad - they are moving into a new house!! I refuse to pack any boxes but I might help them out by learning how to crawl and mess up some cupboards for them!

**I have become THAT mother!!! The one who narrates for my children and makes it sound so cheesy. No more I vow, no more! This will be my one and only Ty narration. ;)

maria aliciana

2010-09-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

today tyrn met his new cousin maria for the first time.

she makes him look like a giant.

brad and raquel are happy and confident parents. they are obviously in love.

welcome to the world maria!

august activities

2010-08-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

here, on one of the last days of a beautiful august, is a quick photojournal of our recent lives in chilliwack.
we have been eating LOTS of wild salmon. the sockeye run in the fraser this year is the biggest since 1913 or something crazy like that. i am going fishing for alaskan koho with fraser and arie in october, so i though i had better refine my gutting and filleting techniques.
kylie refused to take more than a couple pictures of me. she missed the actual gutting process, which was quite fascinating.
i picked this salmon up on the reserve. it had come out of the river 2 hours earlier and made a fantastic dinner. we just threw it on a cedar plank with some butter and salt and pepper and let the salmon shine. i need sharper knives if i am going to do this more often.

ty and i have enjoyed playing with our toys and wiggling around on the floor.

although i havent been biking as much this summer as last summer, i have still gotten in some big rides with my buddy chris and my other buddy niko. chad and i made it out to whistler to bike the park once, and i hope to get out again to do some xc with julie.
speaking of chad, he is now famous in the fraser valley for his pork displaying abilities.

last monday i skipped out of work early to attend our friend mark and nadia's wedding on jericho beach.
it was a beautiful day, nadia was a beautiful bride and the setting was fantastic (as was the food). the groom's dutch family and the bride's italian family had great fun together.
ty got to hang out with his buddy quinton. below you can see ty transferring his cold to quinton and his family.
back when i went to UBC and stephen and amber lived just up the street, we used to come to jericho beach a lot, but we hadnt been back for a while. it was nice to stroll on the beach with brad and launa in our wedding finery.

the next day we loaded up the subaru and began our drive out to alberta.
we stopped for a hike in lake louise. kylie almost drowned in the dreaded lake louise beach sand, but luckily got away with only sandy pants and a dirty camera.

we drove out to moraine lake and then on to banff where we picked up dinner and wandered around the town.
now we are back in lethbridge and my cousin giselle's wedding is today. julie, lowell and i are doing the photography and video, so it's going to be a busy southern alberta cowboy wedding. yeehaw!

Dwindling Days of Summer

2010-08-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Oh how it pains me to type that title. We have been trying to enjoy the last days of summer to their fullest. Last week our friends Josh and Aaron and Hav and Scott came from the Sudan (via the Island), Coaldale (via Singapore) and Edmonton respectively and met up in the Wack.
The last time Josh, Aaron and Marc were together was in Singapore.

Here is Aaron, Josh, Marc and Tyrn. Tyrn has shrunk considerably since their 10713 days.

I also spent this past weekend in Victoria visiting Shareen and Craig. We had a lovely time and lovely weather!
Shareen took me out to the Blue Fox for breakfast. mmmmmm I had Oranges del Sol French toast - oranges, pecans and vanilla sour cream on french toast. Delectable!Shareen had their breakfast special with homemade Peach Rhubarb jam.

There was an International Dragon Boat festival in Victoria this weekend. It was so hot, I was ready to jump in from the dock here and swim to their boat to join them.

Ty enjoyed playing with Auntie Shareen!

We went out for breakfast again on Sunday. (Marc and I also went out for breakfast this morning! I sense a summer trend!)

I know ALL mothers say this but I must say mon petit bambino is pretty darn cute.

Please don't eat me Niko! ;)

To finish this post - a totally random picture. We purchased a new ladder from Costco last weekend (we also got card, yipeee!! Bring on the extraneous spending) This is the second time in 6 years that Marc has changed this lightbulb in our hallway. The first time he balanced precariously on the wall and the bannister and I thought I was going to become a widow, hence I have banned him from changing the bulb. We now can actually see in our stairwell at night. Revolutionary!

hiking near our house

2010-08-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

chilliwack has easy access to world class hiking and i have been able to take advantage of that this summer. in the past 2 weeks, i have gone into the mountains with our friend steve (and kylie), some friends from work, chris and mike, and with aaron, who we just picked up from the airport, straight off the plane from singapore.
our visit with steve was short but fun. we were crunched for time, but still managed to get up into the woods for a stroll up the vedder ridge trail. there is a beautiful section where you can amble through a magical elven forest.

here is kylie laughing while her baby rolls down the steep rock.

the next day chris, mike and i went back up airplane creek to climb mt stewart and revisit baby munday.

the day was seriously clear and gorgeously sunny. the newly melting serc shined a crystalline blue.

our destination ahead. mt stewart.

climbing the initial spire

a view from the top of the next peaks that beckon, foley and welch.

the view to the north

back down and heading to baby munday. we were boot skiing, so chris is waaay ahead at the end of the snowfield, but we caught up in a minute or two.

some hardy flowers, to be so lush in an otherwise barren landscape.

from this side, the correct route up baby munday was obvious, and it was a quick scramble to the peak.

from the top we had a great view of the other side of mt stewart that we had just climbed.

from baby munday we made our way down into the next col, boot skied down to the waiting trail and pinned it back down the slippery steep trail to the waiting 4runner. two peaks and a loop through the alpine, some hiking, some snow travel and some scrambling. what a great day!

finally, our friend aaron flew around the world from singapore to taipei to vancouver. it is nice that, simply by virtue of living close to canada's gateway to the pacific, we are the default family to gently ease aaron through his jet lag.

we did this by staying up late and talking, and stimulating his mind during the new day (his night) with misty alpine environments.

niko, get off the tunnel! you're going to crush us!

i said get off the tunnel!

i took aaron up lady peak, in the cheam range. it was a beautiful hike that turned into a light scramble. it was cloudy, so the views weren't great, but the mist made for a surreal solitary atmosphere.
niko LOVED ripping around on the snowfields. i was a bit concerned about him sliding down the snowslopes, but i needn't have worried. he has four wheel drive with claws (do you remember "the animal" toy monster truck?)
we did some boot skiing on the snow, but niko preferred us walking and kept trying to stop aaron.

all told, it was great to see aaron again, and to see how much he enjoyed ty. we will get to see him one more time before he goes back to distant asia.