august, 2004

august 22

hooray! i finally had a website reshuffle - something i've been meaning to do for over a year. hopefully it's a bit more clear, but it'll probably be irritating for a while if you were used to the way it was. i've tried to make what has been updated recently a little more clear.
the code is no more compliant of course - maybe next year!

i've also added all the photos from our road trip to calgary so there are lots of new pages on the 2004 media gallery page.

august 18

we had a GREAT time at ikea last night. we're planning on making it a weekly outing. we went to a big one in coquitlam - about 20 minutes away (rather than our usual one 10 mins away). the playroom is amazing. the restaurant has a great view of the road and parking lot for toby and disney movies playing for aly. we had dinner together then dropped the children off (you get 60 mins of childcare there rather than the usual 45 - hooray!). i did a quick shop while sascha got the tea and coffee and then we sat down and talked to each other for 45mins. [weird!]. so everyone's happy :-)

well, i was going to try and get our holiday photos up [i'm allowed to go back to saying holidays instead of vacation now we're in canada!] but life just keeps getting in the way. i've saved about 25 of them which would good if there weren't 6 times that many - i think we got a little carried away for a week's holiday.

it's been a very complicated/hectic week filled with recruitment all around. this board position at the family place suddenly got very time-consuming. good practice for getting a real job soon-ish i suppose.

rumour has it that the drakes are paying us a visit. naturally, i'll believe it when i see it, but i'm remaining optimistically excited since we haven't seen them for 4 years and haven't met ethan. [you HAVE to come now damien].

august 10

well, my baby has gone to preschool for the first time. they're both in summer camp preschool afternoons this week. it's very strange without them both. i had great plans for scrapbooking the week away, but i'll be lucky to get anything done at this rate. email to check, websites to update, photos to put onto the computer, resumes to write, 2 weeks worth of housework which desperately needs doing, a car which still needs to be fixed, bla bla bla. oh well. anyway, toby seems to be ok with preschool and also appears to be potty trained[-ish]. he's still not that consistent about asking, but combined with our diligence, no more training diapers/underwear are really required. with that done and the sippy cups and highchair all but finished with, it's really starting to feel like we have a family with children rather than toddlers. it's definitely sad in a way, but there's always the upside of life having got a hell of a lot easier to cheer you up!

august 8

we made it back from the wilderness yesterday evening :-) 2800kms later. ok, so we only actually spent one night in a tent, but in all fairness we only spent one night in a hotel.

for anyone not interested in the most minute details of this trip, you might want to wait for another update, otherwise read on...!

after a 9hr drive to yahk [near cranbrook] to meet tonya, we failed to find them. our mysterious instructions to look for an orange bag [which apparently they leave out for themselves because it's so hard to find] on majestic dr. turned up nothing after about 10 very slow drives up and down the entire road. it was then pitch black and it was highly unlikely we were about to suddenly find them, so we found the nearest campground and set up the tent etc. by the light of the car headlights. next day, sascha left early to continue trawling up and down majestic. still no sign. also no cellphone signals so no way of contacting them. after breakfast, we decided to explore yahk [which took 3 minutes], creston [1 hour, including an ice cream in a very nice community garden and some quick shopping] then headed up to east kootney lake for some swimming. the lake and beach were great, if a little hectic on the busiest week of the year. i managed to get bitten 13 times on the way back to the car [no one else got touched naturally].

we decided to have another drive down majestic, followed by a visit to the US border crossing 2 minutes down the road [because majestic dr really was starting to get dull]. it was on the way back to majestic from the border crossing [and therefore approaching from a different direction] that we finally noticed a big green rubber ring on a stick - not on majestic at all, but on the main road - just AFTER majestic. upon closer inspection - the rubber ring appeared to say 'SASCHA AND PETA!' and be next to the infamous orange bag. AHA! we drove along the very overgrown lane for a while, followed the squished grass around to the left and finally found their little camp and cabin. as sascha pointed out, we should have been driving around with the windows down so we could hear the really really loud, bad music. it was quite the gathering - 15 of us all together - andre - the cabin owner, bart, tonya and the girls, bart's brother scott and their friends - another family of 5. we had a lovely evening - dinner and a campfire. the children had the run of the place which they loved. we opted to sleep in a spare camper rather than our tent. it was very fortunate that we did since it absolutely poured [for the first time in about 3 months!] down during the night and all through the next day.

next day we had a wonderful homemade breakfast in yahk after frightening the owner the death asking for a table for 8 - i think it only seats about 16 in total. her response was 'OH MY.. i'm on my own'. anyway, with a little help from the regulars who helped with clearing tables and pouring coffee [actually - one poured coffee into my tea, but i won't quibble] she did a wonderful job. since it was raining we decided to head straight for calgary rather than going the long way via radium hot springs.

calgary was great. the first day we did the olympic plaza [i got to do a short skeleton run - the luge but head-first - i decided feet first was surely only for wimps ;-) ], calgary tower, eau claire market, rode the c-train [which is free downtown], sunset at the heritage park lake and a wonderful go-cart track on the way back. toby did a double cart on the big track with sascha which he loves and aly tootled around the small track by herself in a kid cart. when toby and sascha joined us, the girl [who was obviously enjoying her smoke break and catching up on her cellphone messages while it was quiet] started up a cart for toby. his steering was not quite as professional as aly's but he got the hang of it and i think there was only one major collision despite it looking like it would result in disaster every time they were near each other!

next day we travelled all the way in on the train and hung out at the science centre for most of the day which was great. toby LOVED 'adrenaline rush' an imax movie about parachuting, base-jumping etc. which he is still going on about.

the roys returned home from their camping trip late that night via a trip to the hospital to sort out bart's arm [after a long session at a local pub, he seems to have fallen in the campfire -doh!]. the kids got to play together that evening and the next morning and then it was time to head back to vancouver.

although the weather had been good in calgary - despite spectacular electrical storms each night - the weather forecast was really bad, so after failing to find a camping cabin available, we succumbed to the allure of a hotel and booked one halfway home in revelstoke in glacier national park. on the way back we went to banff for a wonder around, lunch and a trip up a mountain overlooking the town, and then paddled in lake louise - both of which were busy but beautiful - especially the amazing turquoise lakes. after that, we headed for revelstoke and were very glad we had a hotel to go to.

last day, apart from a short stop at the museum where they drove the last spike to join the 2 halves of the national railway we drove straight through [of course, there was the obligatory stop at tim ho's in kamloops for doughnuts] but decided to stop at dinotown in bridal falls near chilliwack for a couple of hours. after a short hike up to the falls, we got into dinotown for half price with only 2 hours opening left. we were wondering whether we should camp nearby for the night so we could have a full day there the following day. but we were very glad we didn't - it was perfect for a 2 and 4 yr old for a couple of hours though and we didn't have to worry about losing each other since you could pretty much see each other. toby was in heaven because he could play miniature golf to his heart's content. we managed to get home in an hour from there and happily fell into bed. the end.

august 1

well, after a last minute decision late on friday afternoon, we're driving to calgary tomorrow. by tomorrow afternoon we should have made it to osoyoos and by evening be in the kootenays [yahk to be precise] [these names - really!]. we're going to spend a couple of days camping there with sascha's sister tonya and family [gasp! - anyone who knows me well is going be ASTOUNDED that i've agreed to go camping in the middle of nowhere]. then we're going to borrow their house in calgary for a couple of days while we look around the city [possibly via radium hot springs]. on the way back we should be visiting banff, with a possible stop-off at dinoworld on the way home!

with only 1 days planning i'm feeling a little under-equipped, but i should be used to it by now, so i'm sure it'll be fine :-)

anyway, this means that anyone who was expecting to hear from me or see me next week won't - especially since cellphone signal is apparently non-existent.

we should be back next weekend with lots of photos to put on unblog.

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