Yesterday my great uncle Gordon all the way from East End, Saskatchewan showed up for a visit. This was the first time that he had met Alice and Carter and Nathan. He is my grandmother’s brother (father’s uncle).
Uncle Gordon and the boys
Gramma and Newt (my step grandfather) and annoying little dog.
NO SPOILERS IN THE THIS POST!
Knowing that it would be a matter of time before the internet or television would reveal all about the latest Harry Potter saga I put all my Muggle energy into finishing before that happened. Alice polished off the book last weekend and I had been chipping away slowly each day trying to savour the read but I reached a critical point where I was enraptured and needed to keep reading. That point came last night about 9 pm after putting Nathan to bed. At 4:50 AM this morning I was finished. Enjoyed it but won’t say anymore out of respect for those of you who are reading it and leading normal lives at the same time.
Now what do I do for the rest of the summer?
A shot of the boys with their Grampa also known as Ampa
Yesterday we loaded up the whole fam damily and headed off to Prince George to do some shopping and visiting Brad and his two little ones Olina and Maya.
We first met up at Burger King (Quesnel does not have one) for a “flame broiled” burger which after a year in China tasted really darn good. Nathan seemed to take on a new personality there
Brad and I took all the kids (incl. cousin Marshall) over to Bubba Baloo’s which is a huge playground/daycare/arcade/laser tag place. They spent almost 4 hours running, jumping, sliding and enjoying other assorted merriment while Alice and my mom shopped with my dad as their chauffeur. Sadly we forgot to bring the camera to Bubba Baloo’s (which Maya calls Bubba Balloon’s).
After Bubba Baloo’s we hit Costco and dropped a huge wad o’ cash and then had dinner at the Fortune Palace chinese restaurant. Yup .. Maple Leafers on holidays eat Chinese food.
Maya and Carter had a blast the entire day and played very well together. We asked him if Maya was his girlfriend and he said maybe. There was discussion that Hailey or Maya could be his girlfriend and that Magnus was his good friend but he was a “man”.
My lovely wife Alice had a great idea today - a picnic lunch in the park downtown. She made a great healthy lunch complete with some tasty (unhealthy) treats. We took Nathan, Carter and my 8 year old nephew Marshall. All had a great time with everyone doing their favourite things (Marshall and Carter playing and fighting over the slide, Nathan eating and sleeping).
These are the days to keep in mind when then winter winds set in.
Saturday morning the whole family got up bright and early, downed some breakfast and then headed downtown to watch the Billy Barker Days Parade. Will post a follow up with some video of the riveting action but this one is just a photojournal. Carter enjoyed it as a veteran of 2 BBDays parades whereas Nathan’s rookie status led him to be more wide eyed (I don’t count the newborn summers). When asked if he liked it Nathan replied a definite “Nnnnnn.”
Da Boys
Alice, Carter and my aunt Dale
Our city’s float
Kelowna’s kicked our .. well .. you know
Billy Barker himself sporting a Dong Bei sized head
Possibly Carter’s favourite float
“The Wagon” - fell off it many times
An entrant into the Thursday night “Crash to Pass” stock car race
A staple at every parade since I can remember - “Ol Red” old style logging truck
This past Friday the Potters4 (Carol, Grant, Gabriel and Lydia with nephew Jake in tow) plus the Helgasons (Brad, Maya, Olina and grandma Carol) came down to Billy Barker Days for Kids Day in the Park. With all the kids, the events and the sharing of memories it made for one hectic outing but it was totally fun. We laughed, we ate and we reminisced. The Potters4 seemed healthy and happy which was great to see after a year of absence and the Helgasons look not much different then they did 2 weeks ago when we last saw them.
Jake, Grant, me and Carol with Carter hanging out in front.
Lydia Potter (no relation to Harry)
Tiny Bubbles with Carter, Nathan and Maya
For more photos see Carol’s blog Cafe Catharsis
My 3rd annual attempt at the Billy Barker Days Goldrush Fun Run was a success despite the aches my body is having right now. The year of ball hockey and roller hockey seems to have paid off as I went 2 minutes faster than last year finishing in a time of 29 minutes and 11 seconds finishing 2nd in my age group for a second year. The last hill (HeartAttack Hill) is a torturous affair at about 200 m long or so. Resorted to walking for several paces as the heart rate got too high.
It was great to run faster and to see the progression (2005 - 33 minutes, 2006 - 31 minutes and 2007 - 29 minutes) and also to catch up with some of my old running and triathlon friends whom I only see once a year. Also got a great draw prize this year winning a $10 gift certificate to A&W for some “quality” training food.
No photos exist of me running (thank goodness) but I snapped a photo of the treasure of memories
Clockwise from top left - 2nd place medal, race number, map of race route, A&W gift certificates and the race t-shirt.
So .. 27 minutes next year? Well .. I will be in the 40 - 49 and this year 27 minutes would have got me 3rd place in that category.
Day #1 of Billy Barker Days did not disappoint. The forecasted rain held off for the morning allowing us some fun in the sun playtime. Nathan had unfortunately fallen asleep and with a break in the clouds Alice, Carter and I headed for the park and the amusement park rides. Carter had a great great time. Today was buy a bracelet for the princely sum of $25 and then you could ride all day. This lasted from 10 AM until about 1pm when the skies opened up and we fled the park.
The photos capture the story
Showing the bracelet (not taking the Maple Leaf new teacher’s oath)
This ride is LAME!!! What am I 2 over here?
This is a little bit better!
The flying Heffalump!
Lovin’ this Billy Barker Days thing
Hope tomorrow is as much fun.
I am sure that we all know the story of the little boy who cried wolf. If you don’t then I can only ask where you spent your childhood - in the caves with Osama? The reason I bring up this story is because I am about to do similar and state for the 3rd time on this blog that Nathan is walking. Yeah yeah .. been there, heard that before but below we have real video footage of his new found mode of transportation.
Alice and I just capped off a 3 day trip to Vancouver for the purpose of attending Chris Loewen and Millie Mung’s wedding. Besides the wedding we shopped like fools, ate well and felt guilt for leaving the kids so long with their Amma and Ampa in Quesnel. They were very very excited to see us return.
The wedding was a great affair held downtown at the Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant where I got to try Shark Fin Soup for the first (and last) time. Nice to dine on a predator that would do likewise to me but it wasn’t to my liking.
Millie’s father Frank stole the show with his speech. A laugh a minute affair.
We also had a small mini Maple Leaf reunion seeing some folks we haven’t seen in a few years. Nice to see Caleb and Tasha, Vincie, Allie Brett and Paul Hughes, Kathleen, Tracey, Kevin and Michelle and Mr. Simon Kissinger.
Some photos . . .
Alice in downtown Vancouver.
Us with the bride and groom
Same group plus some dude I don’t know.
Drunkle Gabe
Lucy Liu or Millie Mung?
Mmmm .. lobster with teflon coated chopsticks. Like real bumpkins we didn’t see the lobster forks until after
Tres Hombres
Tracey and new baby Joshua
Frank Mung - local star!
Parents of the groom
Write your own caption!
Having once met THE Angus Reid (he still calls them Angus Reid surveys rather than “my” surveys - creepy eh?) I feel qualified to ask the following question. Yes Craig this is in reference to your Lemonade/Pink Lemonade poll. Yup .. I have finally reached the point of not having ANY idea what to put on this blog.
Anyhoo ….
Ma and Pa’s house now has a trampoline for Carter to enjoy and he has taken full advantage. Thank goodness it has a netting around it cause the 3rd bounce he took he went head long into the netting and that woulda been a cracked skull or lost tooth or some other summer calamity.
The only problem now is that with the jet lag when Carter wakes up at 3 am he wants to go and play on the trampoline.
The marathon journey is at an end but the jetlag adjustment has just begun. From door to door it took us about 25 hours to get to Ma and Pa’s in the great old town of Quesnel.
We were greeted by smiling faces and warm hugs. A great homecoming. Only wish our tired bodies could handle it a bit better. The boys did fairly well considering the hell we put them through. Carter had his breakdown when we were on the Quesnel flight that unfortunately does a landing in Williams Lake before landing in Quesnel. It was all the little guy could handle .. a 4th takeoff in 24 hours is enough plane action for anyone especially a 3 year old.
The Tokyo-Vancouver flight was almost deserted with only about 10% of the seats occupied so the kids (and parents) were able to stretch out and catch some ZZZZ’s. It was tough watching the other Maple Leaf teachers load aboard the 6 pm flight knowing we weren’t leaving for another 3 hours but the layover was great for the boys to run (and crawl) around. Nathan even took the opportunity to learn how to stand up by himself. Carter enjoyed the Disney Channel movies and he managed to get about 6 hours of sleep on the flight which was huge! (We shan’t mention the #2 accident in the middle of his sleep forcing us to throw out a pair of shorts)
Anyhow .. we all got to bed at around 11pm last night and we were all up at around 2 am (Carter waiting until 3 am to arise). Nathan and I lasted until 5 am and crashed .. Alice and Carter hit the wall at around 7 am. Nathan arose again only to go down about a half hour ago. Jetlag for one or even two adults is easy to figure out but add 2 little guys in there and it is chaos.
I know .. ramble ramble ramble .. I am a zombie right now so should sign off.
Looking forward to a great summer.
Bags packed.
Children fed.
Tickets in hand.
Money in pocket.
Love in heart.
We are heading to Canada.
Itinerary
Dalian to Tokyo Approx 3 hours
Layover in Tokyo - 4 hours
Tokyo to Vancouver - Approx 8.5 hours
Layover in Vancouver - Approx 4.75 hours
Vancouver to Quesnel - Approx 1.75 hours
Grand total - 22 hours and one exhausted family to be sure.
As Ozzy details so well in the following video .. the Ma Brown clan is coming home.
This is pinyin Chinese for Mama has returned home. Alice’s mother was with us for a month and a half and it was a sad event to see her leave. When her taxi pulled away Carter got a really sad look on his face and said he wanted to go to Laolao’s (gramma) house. It was a pretty emotional occasion for all of us. Well .. maybe Nathan didn’t quite understand what was going on but I am sure that later today he will be wandering around looking for his Laolao.
We snapped these photos just before she left.
Zai jian Mama
As predicted Nathan decided that he would learn to walk only several days before getting on the plane to return to Canada. Now he is going to want to use that new found skill the entire time on the plane. Well I guess it beats crawling in the aisles.
He has not abandoned crawling altogether. This morning he was reluctant to walk without help even though he did a good tour of the apartment last night.
The video below caught him at his earliest stage and he got much better after this. As the song says .. here comes the hot stepper!
On June 30, 1987 the loonie first went into circulation. I am sure you all remember where you were that day.
There is an interesting story about the coin which has symbolized Canada as much as the Maple Leaf or a Tim Horton’s coffee. Originally the design for the coin was a voyageur canoe but the master dies used to cast the coin got lost between Ottawa and Winnipeg (where they were to be produced) and fearing counterfeiting the government of Canada went to the back up design which is of course the loon.
So had the original voyageur canoe remained what the heck would we have called the coin?
The loonie was initially reviled and put alongside the GST as one of the great Canadian governmental blunders but 20 years later this coin somehow defines what we are. As Jean Chretien might said “Appy Birday to dat loveable loonie!”
