- And away we went - Part 4, aka all good things must come to an end

(OOPS! Please begin with Part 1 at the bottom of the series!)
Breakfast on the 7AM (shudder!) return-to-reality ferry!
Speaks for itself!
Sunrise over the Active Pass enroute back to Port of Twassen & home, FULL of memories!

- And away we went! Part3

Entering the Royal British Columbia Museum
Royal British Columbia Parliament House -(closed that day, sigh!)
Have fun guessing where THIS was taken! ;-)
Lobby of the Empress Hotel - EXPRESS!

- And away we went Part 2!

Twassen (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Victoria)!
We had a delay to allow "Lil Toot" to pass safely!
Waterfront houseboats where we enjoyed "Barb's (FABULOUS!) Fish & Chips!"
View from our Victoria BC's (condo) balcony!

- And AWAY we went! Part 1

Humm could (Realtor) Elroy be the reason our house hasn't sold yet? ;-)
Voluptuous Vancouver BC!
Totems at Stanley Park Van. BC
Well, where ELSE did you think you'd find me??!

Traveling can be fun.

But sometimes it just plain stinks. I kissed my wife and kids goodbye and left my home in Denver 27 hours ago. As of this minute, I have made it to San Francisco. In fact I have been in San Francisco for almost 18 hours, and I won't leave for another 7, at the earliest.
The weather delayed me enough for me to miss my connection, which was then compounded by the fact that I am traveling on 2 different airlines for this journey and they don't seem to communicate with each other, nor were they open for 1/2 of my time here. In fact China Airlines has not had an agent at the counter the ENTIRE time I have been in San Fran! Also, China airlines wants to charge me an extra $600 for the change in itinerary. Travel hiccups don't usually bother me, but this one has stretched me. The best I can hope for is a ...wait for it...total travel time of 46 hours to get to my final destination. 1/2 of which will be spent in the San Francisco airport. Good times. Soon I hope to experience the miracle of flight.

I did take the train to downtown this afternoon, and I found chinatown (ironic), Fisherman's Wharf, and an In n Out. That last one put a smile on my face.

I'll let you know when I take off. Facebookers will hear first, since I can just sound bite it from my phone while on the tarmac.

Peace,

Kyle

Astoria/Seaside

Okay, I made an album of our long weekend in Seaside and Astoria on facebook. They provided a link to share it, so we're testing it out. :) Click on the title and let's see if it works. Here's a teaser for you.

Chicago

Get ready, get set, TOMORROW we'll GO!

- To Vancouver & Victoria BC, that is! Leaving by van too early, sigh, but will
be fun! Is our first official "adventure" with the "mature adults group" from church. We realized we now officially "fit" when reading the list of what to bring & it suggested -

- Pack your medicines (& we have meds to pack, sigh!)
- Ear plugs
- Camera "with working batteries" :-)

OH well, if it isn't raining (translated POURING) TOO hard & there are skates to rent at one of the parks, away I'll go, otherwise it'll be "shop til we drop"! We'll be gone 3 nights, returning Friday. See ya! mc

Chicago!

Sorry I confused everyone by going to Chicago without first announcing it. ;) It was a bit last minute. Jan's been bouncing around the east/midwest for about a week now and invited me out to keep her company for the weekend.

I never had much interest in Chicago before, but we really loved it when we were out here in June, and this time I still love it! It's defintely on our list of family favorites. Today, we pretty much just shopped our way down Michigan Ave. Tomorrow, we'll hit the lake shore in the morning and then the Ugg and Hershey stores before lunch at Due (which we've heard from a few sources is the best Chicago pizza) and sending me back to the airport to fly home.

So that's the scoop on Chicago. I'm enjoying the view changing to the nighttime sights with all the lights right now. Dinner at some french place that friends recommended after Jan wakes up from her nap.

From The Edge, The Oregonian

In Geneva, Switzerland, researchers announced the results of a two year study, which concluded that women's underarms typically smell like onions, while men's underarms more often smell like gouda cheese.

Bryce Turner

A student at Chapman, who played for the soccer team, was playing soccer in an intermural league with my roommates yesterday.  After the games ended, he started kicking the ball around with a friend.  He collapsed on the field, and died.  He was 20 years old and well loved in the Chapman community.  

I just wanted to let you guys know so that you can pray for his family, I know they need it right now.  The entire Chapman community is shocked.  Sorry this post is so sad, but I figured that this was the best group of people to share this with and I knew you guys would keep him and his family in your prayers.

Love

Jordan

Shamrock Run

Heidi and I both did races today, isn't that funny? Mine was the Shamrock Run in downtown Portland. I ran along with 12,000 other crazy people in the pouring rain and howling wind. We were so drenched. It was fun! :) A couple of those gusts blew so hard it almost took your breath away and I watched a few people lose their hats as they went sailing off behind us. I went up with my friends Christi and Tricia and we did our first 8k, which is 4.9 miles. Portland is pretty hilly, so it was not so fun on the way up. The downhill part was great, though. The good news is that I got a cool t-shirt. We just do this for the shirts, you know. :)

Grunion Run

That was the name of the 5k I did today as part of the Dana Point Festival of Whales. Cute, huh?Afterwards, we had the VFW pancake breakfast and walked with the kids through the Ocean Institute. It was a lovely morning and we decided that next year, we'll plan ahead and just make a day of it down at the state beach there. Today, Jake had a birthday party, so we had to hurry back.

In other news, USC won the Pac-10 basketball conference championship, in a spectacular comeback, in case any of you missed it. ;)

Also, Mark got home today (yay!) from his 5-day residential intensive course kicking off his MBA at UCI. It went well, but he is exhausted! 16 hr days for four and a half days will do that to you. But it feels good to have 6 units completed, and he has a couple weeks off before the spring quarter begins.

Lastly, Mark's dad is signing me up to do a zumba (go ahead, click on it) class with him. Oh boy.

Beavs baseball

It was a close game, with the lead changing hands, but the Beavs did beat Missouri. There was a couple of wierd plays, which had everyone scratching their heads.




Wallace, I beleive, after hitting a home run, making the score 4-3.




Some good looking gal I took a picture of.

Jake's Big Weekend

Jake had a great weekend. :)

Saturday was his first day snowboarding, which I was terrified he would hate since the universal consensus is that everyone hates the first day of learning because you fall so much and it hurts and it's never fun. I was afraid he would hate it so much he would never want to try again. It's something that Mark and Jordan really enjoy, and I hoped he would too. Thankfully, he loved it and did great! He hopped on the chair lift with no hesitation, and just took the falls in stride- kept getting up and starting right back at it. He was a little champ. Got his bell rung pretty bad with one fall, but his summary was that he loved it and he thought he did great. Mark was THRILLED because it's something they can enjoy together as he gets better.

Jordan and Jake on the lift

Jordan and Jake after finishing the run down the bunny slope

He followed up that first with the very next day (today, Sunday afternoon) trying rollerskating for the first time and look at him go! He held on the side for one lap around the rink and then he was off. He skated pretty much the whole time except when they had special games, of which he wasn't a fan.

It was a play date with Ethan and here are the 2 of them. They actually did not have the rink to themselves like it looks, but when I took this, the 2 birthday parties there were sitting down eating and opening gifts. He can't wait to go back!

Speaking of firsts, I believe we have decided to take the plunge and sign him up for Pop Warner. Its his first choice sport, so we'll give it a shot. Sign ups are in 3 weeks. Eeek!

jumping to conclusions

OK - so Mont & I have been calling our favorite squirrel the Harris Antelope Squirrel because we felt the name must fit them because of the way they move, and we read they were a common squirrel on the Rim. We read the info from the national forest service and that squirrel was the most prominent picture and the first mentioned. They just never connected the names with the pictures they showed, however so we were guessing wrong.

After M&M were with us in Az they looked it up on the internet and it is more likely the small chipmunk types we've also had on the deck are the H.A.S. The long eared ones are Abert's squirrels. And the big spotted ones are not spotted squirrels - but rock squirrels. I finally got around to looking things up myself. Although the little guy does not really look like the HAS pic either totally.

Mont & I feel so deflated. We loved that name for the bigger fun squirrels. Oh Well! Thanks M&M for correcting us before we made too big a fool of ourselves.

Everything is amazing

This guy is an eensty bit crass in a couple parts (no profanity), but I thought it was funny and you "oldtimers" ;) might get a kick out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

I thought you might all enjoy some pictures of Rose M-B enjoying some monkey and orangatang antics at the zoo.

Neil & Lara, & Ian were in town and I joined them for a day at the zoo. I loved hearing Rose giggle when delighted with the animals. Going with one little girl and 6 adults is certainly different (more relaxing) than going with 3 active little boys. I even got a hug goodbye at the end of the day. Mary was so happy to have all the family together - and Keith's dad was arriving by train for dinner and overnight, too.

My favorite animal view was the baby on the back of the anteater. However my pictures failed to look good so you are spared another animal pic from me.

from the Edge, the Oregonian 3/4/09

In Bloomington, IN., a police offical, commenting on a break-in at a home in which all that was taken was toilet paper, 54 diapers and a pillow, said, "Sounds like a constipated new father who just needed some sleep."
Bloomington-Normal Daily Pantagraph