fun with friends

We are lucky to be friends with not just one, but two families who live in this area of Arizona. We are house and cat-sitting for one family right now in Buckeye while they are in Canada. We spent last weekend with the other family at their house in Casa Grandes and then again today. A few of the highlights from our visit to their house was riding their motorcycle and finding a praying mantis (stick bug). We were marveling today at how we were able to do more than one fun thing in one day. We did three fun things today! With kids in tow, our stamina is greatly reduced. We met at North Mountain Park for a picnic, some good quality playground time and a short hike. We then headed to the YMCA for a swim in an outdoor heated pool. It was a beautiful day. After an accidental drive through downtown Phoenix (surprisingly small and traffic-free), we finished the day at Encanto Park feeding birds, having another picnic, taking a walk around the park and playing at another playground. We were all pretty tired and ready for bed by the end. Check out our friend's blog here for her take on the day.

the last days on the island

We took the ferry back to Vancouver again yesterday afternoon. The first picture is of all the kids we lived with and Cherry the kitten. We took Cherry to the SPCA Saturday. Mei had a really hard time with it. The second picture is of the little pond with a rowboat that was on the property. The third picture is Mei at the summit of one of the mountains on the island. It was a great experience to be here. We met some people who offered their homes and travel trailers for us to stay in if we ever want to come back. Aside from the tourist traffic, it is a beautiful place. It was interesting to live with two other families in the same house for a whole week! We all got along quite well even though one of the familes and our family two of the three families had never met. It could have been like an episode on a reality show if we had all had stronger personalities and were competing for a million dollars.

Salt Spring Island

We arrived on Salt Spring Island on Monday, drove down some narrow, windy roads past various artisan shops (shoppes?), therapeutic services, gardens and farms to the house where we are staying. The kids found a skinny stray calico kitten hanging around at the house, which has been named Cherry. There are three other adults and six more children living here. One of the adults is an amazing cook and doesn't mind cooking for everyone. In fact, he prefers it.

We explored Ganges, which is where most of the people live. We found the public library (hence this post..). We have found a few beach accesses and I have some trails in mind that I want to check out in the next few days. There are little roadside stands everywhere. We all tried fresh figs for the first time yesterday!

pics: the kids at the house; Liam with a huge starfish; Rus with his prized fresh fig that he has been waiting almost 35 years to try. Decadent! ; the kids at the library

Commercial Drive

Thomas and Allison took us to Commercial Drive where we could easily be supplied with an entirely organic diet and continuous style inspiration. The houses in the area are pretty colorful and unique and just our size (small). We went to church this afternoon where we were among the most ethnically diverse congregation we have ever been with. Everyone has been so friendly to us but maybe it's because of our cute kids...
Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving on a ferry for Salt Spring Island where we will be staying with some friends at a cabin that sits on 20 acres and has such things as a hot tub and a pond with a rowboat. Our friends have three boys around the same age as our kids, so not only will we be in heaven, but our kids will too!

pics: the kids at Thomas and Allison's apartment, Ila and Mei outside a shop on Commercial Drive, Liam riding a chipmunk

Van

After breakfast at my brother Thomas and his Girlfriend Allison's place we headed downtown along Mainstreet to Chinatown (the poorest area in all of Canada). We walked through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens, Hastings, Gastown, Canada Place, and past Grandville, and the Vancouver Public Library. We saw lots of good stuff (and some bad). There was a Zombie Walk going on, which I sort of wished I could have participated in. I like it here. I think if I were young and childless, I could make it my home.

vines, wines, and Fabio

one last stop at the winery before going to Vancouver; Me and Fabio, Rus with a huge box of empties (building material for our future glass bottle house, he thinks):
Now we are in Vancouver! We will be staying at my brother Thomas' place for a couple of days.

Lake Okanagan

Our last day in Kelowna...the two childless couples in this house will have to re-adjust to the quiet after we leave tomorrow!
Rus labeled bottles in the winery a little bit today while I tried to clean up after ourselves but the highlight of our day was going down to the lake with our friend Crystal and her canine friend, who is now also our canine friend.
Here is a fun picture of Rus diving into the lake this evening... (that's Crystal's head off to the side of the picture)
It was nice to snorkel again, although there wasn't much to see. I'm getting excited for the ocean! Here's a cute picture of Mei with her "pretty pink rock"... My kids love rocks. Maybe they will be geologists like their uncles...

Aunt Loretta and Arrowleaf Cellars

I have been wanting to see my friend's family's vineyard and winery for about a decade and I finally got the chance today. After spending the morning with Rus' aunt, we headed to our friend's family's vineyard and winery, Arrowleaf Cellars where we were given our own personalized tour and a bag of goodies. No grapes though; they will be edible in about a month.
Pictures: Rus' aunt Loretta with Rus, Mei and Liam; Liam labeling bottles; Ila and Mei with Fabio (who made the Winery Dogs of BC 2008 calendar and poster); and Ila with the grapevines

the beach, an orchard, and some goats

Yesterday we did a lot of nothing. After four nights in a tent and a lot of hours driving it was nice to bathe, do laundry and just relax and enjoy the view. Today, we met up with some friends who are currently living in Kelowna and went to a beach, a peach orchard and a petting zoo. It was a good day.

BC so far...

Being in travel mode has put me in the the blogging mood. Although it's not as "exotic" as Mexico and we are not going to be gone for nearly as long, traveling outside our home province still stirred the blogger in me.
So we set off to British Columbia last Wednesday with our trunk packed with clothes, a tent, and imperishables. We found our trusty old campsite that we have come back to for the past few years on the edge of Horseshoe Lake and settled in for four nights stay. Our first two days were spent at Fort Steele ("Where history comes alive!"), an old heritage town with constant entertainment from live actors and demonstrations. The high point for me was during the indoor theatre performance when I was picked from the audience to go on stage, something I think all of us secretly both desire and maybe fear. Liam spent a lot of time in the blacksmith shop which awarded him the privilege of receiving a handmade nail and mini horseshoe. Nearing the end of out time at Fort Steele, Ila and Mei had gotten so comfortable around the actors that they followed them around, talking to them and holding onto the women's skirts.
The next day we went to a Trout Hatchery and then just hung out at the lake catching frogs, turtles, and even a snake and a toad. Rus was pretty excited that he was able to use his snorkeling skills to dive for turtles.
Sunday morning, we headed to Fairmont, went to a small church there, bathed in the free hot springs, then headed on towards Revelstoke. We searched for a few campsites in the area; one of them leading us a little bit farther into the wilderness than we would have liked (there have been a large amount of bear sightings lately and the "road" was more like a path). It was getting late and raining so we decided to plow through to Lake Country instead where we are now staying with friends.

THE END

It has been a lot harder returning to a normal life than I ever imagined. A lot of unforeseen things have gone wrong. It is hard on our kids too but they are adjusting as well as they can. One of the first things I wanted to do when I got home was get rid of STUFF. I realized how much I can live without. The only possessions I missed when we were gone was the computer, books and the kids toys. I guess I missed having my own home too but not really the stuff inside it, except for maybe the beds, the bathtub and the fridge and those sorts of things. The amount of unnecessary stuff in our house was overwhelming, almost suffocating. I think we will have to have a lot of yard sales in the next few months. Another thing that was overwhelming was the amount of work that still needed to be done on our house, but that's a story in itself and not something I want to get into.
The best part about coming home was how happy the kids were about it. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, even before he went into the house, Liam ran to his best friend's house to tell him he was home. Ila and Mei squealed with delight every time they came across another of their prized toys; their stuffed animals, their princess dress-up shoes and necklaces, their fuzzy purses. I also enjoyed sleeping in my own bed again.
We have spent the majority of our time back just being with friends and family. So many people had babies. During Liam's easter break, we will visit some more. We are friends with a family that speaks Spanish and it has been fun being able to understand a lot of what they are saying. It is a good indication of how much we have learned of the language because when we hung out with them before we never had any idea what they were saying. We have no really big regrets about our trip and we are glad that we did it, for our kids' sake and our own. It was quite the experience!

The Aftermath

We've been back in Canada since just after 12 a.m. on Wednesday.
The weather has been pretty good for this time of year (17 celcius, 65 fahrenheit yesterday), although the forecast is calling for some cooler weather in a few days maybe snow.
It seems like practically anything that could go wrong has gone wrong since we got back, flat tires on our car, then a huge oil leak, hot water heater problems in our house, and our phone's not working very well... it has been a major pain in the bottom.
In church today I was enjoying seeing some diversity: asians, natives, a little kid with a mohawk, and a dad with a faux-hawk, a girl with fire engine red hair. And it's been cool to see hutterites around and about too.
Liz went to the library before she even went home, we're so glad to have such a wicked awesome library system here to use again.
And the 2nd hand stores are great too, it was best described as relief to go to the MCC thrift store and check out the 25 cent clothes, epecially given how expensive stuff like that was in Mexico.

But, in general, it's like we never left.

-Rus

home...almost

We had a great time in Phoenix. Ila fell in love with our friends' chihuahua-cross puppies, Belle and Titan. She didn't want to go home. She cried "I don't want to go home. Mei want to go home. I don't want to go home." We took full advantage of their pool and the beautiful weather too. We said good-bye to Phoenix and boarded the first of many buses. We were reminded of the odd people that take public intercity transportation. Now that it's over, it doesn't seem like it was so bad. I don't want to do it again for a long time though! We made it to Great Falls last night where our friend and his son picked us up and brought us to Lethbridge. We slept the night at his place and the kids and I will spend the day here while he and Rus hook up a new water heater in our house. It feels a little odd that I have made it all the way to Lethbridge but still haven't gone home to Raymond yet. But what's another day or two when we've been gone 5 months.
I was really wanting to go to the Copper Canyon before we left Mexico but by the time we decided we wanted to leave we already had a bad case of traveller's fatigue. My desire to go to the canyons was replaced by my desire to just go home.

I apologize for the poorly composed post. I am still so tired and don't have the intellectual energy to make it flow.