This was our first opportunity to see our beautiful new niece Zea . We had a terrific weekend visiting with lots of Dennis' family. The Gagnon clan included Andrea (sister), Ky, Nicole (mother), Gord, Yvette (grandmother), Paul (grandfather), Daphne (cousin), Brian, Lorraine (aunt), and Richard (uncle). Much food was had and as many cuddles with the baby as possible.
Our friend (and now colleague of Dennis at Silicon Chalk) Kim Clark was visiting for the weekend. Our neighbour Megan and her yellow lab Inti (Java's boyfriend) joined us for a hike in Golden Ears provincial park to a waterfall. This is a nice easy hike and a great spot along a river that we've been to a couple of times before.
Nicole spent a few days in Jarvis getting to know Jack a bit better. Highlights included a visit back to McMaster where pushing a stroller through campus seemed a far cry from stumbling back from the "John" 10 years ago. :-) Hiking in the Dundas Valley conservation area was terrific.
A couple of our good friends from McMaster University (Jen Nagle and Peter Boffo) were married at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and a great reception filled with university friends we hadn't seen in a long time. This link includes some photos from Brooke.
We drove from Vancouver to Fernie to close on the Fernie property. We didn't spend much time in Fernie as we knew we'd be back in late July to fix up the house and get it ready to rent.
On our drive back from Fernie we organized to meet Ted and Tina in Oliver for our 2nd Annual Canada Day weekend trip. The tradition we started in 2002 was made even better in 2003 by finding a wonderful B&B to stay at. Morbrook Farms B&B is located on an active Cherry orchard so we had plenty of fruit to enjoy. The accomodations were wonderful, the scenery pristine and the food was excellent. The weather was perfect (and hot) as expected and we enjoyed our three rounds of golf and our visits to favourite wineries such as Burrowing Owl.
Andréa, Ky and Zéa visited us in July and we had planned a big adventure down the beautiful West Coast. We made our way down the Oregon and Northern California coasts stopping for some dune buggy riding, some kite flying and some fun camping along the way. We met Butch and Lynn in San Francisco for some city touring including a fantastic Alcatraz sunset tour. We also spent a couple of days as a big family in the Sonoma valley visiting some great wineries. Zéa was terrific on our extended road trip and seemed to enjoy her first big trip away from home.
At the end of July we returned to Fernie with the intention of working hard all week cleaning and renovating the house to prepare it for tenants. We found very nice tenants right away who were interested in few renovations and planned to do much of their own painting in the Fall. This freed us up much more than expected and with some help from Nicole and Gord who visited from the East we got through our tasks quickly. This allowed us to enjoy the property and allowed us to recreate in the area for a few days. We golfed in Fernie and nearby Kimberley, we floated down the Elk River through Fernie on inner tubes (awesome!), we enjoyed the hot tub at the house and we even hosted a BBQ for neighbours and new Fernie friends.
Summer 2003 was a dreadful Summer for forest fires in BC and the Elk Valley had some local fires raging through the area which made some of the days quite smoky. During our BBQ we even had a lightning strike spark a fire on a mountain side close to the property and we watched the water bombing helicopter fly overhead to fill it's bucket in the Elk River and put out the fire. The neighbours were impressed with this "action" and wondered how we would ever top that kind of excitement at future parties!
WARNING: These photos likely to appeal much more to a Male audience!!
Dennis has a buddy in Vancouver from IBM by the name of Chris Ozeroff who won a great trip put on by Coors Light and Maxim Magazine. Chris got to pick 2 guys to join him for a weekend of golf and drinking surrounded by beautiful women. 70 teams of 3 guys from across Canada were selected for this private event at Angus Glen golf course North of Toronto. Each trio was paired with a half-naked model as their "caddie" for the day. Golf was quite secondary as you'll see from the photos. Guys.... you can drool... it's ok.... Dennis and his buddies spent the day drooling.
For those with High Speed internet, DVD player software and too much time on their hands, you can download a short Video of the event. Right-mouse click and download the .zip file in this link: MaximGolfDVD.zip. Unzip the contents into a folder and launch the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. WARNING: File is 367MB!
- Some photos of Nicole white water rafting with colleagues from Eli Lilly.
- Our visit to Victoria in early August to golf and stay with Nicole's colleague Roger. This included a round of golf at the brand new Bear Mountain course and at the scenic Olympic View course.
- A few shots of a boat trip on beautiful Howe Sound with Jeff Rockwell (Gray Rocks buddy of Dennis) and his girlfriend Alison. They were visiting Vancouver for Mike Blank and Jane Glanville's wedding.
We traveled to Kelowna for Thanksgiving weekend. Nicole was running her very first half marathon and we had an opportunity to visit with Nic's family. Nicole had a great performance in her race and finished ahead of her desired time. Rob ran the full marathon at the same event and also did well.
- Julie Mason (Nicole's soccer friend from McMaster) visiting with her baby Ben.
- Ted and Tina's new baby girl Geneviève. One photo of Megan & Brian's new baby boy Aidan.
- The Kelowna gang visiting Vancouver.
- Nicole with some of Dennis' IBM pals on a snowshoe/fondue hike at Cypress Mtn. (Dennis was sick) :-(
We flew into London on Dec 23rd. We visited with Nicole's Dad and Grandmother (Tony & Lil) before heading with Sandy to Andréa and Ky's house in Pickering on the 24th. A few photos are from Sandy's in London and a few are pictures that Andréa took of Zéa before we arrived. The whole day was an eating frenzy to set the stage for many days of serious holiday indulgence! (Maple Syrup and Pecan squares... YUMM) The adults opened their presents the evening of the 24th.
The 25th started much like the 24th finished.... with food. Paul, Suzanne and Matthew visited on Christmas day. There was a lot of time spent taking many photos of beautiful baby Zéa. The turkey dinner was amazing and the eating bonanza was on again with more desserts.
We had another great day on the 26th. We relaxed around the house and had a great walk to the beach. In the afternoon Andra visited as did Tracy and Mick. Also included in this link are a couple of photos of Nicole and Gord in Panama City Beach.
On the 27th we left Pickering and visited Andra's new condo on the Lake in Toronto. It's beautiful and in a great location. We continued West to Jarvis where we were spending the night at Brooke, Rob and baby Jack's. Also visiting for the night were Andra, Pete and Jen. (Tracy and Mick arrived the next day). We went out for a nice dinner and had a great time. It was totally awesome seeing Family and Friends!! We love it out West and can't wait to get to Fernie but we miss everyone in the East.
