This was our first Christmas in Fernie and we had a wonderful time. Grandma Sandy arrived in Calgary on December 11. As per usual, she was a huge help getting us organized for the holidays (cleaning our entire house, wrapping all of our presents...the best Santa's helper ever!). Despite being totally bummed that our friends from the coast, Mel and Andrew, couldn't join us in Fernie as planned (driving conditions were a mess), we headed to the property on Dec 20. We were super excited to finally spend some relaxing time in the house that we (mostly Dennis) had been relentlessly working on for the past two months. Mom was super impressed at how great it looked with the new floors, wicked paint job (thanks Neil!), new baseboards, new doorknobs, faucets, etc. She was less impressed when we had to tell her that the pipes were frozen and she'd have to drive 5km to Tim Horton's to go the bathroom! Yes, the first day was a wee bit of a nightmare. Long story short, it involved Dennis and Nicole pretending to be plumbers, crawling under the modular in a 2ft crawl space in -25 degree weather, applying electric heat strips to our pipes in an attempt to thaw them out. I can't begin to explain how good our house in Steveston was looking at this point :) We woke the following morning to properly flowing water and the rest of the holiday was fantastic. We spent lots of time outside playing on the property, sledding, building snowmen and a building a big snow fort. We did a bit of shopping in town at some of the local shops, we got out skiing a couple of times (Nic's legs hurt for about 4 days) and we got Ruby out on her skis for the first time. There's a great kiddie area at the ski hill with a little carpet that pulls the kids up a small hill and she loved it. We think she loved the carpet ride more than the skiing but she didn't complain once and seems keen to go again! Overall it was probably one of the most relaxing holidays we've had in a while. We slept a lot, watched movies in the evenings, played probably too much Rock Band and played a little Boggle with Grandma Sandy. We're really happy with how the renos turned out and we hope some of you will come and visit us in Fernie...our spare room has double bunks so we're ready for you!
(added Jan 6, 2009)
Java's New Booties
Java's Still Got It!
Ruby and Java Cuddling
A good chunk of our fall was spent fixing up the little modular house on our river property in Fernie. Our intention is to use this house as our weekend/vacation spot to continue to get a better feel for Fernie and the overall area to better decide if it's where we think we would like to live fulltime. Having had three sets of tenants in the house over the past few years, it definitely needed some serious TLC. Nicole's colleague's husband Neil painted the place top to bottom and did just a wonderful job. Dennis pretty much spent every weekend from Hallowe'en until Christmas doing a tonne of DIY stuff. He tore up all the carpets and laid new laminate. He laid new vinyl plank flooring over the existing ugly linoleum in the kitchen, front entrance and laundry room (Nicole helped with this one!). He cut and installed all new baseboards and door frames. He changed pretty much all the hardware in the house including interior and exterior doorknobs, vent covers, shower rods, towel racks, and some of the faucets. We tried to divide up some of our furniture but had to get some new things as well. Just because we didn't have enough to do we decided to buy unfinished wood furniture. So while Dennis was working in Fernie, Nicole was working in the garage in Calgary staining and varithaning a bunch of furniture. Did I mention how fun our fall was? We did have some big time help from our friend Marck who ended up staining all of the logs for Ruby's twin bed as well as the logs for our double bunk bed. Thanks Marck! We're really really pleased with how things turned out. The layout of the house is quite functional and it's about 1400 sq ft so a very reasonable size. We're planning to invest in a water softening system in the spring and Dennis is toying with building a deck off the back of the house. The fact that we have amazing views of the mountains, access to the river and 9 acres to play on makes it a super fun place to hang out.
Our fall has been busy but fun as always. We took advantage of some great fall weather and tried to get outdoors as much as possible (in preparation for a MUCH different winter than we're used to!). We visited with some friends at a beautful acreage out in Bragg Creek and spent quite a bit of time in Fish Creek Provincial Park (large local park only about 10 min from our house). We went to the Klantzer's for Thanksgiving and had a tonne of fun. We picked apples, went to the Kelowna Land Orchard and had a delicious turkey dinner compliments of Dana. As per usual, it took Ruby a bit of time to warm up but in the end, she just loved hanging out with Madi, Emma and Kait. They kept her entertained with lots of games and toys, a bit of hockey in the driveway, and multiple trips to the backyard to feed the bunny. Ruby and Nicole headed to Richmond for a short visit in late October. Tracy and Bailey graciously hosted us and we had an awesome time connecting with all of our Steveston friends. Ruby was reunited with her little friends for the annual Steveston Village trick or treating event. Unlike last year, this year she was ALL about the "special candy". She'd basically reach for it as it was being dropped into her bag and want to eat it on the spot. As fun as it was to visit, it was super harder to leave. We've already had a couple of snowfalls and both Ruby and Java are loving it. Mostly they love trying to destroy the snowmen while we're building them! We've also expanded our family by one. NO NO...Nicole's not knocked up, we inherited a lovely 18 year old boarder. Paloma is the girlfriend of our daycare provider's son (did that make sense?). She just moved here from Winnipeg and was looking to live with a family. Things couldn't be working out much better. Ruby adores her and she's been a wonderful addition to our family. I also included a few photos of the inside of our house here in Calgary (there had been a couple of requests for pics).
(added Jan 6, 2009)
Snack Time on the Road
Great spot for a poo
Hallowe'en Reunion
Ruby and Taya playing in the leaves
Bailey & Ruby Dancing
More Dancing, Less Hand Holding
We're slowly settling into a bit of a routine here in Calgary. The visitor caravan continued through the back half of August with Den's mom and Aunt Lorraine arriving the same day that Sandy left (Sept 5). The rest of our visit with Sandy was great fun. She finally got to visit Fernie after hearing us talk about it for so many years...I think she loved it although she may be singing a different tune when there's 20 feet of snow at Christmas! We also had a wonderful visit with Nicole and Lorraine. We took them to Fernie as well and they had the super fun experience of floating down the Elk River in our new inflatable boat. After our Fernie weekend, they went on a Gagnon Cooking Bonanza and literally filled our chest freezer and our fridge freezer with all sorts of yummy nutricious meals (lasagna, spaghetti, quiche, soup, chili, etc). They also went on a couple of adventures on their own to Banff, Lake Louise and Drumheller and as a group we did a couple of gorgeous hikes in Kananaskis. Ruby had such a blast hanging out with her "Grandma Nandy, Mamie and Lolo"...I think she's a bit lost with them gone. Our other special visitors were Mel, Andrew, Charlie and Baby Frankie from Richmond. Andrew wasn't able to stay with us (he had to work) but Mel and the kids stayed for 4 days. Mamie and Lolo especially fell in love with Baby Frankie since she's still little and loves to cuddle (trying to catch Ruby or Charlie for a cuddle is a tough task). It was so so much fun to get to spend some time with them. I think Ruby really enjoyed having one of her familiar friends around. She keeps asking for both of them...it's enough to break your heart!
VIDEOS
(added Jan 6, 2009)
Summer Time Fun
Playing on the Elk River
Lolo & Mamie Run Aground
Blowing Bubbles
Fernie Playground
Playground Bully
Kananaskis Hike
Baking with Lolo
After eight and a half amazing years, we said good-bye to the west coast and made the move to Calgary. July was a busy but fun month filled with lots of packing and organizing along with finding time to spend with friends before leaving town. After our neighbourhood BBQ, we were treated to two more awesome parties, one hosted by Shane and Tammy and the other hosted by our friends Tracy and Gord. It was great to catch up with friends we hadn't seen for a while, have some drinks and laugh a lot...we really hope everyone will try to come and visit us either in Calgary and/or Fernie...PLEASE! The move to Calgary was an adventure but for the most part went relatively smoothly. A BIG thank you to all of our friends who helped us out so much around moving day! Butch and Lynn (Den's dad and his wife) came to help us for the entire move and were incredibly helpful. We couldn't have done it without them. Butch was a complete workhorse at both ends of the move and Grandma Lynn deserves a medal for travelling from Vancouver to Calgary with a 2 year old and the hairiest dog on the planet. Quite frankly I don't know how she's walking straight with the number of times she twisted around in her seat to retrieve a sippy cup, blanky, lamby, snacks, change the DVD, etc. We did manage to squeeze in one extremely jam packed fun day while in Fernie - we hiked at Island Lake Lodge (and saw a mother moose and her calf), swam at Surveyor's Lake, hung out on the Elk River and took in the views from our B&B in Fernie. Nicole's mom Sandy flew in the day that Butch and Lynn left so we've continued to have extra help. Sandy's getting more than she bargained for as the daycare we had organized for Ruby fell through at the last minute. "Grandma Nandy" has stepped in as our live-in nanny for the past couple of weeks as we've scrambled to find another daycare set up. Thanks goodness for Grandmas!! The house in Calgary is working out really well. The yard and covered back deck is getting a tonne of use and we're slowly working our way through all of the boxes. There are a few shots of the backyard included here but no inside shots yet. We've managed to squeeze in a few fun things since arriving in Calgary. We did a day trip to Banff, visited Heritage Park (very cool historical village), and we've found a very fun off leash park for Java that has great access to the Bow River.
We've had a great summer so far in Steveston. Although we've been a bit preoccupied with getting organized for our move to Calgary, we've been doing lots of other fun stuff, mostly revolving around being outside - fun at the beach, the park, the Steveston Farmer's Market, and even our little yard. All of Ruby's little friends are turning two this summer so we've also had a couple of birthday parties - Bailey's and Taya's. We also went to the Richmond Public Works Celebration where they had all sorts of large equipment for the kids to play on, a huge sand pile, etc. At the end of June we went on our annual golf/B&B weekend in the Oliver/Osoyoos area with Shane and Tammy. We dropped Ruby and Java off at the Klantzer's in Kelowna and had 3 whole nights ON OUR OWN. We golfed, floated down the river, went waterskiing and tubing, hung out at the pool, saw a movie and had a couple of wonderful meals. A HUGE thank you to Dana, Rob, Kaitlin, Madi and Emma for looking after our little girls all weekend. Ruby had an absolute blast...I think she's finding us quite boring compared to you guys! We also had a super fun "going away" community BBQ thrown for us by our friends/neighbours Fred and Roxsane. It was a great excuse for the whole 'hood' to get together. Thanks so much for a great time Fred and Roxsane!
Right after our trip to Arizona we hosted Nicole and Gord who were returning from an exciting 2 month trip to Asia. It was super fun to hear about their adventures through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Their visit fell over Easter so we had a big turkey dinner and went on an Easter Egg hunt with Ruby's little friends. Ruby and Nicole also had a chance to go to London to see Grandma Sandy in April. As most of you know, Sandy had a bit of a health scare so Ruby really wanted to go and see her Grandma and make sure she was okay (she's doing great!). While in London we visited with a tonne of people...Grandpa Tony, Auntie Wendy, Uncle Pete and cousin Kyle, cousin Linda, Julie, Jason, Heidi and Kyle. Even Auntie Brooke and Brynn and Auntie Andrea and Zea and Loic all made the trip to see us in London! It was super fun to see all of you! Ruby especially enjoyed her trip to Auntie Wendy and Uncle Pete's farm...She got to hang out with the chickens, dodge the killer roosters, play with the dogs and watch some TV with Uncle Pete...good times! Ruby was also fond of playing with Grandma Sandy's oxygen hose and machine (much to mommy's displeasure). I guess the terrible two's CAN start early...
We decided to seek out a little bit of sun in March so decided on Tucson, Arizona. We invited my little cousin Kaitlin along...she's 14, lots of fun and a perfect helper for Ruby! We had a fantastic time. We were very fortunate with the weather (it was sunny and 25-30 degrees everyday) so we spent quite a bit of time at the pool. Dennis and I played a round of golf and played tennis a few times. We also ventured out to some local attractions around Tucson. We visited the University of Arizona campus, Catalina State Park, and the Sonoran Desert Museum. Overall it was a very fun trip and a great way to wrap up the winter... Bring on spring!
We've had a fun winter this year in Steveston. Nicole's mom Sandy stayed with us until the middle of January so she and Ruby had lots of time to hang out and play. We finally made our way to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary (across the river from our house) and Ruby had a blast feeding the ducks and exploring the grounds. We also had a super fun weekend up at Whistler with the gang from Steveston. We had 5 families (yes, 5) in one very large and nice cabin and it went remarkably well! The kids had a blast hanging out in the snow and all the adults enjoyed good company, fine wine, and yummy food.
