Harambee

For the past several years, Dan's family has attended a camp called Harambee in Naramata. It is a camp intended for families who have adopted a child of African decent (aka Dan's little brother Eli). It was chance to meet up with Dan's family for a day as this was our only opportunity to meet up with them between now and Christmas (they live in Alberta). The day started with Dan, his dad, Eli and 30 people from the camp going on a 3 hour bike ride on the Kettle Valley Railroad. It was a fun ride following what used to be the old railroad tracks. There was quite a view from the top of the mountain. The girls stayed back and chit chatted at camp.

At the end of the evening, there was a concert performed by Miyanda. They are a group of girls who perform traditional African dance and drumming. They sure taught the baby a few moves, since it went crazy the entire concert!

Dan's brother Eli showing us his dance moves! It was a great day relaxing with family!

Dan's Graduation

He finally did it! He graduated from Columbia Bible College with a certificate to be an Education Assistant/Teacher's Assistant. When they called his name to get his diploma, the said that we needed to give an extra round of applause because this student was the only male in a class of 30!

Dan with his graduating class and the faculty. You'll notice he's the only male in the entire class, sticking out like a sore thumb in the back row!

Dan with his crazy classmates! We spent the entire year sitting next to each other, something that should not have been allowed to happen... the results speak for themselves.

Anticipatience

Dan was overly excited about the possibility of another batch of epic scones that he sat in front of the oven watching them bake.

Waiting with antici-patience!

Quickly removing them from the oven...

I did manage to snap a photo before Dan could snatch up an epic scone. Good thing they were hot!

You know you have an addiction when...

...you plan your vacation around the nearest location of Starbucks. (only 900 meters from the hotel in either direction). Seriously, we did it last year and we are doing it again. Every hotel we will stay at is within 3 km from a Starbucks.

...you name your Starbucks cards individually. Yes, one is named "Sweet Nectar of the gods" and the other is "Liquid Salvation."

...when you spend as much time watering your garden as you do sucking back a decaf frapp.

...when your baristas know you by name and your order off by heart

...when your baristas know your pregnant before some of your friends and family

Canada Day: The 1st Installment

Our wonderful Abbotsford parade on Canada Day!

The parade began with a "parade" of firetrucks. This one is clearly the coolest.

Only in Abbotsford would a decked-out piece of farm equipment be considered worthy of being in the parade. At least this one bursts with National pride.

Oops sorry! This one slipped in. Its really just a picture from outside our house.

Canada Day: The 2nd Installment

Amanda finally got her one piece of candy! She had to push a little girl over to get it, but it was worth it!

An all-Canadian picture???

One of the scariest things that we saw in the parade. It wanted to say hi to absolutely everybody...but we wished to stay at a distance.

You know you're in Abbotsford when....

Canada Day: The 3rd Installment

2 Canadians, 1 Jordanian, 2 Americans....we truly are in Canada! Multicultural even on our day of National Pride. Here we are waiting for the fireworks to start.

"The Circle of Life" starts us off with a bang (just like it has for the previous 4 years...at least! Abbotsford needs to redo its soundtrack for the fireworks.)

More fireworks!

After the fireworks, we went to Fareedah's "family's" house to celebrate Bernie's birthday. Fareedah made a beautiful Canada Day cake for us to enjoy!

Highland Games Part 1

A few weeks ago, we went to the BC Highland Games in Coquitlam. We got to see all the Heavy Games, which includes the caber toss, sheaf toss, hammer toss and the weight-over-hand. We listened to bagpipe music and watched the dancing competitions. We also looked through the various vendors and saw lots of kilts. Perhaps the highlight of the day was feeling the baby go crazy and kick the living daylight out of me every time the bagpipes went by. Dan says the baby loves bagpipe music and was dancing. Amanda says the baby was punching and screaming in protest, "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

Dan participated in the haggis hunting that we got in our brochure. You collected 6 stamps from various vendors before taking it to the information center to collect your official seal as a haggis hunter. Really it was nothing more than a cheap gold sticker, but it was worth the laugh. Along the way, Amanda fell in love with the little haggis impersonations that informed you that a stamp was available. She tried many times unsuccessfully to make off with the little haggis animal. She ended up getting caught every time, once by the haggis wrangler who was in charge of the haggis hunt that day.

This is the caber toss. Better known as throwing the telephone pole! And throw he does! The goal is to get the pole to flip end over end in the straightest line possible. Not so easy, when many men could barely get the pole off the ground.

A picture is worth a thousand words. This one may get a few more than that.

Highland Games Part 2

Dan sports his latest line of crazy hats....its all the rage!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day.

Some random sword fighting.

Our baby's newest item of clothing. A KILT! Can you imagine a baby wearing nothing but a kilt??? Maybe we'll get some Dutch shoes to finish off the child's heritage photo. We couldn't resist this splurge item!

I finally broke him!

We have this man that walks regularly in our neighbourhood and all around town. Dan and I have nicknamed him "The Man with No shoes" since during the summer he walks barefoot all over town. You probably recognize him since he usually wears an army colour jacket, carries a cup from any sort of fast food restaurant in the area and looks homeless (although his home is on our street.) For almost a year, I have walked by him and cheerfully said hi. I have never gotten a response. One time, he was even bleeding from his head and I tried to help him, but he just kept walking. About a month ago, I made it my goal to "break him." I wanted him to say hi in return or at least raise his head to acknowledge that someone was greeting him. I told Dan of my goal and he wished me luck. The next time I saw the man, I said hi and guess what? He said hi back! It was awesome! Dan commented to me that it didn't take me long to accomplish my goal. Hey! It took a good year, but you only knew about it for a week. From that greeting onward, I seem to get a response about 90% of the time. I do believe that there is something (whether mental illness or drug addiction or whatever) that keeps him from responding all the time. But I am happy to get my greeting! Maybe I'll move on to getting a real name!