Ultrasound #2

2 weeks ago, we went for our second ultrasound. It was amazing to see how much the baby has grown since our last ultrasound. It was also pretty neat to note that while the technician was checking the baby (with only Amanda in the room) that Amanda said, "Oh it must be 2pm. The baby is moving." The technician was surprised that she could pinpoint the time based on her baby's movement and that she could feel the movement at all. Then, she had a hard time keeping the baby still for measurements, since it likes to move so much! Once again, someone had to pin the baby down (causing Amanda great pain) just for measurements.

It was disappointing that no one was allowed in the room while 20 minutes of measurements were going on. Amanda was quite bored since she couldn't even see the screen and had to lie there with a full bladder for that long. But when all the procedures were over, Dan, Amanda's mom and Dan's grandma got to come in and see the baby. It was really cool to feel the baby kick and see it on the screen at the same time.

Great Big Sea

For Dan's birthday, I got us tickets to a Great Big Sea concert in Kamloops. The concert was absolutely incredible. We had early admission and got to choose our seats just four rows from the front! We could have sat front row, but chose to sit a few rows back so that Amanda could use the aisles created at row 4 to exit to the washroom. We ended up next to this amazing couple, the woman whom was in a wheelchair. This smart choice, saved us from getting trampled during the first few songs when people tried to rush the stage. Amanda elbows a man really hard and said to him, "Lady in a wheelchair(pointing to the lady), and Pregnant(pointing to self)! Move over!" This saved us from most (but not all) spillage of beer on legs and arms and heads. Thankfully, one lady who sat 2 rows behind us (since we were too tall to sit directly behind), complained to those who rushed the stage saying that the lady in a wheelchair doesn't really appreciate having beer spilt on her head and the pregnant lady could go into labour if you crowded her. That solved our problem and we had as much space as we needed. Even the security lady got to tease Amanda a little, asking her every time that she went to the washroom if she was in labour yet! The baby much enjoyed the concert, spending a full two hours dancing on Amanda's bladder. (although the warm up band got no such reaction, except a sharp kick at the beginning, indicating its disgust to the horrible music. We wholeheartedly agreed).

The day after the concert, Great Big Sea came on the CD player at random. The baby would be active for any song from them and then cease moving when the CD player switched to another artist. This happened numerous times. We guess that we have a Great Big Sea fan in training!

Our Trip 2010 Part 1

Our Big adventure this summer was to go on a road trip to Vancouver Island. We started in Parksville,went to Tofino and then headed up to Campbell River, Port Hardy (Winter Harbour and Zeballos), then down to Naniamo, Victoria and did a circle tour of the Juan de Fuca to Duncan and back to Victoria again. Yep, we saw the whole Island!

Long Beach by Tofino! The waves were 2 meters high (6-7 feet). The pictures don't even begin to show how tall the waves really were.

The top picture is on the side of the road on the way to Tofino. A beautiful set of waterfalls and rock formations. The second picture is Little Qualicum Falls.

The Tartan Pie Shoppe. We were driving by on our way to Englishman River Falls when we saw a sign for Tartan Pie. We wanted to know what it was, so we stopped by to ask. Its basically turkey dinner in a pie. We wanted to try it, but since Amanda is allergic to Turkey, it was out. As a consolation prize, the man who owned the shop, Derik, offered us a sausage roll that was still warm from the oven. It was heavenly! Homemade sausage wrapped in a flaky pastry. It was enough to convince us to buy an apple raspberry pie to take home. That was soooo delicious. On our last day, while in Victoria (a 2.5 hour drive one way away), our sailing trip got cancelled due to fog. Since it was Dan's birthday, mom asked, "Well, what do you want to do." Dan replied immediately that he wanted to go for pie. So, we drove 5 hours to get some pie!!! We ended up with a delicious apple blackberry pie, a beef pie with gravy, more sausage rolls and 3 free turnovers. Mom ended up with another apple raspberry pie and a tartan pie, which she describes as SOOOO GOOD!

While in Campbell River, we went on a sunset kayak with Great Wolf Expeditions. Jesse, our guide and his wife Sandra (and cute baby Anna) were absolutely amazing. We had a great time kayaking, getting to try the kelp and sea asparagus. Both were a bit salty, but tasty. Jesse was very informative talking about the sea, the things that lived in it, the local geography and native legends of the area. It was wonderfully relaxing and they took good care of us.

Our trip 2010 part 2

On the road to Winter Harbour. A little town whose winter population reaches a high of 17. The summer is about 20. We drove down this dirt road for 1.5 hours (one way) just to reach this little town. Why? Because we can. And it was on the map. And it is supposedly the westernly most point of Vancouver Island. Was it worth it? Well, we go this nice photo of a harbour!!! And the pride of being able to say we were at the westernly most inhabited point of Vancouver Island.

That same day/evening, we also took another 45 minute jaunt (one way) to a little town called Zeballos. It was quite quaint and beautiful. Our total time in the town consisted of about 10 minutes due to the gravel road and the setting sun.

Dan's desire was to take a picture of us eating Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo. He got his wish. We also have a picture of him eating a Donut in front of the town of Duncan sign...you know...Dunkin Donuts!

Amanda was "thrilled" to visit numerous (aka almost all of the) public washrooms on Vancouver Island. Her observation...for some reason Victoria is the only town on the Island without low-flow toilets. Yep...she visited that many washrooms (and some of them twice!!)

Our Trip 2010 Part 3

Mom dragged us up Mount Douglas and here are the resulting pictures. Kind of looks like Italy would with the houses hanging off the side of the mountainside.

Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgaard Lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse we had to travel down a long dyke that had this horrible sewage type smell to it. We made it to the lighthouse without incident. But on the way back the sewage smell was overwhelming. We tried to breathe through our mouths but ended up tasting sewage. The result was that Amanda lost her breakfast on the side of the dyke. Dang pregnancy nose!

Little Niagara Falls. Doesn't exactly have the thunderous roar that the word Niagara conjures up...but it'll do. The highlight??? Mom accidentally dropped her camera into the waterfall pool and had to fish it back out again.

Dan's hippie bus count: 32. The best one was this pink one that Dan saw repeatedly in Victoria. Please note that westfalia's didn't count in the hippie bus count otherwise we would have been in the hundreds.

Grandma's House

We went to Penticton to visit G-ma and also to see Dan's family in Naramata. The lady may look innocent, but watch out! She is a feisty old lady. Her hearing may be bad, but her eyesight is good. She caught me trying to steal a jar of cherry jam from the fridge and pass it off as the baby. It didn't work, but she let us keep the jar of jam anyway! Yummy!

G-ma lives across the street from Skaha Lake in Penticton. Dan and I enjoyed a nice morning walk along the beach, before it got too hot, which didn't take long.

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