A number of times through the first five months of 2010 I have thought to myself that I should update this web site as we have been experiencing a good number of neat things, but I haven't done a good job. It is now the May 24th weekend, about 9:30 at night, heading back from the lake, Susan driving, getting close to Hope, and I am finally giving an update.

So what have we been doing?

I'll try to give you a bird's eye view of some of the highlights that have come to mind.

Susan's sister Shirley bought us for a Christmas present a membership to Science World, so in January we went to Science World. We went a couple of times, including just a few days before it closed for the Vancouver Olympics which were happening in mid February.

We also went out to a few parks. We spent one particularly nice afternoon wandering around New Brighton Park, a park in Vancouver close to where we used to live.

Late in January Susan's parents returned to their home in Calgary after staying with us for a few months to help look after newborn Melissa.

Second to last Saturday in January we had a fun day, spending the morning at Bear Creek park in Surrey, where we played on the playground, then rode the train. Then on the same day we came back to Burnay and Kayla and Glen went ice skating while Melissa and Susan watched from the sidelines. Admittedly, Kayla only had a couple of times around the rink, supported by Glen, before she had fun being pushed around the rink by Glen while sitting on a chair.

Mid February, just as the Vancouver Olympics were starting Glen changed jobs, returning to McKesson Medical Imaging Group, a place he used to work. Glen's last day of work with IBM was Thursday, February 11th the day before the Olympics started. The second day of work at McKesson Glen took as a day off to go to an Olympic event. Having been back a few months now, I can say it has been a good return, feeling almost like I've never left (other than being reset back to starting holidays :-( ).

Obviously a big event around town this year is the Vancouver Olympics. In the days leading up to the Olympics, we all got out and saw the torch relay. I saw it on the Thursday as it ran past the IBM office (my last day there). Susan, Kayla, and Melissa went with Shirley a few days before. As hinted at when talking about my work, we did something on the opening day of the Olympics, and that something was going to Whistler for some ski jumping. We got on an early bus going to Whistler (really the only way to get there if you were going to an event), and were dressed for day of cold. We had a good time watching ski jumpers. Originally Glen's uncle Van was to come with us, so he had bought a ticket, but in the intervening year he had got engaged and was getting married and not able to make it (understandably), so his ticket to the events was shared by Ellen, Rebecca, and Shirley. Joining at us the ski jumping in Whistler was Ellen. On Saturday, February 13, we went with Shirley to Surrey for a city Olympic celebration where we watched the RCMP Musical Ride and took part in some other fun and games. On Sunday, February 14 Rebecca joined us for a bus ride to UBC Thunderbird stadium to watch the Russian / Sweden women's ice hockey. We had a great time, if a little tired once finally getting home that night. On Monday I went to my first day of work (back) at McKesson, then on Tuesday I had the day off to go to women's curling with Shirley as the fifth. The second weekend we took a quick trip downtown, and saw the Olympic cauldron/torch. We didn't go into any of the pavilions as the lineups were extremely long, and with Melissa being only 3 months old, a long lineup didn't seem like a good idea. On the last weekend of the Olympics we went to Fort Langley (unrelated to the Olympics). It was really nice to have the Olympics.

First weekend in March, we went for our annual ski trip at Sun Peaks, renting a nice condo with the Stratfords and the Yap's. On Friday Susan, Grace, Pauline, and the kids over five skied, while Eddy, Richard, and Glen looked after the young kids. Then on Saturday, the men and women traded assignments. For a couple of runs down the bunny hill, Glen took Kayla. Although it was only a couple of trips down the bunny hill, Kayla was talking about snow skiing for a couple of months after.

For easter time, we went to the lake for the first time. We gave a ride to Jim, as the rest of his family was already there for the week for spring break. We have to apologize we gave him a cold, as all of us had a cold and he probably caught it driving up with us. Although he did seem to recover faster than the rest of us did. The weather was not sunny, but quite nice still (not rainy), so we thank everyone for helping us do some work in our yard, and had a campfire in both our yard and also at Earl's.

In April, a last minute decision on Saturday night when the Stratford's were over saw us go Sunday morning down to the Puyallup Tulip Festival. That was quite a busy weekend as along with the Stratford's we shared the rental of a lawn aerator, Richard doing his lawn on Saturday afternoon and Glen doing our lawn on early Sunday morning before we headed down to the States. We got back late on Sunday, and Richard had a quick turnaround as he then came back to our house at about 7:15 Monday morning in order to get the aerator back to the rental company before 9:00am.

Then in May for Mother's Day, we went to the Greater Vancouver Zoo, where we saw many neat animals and also rode the train. Glen's favourite animal was probably the Grizzly Bear. Kayla's favourite animal was the Zebra. Susan's was the Giraffes. We're just guessing, but the Zebra was probably Melissa's favourite too.

This of couse brings us to this weekend. We went to the lake on Friday night. Kayla spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's while we looked after Melissa and tidied the cabin during her times napping. We also enjoyed the newfound room, sleeping on our new queen size bed which we just had had delivered to the cabin just before we arrived. Thanks to Glen's dad for being there to let the deliverymen in. Kayla got to sleep on the bottom of her new double bunk. Melissa wasn't yet on the bunk, still in her playpen. Today we went out on the boat and had a great time, eating lunch in the boat near the narrow's.

That basically is the highlights that have come to mind. We just got off the Port Mann bridge, and it's time to shutdown and prepare for unpacking (it's 5 to 11, a late night, back to work for me tomorrow).