Toronto

My sister, my mom and I in Toronto

My niece Heather and my nephew Nathan (he's not the groom)

Catherine going down the enema slide.

This photo shows the enema slides to the right and the Valley of Fear on the left.

Matthew, Rachel and I going on the Valley of Fear.

This past weekend I had the privilege to fly with my mom to Toronto to witness my niece's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding. We had lots of fun and it was nice to spend some time with my mom....she didn't even drive me crazy. The weather was perfect, no humidity at all. Richard held down the fort at home with some help from friends that live nearby.



This past Friday we went as a family to the Cultus Lake Waterslides. We got there right when the facility opened so for the first 2 hours there were no lineups. We had a fun day of sliding from 10am to 6pm....definitely got our moneys worth. After dinner at Beethovens Pizza (which we highly recommend should you be in the neighbourhood) we headed over to Maple Bay campground to say hello to my brother who had just arrived from Alberta with his family. The kids were worn right out so we didn't stay long. They came for dinner on Saturday and the cousins had a great time bonding. It was nice to spend time with my brother and his wife who we last saw when we were in our trailer in Edmonton last Victoria Day weekend.

Camp Homewood

The obstacle course is lots of fun.

swinging out by the ocean

Grace our manic hairbraider gets every long haired girl by the end of the week.

Pony rides for the under 8 set. The only reason there are no pictures of Jenna and Catherine is because I practically didn't see them for the whole week.

There, now you can see what our house looks like. Once again a house with a steep driveway.


Catherine and I enjoy working in a full size kitchen again!!

Update...finally

I'm getting in trouble from family members for not updating. Seems they knew more of what was going on in my life when I was 3 time zones away than they do now.

We are all well and I am amazed at how adaptable we are. Richard is up early everyday and off to work. It still surprises me a bit that he isn't around anymore during the day. Matthew asked every morning for the first month whether daddy was home. I am still doing a bit of schooling with the kids. Jenna and Catherine are finishing their math books and they are reading books over the summer. Matthew is just starting to read so I don't want to stop and have him lose all his momentum. So, our mornings are full and our afternoons are spent rediscovering Abbotsford and getting together with friends.

Richard got a job with Acosta which is a food brokerage company. His office is in Langley so he is very thankful that he doesn't have to cross the bridge and get stuck in rush hour traffic. It takes him 20-30 minutes to get to the office. He enjoys his work but I think he feels the same as me in thinking that real life can never be what it was before our trip. We are caught up in the busyness but we both know how quickly and effortlessly we could jump off the track and do something adventurous again (not that we have anything planned).

The kids and I spent a week at our favorite camp in the middle of June. We managed to get spaces at Camp Homewood on Quadra Island for a homeschool family camp. Unfortunately it wasn't the same without Richard but we managed to have a good time regardless. This camp offers horesback riding, canoeing, sailing, riflery, archery, crafts and many more activities. The kids had lots of fun reconnecting with friends. I would see Jenna and Catherine briefly in the morning and at night. The rest of the day they were off with friends doing activities. While on the way to camp I was able to stop and visit a friend in Campbell River. Richard spent the week moping around the house.

So now the hot weather has finally hit and it is starting to feel like summer. Time to think about going to the lake. We have had lots of cold, wet weather. I think all of us have lost our tans.

So, you are all wondering. What has this trip done for us, how has it changed our lives? Firstly, I think it has brought us much closer as a family. The kids have formed a close bond with both Richard and I and with each other. We will have fond memories to share with each other over and over in the years to come. I also feel a bond with North America. Newfoundland, Key West, Miami, Texas are no longer exotic sounding places, out of reach, unfathomable. They are real and immediate to us, filled with memories. I feel a bond with those places now. There is no more mystic. Secondly, we look at life in terms of opportunities, not assets. Life is so short and yet all we have energy for is accumulating assets....for what. I think we feel a freedom now that if a great opportunity comes along we will jump at it. We did it once and now it is easier to contemplate doing it again. So, like I said, real life isn't real anymore to us, we have this great experience that will continue to colour our tomorrow.

Our new real life involves me getting back into the work force. I have accepted a position with Heritage Christian Online School based in Kelowna. I will be working with homeschool mothers, ensuring that they meet the Provincial Learning Outcomes for particular grades. This is an easy way for me to step back into working without changing our homeschool lifestyle.

So there you go, now you are all updated. I will try to get some pictures posted....but don't hold your breath, it took me 2 months to do this.

Home Sweet Home

Well we found a house in Abbotsford, we move in on Saturday April 27th. We are excited and disappointed all at the same time, the trip is truly over. We look forward to talking about it and looking at the pictures for the rest of our lives. We hope that all the great people we met on the trip will venture into our part of the world. We would love to see you, so drop us a line or email and give us your address. We took our address out of the blog because you never know what kind of creeps there are out there. So, if you want our address just email us and we will be happy to give it to you.

We will continue to update the blog. We will post some pictures also.

Easter

Well, we have had a very busy few weeks catching up with everyone on the Island. Jenna and Catherine spent a week on the mainland by themselves visiting friends and staying with Auntie Elaine who shuttled them back and forth. I don't think we made dinner once in the trailer because so many people had us over for dinner, lunch, tea and coffee. We had a lovely Easter dinner with Richard's parents. Richard's mom still can put on a fabulous feast. We also had dinner and an egg hunt for the kids with a group of friends. I would love to show you all pictures of all the great things we did but I seem to have gotten out of the habit of taking my camera everywhere. I will try to have some photos for you the next time I have something to blog about. Keep checking back on the site, I don't think I have finished saying my piece yet.

Now we are in Surrey, staying in a beautiful campground called Hazelmere. We are right beside a beautiful creek in the middle of fields and trees. It is so quiet!! We love it. Today we spent the afternoon with my parents who were so happy to see us all again. We also stopped off at my brother's house for a quick visit.

WE'RE HOME

Well we're home. The time has gone far too fast. Ten and half months on the road. We traveled just under 45 thousand kilometres with out one problem with truck or trailer ( we thank the Lord for that). We had an unbelievable trip, we saw amazing things and met fantastic people. Thanks to all those people that we met that shared their lives and hospitality with our family. We know we have made life long friends all over Canada and the U.S.

Whats next:

Time to find a good job with a great company and find out where we will end up living.

San Francisco

Today we spent the day downtown in San Francisco. We started our day at Fishermans Wharf where we could see Alcatraz in the bay. We didn't go on a tour because the kids were a little too young. Instead we headed towards Nob Hill to catch the cable cars. We took the cable car to Chinatown and spent the rest of the day there. We went for Dim Sum which we hadn't had since Ottawa in July. It was yummy. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out the interesting shops and then back to camp for a hot tub and swim. Tomorrow we are planning to see the Golden Gate Bridge and drive some of the Pacific Highway that we can't take the trailer on.

Huge sand dunes about 200ft. below sea level in Death Valley.

You just can't see the scale of this dam photo. Bottom center is a stair case.

A scorpion with a nasty sting.....smaller the claws more sting.

Hoover Dam / Death Valley

We were very happy to get away from the biting wind from the Grand Canyon. We stayed in Las Vegas for 4 nights. We enjoyed the pool and the warmer weather. On Friday we went to the Hoover Dam. It was incredible. If all the concrete from that dam was made into a sidewalk it would go around the world at the equator. What an amazing engineering feat. It was dizzying to look down from the top of the dam.
On Sunday afternoon we headed towards San Francisco. Unfortunately we went the long and difficult way. We decided to go through Death Valley not knowing that it was full of 9% grades that went on for miles, twisting and turning. We had to stop 3 times to let our smoking brakes cool off. We were joined by a couple from Calgary that had the same problem. The up side is we found 2 scorpions and a centipede.
We spent the night in Ridgecrest and had a long day today but we finally hit San Francisco after dark. We have come from dry, desolate,barren desert to lush, green fields and hills. We past acre after acre of almond trees in full bloom. California is so beautiful, green mountains, lush valleys full of produce but also lots of traffic and highways. Betsy worked overtime today and I can confidently say that she has made life on the road so much easier.

Grand Canyon and La Paz, Arizona

Colorado river valley

Well, we left the warm sunshine of Palm Springs and headed east, back into Arizona. Things have warmed up enough (Grand Canyon excluded) that we could explore the north western corner. We spent the weekend in La Paz, AZ. at the Buckskin Mountain State Park. It was so beautiful there. We camped right by the Colorado River in the middle of the mountains. We went for a hike up one of the mountains to an old mine. The kids enjoyed scrambling into caves that dotted the landscape....always wary of rattlesnakes as the weather was very warm. We also explored Lake Havasu which was crystal clear and full of fishermen...and Richard without his rod.
On Monday we headed to the Grand Canyon and today we spent the morning there. The kids were amazed. The only problem was that it was freezing cold with a stong wind. We did a little bit of walking and snapped some photos before the cold drove us back into the truck and home. Tomorrow we are heading to see the Hoover Dam by Las Vegas and also some canyons in that area.