Sun Run and Work

Today I ran in the 25th Annual Vancouver Sun Run. Myself and 50, 234 others! It was amazing to be in such a huge crowd, and to run 10km elbow to elbow with people the whole way. The route took me from West Georgia St. downtown out to Stanley Park, through the south tip of the park, around to English Bay and then across the Burrard Street bridge. We then ran East along W. 4th street for two km and then crossed the Cambie Street bridge for a big finish at BC Place Stadium. I'm glad I did it - though dodging walkers and slow joggers the whole way was a nuisance (and I'm not a fast runner!), and the crowd after the finish line was so crazy I couldn't even get near a free banana or juice! I walked all the way home and was happy to discover Chris had made a huge brunch of French Toast, bacon and eggs.

I placed 16095th (!!!) with a time of 1hr 4min and 6 sec...

Last week I adjudicated Speech and Drama at the Port Coquitlam Festival and I really enjoyed my time there. It is a friendly festival; well organized and with some strong work being done by young performers. It is nice to be 'home' with Chris, Emma and Nathan for a few days. It seemed like Nathan had grown an inch while I was away! There will be lots of reading and cuddling together tomorrow because I fly up to Terrace, BC on Tuesday for another week of adjudicating work. Chris will stay home with the kids again. He enjoyed the homeschooling/stay-at-home-father days this past week; took the kids on lots of trips around and about. One thing they did was go cycling in Stanley Park. He and Nathan shared a rented tandem bike. It took some convincing and a lot of patience until Nathan felt safe on the bike, but once they got rolling everyone had a great time. I missed out! And would also have liked to see the Black Bear at Lynn Canyon... a taste of what Chris must feel most weeks!

Juleta

New List

A new list of the things we have done in Vancouver:

1. We went to Lynn Canyon.

We saw a black bear in a food trap there. It was a round, metal, blue trap. You could go right up to it. The bear was asleep. When we came back from our walk, the bear was wide awake and if you came too close it would spit at you. It had been getting way too close to the houses and some of the people had dogs and cats so it was going to get moved away, further into the forest. I could see its brown eyes and ears and tail which was flicking all around.

2. Swimming.

Me and Dad have been having contests, seeing who can hold their breath the longest. Only once did I win. I have got up to holding my breath for 23 seconds. We have been racing in the back stroke. I have won every single time. Either Dad needs a lot of practice, or he taught me too well!

3. Going to the store.

There's a corner store down the block and Mom and Dad have been sending me there to get groceries. Say, if we were going to make French toast and we didn't have eggs or sugar, Dad would send me over to get them, alone. That happened today. I've gone to the store by myself 12 times. I like going to the corner store. The grocers have started getting very used to me. And, if there are two items or less, they never give me a bag, and they've stopped asking if I want one.

4. Centrepiece.

I have been vigorously collecting pretty flowers and petals that have fallen off trees in Stanley Park and down the block. I also got a few from Whytecliff park. I use them for big centrepieces on the middle of our table.

5. Going to the Planetarium.

We went to the Vancouver Planetarium. I think it is wonderful. I think that my favourite part of the Planetarium was called 'Mars Mission'. In Mars Mission, first of all I watched a video telling us what to do, and to keep our seatbelts buckled at all times. Then we went into a round structure called the space shuttle. When the ride started up it started jerking around which made it very bumpy. It was taking us on a Mars Mission. First of all it told us that they were trying to make a lodge on Mars, so if they needed to leave planet earth they could go there. But that meant they needed an extreme amount of energy since there was no oxygen, water or food on Mars. You could only rely that your personal rescue shuttle was coming back regularily. There was a big screen in front of you that was showing all of this.

Blogya'later!

Emma

Stanley Park

There is a hollow tree near a playground in Stanley Park. It is hollow. If they are stacked on top of each other, about 12 kids could fit inside it, and five stacks of kids could fit in. When you squish in it looks like something like lightening had struck it on the inside. It looked fake on the inside, but real on the outside. It was like going inside a three-room house. I thought it looked like there was a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom and bedroom all in one room. There was a little window.
Nathan

Visiting

There has been lots of visiting around Easter. The night before Easter we went to Jeff and Yin's house and had supper there. Jeff, Dad, Yin and Mom watched hockey with Nathan and Awen. For Easter dinner the next day we went to Aunt Mary and Uncle Don's house with two of their daughters, Anne and Claire. Katie was away. They had a dog, Gracie. Gracie was a labrador. I don't remember seeing Katie, Anne and Claire, or Uncle Don or Aunt Mary before, not Gracie neither. But I really liked seeing them. Apparently I saw them four years ago. I really really liked dinner. The ham was good, the mashed potatoes were great and the curried fruits were yummy. I especially liked the ham and the mashed potatoes. We watched three videos that day! "The Three Lives of Thomasina" and "Peter Pan" and most of "Wall-e". We stayed up until 10:30. Just as we were leaving Aunt Mary and Uncle Don had a surprise for us; a bag full of chocolate and a chocolate carrot (which turned out to taste very yogurty). They live in Tsawassan and by the time we got home it was after 11 o'clock. We have to go to bed early today, which I find quite disappointing.
It was a great Easter!

Emma

Good Things

Here is the list of good things I have done since we got into downtown Vancouver:

1. me and Dad have gone out for cake
2. mom and I went for a day at the beach
3. we took the water taxi
4. Dad, me and Nathan have started to go regularly to a nearby swimming pool
5. me, Dad and Nathan went on the Sky-train
6. mom, me and Nathan are going regularly to a nearby library
7. we have had cupcakes at Ken's house
8. we can go to the aquarium any time we like, even if it's raining
9. we went to Sam and Sophie's house and played hide and seek until we were wet with sweat
10. we went to Science World with Yin and Awen
11. Me, mom and Nathan went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge
12. Mom and I had a good time on Granville Island
13. We have a playground very close to here with HUGE tires, one about as tall as me
14. we have seen lots of raccoons
15. the flowers here are in vast numbers
16. we have a bunk bed
17. we have been allowed to watch lots of TV as mom has been sleeping in very, very late (not true, mom says!)
18. we have been to ChinaTown and got a mixture of roasted almonds, chestnuts and other nuts

These are the big ones, there are vast numbers of small good things. Sometimes I feel like I woke up in Calgary and then I notice I am in the top bunk. There are much bigger rush hours here.

I think our time in Vancouver has been amazing.

Emma

A walk through Stanley Park

On Friday, April 3, we went to Stanley Park. We fed birds there. Here is a list of the birds we fed: swans, pesky pigeons, ducks (mallards and small black ones that look like little loons), seagulls and almost a few raccoons! Oh, and there was a great blue heron who didn't really need a meal. We saw about 10 raccoons on our walk. One of them was freaking out a lady who was trying to cross a little bridge. It was just getting so close to her.
From Nathan