Happy 1 Year Anniversary Uncle Rob and Aunt Sara!

3 days after I broke my arm, we had planned to fly back to Toronto to visit with our families. Luckily, the doctors gave me the okay and we went ahead with our vacation as planned (though sometimes not as comfortable or pain-free for me as I would have liked).

We spent our first weekend back in Peterborough with my mom's family. They took us for an amazing dinner to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. We went to the golf club where my step-dad Martin has served as Treasurer and was President of the club this past year. Delicious food and wonderful service. Everyone was especially respectful of "Mr. West" as soon as we walked through the doors. Oh yeah, and they were also kind enough to cut up and serve the top layer of our wedding cake that Rob's mom had saved for us for just this occasion.

Mr. West (Marty), w/ his sister (my aunt Cathy), and nephew (my cousin Ryan).

Delicious cake served up on well decorated plates (way nicer presentation than we expected).

1/2 of the packaging the cake was wrapped in.

While in Peterborough, Rob even got to help install a new dock for my family. I was not up for that kind of excitement less than a week after my injury, so I just napped and took some photos.

Next, it was back to Toronto to await the arrival of our first niece or nephew, due Tuesday June 29. We had dinner with soon-to-be parents Jon (Rob's brother) and Chab on Monday June 28. Chab was looking great, had lots of energy, and was still playing gracious host to us and her parents. She went into labour as she was getting ready to go to the opera on the evening of June 29 and spent that night in the hospital. Just before 8 am on June 30 (Wednesday) our beautiful little nephew, Sunny, was born at a healthy 7 lbs 4 oz.

Daddy Jon swaddling 10 hour old Sunny at the hospital.

Sunny @ the hospital w/ gloves to prevent him from scratching his face

Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Rob w/ Sunny, and Aunt Sara

@ home, day 1 in Uncle Robert's arms

LOVE this picture of the happy new family, at home on day 1

After much excitement over the new baby, we were still able to celebrate with family on the actual day of our anniversary (July 4, 2010). We had brunch with my dad, Naomi, and Rob's parents. Then checked into a fancy hotel (Le Germaine - highly recommended!) and went to a nice dinner just the 2 of us.

Heading to our fancy hotel

Salad at our anniversary dinner @ Tundra Restaurant

My main course - rainbow trout, cooked & presented amazingly

While debating over whether to get dessert, the chef decided to bring us this dessert platter for free!!! It was beautiful & delicious.

Mmmm...dessert.

Chocolate-covered cheesecake popsicle.

The whirlwind came to an end with us both flying back to Vancouver (rather than Rob staying in Ontario, he decided to fly back to take care of me...isn't he sweet!!), happy to have gotten to meet our nephew, spent so much time with Mommy Chab and Daddy Job (thanks guys!), eaten our special cake, and celebrated our anniversary with our families.

- Sara

OUCHY!

Well...after all the fun we've had since we moved out here to Vancouver, we were bound to have a bit of reality catch up with us at some point...

Since the start of June, I had been embracing the West Coast active lifestyle and biking to and from work. About 30 mins each way. Great way to get a workout built into my day (in addition to 2-3 trips to the gym/week for some weight training).

Anyways, while biking home on the evening of Tuesday June 22, something went wrong with my bike & my front tire stopped spinning (could have been brakes or tire malfunction, could have had to do with the basket on my handlebars...still a mystery). When my bike stopped so suddenly, I went flying over my handlebars and hit every part of my body on the way down
(OUCHY!!!!!). Hit my head (thank goodness I'm so adamant about wearing a helmet), my back, hurt my neck, banged up my legs and arms. Luckily I walked away with a broken arm as my most serious injury.

Since I was on a bike route when I fell, lots of cyclists immediately stopped and moved my bike off of me and called 911. The fire fighters responded first and just did a basic check for life threatening injuries (it was interesting knowing what was happening all along thanks to my recent 100 hr wilderness first aid course). Then the paramedics got there and took over. They quickly realized my right arm was causing me the most pain and my spotty vision from hitting my head was subsiding. They splinted my arm w/ a Sam splint and tensor bandage and got me to stand up and sit myself on the stretcher. There was a bit of frustration when one paramedic said I didn't have to have laughing gas if I didn't want to b/c I've had bad experiences with it before... and the other kept telling me to have it. Then when standing me up, that second paramedic was too quick to move my legs and jerked my broken arm as well (OUCHY again!)...I know they were just trying to help, but me and the one paramedic didn't get along so well.

They took me to UBC hospital b/c it's not as busy as VGH. I got checked in and had a bit of waiting to do between the doctor coming to see me, nurses making me more comfortable, getting x-rays etc. No luck getting a hold of Rob from the portable phone the hospital let me use (even though he had the cell phone - it was off b/c the batteries were low). I would have liked to have him with me, but I was actually in and out pretty quick in about 2 hours. They were really nice and sent me home in a cab w/ a taxi chit, wrapped up in a blanket.

Rob had a bit of a shock when he got home that night about 30 mins after I did. After I told him the whole story, he walked up to 4th Avenue to fill my prescription for pain killers and I think that gave him a chance to sort of digest the whole thing.

So since then, everything's been a little different trying to function with a broken right (dominant) humerus/upper arm. Since it's broken just below my shoulder they can't even put it in a cast, so I'm just in a minimal sling and have to be pretty careful not to move it too much. I'll put in 1 photo we took to track the swelling against my healthy arm, but I'll spare you from having to look at lots of photos... You'll see that lovely sling beige in lots of upcoming photos tho!

Now I'm well on the road to recovery...it's been over 3 weeks, with another 3-4 weeks to go until the bone is supposed to have healed. It's well aligned based on more recent x-rays, so I'm just waiting for my body to do it's thing and fix itself. Rob's been great about helping me out around the house and I'm back to work, figuring out how to do everything just a little differently.

Let me know if you have any tips and tricks for life with a broken arm!!

-Sara

Seattle Wedding

In June, Rob drove down to Seattle (& area) on his own to attend his Aunt Mary's wedding. Here are some photos of the event and his lovely cousins. I can't add much commentary (besides the captions), but I know he had a blast hanging out with the fam!

Rob and his cousin Mary

All the wedding guests enjoying their lunch (with Rob behind the camera)

Lovely Aunt Mary & her two beautiful daughters (from left to right: Mary, Aunt Mary, cousin Agnes)

The wedding ceremony

Throwing rose petals over the happy couple as they left the ceremony (Rob brought these roses all the way from Vancouver - they had been on our kitchen table since Rob brought them home a few days earlier after the final dinner at the boarding school...put to good use!)

The happy, newly-married couple

Rob & Agnes having some fun!

-Sara

Bike Ride to Chinatown

Catching up... We've been neglecting our blog for the last few months, so I'm going to play catch up with some posts at varying levels of detail...

Back in early July we took a beautiful ride to Chinatown, an area of Vancouver we haven't really spent much time. We biked there along the south side of False Creek on a lovely sunny day (but not yet too hot for comfort) and did a bit of shopping. This first photo is Rob's favourite park area on this side of the False Creek.

Took a picture right by the gate to enter into Chinatown and found an electronic bus sign displaying arrival times (like the SkyTrain, or like in Europe...never seen it with Vancouver buses). Looked around the little markets, checked out some of the deals on sandals, trinkets, etc...and in the end, I think we only bought some Pocky to share between the two of us.

We did find this beautiful Chinese garden maintained by the City of Vancouver in a nice little walled-off area. I'd definitely go back and spend some more time there.

As we started working up an appetite, neither of us were feeling adventurous enough to try one of the authentic Chinese restaurants...so we started biking towards home along the north side of False Creek to check out a different area. After stopping to watch some dragonboat races in progress (the dome you see in the back of the picture is Telus Science World), we found a nice area overlooking the water and stopped at a cute little cafe for sandwich & salad. Sure hit the spot!

Successful trip to Chinatown, I'd say...more to come about why you won't be seeing more posts about other exploratory bike rides this summer...

-Sara

Lynn Canyon Hike

A good friend of mine from high school moved out to Vancouver to go to university and has been living here ever since.  Every now and then she will take me (and sometimes Rob) to do something fun in and around the city.  She lives in North Van, which gives us convenient access to all sorts of interesting mountains, forests, and hiking trails.

Last weekend, Jen and her boyfriend Kristian took us hiking from their house along the Baden Powell Trail through Lynn Canyon Park.  We were headed towards some nice waterfall, but didn't quite make it there before we had to get back to the city.  We hiked for over 4 hours that day and thoroughly enjoyed our time with our friends!  Thanks guys!!! :)

Kristian, Jen, and Rob - All smiles early in the day

Just getting warmed up... We found a nice river crossing to take a photo break.

Found a really old trailer along the side of the trail and thought we'd check it out (no wonder we never made it to the falls with all those photo breaks and exciting things to explore along the way!)

Rob had his first chance to go across the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge and was pretty excited about it.  It was busy with tourists, but we made it across anyways.  One more thing checked off the list of things to do in Vancouver! (By the way, for anyone visiting the area, this is a great FREE alternative to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and it's way closer to the city too).

Can't wait for the next hike!
-Sara


Rob adds:
As if the weekend couldn't get any better, Sara and I cleaned our rugs with a brand new vacuum.  Look at all that dust sucked out of our one little rug!

Vancouver Aquarium

So after living here for 9 months, we finally made a trip to the highly acclaimed Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park.  We learned about the local harbour seals that we've seen from our beach, watched the dolphin show, and also enjoyed watching the sea otters play.  We also learned the difference between seals and sea lions - seals don't have ear flaps.

-Rob

Visitors

It's been awhile since we've blogged.  Lately we've been guilty of not bringing our camera with us, so as a result, I've inserted some clipart below where we should have, but didn't, take a picture.

Last weekend, Kim was in Vancouver for a conference and stayed with us for a few nights.  She had just flown in from Singapore and was glad to be back in Canada.  I showed her our kickass front yard (i.e. Kits Beach), we took a walk to Granville Island, and Kim cooked Sara and me a delicious dinner and dessert (mmm pie-ish graham cracker custard goodness).

The same weekend, we met up with Val (from Ottawa too) who we hadn't seen for a couple years.  She met us at our place and we walked with her (and best friend Edith, and Heather) to Granville Island (twice in one day - but luckily there's always more to see at Granville Island).

We didn't get up to anything too exciting for May 2-4 Weekend.  We went to my coworker's daughter's 1 yr birthday party at Trout Lake (in Vancouver). She is one cute kid, 1 year seems like a pretty great age.


On Sunday (tonight), we took an evening walk around our beautiful neighbourhood.  Picked up a chocolate milkshake at Triple-O's, and walked along Kits Beach and saw a totem pole, a seal-looking animal in the water, and a big blue heron perched on the rocks at the edge of the beach. We slowly walked closer to the heron and got within 10 feet of it, watched it for awhile, and left.  

Ski Vacation

As part of Rob's spring break, I took a few days off of work right after the Easter long weekend and we drove north to explore a bit more of BC and get in our last skiing of the season at Whistler/Blackcomb.

We drove off at about 10 am on Monday morning, headed for Shannon Falls and the Chief mountain. The Chief is close to Squamish, which is about half way between Vancouver and Whistler. We stopped and looked up at the Falls before hiking halfway up the Chief for some great views of a beautiful river, rocks, trees etc. We were there for about 2 hours (including a little break for a picnic lunch) and loved what we saw. I'd be up for more exploring in that area another time. Rob was obsessed with the green, stringy moss that was growing over everything (hence the picture).

We continued driving from there to spend the night in Whistler Village at the Summit Lodge for 1 night (a HotWire find just for the 1 night before moving over to Club Intrawest right at the base of Blackcomb for the rest of our stay). We got there early enough to get all checked in, go pick up our lift passes for the next few days, explore the village, and try out a pizza place close by for dinner. Here are some pics from our Village exploration.

We went to sleep early and were all ready for Day 1 of skiing the next day. We got in a few good runs in the morning to get me comfortable on the mountain again. Then met with a free mountain tour group at 11:30 (highly recommend this for anyone heading to Whistler in the future this year or next - meet at the top of the mountain on Whistler and they'll show you all sorts of great runs you might not try on your own. Good fun skiing with the group too!). After a couple of hours on the tour, we stopped for lunch, did a few more runs on our own, and called it a day at around 3pm (mountain closes at 4, but we wanted to get checked in at Intrawest). That night, we had dinner in our room (chili and fresh bread), tried out the outdoor hot tub, and rented a movie. Nice night in to reset before next day of skiing.

Skiing with the tour group at the peak of Whistler, above the tree line.

Giving my left foot a break from my ski boot at lunch time

The victim:

The culprit:

On Day 2 of skiing, I had a half day group lesson scheduled to start at 9:45. Rob and I had a leisurely start to the morning and got me set up with a Level 3 group lesson. I learned a ton (while Rob was off doing moguls and terrain parks), but discovered that next time I'm in a lesson, I should really be in Level 4. Luckily, there were only 2 other students in my group, so I got the personalized tips I needed. I kept practicing the 1 or 2 key things I was taught for the rest of our time skiing and I think I made a lot of progress! Rob managed to find BeaverTails right in the middle of Whistler mountain while he was off on his own too! We skied together in the afternoon and didn't get off the mountain until just before 4 pm.

Dinner that night was Rob's favourite of the trip: The Old Spaghetti Factory!! Mmmm...Meatballs!

On our final day, we got all packed up and checked out before walking over to ski on Blackcomb (we'd mostly stayed on Whistler the other days, besides a quick trip across on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola). We went right up to the peak, which I have skied before on both mountains, but found some pretty windy, cold, poor visibility conditions. We skied down an easy green run from there before finding a beautiful group of runs in the middle of the mountain, all blue squares, and all really fun. So we kept finding new routes to try in that area.

Peak 2 Peak Gondola ride from Day 1:

Some of our favourite Blackcomb runs on ski Day 3:

On the way home, we were both exhausted, but happy that we had been so lucky with weather and snow conditions. And beautiful Sea to Sky views to enjoy on the road. All in all, it was a great, active little vacation that I'm happy we were able to get it in before the ski season ended!

-Sara