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