downtown for olympic fever

We are so lucky to live close to one of the greatest events in Vancouver's history - on Thursday, Feb 18th we took Elijah out of school at Noon and headed in. It was a well-worth trip - we had a blast taking some of it in!
The adventure started with the kids' first trip on the Sky Train!and all dressed very patriotic -(Elijah has a Quatchie jogging outfit on, you'll see)

Remember these Eagles I posted in October when we were Downtown with Kelly and Lily? Here's another - Sammy remembered posing by many of them in October so he right away posed in front of this first one we saw off of the sky train - and look at all these Coke People behind him!we didn't go into any of the Livesites or Pavilions (too long of lines) but stayed entertained by many different street entertainers (tap dancing, spoon-playing, juggling) and LOTS of walkingI want a better picture of this flag - jeepers, I could have taken a perfect one in October - we're hoping to get back Downtown this weekend before the Olympics end, so I may have my chance yetthe cauldronAnd how awesome to see the Olympic Mascots do a little 15 minute ice show for us on the Robson Square ice! Yea!!!the kids even got to high-five them after the showwe caught the overtime of a hockey game by standing in the street with many of these folks, looking into this restaurant's little TV and joining in the cheering! It was such a fun experience - hearing cheering coming from buildings/restaurants all down street!

And as I mentioned we did a lot of walking - from Station Sky Train station, around and about, to Waterfront, more around and about, to Yale Town... and back to Station sky Train station around 8:15pm when we headed for home! Elijah and Sam fell asleep on the sky train... way too cute, my troopers!

Go Canada Go!!

O zone

On Saturday Feb 13, we went to Richmond's O Zone - in the ugly weather - and had a great day! We visited BC Street with little tents set up for our different regions

it's been so long since I've blogged regularly, you likley have no idea who this Student is! This is Lily from Korea, age 11 - she was with us for 7 weeks (January 2nd til Feb 20th)Richmond is one of the largest producing areas of Cranberries - so they had filled this area around City Hall with cranberries - so fun!and of course, my beloved brother Matt was performing, so we got to be up front and personal for his hit "Today"his video was playing on the jumbotron too while he was singing livewe were given tickets to go on the Ferris Wheel toothis maple leaf and the olympic rings are also filled with cranberries! (shots from the Ferris Wheel)Great day! And well done Uncle Matt - loved seeing you perform today!

absolutely stunning weather

Our weather for February has been unbelievable (not so great for hosting the winter Olympics - but oh well!)! My tulips have been out of the ground for weeks already... I see crocus' blooming all over, it's been absolutely gorgeous! So on Thursday, February 11th - I took Sam and Gabi to the "lake" for a picnic... and Sammy's first-ever bike ride - he made it around the lake without a complaint. I had Gabi in the stroller and got a good walk in! this is all we have for Gabi so far, so she doesn't go more than a foot at a time and then is bored of it - who can blame her!Sam is soooo proud of his first bike ride and actually first real time on such a bike! And I am SO proud of him too!

Red and White Day

Elijah's school had a Spirit Day on the 12th of February, the day of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics! Of course, it was Red and White dress-up day!! Yea, Canada!!! Here's my boy with lots of school spirit and Canadian Patriotism! (I altered this Burger King crown so he became the King of Canada; and his teddy bear accompanied him to school too because it had a Canada sweater on!)
He's with his good friend T from his class -and to their chapel that day they had two Dads of Student's come in for a quick hello with their torches which they carried - one of which I graduated with - that was neat!
While Elijah had this at school, Sam and Gabi had swim lessons and then we stayed at the Rec Center to watch the Russian Figure Skaters practice - they were here for 2 weeks prior to the Olympics praticing! Very cool -and here's Gabi taking photos too! If you remember years ago now, when we last visited Disneyland my little 12month old Samuel pulled my camera into the hot tub on our first day in Anaheim - well, this has since been a play camera and Gabi likes it as her own -

Go Canada Go!!!

And the Olympics are finally here! Vancouver has been talking about 2010 for forever it seems - well, I figured 2010 was SO far away, but man, it's here and the Olympics begin this week! Last night we had the privelige of partaking in some Vancoc festivities and seeing the Torch run through our City! It was very exciting!and here's Mr. C himself handing out Olympic pins to us!and the Torch - which we were right in front of, but they had all sorts of people walking with the runner, so I couldn't grab a decent shot til after he passedand even awesome-er news is the the publicity my Brother, Matt is getting from the Music Video he shot a couple weeks ago for the City of Richmond! It's awesome - you have to see it! hopefully it will be aired during the olympics, so stay tuned! CLICK his picture to view the video!