Sarah is 5 months old!

A couple days late but little Sarah is 5 months old! It's hard to believe how quickly she's growing up. Her personality is really starting to shine. She has the cutest smile and her face just lights up when she flashes that smile. She's so strong - she loves to stand and she rolled over for the first time yesterday. She's still so tiny (9lbs 4oz) and is still on her high calorie diet of breastmilk, formula and canola oil, which seems to be working. She has almost weekly appointments with our family doctor and her new pediatrician and they're keeping a close eye on her. But she's as healthy as anything and is such a happy little girl. Although she's started teething so she has some pretty unhappy moments these days, too!



Sarah has been accompanying us on all our adventures lately but is usually asleep in her stroller and hasn't been in many of our pictures. So I thought I'd share a few cute recent pictures of our little Sarah.

I don't care how skinny she is or how little she weighs. Look at those cheeks! Here she is planting a kiss on Daniel's Spiderman Eddie.

Olympic Adventures - downtown again and gold medal curling

A few weeks ago, James won tickets to see women's bobsled up in Whistler. We were excited about getting to see an Olympic event but were worried about the logistics - how we would get up there, who would take the kids for the day... Then, one of James' coworkers asked if he would trade his tickets for the gold medal women's curling. James jumped at it - it was in town and we know a lot more about curling than bobsled. So, today was the day of the event. James took the whole day off so the kids and I took him downtown in the morning to see a few of the Olympic sights before we dropped the kids off at Gramma and Grampa's.

It was pretty rainy today so we put on our raincoats and brought our umbrellas. The crowds were much smaller than when the kids and I were there on Monday, so we were able to get a bit closer to the cauldron.

We walked up to Robson Street to see the zipline (the boys were still in awe of it) and saw their friends, Sumi, Quatchi and Miga on the side of a building.

We then found a sheltered area near the ice rink at Robson Square, watched a juggler and had a hot dog lunch.

After lunch, we dropped the kids off with Gramma and Grampa and headed to the curling rink. (While we were there, Grampa took the boys swimming and they had the greatest time - supposedly they were in the water for almost two hours! Gramma happily stayed home with Sarah, where it was warm and dry!) James and I got to the rink almost an hour early, sailed through security and wandered around the venue for a while. We found our seats, which were quite good, even if we did have very cold air blowing on us the entire time!

Canada was playing Sweden for the gold medal.

Sweden came on strong at the beginning of the game but Canada started to take over around the fifth end. It was certainly exciting! The crowd was amazing - there was a sea of about 5950 people in red, cheering Canada on to victory. Those 50 Swedish fans cerainly held their own, though! In the tenth end, Canada was up 6-4 but let Sweden tie it up. They certainly knew how to keep us all on the edge of our seats! It was close but Sweden ended up taking the last point and won the gold. A tough loss but still a great accomplishment to get silver.

The results were gold for Sweden, silver for Canada and bronze for China.

What a neat experience to go and feel the Olympic experience for ourselves. Although it was pretty obvious that many in the crowd did not understand curling, the excitement and patriotism was pretty amazing. It was really cool to be there. And I don't regret giving up those women's bobsled tickets, even if Canada won gold and silver in that event!

Olympic Adventures - Robson Square and the Olympic Flame

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past week or so and I'm so glad we've been able to catch many of the Olympic celebrations around town. But we hadn't been to see the flame yet. So I decided to brave the downtown crowds and we took the Skytrain down to the centre of all the Olympic action.

When we got off the Skytrain at Waterfront Station, who did we see but Quatchi, Daniel's favourite Olympic mascot. Unfortunately, Adam's favourite (Sumi) wasn't there. (This is a great picture that shows what a goofball Adam is, too!)




We weren't really sure where to go to find the flame but I figured our best bet would be to follow the crowds! So we walked and walked and walked until we finally saw the flame in the distance. There is a viewing platform where you can get a better look at it. I asked one of the blue-clad 2010 volunteers about it and she said that I wouldn't be able to bring the stroller and that the line would probably take about an hour and a half. I decided that seeing it from afar was a much better idea! The boys were very impressed, though. I think it was the first time they really felt they were doing something Olympic-related, since they had seen it on TV. They didn't care if we didn't get too close and had to see it through a chainlink fence. Sarah didn't care about it at all. :)


We were starving after that, so we found a bench in the sunshine to have our lunch. It was beautiful out but not all that warm. Then I figured we should check out what was going on on Robson Street, the centre of all the Olympic action. The first thing we saw was the zip line and the people flying across Robson Street. The boys thought it was the coolest thing and we had to watch for at least 20 minutes as people flew through the sky. Daniel really wanted to do it (hey, if he can ride Space Mountain 7 times, a zipline is nothing!). But, when I told him it was just for adults and that he'd have to wait in line for 6 hours (from lunchtime to dinnertime), he changed his mind pretty quick.


We went to Robson Square, saw some native dancers and attempted to see the mascots doing an ice show. Unfortunately, it looked like people had been there for at least an hour before the show started and there wasn't a single space for us to stand and watch the show. We saw the top of Sumi's head once - that was about it!

By this time, we were pretty tired, so we started to head back to the Skytrain. Along Granville Street, there were lots of public pieces of art. Everyone was standing in these sports-related cutouts so, of course, the boys had to, too. I thought they looked pretty cute!

We've been having a great time checking out all the exciting things happening but I have to admit that I'm kind of looking forward to some quiet time at home, too! But first we need to take James to experience the Olympic atmosphere downtown on Friday before he and I head to the women's gold medal curling.

Olympic Adventures - Surrey Celebration Site

This weekend, James joined us on our Olympic adventures. We decided to go out to Surrey to see what was happening at their celebration site. It was so much fun! It's the first place we've been to that's been family-oriented so there was lots for the kids to do. One of the first things we saw was an ice-less curling rink. There were real rocks but they had wheels on the bottom. The boys thought it was pretty cool but thse rocks were heavy!


There were lots of games and activities set up for the kids.


There was even a snow-less toboggan hill. I think it was white astroturf sprayed with soapy water but it felt just like sledding down a hill! It's not too ften you can go sledding wearing just a sweatshirt and pants!

After lunch and watching a pretty funny juggler (who juggled with fire - the boys were very impressed), we lined up to see the RCMP Musical Ride. We had to line up about an hour beforehand, so I took the boys around for a while while James and Sarah held our spot in line.

The Musical Ride was very good. I think Adam, being our animal lover, liked it the best. He never took his eyes off the horses. Daniel was pretty tired, which meant he was getting a bit hyper and silly. But, overall, it was a great show.

Surrey did a great job with this celebration. I think it's been my favourite venue so far. It had so much for the kids to do. There was a time when other, more exciting places may have been my favourite. But now, I definitely like the family-oriented ones. :)

Olympic adventures - back to False Creek

Yesterday, Gramma joined us on our Olympic Adventures. We went back to False Creek to see the pavilions that the kids and I didn't get to the other day. We got there as soon as the buildings opened and lined up right away for the popular Ontario House. They were showing a 4D movie that we really wanted to see. The boys were really good in the line - they'd had lots of practice at Disneyland!

On the outside of the building were many, many vertical ropes that gave the building a really cool appearance. And they were perfect for little boys to play in while waiting.


The movie was really cool! It was supposed to be a tourism video about Ontario but we were so caught up in the effects that we didn't really learn much about the province. :) It was cool, though. When they showed kids tobogganing down a hill, snow fell on us from the ceiling! During a parade, bubbles filled the room. Our seats shook during a scene showing a roller coaster ride. The boys were freaked out every time something happened but they loved it!

After visiting Ontario, we walked over to Costco for a hot dog lunch and played on a playground nearby. We saw a continuous stream of people in red heading to the hockey game at GM Place (oops, I mean Canada Hockey Place). We went to see what was going on at the BC Hydro Pavilion and the boys took a little break and did some colouring and stuff. Then we went back to Science World where Russia House is located. They've taken over the entire place with displays and activities about Russia (the 2014 Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia). The line up was at least an hour long but, when we got there, a security guard waved us over and let us skip the entire line because we had a stroller. It was awesome! We had lots of jealous people in the line asking us if they could borrow our baby! Russia was interesting but not much there for the kids, so we only stayed for a while before heading back home - it was a long trip back from Russia. :)

Olympic Adventures - Granville Island

The kids and I decided to take the new Canada Line Skytrain to Granville Island on Wednesday. We had to get off at the Olympic Village station and then take a new streetcar to Granville Island. Both the Skytrain and streetcar were packed! I had Sarah in the stroller, Adam sitting on top but poor Daniel was standing and got pretty squished. But it was better than trying to park at Granville Island and the boys enjoyed being on the trains, as usual.

The pavilions at Granville Island were the Francophone House, Atlantic Canada House and Swiss House. We were in and out of Francophone House pretty quickly. We wandered over to Atlantic Canada House but couldn't get in because we had to go up stairs and that just wasn't possible with Sarah sleeping in the stroller. So we went to sit in the beautiful sunshine to eat our lunch. The boys had fun watching a busker juggle fire!

Finally, Sarah woke up so we headed over to Atlantic Canada House. The boys really enjoyed it. There was a guy singing some Maritimes songs with his guitar and they sat for the longest time, tapping their toes to the music. Someone even asked me if he could take their picture, they looked so cute.

They also got their picture taken on a little set that looked like the inside of Anne of Green Gables' house. It was taken by a photographer there, who is supposed to email it to me, but I haven't received anything yet. But I did manage to get some good blackmail pictures of them in an Anne wig! They'd make pretty cute girls!

We went to Swiss House afterwards but the lineup was 45 minutes long and, about 5 minutes into it, we discovered that there were no displays in there, only food. So we left - I don't think my picky eaters would like Swiss food!

Back to the street car and Skytrain to pick up our car. And lucky me ended up with three kids falling asleep in the car. All in all, a successful day!

Olympic Adventures - False Creek

Today, I decided to be brave and take the kids down to False Creek to see what Olympic things were happening down there. The boys had a great time riding the Skytrain.

We started at Science World, which has become Russia House for the Olympics. That's the athletes village in the background.

But, more exciting for the boys, were the police divers swimming around False Creek. We don't know why they were there but Daniel was sure they were looking for bad guys in the water.

Then we wandered around, visited Saskatchewan House, tried to visit Hockey Place but you had to be over 19. Two disappointed little boys were looking forlornly through the windows so a nice security guard came out and gave them pins! They did get to try out a hockey game outside, though, and each won a toque.

We walked back along the water and saw all sorts of inukshuks placed along the rocky beach. The pictures don't do justice to just how many there were. It was really cool. I'm not sure if they're always there or if they've been done for the Olympics, since the inukshuk is the symbol of the Vancouver Olympics.

We had fun but, so far, we haven't found a whole lot of things for kids to do. We'll continue searching, though! I heard there might be some mascots downtown, so we may check that out soon.

Olympic Adventures - The Richmond O Zone

Well, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics have begun! The excitement is starting to build around the city and you can see Canada flags everywhere you look. On Sunday, we decided to head to one of the celebration areas - the Richmond O Zone. There were a lot of food tents as well as Holland Heineken House, which has become the gathering place of anyone Dutch - orange was everywhere. We couldn't go in, though, because you had to be over 19 and our kids don't quite pass for 19 yet! But we did watch the mogul competition and saw Canada win its first gold at home. It was pretty exciting watching that in a huge crowd. The kids were pretty cold and tired, though, so we didn't last long. But we're looking forward to catching more of the free events around town.

Disneyland!

We just got back from a really fun trip to Disneyland! We were down in California for five days and went to Disneyland for three. We went down with Gramma and Grampa and were very appreciative of the extra hands. I think they had fun, too. The boys certainly did!

We drove down to Seattle on Saturday morning to catch our flight to Los Angeles. The kids all did really well on the flight. They got a little stir-crazy by the end of the two hour flight but, otherwise, they were great. The boys enjoyed playing some video games on the backs of the seats in front of them. We arrived in LA at about 3pm, then had to get the shuttle to take us to the car rental place and then drove the hour or so to Anaheim. Our new GPS did a good job of taking us to our destination. The whole trip took us a while, though, and we didn't arrive until almost 7pm. So we made a quick trip to McDonald's, grabbed some dinner, and headed back to hotel to get some rest before our big day the next day.


We were up bright and early on Sunday, had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to Disneyland. My parents and I were last there in 1995 and James was there around the same time. Much of it is the same but there were many new things as well. But, once we arrived, all the memories came back. And it was so much fun to see the boys experience it all. We headed to Fantasyland first and got to go on all the original Disneyland rides - Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Pinocchio's Daring Adventure, Sleeping Beauty's Castle. The kids' eyes (all three kids) were so wide - they loved it! We went on Casey Jr’s Train ride (the too too fain, as Adm called it). This one was Adam’s favourite, of course.



After Fantasyland, we headed over to New Orleans Square to go in the Haunted Mansion. Daniel had been asking and asking since the moment we arrived so we decided to see how they liked it. Daniel loved it! It became one of his favourite rides. Adam wasn’t thrilled with it but he wasn’t too scared. Then we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. They both liked the hi-yas (as Adam calls pirates) and this ride became another favourite.



We then found a place for lunch and brought out our picnic of sandwiches. (We weren’t paying Disneyland prices for lunch!) Then we headed over to Adventureland to see the Enchanted Tiki Room. This was one of Gramma and Grampa’s favourite. Next was the Jungle Cruise with all its punny jokes. Then we went on the ride everyone loves – It’s a Small World! Despite what everyone says, I thought it was really cute. And the kids loved it. Sarah didn’t blink the entire time, Adam was bopping to the music and even Daniel was enthralled. The ride was great for another reason – all three kids fell asleep right after! So Gramma and I had a chance to do some shopping in Downtown Disney while the kids napped.



When the kids woke up, we left Disney for Subway to have some dinner and, after a bit of a break, went back for the evening. We caught the end of the Celebrate street party – there are no parades at this time of year but the street party was pretty fun. Then we went to see what was going on in Tomorrowland. Daddy and Grampa took the boys on the Autopia and they had fun driving the cars around. Then we went over to the submarines. I remember the submarines from when I was a kid and they were boring. But they’re pretty cool now. You get to watch computerized Nemo and the gang swim amongst the coral rather than the fake-looking 1960s plastic fish that used to be there!



We had stayed late Sunday night to watch the fireworks but, a few minutes before starting time, they cancelled them due to wind. I think the adults were more upset than the kids, though. Instead, we headed back to Fantasyland and Dumbo. The ride goes up and down and is controlled by the rider – Adam wouldn’t let me make it go high, though. “Low Mommy. Me tared (scared).” Then we went over to the Mad Hatter ride – the spinning teacups. Not exactly my cup of tea J, and it wasn’t Adam’s either. But Daniel loved it. I don’t think there were any rides that Daniel didn’t like! But, after a long day, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the next busy day.



We got there soon after opening on Monday and planned to go to Mickey’s Toontown. But it didn’t open until 10am, so we did a few rides in Fantasyland while we were waiting. Toontown was perfect for the kids. They got to meet all their favourite characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto) and play in all their houses. I think the boys could have happily spent the entire day there. There was a kiddie roller coaster that both boys were able to ride. Daredevil Daniel loved it and Adam, who wasn’t so sure about it, rode it twice and regretted it the second time! Adam much preferred to play in Goofy’s backyard or visit with his beloved Minnie Mouse.



We ate lunch in Toontown and then wandered over to California Adventures, the new Disneyland park which is located where the parking lot used to be. California Adventures is geared more to older kids and adults with its thrill rides and Hollywood-type shows. We did go on Toy Story Midway Mania, which is a very cool 3-D ride where you play simulated midway games. The boys liked it but it was too difficult for them to play the games on the ride. After that, we split up from Gramma and Grampa for a while. They went on the big roller coaster while we went back to Toontown. Our time there was cut kind of short because Daniel got his finger caught in the swinging door of a garbage can. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the bandaids I had packed, so we had to go over to the first aid building. (There’s only one place in Disneyland to find bandaids, I think!) But the nurse did a great job cleaning Daniel up, took his little cut very seriously and he ate it up! Another nurse came to me to take down all our information – Daniel’s name and birthdate, address, where he got hurt. They all asked numerous times if the garbage can was broken – they really wanted to make sure we weren’t going to sue them!

We then met up with Gramma and Grampa again, went for dinner at a restaurant called Millie’s and went back to Disneyland. We went back to California Adventures and Adam promptly fell asleep in his stroller. So the rest of us took turns taking Daniel on the kiddie rides in the area called a bug’s land. They were cute but there were only a few of them, so we were ready to leave by 8pm.

Our last day started out pretty grey and rainy. We were lucky that the weather had cooperated the first two days, but we weren’t so lucky our last day. We started out by splitting up – Daniel, Daddy and Grampa went to Space Mountain to ride the BIG roller coaster while Adam, Sarah, Mommy and Gramma went to Fantasyland to the rides that were more Adam’s speed. It was good that we left the roller coasters to the last day or that would be the only thing Daniel would want to do! When we met up again, it started to rain a lot. Daniel was pretty upset about being wet and wanted to go back to the hotel. We knew he really didn’t want to, though, and decided it was time to have some lunch. A bit of food brightened everyone’s mood and, as we were finishing, the weather cleared a bit. So we went over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, another big roller coaster. Adam was quite happy just to watch Daniel and to play on some rocks – who needs rides! Daniel rode the roller coaster a few times and loved every minute.



The whole family went back to Fantasyland one last time to ride the classics again. Then we went to meet some princesses. Adam was quite enamoured with them - Snow White, Ariel and Cinderella. Cinawewwa was his favourite - he just melted into her arms as she whispered in his ear for over a minute! (I really wish I knew what she said to him.) He still talks about her and how piddy (pretty) she is!


While we were visiting the princesses, the rain started – I don’t remember the last time I was in such a downpour. I wanted to take Daniel on Space Mountain one time so we went over there and the line-up was really short. But, while we were on the ride, Adam fell asleep in his stroller and the rain picked up even more. With both Adam and Sarah asleep, we decided it was time to call it a day. But James and Daniel weren’t ready to quit, so they stayed while we rushed back to the hotel in the pouring rain. We were absolutely soaked and not very happy. Poor Adam woke up to find that he was just drenched. But James and Daniel had a great time and rode Space Mountain another four times or something like that! That will definitely be a memory that sticks with Daniel – hanging out with Dad at Disneyland in the pouring rain!



The trip home was pretty uneventful, except that the boys got to go in the cockpit of the airplane and touch a bunch of buttons. They thought that was pretty cool!



So there’s our trip to Disneyland. We had so much fun! Daniel certainly was the perfect age for all of it but I think Adam got a lot from it as well. Sarah wasn’t too thrilled, unfortunately. I think she got tired of being carried and bounced around and ended up with an upset stomach for a lot of the trip. But she did really well, all things considered. The adults all had a good time and came home with lots of great memories.

(I just had to include a picture of Sarah in her cute Minnie outfit. She spent the whole trip wrapped in a blanket in someone's arms so she didn't get many good Disneyland pictures of herself!)

There are a lot more pictures if you’d like to see them. You can find them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154931&id=581855950&l=b6a2916225. There are a lot!