oh canada

well we have been back in canada for five days now and it feels great (except the humidity, although it hasn't been that bad).

right now we are in barrie. not much seems to have changed, some new construction here and there but that can be expected. it doesn't feel like we are on a real vacation because of the visits with family and friends. it just feels like we are at each place for a long weekend.

kai has had fun playing with all of the kids we have been visiting with; their playtime together hasn't skipped a beat.

yesterday we went to a local farm and picked strawberries. kai had a blast. nancy (grandma) showed him how to pick the berries but he was intent on staying with becky as they moved down the row. at one point she moved over a row and instead of walking through the row of strawberries he went all the way to the end of the row and as he walked up behind me politely said "excuse me dad, i need to get to mom." as he passed by me, he was carring his basket with all of the berries he had picked. he carried that basket all the way to the van, never letting anyone help him. as we were riding on the wagon back to the parking lot i asked him how many berries he ate, he replied "three".

my sweet kai (that's what my gramma o' would have called him)

when your kid doesn't sleep in the car, it sucks. when you try to get him to do what you ask him to and he freaks out, it sucks. when he won't eat after he just asks for food, it sucks.

and then you get to see him sleeping peacefully at night curled up with his favourite stuffed toy.

i wouldn't change having a kid for anything in the world.

Retracing our steps

If you build it, they will pass through briefly on their way from Colorado to Ontario.

We come to you live from just inside the western edge of Iowa. Thanks to the NCAA baseball tourney booking out all the rooms in a 50 mile radius of Omaha, we found ourselves a little further than we'd originally planned today. No worries - we still made pretty decent time, and now we have an hour less to do tomorrow on our way to Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb where my cousin lives with her husband and their two boys.

I digress. Back to Iowa. It's a strange little place. I've been here only once before - on the way from Ontario to Colorado, just over a year ago. The world is certainly more lush here than in western Nebraska and eastern Colorado. There are trees, and not just any trees, trees that grow unaided by human intervention... not so in the desolate plains of eastern CO.

Our little Super 8 hotel room, a queen size with a crib mattress that we're hauling all over N. America for Kai, is mostly darkened right now, even though it's only 9 PM (CDT) - 8 ish, for us MDTers. Kai is tossing and turning on his mattress, but at least he's staying put... for the most part. Sleeping in a hotel room with us has never come easy to him. The fact that he doesn't sleep in the car (only twice that I can think of, over the past 2 years, and they were for less than 20 minutes each) means that he should be good and tired. I know I am.

I think I expected that I'd be a little more informative tonight. I think the tiredness/lack of sleep is catching up on me. I suppose I'll write more later, when there are lots of new Ontario adventures to talk about.

Phew!

After a day of not having anything at all on our blog, and considering (and actually) starting a new blog, it seems we have managed to remedy the blank emptiness that was Canucks at large all day.

Silly corrupted template file.

Got to get to bed. We're painting a local high school tomorrow starting at 8 AM. More soon. I promise.

blogger is having issues

This is just a test... it seems that our blog is having some trouble today.

Inspired

I did it. Last Saturday I went to a local art supply store. I felt like I was back home. I worked part time at Curry's art supply store in Barrie for four years while I was doing my undergrad and most art supplies and their displays are still the same. I knew exactly what I needed: two prestretched canvases, a plastic palette and some linseed oil. My purchases sat at home for a week. Then yesterday just before lunch, Keith and I reassembled my easel. As Kai went down for a nap, I thumbed though some of our recent photos. And then I did this:

The Duck Pond, oil on canvas, 16"x20", 2006.

This was inspired by a picture that I took of Kai back on Dec 31, 2005 when we went to the Denver Zoo. Anyhow, it has been over 10 years since I've painted with my oils (and thankfully, they still work!), but it was so much fun to play with them again! I suppose I have about 10 years of photos to use for inspiration now...

By the way, thanks to everyone for your congratulations on the GG gold medal. I'm pretty excited about it. It's a huge honour (note the "u") and I'm still pretty overwhelmed that I was selected. I found a little description online that talks about the medals, with a link to the directives explaining how many silver and gold medals each university can award each year and detailing the selection criteria. There is also a page where you can search for past award winners from individual schools - like Kathryn Armstrong, who earned the bronze medal at Innisdale the year she graduated. And to answer Meg's question - no, sadly there is "no monatary award associated with the medal." I remembered that from high school, when I got the bronze, so I wasn't disappointed to read that. Of course, if anyone wants to send me money, you are more than welcome to do so! Our church needs a new parking lot, so I'll funnel it along.

happy wayne and beer

some of you may know that wayne has had a series of interviews with a company in cobourg. well, the job is his, congratulations wayne. i never had a doubt they would pick you. do you want me to bring home some good american beer to celebrate? in the meantime, everyone raise a glass to wayne.

speaking of american beer. there are a number of micro breweries in colorado that we have been tasting and some from surrounding states. i tell you what, they are great beer (note the (s) is missing, that's for you, dave and christian).