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After more than 24 hours of travel we finally arrived in Melbourne. Brett and Beau picked us up with packages of Tim Tams, Savoys and BBQ Shapes in hand. They dropped us off in Boronia, and then we headed off with Vicky (Scott’s mum!) to Shannon Bennett’s Piggery Café for lunch in the hills. We had barramundi burgers, pork belly BLT, and lots of salad. It was lovely.

We had a night to adjust and then the next day we drove to Phillip Island to join the rest of the family at the holiday house they rented. Brett, Michelle, Noah, Beau, and Seth were all there, along with Jemma, Damien, and April, and then Scott and I and Vicky. FAMJAM!

Scott and I meet April for the first time! She was pretty aloof with us at the beginning. Lots of side-eye, haha. It was also my first time meeting Seth, who seemed pretty excited to see me, especially since I was carrying a big bag of presents.

It was hot the first day so we spent the day at the beach. Scott played a lot of beach cricket with Noah.


We played a lot of games while we were there. Scott and I got the boys kids Carcassonne, kids Wits & Wagers, and Forbidden Island. Kids Carcassonne is fun, even for adults, although it’s best when you play with people around the same strategy level because I had to sort of restrain myself from SMASHING 4 year olds. Kids Wits & Wagers is pretty much the same as the adult version, except slightly easier questions, and an easier betting system. Everyone liked it, we even played it after the kids went to bed. And Forbidden Island is a cooperative game, similar to Pandemic.

We all went out for dinner at the Cowes RSL.

I think Scott took this picture when he was waking April up from her nap? Pretty dang adorable.

One afternoon Scott and I went for a drive around the island. We ate pies and went out to the Nobbies. We didn’t see any penguins (not the right time of day) but we did see the blowhole blow. And got so blown around by the wind that we felt sick afterwards. It didn’t feel bad as we were walking around but when we got back in the car we both felt awful. So weird, it was like a wind concussion. I do love those pictures though. I look like a troll!

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Dad came to visit us here in Vancouver at the end of January. We planned the whole trip around what was supposed to be an epic family weekend ski trip to Whistler. And then… it rained… A LOT.

Since everything was all prepaid we still tried to ski. The first day we were drenched by the time we got to the top of the mountain. And not just wet… I mean mittens saturated, puddles in elbows, hair dripping. It was gross. Plus it was hard to see because of the fog and the snow was super heavy and sticky. We only lasted until like 1PM and then we went back to the condo for lunch and showers and dry clothes. Poor Scott had chosen this day to pay for a full day snowboarding lesson, but somehow didn’t have as miserable time as we did. He said he learned lots and even took a few extra runs after the lesson was over. Go Scott!!

The next day we just decided to screw it and not ski. It was still pouring rain and all of our gear was still wet despite laying everything out on the heated bathroom floor and in front of the fireplace. Instead we hung around and played games and watched TV and I went to skeleton practice.

Thankfully the last day was a bit better. We were able to stay above the clouds most of the day and got to ski a bit more of the mountain. Dad helped Lauren with his skiing a bit and Scott showed off his sweet new moves. Rosemarie and I went off to ski a bit alone, and then Rosemarie and dad did a few runs alone too while I hung out with the noobs.

Dad and I ended up driving back on Tuesday to use up his last lift ticket since I had the day off work. It wasn’t raining, but it still wasn’t great because the snow was so heavy and the visibility was really bad. Dad fell on a green run and then we pretty much called it a day.

All in all, not the greatest ski vacation, but we still did manage to have lots of fun times. And at least he didn’t come this past weekend… because it’s way worse now. Man all the BC hills are having a terrible season.

Other things we did:

  • teach dad to play Settlers and Carcassonne
  • play lots of Wizard
  • trivia night at Falconetti’s (we dominated)
  • a tour of TRIUMF (dad nerded out!!! I think he should get a job there… so many employees in sweaters)
  • brought dad to watch me skeleton
  • eat sushi

It was nice hanging out with dad so much. Can’t wait until next time!

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And it’s fall.

We did squeeze in another games day on the patio before the summer was over. Scott and I taught them Agricola. Agricola is quite complicated, but it’s my all time favourite game. Even though it makes me really stressed.

I have never been so excited about a used pair of shoes. And check out my new speedsuit!! My skeleton friends Jane and Madi were so nice to send a pair of spikes and a suit my way from Calgary. It can be so hard (and expensive) to get gear for skeleton so getting anything, even used stuff, is extremely appreciated. Up till now I had been using track spikes for skeleton, but my goal for the year is to start from the top of Whistler and the track crew will not let me do that with them. Now I am fully equipped! I am so so so excited for the season to start, especially now!

I have been working a lot lately, lots of full weeks of shifts, which is fantastic. I am also supposed to get trained at our remote site out at UBC too, but there hasn’t been any time yet where I haven’t been already working! I keep expecting my amount of work to drop off drastically, but so far it hasn’t happened. Fingers crossed it keeps going the way it is!

Ooo also in exciting news… Scott got notification of his citizenship test!! This happened about 1.5 YEARS ahead of what we thought!!! Everything we read told us the application would take about 2 years, but now his test is in a couple weeks and the ceremonies tend to be about a month later! We are totally having a Canadiana party.

And lastly, I spent like two whole evenings reading through the old emails Rosemarie and I used to send each other back in 2003-2004, when I was off in Halifax and Holland, and she was in middle school/high school. They are amazing. My sister is the best. She used to send me all sorts of hilarious pictures. And now I have determined that it’s been too long since this one was last seen….

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Time for a picture dump since I’ve been a lousy blogger and haven’t been keeping up with this great summer we’ve been having.

A pretty sunset. It was like this every night for a good two weeks during the heatwave. I used to think I liked 30ºC weather, but I guess I’ve become a real Vancouverite because that is way too hot!! Now I’m happy when I see the weather report say 22ºC, heh.

We spent Canada Day on Kits beach this year with Ryan and Ryan and others. It was hot. The tide was wayyyy out so I didn’t swim. Random raindrops fell from the sky which weirded people out enough to pack up their beach stuff and leave.

Pre-fireworks sunset with Lauren. Always envious of the people watching from a boat. I need to make friends with someone with a boat. The fireworks were good. It was funny hearing the music coming from the speakers and  people’s radios and phone apps all out of sync.

Scott accidentally broke off a whole branch of his tomato plant. Whoops!! By the way the tally so far is Scott: 17, Katrina 41. WOO!! Our plants still have quite a few flowers and green tomatoes but they are not developing nearly as fast so I think the contest is nearly over.

Free slurpee on 7-11. Perfect timing, it was SUPER hot that day.

I went to the Sunshine Coast with Lesley a few weeks ago. It was Sea Cavalcade and there was a parade and fireworks and other stuff going on. We watched the fireworks from a tugboat. I always have a nice relaxing time while visiting her house, like a cottage getaway.

Rosemarie came over and we played Agricola. We finally tried out the expansion! I liked it, even though Scott won both games as usual. Rosemarie still says it is her least favourite game. Sigh.

The second game took so long the sun went down and it was too dark to see the pieces any more. We reached a new level of nerdiness when we brought out my old desk lamp to light up the games table. How lovely it is to be out on the patio all the time this summer though?! Our patio rules.

Many games of Settlers this summer. We’ve gotten quite a lot of use from the 5-6 player expansion!! Thanks MEP and Paul!

Well that’s all I’ve got.

We have one more week of work and then we’re off to Osoyoos for a week. Both of us are really looking forward to this vacation because we’ve been working hard!! Scott has been doing a ton of overtime and I’ve been working every day too. Can’t wait for white wine and swimming all day in the lake.

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Last weekend Scott, Rosemarie and I headed over to Vancouver Island to camp and go tubing down the Cowichan River. The weather wasn’t great but luckily the water was suuuuuuper warm so we could still tube.

The tubing is pretty neat, it’s about 2.5 hours long of floating. You can bring drinks, they even have floating recycling bins at various points down the river. Most of it was pretty calm but there are a few sections that go a little quicker. It’s definitely a lazy river rather than anything XTREME though. You do kind of have to paddle with your arms sometimes to make sure you go the right direction. I enjoyed myself though and I’m sure it’s a lot more fun when it’s a really hot day out and there are more people.

While it was kinda fun to be camping, it was too cold to swim or lay around and there was a fire ban… so we didn’t have a whole lot to do. Camping is all about the campfire!!! We played some games but it sprinkled rain on and off and the wind kept picking up our cards (and placing them into Scott’s hand). Eventually we just went to bed and read by flashlight.

nanaimo bar cheesecake

We decided to spend the last day in Nanaimo going on a Nanaimo Bar Crawl. They have a brochure that has 34 different places you can get Nanaimo Bar things. Unfortunately because it was Sunday A LOT of the places were closed. :'(((( We must have gone to at least 10 shops that ended up being closed. Bad luck.

But we did enjoy a slice of Nanaimo bar cheesecake that was SUPER YUM at Minnoz Steak & Seafood.

salted caramel nanaimo bar

And a salted caramel Nanaimo bar at Bocca Cafe that was also very good. I kind of want to sprinkle salt on all my Nanaimo bars now. They also had peanut butter, and chili Nanaimo bars and a lot of other really good looking food.

deep fried nanaimo bar

And then a deep fried Nanaimo bar at Pirate Chips. It tasted ok, but not as good as I expected.

All three of us liked the cheesecake one the most.

Then we waited 5+ hours in the line for the ferry back to Vancouver. UGH. It started off fun, we were playing Carcassonne on the ipad.

Then it got more tedious. And we got hungry, so I prepared a charcuterie dinner using a paper bag as a cutting board. SAFETY.

Ugh then we found out that the ferry price was not a return fare (like when you go the Sunshine Coast) and we all cried while we emptied our wallets. Yeesh going to the island is expensive!!!!!! We totally should have smuggled Rosemarie in in the trunk.

Eventually we did get on a ferry and we snagged a good games table to squeeze in a couple more games of Settlers before the weekend was over. I kept my eyes peeled for whales in between turns but didn’t see any.

Soooo in conclusion, tubing was fun-ish, camping was fun-ish, Nanaimo bar was fun-ish, etc. etc. And visiting the island costs A LOT and is terribly annoying on the weekends. Well I’m glad we went, but I’m not in a huge hurry to go back, at least not for just a weekend.