Dinner with Carla

Yvette and I met up with Carla for dinner one Friday evening in June. We haven’t seen Carla in nine years! But the camaraderie felt just like old times. Carla, Yvette and I worked at the same company fifteen years ago and we all became good friends. In 2001, Carla moved back home to Dawson Creek and eventually married. She and her husband settled in Grande Prairie and had two kids. The last time Carla came to Vancouver was nine years ago for our friend’s wedding. But with two kids and a family business to help run, a trip to Vancouver just wasn’t in the cards until June 2015 when Carla decided that a solo trip to Vancouver to catch up with old friends would make a perfect gift for her birthday.

We went to a Japanese spaghetti place on Robson for dinner and later that evening, we stopped at Bacchus for some tea and dessert. We didn’t stop talking from 5pm to midnight! We had a great time catching up on each other’s lives and reliving memories from fifteen years ago. We were so busy chatting that we even forgot to take a photo of the three of us. What I will remember most is how wonderful it is to jump back into a friendship and feel like we just saw each other yesterday.

Thank you for visiting, Carla, and we sure hope it will not be another nine years before we see each other again.

Sabrina's graduation

Earlier this month, Ed, Sophia, my mom, and I traveled to Edmonton to attend my niece's convocation ceremony at the University of Alberta and to celebrate this big milestone with her.  She has worked hard the past four years to get her degree (with distinction, to boot) and we wanted to be present to cheer for her as she walked across the stage to receive that piece of paper that states she has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.  As one of the speakers said during the ceremony, this is an accomplishment nobody can take away from the graduates and they should be very proud of themselves.

Congratulations, Sabrina!

My brother from Virginia also came to Edmonton to attend the celebration.  It was great to be able to spend time with my family and catch up with each other.  We live far away from each other and don't get to chat all the time but when we do get together, we always have an awesome time together.

It was also good for Sophia to experience going to a convocation ceremony and seeing the graduates around her.  Anything to encourage education for her is a good thing.

It was wonderful to see Sophia and Sabrina hanging out.  Sophia just wanted to be with Sabrina the whole time we were there.  She followed Sabrina around and asked her all sorts of questions.  Sophia helped frost a cake, bake chocolate chip cookies, and bake cheese bread (Sabrina's into baking).  It made me so happy to see the two of them have that bond even if we only see them once or twice a year.

Strolling with Nanay and Sabrina

Making cheese bread

The day before we were to return to Vancouver, we went to visit Fort Edmonton Park.  There was a fair with rides and a fun house, there was the fort itself, and the town that the pioneers built outside the fort.  It was all preserved and there were people dressed in period costume to give the feeling that you are visiting the past.  We all had a great time.

Carousel at Fort Edmonton

2015 Camping Trip #1

We camped in Porteau Cove with our friends the Lindners and the Sidneys.  Highlights from the camping trip:
- Gabi and Sophia loving the walkie talkies
- The girls spending a lot of time "investigating" the beach
- Gabi taking a spill on the scooter (yikes)
- Adria not sleeping and letting everybody in the campground know about it
- Weather way too hot for early May (but we loved it)

It was a fantastic and fun trip. Looking forward to camping trip #2!

Field trip to VanDusen Botanical Garden

A few weeks ago, Sophia and her daycare mates went on a field trip to VanDusen Botanical Garden on a cold spring day.  I made sure to come along because this would be Sophia's last field trip with the daycare.  She'll be off to kindergarten in September and there are many "lasts" with the daycare over the next few months.

I really appreciate the work the teachers put into making sure events such as a field trip takes place.  There are a lot of things to organize and coordinate, plus minding the whole class during the trip itself.  The kids enjoyed their field trip and kudos to the teachers for making it happen.

Here are some photos from the field trip:

Going barefoot

I bought my last pair of running shoes in May 2009. And I still use them. Granted, I have not been running a lot in the last six years but it has been close to six years nonetheless. So, I recently decided it was time to buy a new pair.

In the CrossFit gym I go to, we work out with no shoes on. I just wear my socks doing the workout indoors. We slip on our running shoes when we have to go do some exercise outside. But for the most part, our workouts are indoors, wearing our socks. It felt funny at first but I have grown accustomed to it. We also sometimes run laps inside, with no shoes. Our CrossFit coach showed us how to run properly with no shoes. Basically, land on the balls or the middle part of our feet, not the heel. We should not over-extend our legs so that we can land properly. It’s a different way from how I’ve been running all these years when wearing running shoes that again, it felt funny at first but I started to feel more comfortable with it over time.

At the suggestion of my CrossFit coach and Ed, I looked into the minimalist running shoes. These have “zero drop” from the heel to the balls of the feet, unlike the mainstream running shoes which have 10mm to 12mm lift from the balls of the feel to the heel. With zero drop, it is basically like running barefoot and this promotes a more natural running gait.

I found a small store on Main St that focuses on natural running (http://www.distancerunwear.com) and they carry a good selection of minimalist shoes. I tried on three pairs (Vivobarefoot, Inov-8, and New Balance) and I ultimately decided to buy the one that feels the most like being barefoot - the Vivobarefoot Stealth. I have used it only twice for our warm-up run before the CrossFit work-out so the jury is still out on whether I made the right choice or not. We’ll see…