Our little blog

Adam and my Dad had to get up at the crack of dawn, actually earlier to catch a charter to Nunavut for the first gold pour at the mine site there, so we were down to me, the girls, my mom and Andrew. I woke up with a pounding headache, probably exhaustion. My mom and I went to White Spot for breakfast. Andrew was a bit “under the weather”. After some pancakes, my mom took off to run some errands and I went back to the condo where Mia, Audrey and I had a nap. I woke up feeling a lot better so I got in contact with Matt, whom had seen Max a couple times the week before, but I never got out on those occasions due to parental duties. My mom and Andrew were off to the see the gold medal curling game so I was on my own for the afternoon.

I met up with Matt, first at The Academic… I made it through the door, but was stopped by staff because I had children with me. (A sidenote…  if you’re an empty establishment, that serves a full menu, so I assume you’re a restaurant… pick up your friggin phone when I call to see if kids are allowed before I make plans!) So anyhow, we ended up next door at Earls to watch the gold medal Men’s Curling game, which ended much better for Canada this time around. It was nice to catch up with an old friend, though not the best of circumstances with 2 littles in tow. I made my way back after the game and got the kiddies down to bed right away since they were getting pretty worn out and the next day was gonna be a big one with the gold medal hockey game and closing ceremony.

I actually didn’t end up taking any pictures today… dunno, just wasn’t on my radar, shame really.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Kind of a quiet day, pouring rain today. We had late lunch/early dinner reservations because my parents and Andrew are going to the Canada/Slovakia game, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to do much before we had to mobilize. My mom and I heard of shop in Kitsilano called Gumdrops, a shop specializing in rain boots and wet weather wear. We made it back to the condo to clean up before dinner, we had to hurry because we had to drop off an extra hockey ticket we had… or so we thought.

I walked into the condo and saw a familiar hand holding a beer and feet up on an ottoman and saw my Dad grinning. I recognized who it was, but kept it quiet until my mom noticed. She walked and and freaked out, it was Adam, my Dad flew him back out to Vancouver for the hockey game and as a birthday present to himself. Problem solved with the 4th ticket. (I wasn’t going because I went to the previous game and this game was over dinner and bedtime for little girls, a tough one for a sitter to handle, I was happy to watch it at home).

We made it to the Shore Club in time to watch the final Women’s Curling game. My brothers thought it was pretty funny to teach Mia to make choking face whenever they asked what Cheryl Bernard (Team Canda Skip) was going to do. Tough loss for Canada, but you gotta hand it to Sweden for playing to Canada’s weaknesses at the end, it shows they did their homework.

Canada won against Slovakia, though it wasn’t as convincing as the game against Russia. Oh boy, Canada vs. USA for the gold medal. Bring on the hype!

We finally made it to the German Saxony House today. We’ve been staring at it since we arrived over 2 weeks ago. At night the place lights up and is hilarious to look at all it’s disco lights lighting up the harbour.

Mia woke up tired, so by the time we had lunch, she had managed to crawl into the stroller, leaving Audrey to be held, which was fine by her. I can’t remember the last time Mia fell asleep in a stroller. The kid is going to sleep for a week straight when we get home. Since Mia was asleep and Audrey was due for a nap, my Dad stayed home with the girls and I was able to escape with my mom and do a bit of shopping and pick up a couple things for my Dad’s birthday the next day… including a dozen cupcakes from my favourite cupcake shop, Cupcakes.

Ok, so all hockey fans across the country had butterflies in their stomach all day wondering what was in store for Team Canada vs. the Russians. My dad found tickets somehow for the game, he mentioned something about having to trade Audrey for the seats. He also organized babysitting so that I could go to the game. Thanks Ann & Dad!

And oh what a game it was. I rang my cowbell, screamed at the top of my lungs, drank beer and was an all around proud hockey loving Canuck. The cheering, anthem singing, and the sheer madness both before and after the game. The arena went ballistic for that first goal and by the third goal I think there was a collective sigh of relief. While it awesome that the team seemed to gel together and were firing on all cylinders, most of the drama was gone halfway through the game and we celebrated for the other half. On our way out people started yelling in the crowd about the 1-2 in women’s bobsleigh.

We got back to the condo, the girls were good, everything went fine, though poor Ann wasn’t able to put Audrey down for most of the evening. After I got Mia to bed, Audrey was wired for sound, giggling and just happy as a clam, so since we knew the Olympic rings in the harbour were going to be gold again we took an evening stroll down to take pictures of them and the Olympic cauldron with its new improved plexi fence. The crowd in front of the giant campfire never dies and everyone is always so happy.

Every day I’m prouder and prouder to be Canadian, I love how we’ve hosted the world and through some tough times in the beginning it’s looking like we’re going to end it amazingly. Even Oprah is thinks it’s cool to be Canadian. These Olympics have truly united the country, I hope you think so too.

So because Canada lost against the US, they had to play Germany today. Mia woke up and after breakfast she was allowed to eat her brownie pop. Afterwards we went down to the hot tub, Audrey’s first time in it and was in heaven. The sheer delight in her face as she splashed in the water. Mia put on a puppet show for me as well about a princess and a king, but the king fell into an alligators mouth. I have no clue what happened after that, that’s where Mia chose to end it. It was another quiet day overall, it was a typical, miserable, rainy day today. My parents ventured out, I stayed in until Mia decided she was hungry and wanted to go have dumplings like Kung Fu Panda, so off we went to Gyoza King for dumplings and more ramen.

Okay, so I have to touch on a couple things that have happened during the 2 weeks I’ve been gone. The milestones that have happened with my little girls. Audrey is so close to crawling. She’s inch worming around and pulling herself up to be able to touch the buttons on the DVD player. Her bottom teeth are threatening to appear before the week is through. She’s sitting up really well now and can go from sitting to all fours. Mia’s favourite food is now ramen noodles and gyoza dumplings. The biggest news is that she was colouring and she brought her page over to me and there was her name on it that she wrote all by herself. I was so proud of her, and she’s quite pleased with herself as well.

Nana & Opa came back and we finished watching Canada eliminate Germany and Mia played with Nana’s new rubber boots, all is well in the nation again, if the guys get past Russia tomorrow.

With all the guys gone and my Dad going into the office today, and the weather forecast predicting that today was going to be the last gorgeous day before the rain arrives, my mom and I decided to go to Granville Island. We went to the market to buy some groceries for dinner that night and then do some browsing around the shops. We stopped and had a bite to eat, a cajun salmon burger and fresh cut fries and sat outside, watched the boats and listen to a really bad busker.

Mia’s obvious highlight of the day was the Aquabus across from Granville Island back to downtown. She called it the rainbow boat, and thought it was really cute. We made our way back to the condo, our “dogs were barking”, my mom’s code for her feet hurting. We stopped at Wicked Cafe for Intelligentsia coffee. It was good, but I’m used to drinking strong coffee, so my first impression was that it was kind of weak, but it grew on me. Kind of like when you’re used to drinking big hearty Australian Cabernets and then you have a glass of Pinot Noir.

Anyhow, we got home, Mia crashed watching TV in my parents bed at 6:30 again. She missed out on dinner, her brownie pop dessert and a hot tub. After dinner, it was all about the Ice Dancing and Virtue and Moir. They seriously have to be the cutest couple ever. It was pretty cool to see the Olympic rings in the harbour turn from colours to gold. Something that they’ve been doing here. Hopefully we win another gold, because I’ve been meaning to walk down to the water with my camera at night to take some pictures of the rings, the Olympic Cauldron and the sails of the Pan Pacific hotel all lit up.

It was billed as “Super Sunday”… more like “Sucky Sunday”. Max left today, he stalled like crazy and just made his flight. I don’t blame him, the weather has been absolutely stunning. The flowers are out on the trees, the tulips are coming out and my mom’s allergies are kicking in.

Andrew’s friends from Seattle came up to watch the game, so he went out with them. My parents were at the game, you might have seen them on TV, they were the couple right behind Ron Wilson and the US bench. I didn’t end up leaving the condo today, shame really, because it was stunning.

After the crapfest that was the hockey game, I met up with my parents at Poncho’s Mexican Grill and had a chimichanga and Mia was a self proclaimed “Guacamole Monster”.

All I’m gonna say about the hockey game is that Canada has a very deep hole to dig themselves out of.

Another day and other breakfast at White Spot. Pretty chill day since I was heading to see Men’s Curling Canada vs. Great Britain that evening. After breakfast Max, the girls and I decided to walk through Stanley Park. I was going to take some pictures and I took off my lens cap and discovered my filter was completely smashed. I have no clue how this happened and I totally freaked because I forgot momentarily that a filter was on and thought it was my lens. Anyhow, crisis averted so we continued our walk and came across the German Saxony House, which is at the Vancouver Yacht and Rowing club, which we can see out of the windows at the condo. The whole side of the building had kegs stacked up along its side. Judging by the crazy lights that go on at night, I’m assuming that they were empty kegs.

We started our walk and then Mia exclaimed she had to go potty. I snuck her into the Saxony House after an unsuccessful attempt in the woods. After the potty break we walked back to the park we discovered the day before. Upon seeing it, Mia exclaimed “Not this park again! I want to go to a different park”. No dice kiddo, back home we went, Mia crying the whole way and into bed for a nap.

While she was napping, I escaped with my dad to go for a walk, replace my lens filter and basically witness the 24 hour party that is downtown Vancouver. We walked up Granville to one of my dad’s favourite music stores. We saw an awesome street musician playing a wicked cool beat up Silvertone guitar. We met up with my mom and then went to Nook, a yummy neighbourhood restaurant where Max met us with the kiddies, and then it was off to the curling game!

So in a nutshell, the mens curling has become a boozefest party. The guy in front of us brought a fake moustache and applied it during the 2nd end. There were a bunch of shirtless guys a couple rows down that had ‘Canada’ written on their chests, and even Wayne was there! It seemed every section had someone who elected themselves the section cheerleader. We stamped our feet, did the wave, drank beer, heckled and sang the national anthem. It was nuts and so much fun. I’m almost beginning to fully comprehend the rules too!

And I’m also the proud owner of the last 2 cowbells that were for sale at the venue.

Go Canada Go!

The days are starting to blur together and I’ve completely lost track of what day of the week it is. I’m trying to remember what I did 24 hours ago and I’m drawing a blank. I wish I could blame copious amount of alcohol for short term memory loss but I can’t… maybe it’s sleep deprivation.
My mom and I took Mia down to the hot tub in the gym in the morning with coffee. What a glorious way to start the day. From the hot tub we can watch the security detail across the street at the Westin hotel.
Max and I met up with some friends and took the kiddies to the mascot ice show at GE Plaza, which is basically the ice rink they’ve made underneath Robson Square. We arrived a half hour before the show began and the place was packed already. Maybe it also was the fact it was about 12 degrees and sunny. It’s February, the winter Olympics and I’m worrying about sunscreen for Audrey… global warming anyone?
No pictures of the mascots, Mia was on Max’s shoulders the whole time, I found a stair to sit on with the Audrey Boo Bear.
We went to Red Robin for lunch and so did half of Vancouver. It was pretty good… or maybe it was the Caesar I drank that made it good. Afterwards we walked along the seawall in search of a park to let the kids blow off some steam.
It was a low key evening, roasted chickens from the local Safeway and I think I was in bed around 9:30.
Oh and Mia… she fell asleep at 6:30 watching cartoons in my parents bed. Mission accomplished.