The Best of 2019

2019 has officially come to a close. We celebrated with a dinner out with Mom and a lazy day at home. I'm sad to report that Grandpa Harry is in the hospital with a Gall Stone complications. He's waiting for an MRI to figure out a course of action. All in all it's been a good, but a tumultuous year riddled with health care concerns by many of the elderly folks in our midst. Mom has been pretty stable, but definitely slowing down. Her cognition isn't what it used to be, but at least she's baking again. Her back has been her biggest issue as of late.

Tracey got a raise this year and is going on 20+ years of service. Roger is going on year 19! The countdown to retirement is on the horizon. He's planning on a 2027 good-bye. By that time Melody would have graduated high school and will be on her way to University or some other post-secondary. Malcolm will have already had 3 years of Postsec under his belt by then. We'll have to see what transpires.

Roger and his motorcycling passion continues, he even welcomed a new addition to the family just this past December. He's patiently awaiting the onset of Spring to ride.

Here's our annual slideshow to commemorate a year gone by.

Disneyland 2019

We surprised the kids this year by planning a trip to Disneyland for their birthdays in November. With Star Wars land partially finished the timing was good. As always, Tracey researched a bunch of deals and found a great hotel and airfare for a reasonable price. Still not really sure it was a vacation cause we walked our feet off. In the 4 days at the park we (according to Malcolm's fitbit) walked 146k steps, or 111kms! That's two and a half marathons!

For Roger, Star Wars land was a highlight and for the kids it was the magic of getting on all the big rides. I'm not sure what the highlight for Tracey was. Here's a slideshow of the days at Disney and Universal.

The best of 2018

Here are the highlights in point form:

• The family tried skiing for the first time. Highs, Malcolm loved it. Lows, Tracey lost a toenail and it took almost 8 months to grow back! 
• The family had a wonderful multi-family vacation to Maui. We swam with live sea turtles! 
• It was the year for experiences over gifts, Roger and Tracey saw Lauryn Hill, Ed Sheeran (the kid's first concert), P!NK, Conan O'Brien, and Tessa/Scott on ice. 
• Roger made a bunch of new motorcycle friends and said good-bye to some of his old friends. I think Marie Kondō put it well: “The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.” 
• Epic ride with Calvin and Keith to Vernon on the bike this past summer. Roger put close to 9k kilometres on the bike this season. It'll be interesting to see what 2019 brings:
• Malcolm got his braces off and Melody in turn got them on. 
• Tracey was connected to a new found family with some crazy twists and turns along the way. 
• Roger and Tracey's department won an award for excellence and shared a $1k prize. 
• For the kids, TKD continues with both of them advancing to blue stripe. They should be able to make it to red belt by the end of next year. 
• Academically, both kids are doing well and the extra curricular is on the upswing. Malcolm's ringette team is actually quite good, they've lost very few games so far. Melody is still excelling in gymnastics, we'll see where that goes this year. 
• Over the summer we took a trip to Oregon, just the four of us. We managed to survive an 8.5 hour car ride from Portland! You know as a photographer, I take a lot of photos and of the 20k + photographs I took in 2018, this one is by far my favourite and it was taking with my iPhone no less:

Here's a video slideshow of year gone by:

The best of 2017

2017 has had its ups and downs, but looking back on the year we have many things to be thankful for. Melody is doing great in school working hard in grade 3. Also, to no surprise Melody has fallen head over heels (literally) for gymnastics. She's moving on to the next level in the new year and will be performing more difficult moves going forward. She caught up to her brother in Tae Kwon Do, earning her green stripe in the summer. The transition to middle school was an adjustment, but Malcolm too has been doing well. He's joined the school band (alto sax), started Ringette and is diligently continuing with Tae Kwon Do as well. Daisy Rey has been the bright spot in our lives, she's been the best family dog we could ask for. Mom had surgery to remove her gall bladder in the fall and has had a new lease on life. Much of the pain that she experienced in the past is now gone. She's still dealing with her various ailments, but the chronic pain she's felt for years has been relieved due to the removal of the gallbladder. Tracey and Roger are still hard at work. Perhaps the biggest addition to the family this past year has been Roger's new motorcycle. He was able to fulfill a lifelong dream. Please see the slideshow below to see a review of 2017.

Here's our 2016 in review.

It was a tough year all the way around. In August we lost Obi which was devastating and recently we've found out that brother Glen's cancer is back, we also lost Mr. Goto in December and even Mom gave us quite a scare with a short stay at the hospital with a gall bladder attack. The bright spot has been the addition of Daisy Rey, and she's shaping up to be quite a little character. Stay tuned for what unfolds in 2017.

Pumpkin Patch

We switched things up this year and headed to the lesser known Pumpkin Patch in Delta. There was no hay ride or apple at the end, and due to the torrential rains in October it was a muddy mess. All in all the kids enjoyed it though. Here are a few pictures.









We went over the Calvin and Shannon's house to carve them:

Cranberry Harvest

Every year we see the cranberry fields mature in the fall. I always seem to miss the few days where they flood the field for the annual harvest. This year I was lucky enough to catch a dry day and take some pictures with Malcolm. I had hoped that we'd get some amazing reflections with the flooded fields, but that day happened to be clear without much cloud cover. Well anyways, it was fun to try and capture some images at sunset. Here are a few:

Apple press event at our school.

It was Apple Fest at our school on October 2nd. The kids got to see first hand how to make fresh apple cider. We even brought a big bag of apples we picked from Mr. Goto's yard. They washed them, peeled them, crushed them, and then pressed them. Some of the other volunteers pasteurized them and then distributed the cider. It was actually quite delicious.

September Belt Test.

September marked another belt test for the kiddos. Here are a few from the test. I'm happy to report they both passed with flying colours.









Yay!

Our 11th wedding anniversary.

11 years, it's very poignant considering that's how long we had Obi. We celebrated by going to see the Picasso exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I'm very lucky to share the life we have built together with my best friend and partner. I couldn't ask for a more supportive and loving wife. Here's a few pictures from our day together.

September PNE

To be perfectly honest, keeping up the blog has been tough since we lost Obi. I really did write it for him. Now that a few months have passed, coupled by the fact that we've decided to get another dog. I feel a bit rejuvenated by it all. In fact, we're going with the same breeder and obviously the same breed. We're actually going to pick her up in one week's time. I'm still going to keep the name of the blog the same, but soon enough it will be written from her perspective. You'll soon get to meet our new dog. So to pick up where we left off from the last post, I'll be trying to play catch up.

We missed the PNE this year so to make it up to the kids we went to Playland instead. A great time was had by all. We're all amazed that the kids can be so brave about all the rides. Here are a few pictures from our visit. We were lucky to be joined by Matthew, Lucy and Tamara.

Our trip to Kelowna

This post is a bit late, but with all the things that were happening with Obi, I delayed posting it. Also, truth be told since Obi's gone the motivation I once had to post has diminished. Perhaps it will be renewed once we get another dog, but for the time being post will be more sporadic. Here's our slideshow from our multi-family trip to Kelowna.

Obi rest in peace.

On August 12, 2016 we said good-bye to our beloved Obi. I haven't written an entry in the blog for so long for this reason. Obi was such an important member of this family. It's amazing to think how such a little dog could leave such a big hole in our hearts. Obi's cancer had gotten to the point of no return. In his last days he stopped eating and drinking, we knew it was time to say good-bye. I looked in his mouth and the two tumours had more than doubled in size, preventing him from opening his mouth. In truth, he had been suffering for several weeks, but you would never know it. He loved us very much and put on a brave face everyday. In his last days we brought him to work with us so we could spend as much time together as we could.

I've been writing this blog for over 10 years now and it all started with our wonderful dog. It had morphed into more of a family blog, but definitely he was my inspiration. We gave him the best life we could. He couldn't have been loved more by anyone else. We did our best to give him a wonderful home and the best care possible; in return, he gave us his loyalty, trust, love and happiness. That's more than we receive from many of our friends and family.

The one thing that we've noticed the most is the quiet, we miss the pitter patter of feet down the hallway, the greetings we would get when we came home, and the urge to go out for a walk in the mornings and evenings. Having a dog just becomes part of your daily life and once they're no longer here, it changes things. Again, it's the quiet... the gaping hole where we feel it the most. He's no longer sitting at the end of couch where we can pat him, he's no longer at the foot of the bed where he'd hog the bed. We miss him dearly and he'll never be forgotten. Rest in peace Obi, thank you for being a part of our family for the past 11 years. Here are some recent photos. P.S. the second most worst thing when you lose your dog, everyone else comes up to tell you their dead dog stories and then you feel much worse. :(

End of year field trip for Malcolm.

So Malcolm ended up with four B's and three A's when all was said and done. B's in Language Arts, Science, PE, and Fine Arts. A's in Math, Social Studies, and Health and Career Development. All in all we were happy with the results, but there are still issues of motivation (or lack thereof) and continuing bad attitudes. We hope that he'll turn it around in Grade 5 and to make sure Roger and Tracey have enlisted the services of a tutor. After this week, they're going to bring the tutor in at least once a week to at least keep up good study habits. Melody is now reading at level 17! That's tremendous progress for her. Grade 1's should be reading at levels of 14-16. The kids have grown a lot since September: link. Here are some pictures from the end of the school year including Malcolm's trip to Cultus Lake Waterpark with his class.

Melody's first tooth!

Melody felt her wiggly tooth, she tried to pull it out because it felt strange. She got a tissue, wiggled it back and forth and pulled it out! As blood streamed down her chin, she was very excited about it all. Unfortunately, Melody had bad dreams about the tooth fairy. She saw millions of tiny sparkles in her room and thought the tooth fairy was there to take her tooth even though she had written instructions not to. Malcolm's first tooth had to be extracted due to an abscess, which happened when he was six as well. Here are some pictures of the milestone.