Conder family Christmas party 2015

A fun time was had by all at the annual Conder family Christmas Party. It was a fun gift exchange, yummy treats and good company as always. Here are some pictures from the event.

25th Grad Reunion

A couple of weeks back Roger had his 25th High School Reunion at the Steel Toad Brewery in Vancouver. It was a pretty good turn out for an event that was planned just weeks earlier. It was a good time reminiscing about old times and talking about the present. Everyone looked really great. There was a lot of talk about where the 30th should be, I guess it remains to be seen. It good to see so many familiar faces. You know things are quite different with Facebook, you don't necessarily have the same shock factor because although you may not see your friends face to face, you often see updates and pictures online. Perhaps social media has changed the notion of reunions and staying in touch.

Busy, busy....

Summer is on the horizon which means the kids are going to be out of school. There is a mix of activities planned including camps, mommy days, daddy days, Carol days and grandma days. We don't really know how other parents manage to arrange full-time care for 11 weeks!

The weather in May has been absolutely fabulous, with very little precipitation and apparently a record for dry weather. In fact, Roger's old student from Korea who has been in Canada visiting has been able to take advantage of some very good weather. It's hard to believe a whole month has flown by for them, they're on their way back to Korea in a few days. Tonight Roger and Tracey were able to have them over for a bbq dinner at the house. The kids played together so well, despite a pretty significant language barrier. They told Roger that Malcolm tried to take his time in enunciating and slowing down his speech so they could understand, but Melody on the other had talked so fast that they didn't catch many of the things she said. It's fantastic to see how well the kids got along. Here are some pictures from their visit and a quick trip to the park before dinner. The number 1 thing I observed between cultures is how reserved and quiet Korean kids are, or perhaps it's an indication how loud and crazy Malcolm is.

Busy start to activities for both Malcolm and Melody.

Friday marked the beginning of swimming lessons for Malcolm and Melody. Malcolm seems like the oldest in the class, we're all keeping our fingers crossed that he passes this time around. He's had some difficulty putting his head under the water, so let's hope he can overcome it this time. Melody is taking a parent and child class. She seemed pretty enthusiastic about swimming, much more than skating. The other good thing is that our friends Aaden and Wendy are also taking the class. Aaden is more than overjoyed about classes. Here are some pictures from Friday's class.

Rainy Sunday.

Call it a weekend curse, call it bad luck, for whatever reason we're just not able to sleep in on the weekends (or really have a good nights sleep). Friday night, Melody got up a few times calling out for "Mommy" which really wrecked Tracey's sleep. I think it still may be some residual effects from the cold she's been fighting, but then again who really knows. Kids are surely unpredictable in the sleep department. Last night at around 3:30am, Malcolm woke up with a bloody nose. He has a difficult time dealing with it as he associates blood with pain, even though there's nothing really wrong. It's been some months now since he's last had one. Roger put the humidifier in his room tonight, hopefully that will help.

Today, the family took a trip downtown on the Skytrain to do some exploring. Initially they had gone down to have lunch at the food truck congregation at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but the more than wet conditions made it less than appealing. Instead they headed to Pacific Centre and had lunch there. Roger got a new pair of shoes at the Bay, 30% on sale. I guess the trip wasn't a total bust, Malcolm really loves to ride the Skytrain. Anyway, here are some pictures from their excursion.

12x12 Photo Marathon and Raw Talent Exhibit 2012

Last week Roger was surprised to find out that one of his images was chosen as the theme winner. Theme number 7 was a tricky one to interpret, but Roger's image of the kids getting caught in the act won out. The image was taken at grandpa Harry's store in Vancouver. He really wanted to have the family involved in the photo marathon. What better way to get them involved, make them the subjects in the image. The shot was with two lights, one modified via Saberstrip as the main light and the second speedlight on top of the freezer to act as a rim and all triggered via Pocket Wizard. The definite key to the shot was the expression on Malcolm's face. He was lucky that both of the children played their roles perfectly. Special thanks to Tracey for assisting, the image was shot with the Nikon F100 and the 35mm 1.4G AFS on Ilford HP5 400 film.

Many of Roger's friends came out to see the exhibition to support the event and his photography. He was very thankful to everyone who came out. Truth be told, he just wanted his film to turn out, winning was certainly an added bonus and immense honour. He's hoping to participate again next year, at least in 2013 he'll know what to expect.


Here's the winning image:


Here's the whole set and a link to them via flickr:


Special thanks to the Kelly sisters who came out to support Roger. It was very sweet of them to come out. What a great group of ladies. Maybe next year they'll enter the competition too.