Merry Christmas!

Olympic Torch Comes to Brantford!

We got a little taste of Olympic Fever tonight as the Olympic Torch Relay made it's way to Brantford around 7pm to stay the night before continuing West toward the Games in Vancouver. Mommy took Evan to the festivities! Here is Evan playing with some Olymipc swag - the Coke bottle illuminated in different colours and looked really neat. RCB also handed out noise-maker tamborines. As you can imagine, Evan was THRILLED with both!


The show before the torch arrived was very entertaining and included drummers (below on the screen), dancers, artists and bands! The turnout was incredible!

Here is a picture of a local Olympic athlete who would be receiving the flame next for the relay.

Quatchi and the girls were out and about greeting the crowd.

Finally the Olympic Torch runner arrived! Here he is on stage igniting the cauldron for Brantford !

And waving to the crowd!

The city of Brantford will keep the flame alive over night so that it can continue tomorrow morning on its 106 day journey to Vancouver. Unbelievably, this is the same fire that was lit in Greece and brought to Canada! We're looking forward to tracking the relay Westward!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

On the morning of our last day in Van City we were visited by a very friendly (read hungry) seagull at our hotel window. Evan was very curious about his new feathered friend.

After visiting with the bird we headed out for a day trip, seeing many more beautiful birds on the way.

We headed out to the seabus to cross Burrhard Inlet to reach North Van. We spent the afternoon at the Lonsdale Quay Market.

Mom had dinner with her supervisor and labmates. Evan had a great time meeting everyone and had the giggles for much of the night. Ashley ran out for one more yummy crepe on Robson. Then we caught an early flight out the following morning back to Hamilton. Evan travelled very well on the way back to Ontario. We were all glad to get home safe and sound! What an adventure!

English Bay!

Evan's first trip to the ocean! It was a little cold on this day, so no dipping of fingers or toes in the water occurred - we've saved that for another adventure.
It was super sunny, though!

The last time I was on this beach was to watch the Celebration of Light fireworks with my twin brother, Jeff shortly before I moved away from Vancouver. And now for some Palm trees!

We stopped in at a Starbucks Coffeehouse (of course) to get a warm beverage!

Here's a great pic of Evan and Ashley!

One last post to come on our last day in Vancouver!

Night Life on Robson Street

Evan enjoyed a very exciting night life with mommy, Ashley and friends from out west, hitting the famous Robson street shops and restaurants almost every day of our visit in Vancouver. Evan is getting ready for a night on the town here...

Here is Evan with mommy bundled up warmly for an evening walk to see the sparkle of Robson Street! (Evan shunned his new BOB Revolution jogging stroller for most of this trip preferring to be carried in his Ergo Baby Carrier). Mom's legs and back got an awesome workout this week!

Robson features some very amusing window advertising - very creative!

One place that we frequented fairly regularly was Cafe Crepe! Mom liked the spinach, chicken and feta crepe (and the Nutella and strawberry crepe for a treat). Ashley's favorite was the chicken, mushroom and egg crepe). Soooo delicious! A nice feature of this cafe was that they had a street window where food could be ordered by "walk-through" as oppsed to being seated. A great option for folks on-the-go, those with unwieldy strollers, or people who wanted to enjoy the night air!

Evan invented a new game which consisted of bending over backwards in his baby carrier and laughing his brains out. A funny, yet heart-stopping game for mom... here is our daredevil child doing his thing...

More soon on our spectacular trip out West!

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

We stayed at the FHV - a pretty cushy hotel for Evey's first hotel visit!
The hotel staff were very accomodating - they had a beautiful crib for the baby and brought in a fridge and microwave for us as well! They had a neat ginderbread mock-up of the hotel in the main lobby as seen here...
which lit up at night...
like the real thing!
Here is a view from our window on the tenth floor looking north towards the mountains- we stayed in Room 1000 - a very easy room # to remember indeed...

The hotel featured some terrifying gargoyles on the corners of the hotel as well as two beautiful golden retrievers, Mavis and Beau, who greeted the kiddies and were available for walks!

A jet-lagged boy pontificating...
We had a lovely dinner on Sunday night with Greg and Charlene who treated us to a fantastic meal at the Thai House on Robson Street. Uncle Jeff joined us for dinner and CUPCAKES for dessert (we got a lemon cupcake - soooo delicious!). More tomorrow on our adventures out West!

First Day in Vancouver

For our first day in Vancouver, Evey got all dressed up!

Then we went down to look at the Christmas tree downstairs

We met Uncle Jeff and went to the Vancouver Aquarium

We saw beluga whales, giant sea turtles, starfish and jellies! What a fun day!