So it's only a month or so late but here are my experiences shown through pics. Unfortunately my scrapper side didn't come through, meaning the pics do not do justice for what I saw and experienced, in so many cases I was just so caught up in the moment that there wasn't time to pull out the camera.

We spent the first day of the Olympics in a Vancouver suburb that was putting on an Olympic celebration. The thought was to stay out of downtown with the kids the first weekend because honestly there was talk of protesters and the crowds were going to be huge. Thankfully the protesters didn't get very far, the first day they made a bit of a mess but were quickly stifled.

One of the local curling clubs brought out demonstration curling for the kids to take part. The curling rocks were so heavy that they weren't really able to move them well but they got the idea for sure.

Next we tried tobagganing, I thougth they were going to bring in snow but honestly it was just like a slippy slide. See my foot hanging out the tobaggan, I thougth they entire way down I was going hit the side and break my foot. They had a bump at the bottom, Brendan and I actually caught some air and then came crashing down, thought I had broken my back. Not really the best part of the day.

This was the beginning of my day on the 18th. I took the entire day off so I could spend an entire day at leisure taking as much in as possible. My sister, Mom and I drove downtown, found an all day parkade and off we went. I have never walked my city as much that day and honestly probably never will again. From one end of the city to the next and back again, it was a blast. As you can see in the pic we had brilliant weather, it was a wonderful day.

Here is my Mom at the Northern House. Many countries and Canadian provinces had free venues where you could learn about their cultures. Considering my Mom grew up in Northern B.C. I am sure she felt quite at home, lol. Culture shock for my sister and I. It was a wonderful pavillion, one of the best in my opinion.

Ok looking like a true dork in this picture but honestly that gold bar was heavy and all I could think was please take the picture so I can put the bar down. The was taken at the Mint pavillion. They were they creators of the Olympic medals. At this pav you had the opportunity to see and touch the medals or just tour through without seeing the medals. We chose just to tour because the lineup to touch the medals was longer than 4 hours and I can't imagine standing in line for that long for anything.

Acting like goof on Granville street, one of the many streets closed to traffic making the party environment much more fun as the party filled all these streets.

After waiting in line for about an hour we stepped foot into Cokes pavillion. I don't now but in years past I had a huge Coke collection so this was definitely one of the sites I wanted to visit. This pavillion was in a place called Live City, they had huge screens to watch the Olympics live and concerts and fireworks every night, the energy here was electric.

Our plan at this point was to stay at Live City and watch an awards ceremony live on the screen (Canada had won a gold medal the day before so it would be an exciting ceremony to watch), unfortunately at this point we were tired and cold so we opted for dinner instead. We decided on dinner at the Keg in Yale Town. It was definitely packed but we were able after a 1/2 hour or so to get a table in the lounge. What was perfect was that not only did we get dinner but they had the t.v.'s set up so we were able to see the awards ceremony as well, I can tell you I have never been in a restaurant where everyone started singing the national anthem when the gold was awarded, amazing.

Another amazing thing happened at this dinner, something I don't imagine will happen again in my lifetime. We had just finished dinner, we were sitting at a table for four and of course there were only 3 of us. My Mom had left the table to go to the washroom and I was looking down into my purse getting ready to pay the bill when I was startled by a large man coming over to the table. He wanted one of our chairs. My sister then told him we were just settling the bill so he could have the table in just a few if he wished, to which he replied "settling the bill, well let me do that for you!", of course we objected but when he asked the server for our bill I think she realized very quickly that a larger tip would be coming her way from him than us, not necessarily true but I think that was the thought. He grabbed our bill pulled out a couple hundred dollar bills gave them to the server and then picked up the chair and walked away. He did tell us that he was a mayor from Alberta and was having the time of his life and that this was the least he could do in exchange for this experience. Never in my life has someone out of the blue picked up my dinner and probably won't ever happen again, such a great memory to add to my already memorable day.

I took this shot just outside where the Olympic cauldron was, I thought it was funny having the Winter games while daffodils are starting to bloom. As many know we had the warmest winter EVER (since records were kept), kind of funny considering the winter before was one of the snowiest and coldest, timing is everything eh?

Olympic cauldron at night.

We have been lucky to be able to obtain an official torch (this one was run in Northern B.C). Here is Brendan with it,

and now Trevors turn. The dark patches on the torch are the burn marks from the flame.

This was inside B.C. Place, we took in an Awards Ceremony and concert here on Feb. 26th. We were really early as with the kids and a big hockey game going on next door we wanted to be sure to get there in time. Security was tight, Brendan was a little confused going through the metal detectors, he has never flown before so it was a new experience for him.

Outside B.C. Place. A police officer was nice enough to take our pic, nice to get one with everyone, it was pouring rain but even that couldn't dampen our spirits.

Throughout Vancouver they had different places set up for photo ops, here the boys are in a bobsled. Oh by the way Trevor has decided now that he would like to learn how to become a bobsledder, I guess a trip up to Whistler is needed to check it out, it is so awesome that we now have these facilities to check out.

Another bobsled, one of my favorite pics. Brendan looks so tiny in the bobsled.

I was planning on adding my favorite moments from the games but honestly there were so many that I can't pick just few.

I am very proud of my city, with or without snow I believe we put on a great show and honestly I wish it was something we could do every year. What a blast!!

Do commercials make you cry??

I have to start off by saying that over the next two weeks I can only assume that my posts will have a very common theme....the Winter Olympics.

It was back in 2003 that I sat around a computer at work and heard that we were awarded the 2010 Olympics, 7 years. Trevor was 1 and Brendan wasn't even a thought yet.

I ask the commercial question because lately I have been overwhelmed with emotion while watching the Olympic themed commercials. I think it stems back to the fact that when my Dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 one constant thing he said to his doctors was that he WOULD be here for the Olympics in 2010. Although he put up the biggest fight he possibly could have it didn't happen and know as the time comes closer I wish that he could be here, he was so proud of his city and was so very excited. Rory helps to cheer me up by saying that my Dad gets to see everything, he doesn't need a ticket (oh by the way 4 gold medal hockey tickets are currently on auction for $70k).

Yesterday the torch came through my town on it's way to the final destination. I live only a block from the torch route so I took the day off work so the whole family could witness this. There was an all day celebration at our events center and the plan was to stay the day there. Trevor had other ideas though, he came down with a 103 degree fever and was going nowhere. He was ok in the early morning when the torch went by our house so he did see this, I would love to show the pictures I took but .... well always check your cameras battery before leaving the house, yep dead battery only discovered minutes before the runner went by.

I did go to the events center to see the community cauldron lit, I unfortunately only have one picture because 10,000 people showed up for this event and I couldn't get close enough for pictures, I swear every 7 foot person in Langley stood in front of me. I would move and another 7 foot kid would move in front of me...who knew Langley had so many tall people, I guess I didn't get the memo as I stopped growing at 5 feet :)

Last Monday my brother in law was a torch bearer in a small town up north in our province. It's funny how things turn out, by bil was the torch bearer in the town my Dad grew up in, I thought that was weird. You don't get to keep the torch you run with but can purchase it, after all is said and done it costs about $500. Not everyone on his route purchased the torch so he had a surprise for Rory and brought him home a torch as well, Rory was so happy. I personally don't get why you would want it if you didn't run but Rory feels like he has a piece of our history and couldn't be happier. Oh by the way, many locals have dubbed the torch the joint, and considering that we are unfortunately known as the marijuana capital of North America not sure the design was the best choice, you can be the judge, lol.

I am taking in many of the free events during the games and did get tickets to an awards ceremony, not quite sure what to expect for that .

So the plan is to ensure that the battery is charged and to have the best experience ever!!! I'm guessing just a few more tears to shed. Tears of pride though.

Oh and Trevor he has fifths disease (slap hand) a virus that will keep him home for the next week and a half to ensure it doesn't spread further.

Cheers :)

A tourist in our own town!

Well we made the venture downtown to be tourists in our own town. It was a little weird getting around because there have been a lot of road closures and parkade closures.

I will be making one last trip downtown before the start of the Olympics at the end of January for a hockey game, I am thinking it might be crazy!

We found our way to the Art Gallery where the countdown clock is situated, it was quite amazing to see how many people were there doing the same thing as us, getting the picture. We were lucky to find a nice guy willing to take the picture of the entire family.

We also went down to Canada Place, I had read that there were some events starting on the 12th of January, I guess I read this wrong because the place was inaccessible as the media has taken it over, this is where many of them will be stationed for the games. We did find the Olympic rings but of course because it was during the day they were not lit, oh well still cool to see them in the harbour.

It was an amazing day, the first time I think we have seen blue sky since before Christmas so it was refreshing to get some fresh air and enjoy the day as a family of 4.

Cheers

Mind numbing day!

Phew, what a mind numbing day I had today. I had to be at work at 7 this morning to take part in an ergonimic training session. The session lasted until 3. It was definitely very informative but do you ever find yourself when in such long meetings drifting at the 5 hour mark. Anything to learn after that point is just wasted on me, I don't know maybe it's just my attention span :)

I finished two more pages for Trevors book tonight, they are from a bowling trip we took when he was 5.

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Olympic countdown clock, I want to get the kids picture with it before it's gone so they will have mementos to show that they were part of such a wonderful party going on in their city. As you can see from the pic here when taken there were 917 days until the Olympics, we are now done to 28 days, wow!!

We are also going to try to get a pic in front of the rings in the harbour. Not sure how it would work if it's not dark, we'll see.

I will post the pics tomorrow night if all goes according to plan :)


Happy Saturday!

Happy Canada Day!!!

Happy Canada Day to all that are Canadian.
I was thinking a holiday in the middle of the week was going to kind of suck :) however I think it was great, work two days, one day off, work two days, two days off, a great schedule!

We had an excellent day today as a family. Even though I know Rory wanted to be glued to the sports channels as the free agent market for hockey opened today I think he realized just how important it was for us to spend the day together. First stop was lunch to a new restaurant (actually new to us but not the community), it was so cute, a train theme which Brendan just loved.

Then we were off to Science World (pictured above). If you are ever in Vancouver and have children I highly recommend a visit here. The kids had a blast and I love that every exhibit is hands on for them to learn. We spent about three hours there before the lights and noise started getting to Rory. We took a quick walk around the outside of Science World to take a look at the Olympic Village they are still building, looked fantastic.

We arrived home to an invitation to Rorys brothers place for a bbq and some Wii. So back on the freeway, picked up Rorys Mom and headed for a free dinner, I love free dinners :) , just kidding it was great. So all in all we had a wonderful Canada Day. The only weird thing is that it feels like Saturday, so going to work tomorrow seems strange, crazy how a small change in your schedule can put you so off.

p.s. I did some scrapping last night, so I am hoping to have a new double page layout listed on Friday. Cool in the Pool is the title.

Cheers

1 year and counting til the BIG event

In less than one year our city will be hosting the world for the 2010 Olympic games. After being awarded the games over 6 years ago you can imagine just how big a deal this is today.

I have always been a great supported of the games, it's a once in a lifetime event for sure, but I do have to say that being bombarded with commericals, advertising, and constant media chatter is starting to drive me nuts :)

Today the Olympic torch was unveiled and many events are scheduled to celebrate this day.

Here is the torch, followed by a pic of the Olympic mascots. I only wish my Dad were here to take in this event, he loved the idea of hosting the Olympics so I will definitely take in as much as I can in his honor.

Cheers