Olympic Mania!

I've always loved watching the Olympics on TV. Winter or summer...I think they are great. Generally I don't like to watch sports but somehow because the Olympics have such variety and quick competitions and results it's really quite enjoyable. With the Olympics coming to Vancouver, I didn't feel really anymore excited about them than usual. But once they were here somehow it just became really exciting and brought out great feelings of patriotism and national pride. After hearing about all my friends adventures in the big city I felt that we just had to take the boys in to experience this once in a life time event. So off we went!

The only day that worked for us was going to be yesterday. Chad had a soccer tournament until 1 pm so our plan was to leave immediately after he got home and showered. The train left from Mission at 2 pm and we felt that we could just make it. We raced to Mission and got to the station with a few moments to spare but what we didn't take into account was the parking situation. Basically there wasn't any left. We circled the lot, tried the side streets and ended up finding a spot far, far down an industrial street from the train. By the time we hoofed it to the platform we had missed the train by about 3 minutes. VERY aggravating but there wasn't a thing we could do about it. We went to Tim Horton's for some drinks and donut holes, walked back and waited for the next train.

Waiting in the warm, beautiful sunshine for our train

Because we were so early we got some choice seats on the upper level on the northside so we could view the beautiful mountains. The ride in was smooth and really quite nice.

Golden Ears

The boys had been on the train before but it was the first time for Keith and I. We finally pulled into Waterfront Station to experience our first taste of Olympic mayhem. The station was one entire zoo of people. A sea of humanity....no telling how to escape. There were police and Olympic volunteers everywhere trying to direct people to where they needed to go in an orderly fashion. They even had a guy on a lifeguard chair using a megaphone to get people going. The crowd was all friendly and good natured though.

We made our way to the Royal Canadian Mint which was the one thing we really wanted to see. We found the end of the massive line and settled in for a long wait. Taken from our place in line for the Mint...the sunshine on the mountains was gorgeous

I was thinking maybe 2-3 hours. Sadly, they closed the line up right behind us because it would be time to close by the time we got into the pavilion and that would be 10 pm! We hoped to be well on our way home at that hour! What was really cool is that I spotted Rhonda (a fellow blogger) in the line up as well with her family. I would have never thought that we would spot someone we knew in those crowds! So after a bit of discussion we altered our plans. We abandoned our spot in the line up and decided to grab a bite to eat and head towards the cauldron instead. We picked up some California rolls at a sushi place near by and walked back towards the water.

Keith and the boys at Canada Place

Again the sea of humanity heading towards the same place was unreal. We were herded like cattle in the general direction of the cauldron.

Woot woot! We made it!

No need to ask how to get there....just follow the crowd! We were holding each of the boys hands very tightly as it would be impossible to ever find a lost child in that sort of a situation. We finally reached the cauldron and yes it was fabulous to see!

A big order of sushi to share. Nate gave it a pass...as you can see he's even leaning away from the offending food!

We decided at that point to head back towards Robson Square to catch the excitement there. The sun was completely set at this point and it was very COLD! I'm so glad Keith insisted we bundle up. I was a bit skeptical about putting on so many layers at when we left Abbotsford it was quite balmy.

We easily found Robson and checked out the Art Gallery, Countdown Clock, zipline, CTV livesite and all the other great things we had heard about. One of the highlights was the CTV live site. You could have a chance to be an anchor and read the news on camera for a few minutes. I was watching the screen and I couldn't believe my eyes when it was Heather (principal at MEI middle) up there! I pushed my way through the throng of people to go and say 'hi'. Person number two that I knew...wow....who would have thought.

Heather got some random lady to take our picture...too bad it's a bit blurry but it catches our happy smiles anyhow!

Then I saw Myrna (a teacher at MEI) with Heather and we had a great time chatting about our time in Vancouver. As we were all standing there, the medal ceremonies were being shown on the big screen. Jon Montgomery was getting his gold medal and the crowd went WILD! Then we all sang O Canada...so fun. We headed back to Granville street at that point because we had heard that the line up to get back on the train could be three hours! We had really hoped to catch the 9 pm train back home so we could get Liam from my parents before they went to bed. So we made our way back down Granville which was full of buskers, street performers and PEOPLE of course. I spotted person number four I knew sitting in a restaurant window! We waved and smiled.....what a coincidence! We were all pretty chilled at this point and stopped at a Starbucks for a hot chocolate and a bathroom break. The line up wasn't too bad for the bathroom....5 minutes for the boys but about 15 for the ladies. Ugh! We passed the Royal Mint as we were heading back to the station and saw the people that were in front of us in the line up we had abandoned hours ago. They were still outside the building waiting to get in. I do believe we made the right decision on that one! We hit Waterfront Station to find again the hugest sea of people trying to figure out where to go. Again, there were lots of police and volunteers directing people to either the skytrain, seabus or West Coast Express. We were very fortunate to be able to catch the 9 pm train but it was standing room only at that point. It was super squishy and travelling facing backward on swaying train in the dark made me think I might just puke! But all was well and it was an uneventful right home. At the Coquitlam station a few people got off and we were able to sit down for the rest of the ride home. We were tired but happy we were able to experience just a small bit of the Olympic mania!!!

Did You Feel The Love?

My love filled weekend started off with valuable gems. Rubies to be exact! My co-worker, Marci and I were given these fabulous rings by a student. Lovely, aren't they?

Nate came home from school half pleased and half embarrassed. He received an anonymous candy-gram on Friday. Hmmmm.....someone has a crush on my boy! Can't say I blame them :)


My Valentine surprise was a magazine, tulips and a garden hose/nozzle set. Please don't laugh! I am a practical sort of girl, so this is a gift that I truly appreciated. We usually don't even give each other Valentine gifts so it was a great surprise.

In turn, I gave Keith tools to fuel his second passion in life (I am his first in case you were wondering!). Coffee and caramel syprup from Starbucks. He was super happy!

Our dinner was a chocolate fondue! How decadent! The kids were thrilled as they have never had fondue before. I think that we may have to make this a tradition.

A great weekend despite Nathan having the stomach flu and Liam being a complete handful.

Hopefully you all had a great weekend of love too!

'Special' Times

The principal at the middle likes to have fun! Several weeks ago she said to me...let's take out the bike and get the mail! This is the bike that the special ed department uses for their students now and again. So we climbed on and took a spin out to the mailbox. For any of you familiar with the campus, the mailbox is on the opposite side of the property. Going there was smooth but coming back we had a hill to contend with! With the laughing going on we barely made it but after that it was all downhill....wheeee!

We work hard in the office but play hard too....a winning combination!

The Fun Never Ends

Last night we went to see Avatar. I had heard nothing but good things about it and my interest was piqued! I was amazed that after being in the theatres for so long already it was still a full house. I guess I wasn't the last one to see it as I thought! The visuals were amazing and it was very well done in that regard. The storyline was good although familiar. I felt like there was nothing new about it and I could pretty much predict what would happen next. I will age myself and say it sort of reminded me of 'Dances with Wolves' but set in the future instead of the past. That being said it was a good movie and I am glad to have seen it.

Keith brought home a bouquet for my birthday. It's very pretty with lilies and roses and daisies. I love mixed bouquets best!

Last night there was just no time to go to dinner....or even do take out for that matter. We were rushing off to the movies right after Keith got home from work. I had just put a Costco pizza in the oven for the kids. Keith promised me Chinese food tonight in lieu. Okay....not cooking two nights in a row is fine by me!

The food was from Bamboo Palace. It's always been my favorite place to get Chinese.

Chad was happy to share my birthday meal. Nate opted for an earlier dinner of chicken strips. He's not one for Chinese food at all!

I made myself a nice chocolate birthday cake yesterday. I was stuffed silly from supper but just had to have another piece of that yummy cake. Back to better eating tomorrow!

She's Come a Long Way!

There's still a little girl inside me. I don't feel 37 but the calendar says this is so! It's sometimes unreal to be 'all grown up'. I'm beyond thankful for my life which is full of the best blessings.

More Early Celebrations

My mom and dad had us to dinner as they do every Monday night. For the record this is never taken for granted! Anyhow....this was to be an early birthday celebration for myself as they are packing their bags and leaving on a jet plane tomorrow morning. The old bones need a week of sun apparently!
My request for my birthday dinner was potato salad (no one makes it like Mom!) and chicken. I just felt like having it for some reason. Dessert was pineapple upside down cake. No candles as we didn't want to have a fire incident with ALL that flame but they did all sing a lovely Happy Birthday in my honour. I also received cards stuffed full (well not stuffed) of birthday money. Yeah, new clothes!

Liam was having none of this partying business. We decided he was in pain from his emerging molar and rubbed on a bit of Orajel. In no time he was ALL about the party as you can see....