Anthony on , , , , , , , 06 Feb 2011 03:33 pm

It’s been a while, I know. Perhaps you’ve been following along at LeftCoastMama. Perhaps you’d given up on ever seeing anything new here and are surprised to see this pop up in your feed reader. At any rate, sorry about that. I’m going to dust off the cobwebs and start posting more to this blog again.

But first, a bit of a photo essay showing what we’ve been up to over the past umpteen months.

We had some professional photos taken. This photo was taken by Bopomo Pictures:


The LeftCoastFloyds

The LeftCoastFloyds


After getting back from my mother’s funeral, Gwen left for the East Coast again to attend the BlogHer conference in New York City!


Gwen and Tracey in NYC, August 2010

Gwen and Tracey in NYC, August 2010

Times Square, NYC, August 2010

Times Square, NYC, August 2010

Radio City Music Hall, NYC, August 2010

Radio City Music Hall, NYC, August 2010


Later in August my grandmother Muriel Forwood passed and I returned to Nova Scotia for another funeral. My grandmother lived with us from 1986 until she moved into a long term care facility in the early 2000s.


Remembering Muriel, August 2010

Remembering Muriel, August 2010


Back in Vancouver, Aidan went on longer and longer bike rides with me on the Trail-A-Bike. This was taken down near the Olympic Oval, halfway through a 50km ride.


Public art in Richmond, August 2010

Public art in Richmond, August 2010


We don’t get out for as many hikes as we used to, but I did manage to get up to Joffre Lakes again this year. This time, I went with a bunch of people I met on Twitter!


Joffre Lakes, August 2010

Joffre Lakes, August 2010


Aidan started school this year! He’s in a half-day French-immersion kindergarten at Lord Tennyson Elementary.


Aidan on the first day of school, September 2010

Aidan on the first day of school, September 2010


Aidan got a bigger bike for his birthday, but was having trouble with it. One of the best things I’ve done was to remove the pedals from his old Tigger bike so that it became a push bike. We lowered the seat and let him push it around. This was a great way for him to learn to balance the bike. Training wheels were too much of a crutch. By February 2011 he was riding his two wheeler, no problems at all.


Aidan freewheeling, October 2010

Aidan freewheeling, October 2010

Aidan pedalling on two wheels, February 2011

Aidan pedalling on two wheels, February 2011


Of course, at the end of October Quinlan turned 2! We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends for his birthday “party”.


Picking the perfect pumpkin. Or two. October 2010

Picking the perfect pumpkin. Or two. October 2010

Chilly birthday cupcakes. October 2010

Chilly birthday cupcakes. October 2010

Happy Birthday Quinlan! October 2010

Happy Birthday Quinlan! October 2010


Hallowe’en was fun this year. Quinlan wore a monkey costume, and Aidan had a great fire fighter’s costume (with an authentic Delta Fire Services patch given to him by an authentic fireman.)


Quinlan is a monkkey, October 2010

Quinlan is a monkey, October 2010

Aidan in his fireman costume, October 2010

Aidan in his fireman costume, October 2010

All set for Hallowe'en, October 2010

All set for Hallowe'en, October 2010


We had quite an early snowfall in November, and the boys had a great time playing in it.


Aidan catching snowflakes, November 2010

Aidan catching snowflakes, November 2010

Quinlan enjoying some early snow with some friends, November 2010

Quinlan enjoying some early snow with some friends, November 2010

Yes, it was that cold. November 2010

Yes, it was that cold. November 2010


Aidan looks sharp, and loves wearing his hat and tie.


Aidan, November 2010

Aidan, November 2010


We did lots of Christmassy things this year.

Gwen and the boys had the very special opportunity to join other kids and Air Transat on the Flight in Search of Santa.


Flight in Search of Santa, November 2010

Flight in Search of Santa, November 2010

The Flight in Search of Santa, November 2010

The Flight in Search of Santa, November 2010


Gwen took the kids to Oakridge Centre for their annual photo with the best Santa in Vancouver:


Santa Claus, November 2010

Santa Claus, November 2010


Bright Nights in Stanley Park is an annual fundraiser in which the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service decorates a portion of Stanley Park. The kids love it.


Quinlan at Bright Nights in Stanley Park, December 2010

Quinlan at Bright Nights in Stanley Park, December 2010

Aidan at Bright Nights in Stanley Park, December 2010

Aidan at Bright Nights in Stanley Park, December 2010


And then there was the Santa Claus parade.


Vancouver Santa Claus parade, 2010

Vancouver Santa Claus parade, 2010


Aidan and Gwen took skiing lessons this year at Mount Seymour. I don’t have any action shots of them, but while they were learning to ski, Quinlan and I played on the toboggan hill.


Quinlan on the toboggan hill at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Quinlan on the toboggan hill at Mount Seymour, December 2010


In the midst of all this, we discovered that Aidan needed glasses. He looks pretty sharp in them and doesn’t mind them in the least.


Aidan and his new glasses, December 2010

Aidan and his new glasses, December 2010


Grandpa came to join us for Christmas. This was wonderful, and we did lots of things.

Gwen, the boys, and Grandpa went to the VanDusen Festival of Lights on the first day he was here.


Grandpa, Quinlan, and Aidan at the Festival of Lights in VanDusen Gardens, December 2010

Grandpa, Quinlan, and Aidan at the Festival of Lights in VanDusen Gardens, December 2010


Christmas Day and the days that followed were awesome.


Grandpa and Aidan put together some Lego, December 2010

Grandpa and Aidan put together some Lego, December 2010

More Lego Airport assembly, December 2010

More Lego Airport assembly, December 2010


On New Year’s Eve Day, we all went snowshoeing at Mount Seymour.


Grandpa and Quinlan snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Grandpa and Quinlan snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Grandpa and Quinlan snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Grandpa and Quinlan snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Aidan snowshoeing at My Seymour, December 2010

Aidan snowshoeing at My Seymour, December 2010

Snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010

Snowshoeing at Mount Seymour, December 2010


Since the Olympics, the plaza in front of UBC Robson Square has been turned into an “outdoor” skating rink, open to the public. We took the kids there in January. The zamboni was as exciting as the skating, I suspect.


Skating at Robson Square

Skating at Robson Square, January 2011


Even in the depths of winter, we keep up with the geocaching. :) 2010 was our best year yet in terms of our number of finds, and we hope to eclipse it this year!

We did some geocaching with grandpa while he was here.


Geocaching in Pacific Spirit Park, January 2011

Geocaching in Pacific Spirit Park, January 2011


And we continue to do some winter geocaching.


Geocaching at Kits Beach, February 2011

Geocaching at Kits Beach, February 2011


So that’s been our past 6 months in a nutshell. It won’t been 6 months until the next update.

Anthony on , , , , , , , 26 Dec 2009 08:21 pm

It’s been a busy few weeks. We did the Van Dusen Gardens Festival of Lights, the Stanley Park Bright Lights Santa Train, the Stanley Park Carol Ride, Christmas at Maplewood Farm, and the Christmas crib service at St John’s Shaughnessy. Whew.

Today, on Boxing Day, we decided we’d go snow-shoeing. After all, Vancouver was socked in with fog and due to an amazing weather effect called a temperature inversion, it was actually warmer (and sunny!) on the mountains than down in the city.

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So, we headed to Mt Seymour for snow-shoeing. We took along a newly-acquired sled in order to pull Quinlan along, but both boys ended up using it (off and on).

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None of us had ever been snow-shoeing before, but that didn’t matter. It was pretty easy to pick up.

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Mt Seymour had snow-shoes that fit Aidan, and as you can see, he did walk a good portion of the 2.5 km loop we did. Quinlan had a great time in (and rolling out of) the sled!

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The weather was absolutely perfect and although the snow was hard-packed and a bit slushy, we had a blast. I expected the terrain to be a bit … flatter … but it was just like a typical hike in the Coastal Mountains, up and down moderately steep trails only in the snow. It sure was a workout, and we’re definitely going to do it again soon!

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Anthony on , , , 22 Nov 2009 08:04 pm

We took some “Christmas”-y pictures this afternoon in front of our fireplace. Given that this year is (like you don’t know) the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, we thought we’d all get our Olympic kit on.

However, between the mindful 4 yr old and the wriggly 1 yr old and the poor lighting (I gotta get some Alien Bees!) we didn’t get a lot of good pics. Some of the cuter ones, though are below:

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Anthony on , , , 15 Oct 2008 10:21 pm

Eh, the election was last night.  I don’t want to talk about it.  If you follow me on Facebook, I’m sorry.  You really should be on Twitter too, it makes more sense there.  It was kinda like being at a bar, talking about the election results with 100 of your closest friends right across the country.

Life has been busy.  We’re pretty much prepared for Beta.

This past weekend we followed Gwen’s own advice and visited the pumpkin patch.  We decided to go to the Richmond Country Farm, down off of the Steveston Highway, on the advise of Cousin Vicki and others.  It’s quite a production, and they’ve got it well set up.  I bet that they probably get several thousand people passing through a day.

It’s a full package there.  The price is steep ($10/person over 3 yrs old) but you get a hay wagon ride through their decorated farmland, entrance to a corn maze, and the pumpkin patch.  You each get to take home any size pumpkin you’d like, and you get an apple each too!

Aidan liked tromping around the pumpkin patch and was pretty … um … discerning … in picking out his pumpkin.

After filling our bags with two large, heavy pumpkins and a few small pumpkins, Aidan and I left Gwen sitting on a hay bale while we went and explored the corn maze.  He was pretty interested in it, but the further we went in, the more nervous he became.

He started asking if we were going to find Mommy, and the deeper we went, the more frequent that question came up.  It seemed that he was genuinely concerned that we’d lost Mommy, so we short-circuited the maze and walked back along the outside.  Of course, there were blackberry bushes (with *gobs* of berries still on them) along the route back to the pumpkin patch, and it took us quite some time to walk that stretch.  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, the questions about the lost Mommy stopped with the intake of ripe berries.

Of course, we eventually found her. :)

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