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 , , , 01 Nov 2009 05:47 pm

Hallowe’en this year was a smashing success.

When Gwen’s sister Mary was here around Thanksgiving, we dressed the boys up in their costumes and took some pics down in Stanley Park:

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Yesterday, we carved up the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch, stuffed the kids into their costumes, and went down the 3 blocks to the False Creek Co-op to Trick-or-Treat. Now, it must be said that I feel a bit guilty about this, but the atmosphere there is a million times better than around our place. In fact, we don’t think we got any kids last night at all. It’s hard to tell, because we weren’t home for quite a while, but we did leave a bowl of candy outside our door and it didn’t look disturbed at all. It didn’t seem like anyone else in our complex was handing out candy, and I’m pretty sure everyone else who has kids took them somewhere else. Contrast this with the False Creek Co-op where there are literally hundreds of kids, lots of costumed adults, and lots of in-the-spirit people handing out treats. I took some video that I’ll try to put together a bit later.

After trick-or-treating down there, we came back and took some pics of the pumpkins and the boys:

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Anthony on , , , , , 24 Oct 2009 10:01 pm

Today we all went out for a bike ride. This was Quinlan’s first time out on a bike (in the child carrier that Aidan used to ride in). We went down to ride the West Dyke Trail in Richmond — a nice scenic and FLAT trail on the western edge of Lulu Island. Return trip was about 12 km and we took it at a nice relaxed pace.

As you will be able to tell from the pics below, it was quite the fun ride for all involved.

Here are some shots of Gwen and Quinlan. The kid carrier fits Quinlan quite well, and after some time he got used to wearing the helmet.

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A rare action shot of me on a bike and Aidan on the Trail-A-Bike. As you can see, Aidan likes the Trail-A-Bike. A lot.

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After riding from Garry Point up to the northern edge of the island — and back — we took some family pictures:

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Here’s a rare shot with all of us *together*!

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And here are some awesome shots of Gwen and Quinlan:

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Tomorrow, Quinlan turns 1!

Anthony on , , , , 21 May 2009 08:57 pm

This past weekend we didn’t go to Victoria. To be clear, it was Victoria Day, we just didn’t go to Victoria even though Aidan was convinced we had to. Instead we took a day trip and went up the Fraser Valley.

The plan was simple. We’d head towards the Othello Tunnels without any schedule or firm plan. And it started fine — we packed a picnic lunch, the kid-carrier backpack, the all-terrain stroller. I loaded up the GPSs and off we went.

Things started going a bit sideways in Abbotsford. Gwen has some new glasses and didn’t have sunglasses at the time. She wanted to stop by a drug store to pick up some clip-ons so we looked up pharmacies in the GPS and headed to one that wasn’t too far from the TCH.

The GPS, of course, led us to a farmer’s field near the Sumas border crossing.

So, we hit up a nearby Zellers. Gwen went in to check for the clip-ons while I checked for nearby geocaches. And the GPS told me “No geocaches found”. Of course, this is *exactly* what I wanted to see while sitting in a parking lot in Abbotsford at the beginning of a day meant for geocaching.

Zellers, of course, didn’t have the clip-ons. In an amazing stroke of luck, I’d brought my netbook (which has GSAK and up-to-date geocaches on it) and attempted to rectify the problem with the Oregon GPSr. Gwen and the kids went off to the Tim’s that was in the parking lot while I repaired the GSAK database (grr) and reloaded the caches. Disaster averted, I went over the Tims and met the family.

We headed out, but I had to stop by the washroom. I wasn’t in the bathroom more than 30 seconds when I heard Aidan calling out for me in the vestibule outside the washrooms. This was surprising because we’d asked him to stay with his mother. Anyway, we did our business and went back out into the restaurant to find a very unhappy Gwen. Turns out Aidan had come to the bathroom when his mother’s back was turned to Quinlan. As a result she had no idea where he was.

We almost went home there and then.

Instead we drove on to Bridal Falls and had a picnic.

Which is really the point of this post. Quinlan seems to like the outdoors, wouldn’t you say?

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So, the picnic was a success. Time was marching on, but we did manage to grab a cache in the park. It should have been a quick grab, but in the shadow of the mountains the GPS wasn’t giving us great accuracy, and there were a number of potential hiding spots. And a rushing stream nearby. And it wasn’t clear which side of the stream the cache was on.

Traversing the stream was not an easy feat.

The cache was, of course, on the easy side.

So, we left Bridal Falls and headed up to Hope. An uneventful drive except that the GPS tried to get us to arbitrarily cross the Coquihalla River where the was no crossing, and Aidan fell asleep in the car. He never falls asleep in the car and this was the second time in as many weeks! He must be coming up to a growth spurt.

Eventually we found our way to the Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park. The park has a trail that leads to the Othello Tunnels, built back in 1914.

We all enjoyed the tunnels, which were a reasonable walk along the reclaimed railbed. Aidan was thrilled with the tunnels, and the canyon was pretty awesome too.

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The big reason for coming to the Tunnels, however, was to get the geocache located there.

It seemed to be up the side of a cliff, near a fallen giant tree.

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I say “seemed” because in the end, we DNF’d it. Frustrating, but we’d had an excellent adventure despite how the day started, so it was all good.

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