Aidan’s 5th birthday was yesterday. He was pretty excited.

We had been to Toys’R’Us two days previous, where we bought his major gift from us (a new bike, no training wheels) and a Lego set from my parents. So of course, he was up early (“Daddy! Guess what? I woke up 5 today!”) and immediately wanted to build his Lego bucket truck.

By daybreak, Gwen and Quinlan got up, and Aidan opened presents before breakfast.

Later that night, there was AWESOME cake, hand made by Gwen.

We took some video of the blowing-out too:

• This is a *bit* early to be at the office. >yawn< #
• Yay! @brianmckeever (he of the denied-to-ski-in-both-the-Olympics-and-Paralympics fame) won GOLD today in the 20km xc Paralympic event! #
• I must admit to being somewhat amused and confused by my Fraser-Valley-targetting followers. #GreetsFromVancouverCentre #
• Hopped up on Pepsi and chocolate. I might make it through the afternoon now before crashing in a huge ball of flames… #
• Upside to being at the office at 5:30 this morning? I get to pick A up from preschool in the pm #
• Got our boffo #GeowoodstockVIII tags today, thanks to @coreynjoey. They look great! We'll leave a few unactivated ones in local caches soon #
• RT @karlwoll: [A Canadian] army helicopter lands on Black Tusk [mountain, in BC]! How sweet is this!? http://tinyurl.com/ya4dzr2 #
• http://twitpic.com/18z0ql – Must be field trip day at the sledge hockey venue! #para2010 #
• (that last tweet was the bus parking lot for the Thunderbird Arena sledge hockey venue for the Paralympics) #
• So Canadians can now order a Google Nexus One, but only the version that works with Rogers, not the one that works with @WindMobile. WTF? #
• Oops. Wrong. Ambiguous order page made me think that the @WindMobile compatible phone was only sold bundled. Nevermind past few tweets :) #
• I had to read the NYT "mommy-blogging" article again http://nyti.ms/clmFfH I don't get the fuss. Really. Over-sensitive much? #
• I mean, it seems sometimes that (some) social media folk are awfully quick to beat the war-drum. Who is the bad-guy-du-jour? #
• If I were *really* insensitive, I might call it a "tempest in a sippy cup" but that would be going too far. :D #
• RT @limelitePR: @AnthonyFloyd because women in business stories rarely make the business section unless they've made a million bucks #
• OK @lindsaydianne @alexishinde @crunchycarpets @limelitePR @miss_scarlet99 fun discussion, but I've got to get back to work. :) #
• RT @bobmackin: CTV to air closing ceremony of 2010 Paralympics from Whistler on Sunday, live at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET. #
• Does anyone want a ticket for Paralympic Alpine Skiing at Whistler on Saturday (11:30 to 15:30)? We have an extra one. #
• Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! #
• Rather improbably I passed another cyclist commuting to Pt Grey on my way in this morn. At 5:45am. It was a nice stress-free ride! #NoCars #
• I must admit that Google Translate is becoming quite a useful service as our small company does more business in non-English countries #
• Amazingly, gone are the days of garbled translations. (mostly) #
• Excerpt from disclaimer on bottom of an email just rec'd: "You may not read, copy, distribute, or use this information." Uh … thanks? #
• http://twitpic.com/19679w – This is the full disclaimer. Email disclaimers are stupid at best, but … huh? #
• RT @nep: Comic: The Difference Between Firefox, Opera, Explorer & Safari http://bit.ly/8XcaSB #
• Part of what bothers me about the NYT mb fuss is this: If you bluster so much about an apparently minor thing you risk cry-wolf syndrome. #
• RT @mrlady: An unpopular reaction to the NYT piece: http://bit.ly/bFey8M (via @countryfried) [Proving this ISN'T an XY vs XX thing] #
• Pretty windy down in the city and yet Grouse Mtn's "Eye of the Wind" isn't turning. Anyone know why? Still not functional? #
• Since Twitter seems Tango-Uniform, off to deal with the train wreck that is my Google Reader. #
• RT @gpstracklog: DeLorme PN-40 for $219.99 http://bit.ly/aR6Od7 [Great deal, good for geocaching! Too bad it only ships within US] #
• There are some days when the number of idiots on the road seems to outnumber the rest. It's like a cascade effect somehow. #
• And then I think, "Well if it seems like everyone else is an idiot, chances are it's me, not them." #
• But I fail to see how stopping on a bike rte under a "no stopping anytime" sign, driving on wrong side of road, or blowing stop is my fault. #
• In other news, I can't believe that Wente column. Seriously? I wish I had a G&M subscription to cancel :eyeroll: http://bit.ly/duFV9L #
• .@bgrier No, sadly she sounds like another member of "Old Media" who Just Doesn't Get It. Dinosaurs, I believe they're called. #
• Apparently the G&M felt the need to one-up the NYT in disparaging women bloggers. Is this the asteroid that will kill Old Media dinosaurs? #
• Whose laptop are we watching the #smcyvr ustream from? #
• Don't think I agree with @kirklapointe's citizen dentist analogy, too apples vs oranges, too simplistic an analogy #smcyvr #
• Surprised how many people at #smcyvr are new to SM. Impressed by the initiative they're showing by attending! #
• RT @anndouglas: You know it's all fun, all the time, when you follow me #
• Wow! @News1130radio is reporting that the Paralympic tie-breaker tomorrow btw Italy and Sweden (2:30pm) will have free admission! #
• And now, to bed. Admittedly, it's to listen to @neilhimself read Neverwhere to me (one of the best audiobooks, ever) but … g'night! #
• Still have that single ticket for tomorrow's Alpine events at Whistler. Any takers? It'd be a shame for it to go to waste. #para2010 #
• RT @bobmackin: Too sunny to enjoy free Paralympic wheelchair curling? Attendance for Italy vs. Sweden: 800. [Sad. Admission was FREE!] #
• Heading to the Windjammer Inn for fish & chips. Best in Vancouver! #
• Gwen, trying to wake A to go Whistler: Lights on, AFI playing in the room, loudly. Boy doesn't stir. "I have worries about the future!" #
• Waiting in a huge line at Tims in Squamish after dealing with #pukeaggemmon #
• Somehow I think we're going to be late for our event :( #
• http://twitpic.com/19tk26 – The boys at the super g sitting. #
• http://twitpic.com/19tl90 – The Paralympic alpine venue #para2010 #
• http://twitpic.com/19vfx8 – Happiness is … a mostly empty McDonalds PlayPlace #
• Back from Whistler. Exhausted. Cleaning 10-hr old puke residue from car seat. This is how parents roll. #
• Wife is telling eldest about mice who made their own lt rail line, with aluminum rails. Haven't the heart to tell her why that's a bad idea. #
• The aluminum rails, not telling the story. #
• Finished migrating our geocaching finds from my "Aerodoq" account to our team "LeftCoastFloyds". Thru the magic of Python only took few hrs! #
• Aidan is serenading us: "The garbage truck, the garbage truck, a de-liv-ery service for the trash" #
• Of course, it makes more sense when you realize it's sung to the tune of "Bloodmobile" by TMBG #

On Saturday, we packed up the kids and headed to Whistler to take in some Paralympic Alpine events. There were some events scheduled for Sunday, but the weather forecast was such that VANOC moved the Sunday events to Saturday. This was good for us as it mean that we were able to see the men and women’s nordic combined events: Super-G and Slalom for standing, sitting, and visually impaired.

I’ll spare you the story of getting there. Suffice it to say that Quinlan makes the third member of the family who gets carsick, and we had an unscheduled visit to Wal*Mart and Shopper’s Drug Mart.

Getting to the venue involved driving to a parking lot well south of Whister, then taking a shuttle coach to the bottom of Whistler Creekside.

From there, we were fortunate to be able to take the “accessible” shuttle to the venue site (a significant walk, up the mountain for most). Having the baby on my back apparently qualified us. After seeing the walk people were taking, I didn’t mind taking the bus at all.

The venue was very impressive. The grandstands were at the bottom of the ski run, with the incredibly steep final slope right in front of us.

We had a pretty good view of the last part of the skier’s runs, and what we couldn’t see was shown to us on a giant screen.

The crowd was quite excited too! There were lots of international fans. The loudest and most stand-out were the Germans and Japanese.

With the kids, we were a bit more reserved.

The performance of the athletes was nothing short of awe-inspiring. I can’t imaging going the speeds they do going on one ski, a sit-ski, or BLIND. Incredible.

As part of the event, they had set up an area where kids (and adults) could try out some of the Paralympic equipment.

Aidan got to try out the cross-country sit-ski, and had a great time with it!

Aidan and Gwen got to play a little bit of sledge hockey too!

And finally, as we were leaving the venue (a bit early because the kids were restless, bored, and hungry) we saw William Elliot, QC, the Commissioner of the RCMP (ie the top of the RCMP org chart). He had quite the colour guard with him. As an aside, there have been tonnes of Red Serges at all the events. Nothing wrong with showing the colours, making the tourists forget about the less-uniformed security.

A pretty good day for only $15 per ticket! The Paralympics were excellent value, and this was reflected by the number of people with kids at all the events. It’s a shame that it doesn’t get more media exposure.

This is BEYOND awesome. Click below to start then wait (patience) for it to load. Or, click it again to make it larger. In fact, it deserves to be embiggened.