The first time away from Claire & Rhys was my recent 10 day trip to Botswana.

The trip involved a lot of preparation especially because of my soy allergy. I had to sort out what and how to pack all my own food for 10 days, what I would eat on the flights (airlines do not cater to allergies!?!), and how to prepare Jimmy and the kids for my absence. It all worked out okay and I managed to survive just fine. Jimmy and the kids did great – they survived and thrived while I was away 🙂 In fact Jimmy told them I was looking for elephants so of course I had to return with some sort of elephant toy.

The trip there took 23 hours in flights, 7 hours in lay-overs, 3 hours driving (2 hrs on a highway with goats/cattle aimlessly wondering across & 1 hour on a bumpy sand road) to get to the work site South of Maun, Botswana. I was so exhausted by the end of the journey. I stuck out like a sore thumb and people were commenting on how I was definitely not from Africa! Now there are a lot of Caucasians in Botswana so I guess my pale skin tone sold me out – I never knew I was so obviously pale.

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The first few nights I worked out of our remote exploration site. We had intense meetings everyday that lasted from early morning to late night. Luckily, everyone liked to wind down prior to dinner so we went out in the late afternoon for a safari. The weather was really wet my entire trip that is why the vegetation is so green in the photos below and why I didn’t see a lot of animals. When it is hot and dry they congregate at the pans to drinking water. All the pans we visited had zero animals. The second day I was on site though we heard of two elephants that were 2 km away. We all jumped into Land Cruisers and tried to track them down. We ended up catching a glimpse of one elephant that was on the other side of a veterinary fence. The brush was dense and it was well camouflaged. Pretty neat to see such a beautiful large animal in the wild.

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Work Site:

Sleeping quarters:

Insects are huge in Botswana!

While I was at camp I celebrated my 34th birthday. Jimmy sent me the sweetest video of Claire & Rhys saying ‘Happy Birthday Mama’. It made my day. The night of my birthday the camp hosted a braai for me which is Afrikaans for “barbecue” or “grill”. We all had many beer and stayed up way too late around a camp fire. It was very memorable.

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I had an opportunity to stay two nights at a nearby game reserve – Bokamoso Safaris. It is a hunting lodge that has 60,000 hectares of land and is owned by a Spaniard. They buy game to populate the area and charge hunters large amounts of money to come hunt. I wasn’t super keen on that idea and would much preferred staying at an eco-lodge where they ‘hunted’ with cameras. However, it was a nice place with luxurious ‘cabins’ and there was only our group staying there so no hunting happened during my stay. I saw many animals running around the water hole – Kudu, Wildebeast, Warthogs, Impala, and many bird species.We were hosting a few days of meetings- more intense work but the surroundings were so beautiful and the people attending the meetings were very nice.

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Bokamoso:

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After two days at Bokamoso we returned to camp for a few more days of work. No more meetings rather, I had time to sit with all the on site geologists to run through all their procedures and finally get to know all the people I communicate with regularly from my Vancouver office. It was great. I also had an opportunity to run out to a nearby drilling site. Environmental regulations are very tight in this country which is good. Old drilling sites are barely recognizable as time passes because they undergo a thorough cleaning.

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To start our journey back to Canada we left site via helicopter which was a nice reprive from the 3 hour drive. The flights, lay-overs etc on the way back home were equally as long as the journey to Botswana. However, it was much sweeter knowing I would be home soon to my family. Once I got home I stood at our front door excited to have the kids and Jimmy in my arms….I was greeted by this awesome sign and when I opened the door the kids came running yelling ‘ mama – balloon’ over and over. They love balloons and are still talking about them 🙂 Ahh so good to be back!

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Prior to my trip to Botswana, we visited Granville Island and met up with our good friend Doug. Jimmy and Doug have been friends for a very long time and it was nice to spend a little time with him while he was visiting Vancouver.

It was a nice sunny day and we enjoyed walking around Granville Island. It had been a long time since our last visit to Granville Island. We used to spend a lot of time down there when we lived in the South Granville area. Claire & Rhys loved watching the boats and all the birds and I loved all the people watching.

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The last time it snowed was before my trip to Botswana. We have been so busy that we haven’t had time to post some pictures of that pretty day. Claire & Rhys loved the snow and we were happy to have a ‘real’ winter in Vancouver….even if it was only for a few days.

Jimmy is one smart guy and he somehow knew that this would be a mild winter…. He successfully reigned in my urge to buy brand new snowsuits for Claire & Rhys earlier in the season….I was expecting a lot of snow this winter and the borrowed suits we have were only used twice! Happy to have saved the money I would have spent.

As we move from Winter into Spring I have to note that time is moving so quickly! The night before my Botswana departure I realized I would be away for preschool registration. I quickly filled in the forms and contacted the registration person and arranged for Jimmy to drop the forms off while I was away. Claire & Rhys are now registered to start preschool in September! crazy !?! We choose a parent participation preschool because it felt right to us. All the parents have to take on some sort of role to help run the preschool. As well, a parent has to volunteer twice a month to be a teachers aid. In our case we have two kids so we will have to volunteer once a week…. When I say ‘we’ I really mean Jimmy as he is the stay-at-home parent 😉

To get Claire & Rhys geared up for three days a week of preschool we started going to Strong Start which is a free government-funded program for preschool aged kids. They run these programs out of designated elementary schools. It is a 4 hour program that you can attend once a week or more as you like. We went as a family recently and it was great! Claire & Rhys had fun and it will be good for them to mingle and socialize with other kids.

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After a snow day there is nothing better than getting cozy in our pajamas 🙂

On my Mom’s very last day in Vancouver and the last day of vacation before I returned to work we met up with our friends Kim, Ryan and Kye at the Aquarium. It was a very quiet day with no crowds – yay!

It had been a few months since our last quick visit and Claire & Rhys are much bigger now. It was interesting how they were both more timid with the big fish tanks. Rhys more so than Claire which was a first. Rhys found comfort in Jimmy’s arms and we walked around the aquarium looking at all the aquatic wonders and the tropical zone where there were some really cool birds and alligators. I have to say the alligator exhibit is a bit scary – thunder and lightning and rain with spot lights shining on the alligators. I actually felt quite badly for them.

Claire & Rhys are still talking about the sea turtle. Everyday when they wake up from their naps or from bedtime they tell us about the turtle like they have been dreaming about it all night. Sounds like a really good dream!

We will be visiting again very soon 🙂

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After a really busy day with the kids we try to balance it out by following with a nice mellow slow-paced day. Claire & Rhys really seem to enjoy the downtime and the ability to not get rushed from one activity to the next.

After our busy Christmas we had some nice mellow time in our neighborhood. Having fun with Nana of course!

I should note that Claire & Rhys don’t like wearing their own toques. They always prefer wearing their Dad’s assortment of toques hence the big toque-heads below 😉

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We were graciously invited over to my Aunt Josephine’s home for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.

We happened to have a turkey in our freezer that I had bought for our thanksgiving. Jimmy and turkey are a bad mix and the kids don’t eat a lot of food so when I ordered the organic turkey from our organic food delivery company back in October I thought I was buying a small turkey. It arrived and it was huge! for us at least. It also cost us $70! Needless to say that it was good news to be making the turkey for the family dinner. The turkey was really tasty and it would give us room back in our freezer.

It was fun getting all dressed up especially for Claire. She loves putting on a pretty dress and having her hair done (not everyday though)- such a little girl 😉

We arrived and there were gifts under the tree for the kids from everyone – how generous! The kids were spoiled and they had a great time running around. They did pretty good at the big table and they ate pretty well too. We had great fun with good conversation and yummy food. We also miraculously got home not too much past bedtime.

 

 

 

We had a nice mellow Christmas this year at home.

My Mom arrived a few days before the big day which was so nice. She stayed for 13 days combining time with us and other family. We ate, drank wine, visited parks, shopped… The kids really enjoyed having Nana visiting and loved to sit down and read a book with their Nana. We enjoyed having her here too 🙂

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Claire & Rhys were so excited for Christmas morning. We had them all charged up for it as we talked about it lots the week before. Also, they just came off having their birthday party where they had a lot of gifts to open. Rhys woke up first and was so excited seeing the little Christmas tree all lit up with a bunch of presents lying about. There were two winnie the pooh characters up-wrapped that he saw first and he shouted with excitement! Claire was still sleeping so we asked him to wait until she woke up. Although he was very good about waiting, it  sure didn’t take too long for him to sneak into their room and wake her up.

I have never seen Claire wake up so fast before…..we said ‘Merry Christmas’ and she was up and ready to get out of her crib. The kids really enjoyed all their new toys and we had as much fun as they did. Christmas really is something else once you have kids. It was great.

 

Tigger & Winnie-the-pooh

Loving their new doll carriers – thanks Mom!

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Our second day in Victoria was scheduled to be our main day to visit with friends. Jimmy was able to escape the previous evening for a beer or three, but those exploits are best left untold 😉

In the morning we went to Cook Street Village and met Kaisha, Brent and Amelia. We took a stroll to Dallas road and played on the beach for a while. It was a nice day outside and we had a great time. Amelia is a little older than Claire & Rhys and it was neat seeing them all check each other out and exchange kid-banter. Claire & Rhys loved throwing rocks into the water and picking up driftwood. Amelia found a really neat piece of algae and shared a piece with Rhys. It sort of looked like candy and when Rhys took a little nibble he quickly found out it wasn’t sweet at all!

We are already looking forward to our next visit with your lovely family 🙂

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Later in the day after Claire & Rhys napped we hosted some friends at our hotel suite. Lise and her daughter Amelia came over and we spent a little time out on our roof-top patio as the sun began to set.  Amelia was kind enough to let Claire & Rhys feed her Cheerios. They loved doting on her. Once we got a little chilly we went inside where it was warm by the fire. It was really nice to catch up and see how much Amelia has grown since our last visit! She is such a cutie.

Michelle, Dan, and Max came a little later and the bunch of us had a great time eating, chatting, sharing kid stories etc.  Max is a few months older than Claire & Rhys and it was nice seeing them all interact and play with some toys once some shyness wore off.

Thanks friends for coming to visit with us. Merry Christmas! and we look forward to seeing all of you in the New Year.