Category — Family

With the Canucks sadly out of the playoffs, I have jumped onto a very full Habs bandwagon, probably along with every other Canadian. Hopefully tonight wasn’t an indication of how the series is going to go. Jeff and I have been participating in the CBC Hockey Playoff Pool, and by some miracle I have been ranging between 40th and 100th place, which is crazy considering in past years I’ve spent the season tied for 20,000th. When picking for the remainder of the playoffs I picked all players from the Hawks and Habs…no guts no glory.

We were pretty bummed out about the Canucks losing. It’s one thing to lose and feel that you gave it your all, but I’m not sure they would agree that they did (good on Kesler to step up and admit that he should have played better). I guess there’s always next year. I was somewhat lucky enough to be in Vancouver this year during the playoffs. I went there for a work conference and was so tempted to get a ticket to game 3. I am so glad I didn’t since they lost badly, and I would have been in a work meeting at that time but instead came down with the flu. I missed a bunch of the conference and spent 2 days in bed alternating between shivering and sweating. A horrible feeling in a strange hotel room. I wish I could have teleported my body to my own bed. I haven’t been sick for a year and a half so I was due for a flu and I’m sure my body was rebeling after having to play an ultimate tournament at 3 months pregnant.

Upon arriving back to Kelowna, we were visited by my dad and Susan. They were really patient with me as I excused myself to nap all weekend as I fought off the flu. We spent Saturday at the farmers market, the guys did some work out in the yard and Susan made us a wonderful dinner that night. It was an Italian seafood stew called cioppino – delicious. Here’s a recipe to give you an idea of what is in it, but this isn’t the particular one Susan used. It’s great since it’s versatile and you can add all of your favorite seafood. Great served with fresh bread from the market.

For dessert Jeff and I made crepes. We (Jeff) used authentic copper french crepe pans that Susan gave us and it made a huge difference from last time when we used teflon.

A post about family wouldn’t be complete without a photo of our cute cat who was nice enough to allow us to use her table to have a nice dinner:

We have had our first two sets of visitors and it has been wonderful. It helped that we had full cooperation from Mother Nature and all of our guests left with some color.

Last weekend Larry and Brenda were here. We got out golfing at Michaelbrook Ranch course. Larry put on a clinic as he’s been playing daily for the last month or so. And he helped me fix my slice so that was useful. We fired up our new bbq on Saturday night for some steaks. We decided it was time to buy a new bbq when we noticed the grill was starting to fall apart on the old one. Not super surprising since we bought the last one for $100 from Canadian Tire and it lasted for 7 years! That is money well spent. On that same token, this new bbq should last 35 years.

The next day we had a quick visit in the morning (and Jeff’s tasty omlettes!) and they hit the road back to Kamloops. We went and checked out ultimate. Was just pick up goalti and it was pretty fun except for a few rules and strategies that Jeff and I found interesting (or annoying). It was the first time we had played outside this year and it was nice to be back on real grass. The wind wasn’t so nice though…

On Tuesday we played again at league. It was tricky to get us both on a team together (something about 2 superstars on one team not being acceptable…based on watching us at 2 indoor sessions and clearly these people were not paying attention to my million turnovers from not touching a disc for ages). Up until hours before league started Jeff and I were on separate teams but I convinced him to jump ship and we found a team together. It’s a team that has never played together before. Everyone is super friendly and keen to learn. And we won!

Jeff spent the week doing some amazing landscaping (update and pictures coming soon).

Then this weekend we had Jill and Mark come visit. It was a wonderful weekend (and nice to have friends again). They arrived early Friday morning so we had the whole day for wine tours (St. Hubertus and Summerhill), a brewery tour (Tree Brewing – highly recommended) and a nice dinner downtown at RauDZ. On Saturday we had breakfast with the Ellis family who was in town from Calgary for some much needed R&R. We all headed to the disc golf course for a round. The men stuck around for a few more rounds while us ladies went to a coffee shop. That was followed up by a wine tour and tapas at Quail’s Gate. We fired up the bbq on Saturday evening and watched the Canucks game. Too bad they lost since they were playing so amazing. Looks like they’ll just have to win it in 5 now. What a wonderful time of year right now when there just aren’t enough hours in the day to watch all the hockey that is on.

Today Mark and Jeff went disc golfing again but this time they went to marshall their own course in a local forest. Now to convince the city to fund baskets to make it an official course. Jill and I were on our way shopping but got distracted. We are trying to convince Jill and Mark to move here so we went looking at houses. Since it’s not really feasible, we went to look at houses that were as unlikely to own as them moving here. There was an open house so we stopped in and checked out a place for $1.5 milion. It was huge and amazing. Wine cellar, exercise room, tiered theatre, and gorgeous lake view. Unless we move in together it won’t really work…luckily it’s big enough for all of us!

We haven’t had much time lately for blogging since we are in the midst of painting our entire house. In the last few weeks we have painted everything. All we have left is the kitchen and the office. Then we will be ready to put it on the market and move…..

We have lived in Calgary for 7 years, and although it has been a good city for us, it is time for a change. Over the past year we’ve tossed around a few ideas: Europe, Australia, Ottawa, Victoria, Kelowna. In the end, we decided on the closest and least complicated city: Kelowna. We spent some time there this fall (as well as having both grown up near Kelowna) and loved it. The weather is so much nicer (pretty sure it’s not -30 degrees there right now) and gets nice and hot in the summer. The biggest selling features for Kelowna is that we both get to keep our jobs and work remotely, we can have a huge garden and grow more than just peas and zucchini and we can swim in fresh water every day! The plan is to move in the Spring (maybe just a coincidence but we should be there in time for the first tourney of the year Sunflicker

We will dearly miss our friends and family in Calgary but we will be back often for work and ultimate.

Willow is very confused by all of the painting but she was born in BC so she’s pretty excited to be moving back home. Here are a few pictures of her supervising. She has only managed to get into the paint once (that we know of)…and painted her tail red.

Supervising with taping

Supervising while Jeff pulls off a sketchy move

Helping paint the trim

Ever so helpful

Apart from painting, didn’t get up to much this weekend since it was way too cold to go anywhere. Went to my sister’s baby shower. She got so many cute pink things. She’s really getting big and the doctors have given her a window of January to February, so it’s hard to say when it will come since if it’s late it may be born in March. I’m hoping it comes early so I have more time to spend with the little girl before we move.

We were able to catch a bit of the Olympic trail’s speed skating at the Oval on Monday. We saw the men’s and ladies’ 1000m short track. It got me very excited for the Olympics. Go Canada!

We just got back from vacation in Beautiful BC.

We started off visiting my parents. First my mom and Doug in Genelle and then my dad and Susan in Thrums. The highlight of the visit it my mom’s house was her new little kitten Winnie. She is only 8 weeks old and 2.5 pounds of cuteness. Last time we went to visit my mom we left with a kitten (Willow) and were so tempted to do so again…. She’s at the cutest age where she’s so bouncy and playful. Here are some pics of the kitten and my mom’s dogs:

Dog Bilby

Dog Oscar

Slightly wet with dog slobber

Sleeping Winnie

Stick 'em up

Then, off to my dad’s place. My dad runs a football pool every year and since last weekend was the first NFL game of the season, we had a no pool, pool party. Most people from the pool came. I had to admit to them all that I dropped out this year since I’m too competitive to finish at the bottom of the pack year after year. My dad even pays my way every year but it’s a bad investment for everyone, so I quit. I still got to go to the party though and meet everyone, even the champ from last year Zeke. Very nice group of people to play croquet and eat burgers with.  Sadly forgot to take photos of the party but here are a few of the yard and garden potatoes:

Is that a Lincoln?

Duck Potatoes

Neighbour's shed in the fog

The morning after the party Susan took us to the 17th annual Garlic Festival in New Denver. It used to be a very small, intimate gathering where people bought garlic but has grown in popularity over the years. Now upwards of 8000 people attend and you can buy all sorts of things: honey, veggies and fruit, clothes, art, and garlic of course. Garlic ice cream, garlic honey…you name it! We went with $100 and spent it all and didn’t come home with even a clove of garlic. It’s located on beautiful Slocan Lake:

Susan, Cheryl and Lindsay in line

Slocan Lake

We managed to get out golfing at the Castlegar Golf Course. I haven’t played there in years, but it’s a great course (especially when you go with your parents and they pick up the tab – bonus!). I think I had the best round of my life but I attribute it to the fact that I used to be a member there. In highschool as a student I think I got a golf membership for $180. I’m pretty sure most people who have been golfing with would question that I was ever a member at a golf course since my game is somewhat inconsistent….but it was on that day. Even beat my dad (although I may have “accidentally” kicked my ball out of the rough a few times).

After a short but sweet visit with my family, we headed off to Kelowna for a mini-vacation. September is definitely the time to vacation in the Okanagan. No traffic or tourists but it’s still 30 degrees! Perfect weather for swimming, playing disc golf and going on wine tours. We went to Summerhill Pyramid, Mission Hill, Quail’s Gate, Dirty Laundry, Sumac Ridge, and Greatta Ranch. Our favorite was Quail’s Gate. Good wine and fantastic food. Here are a few pics from the wineries:

Bell Tower at Mission Hill

Summerhill Winery

grapes

Us at Quail's Gate

Jeff at the DG course

Condo we rented in Kelowna (Playa del Sol)

From Kelowna, off to Penticton for Jeff’s brother’s wedding. Jeff’s dad wrote a post about the lovely day and posted a whack of pictures here. It was a hectic day but a beautiful ceremony.

Flower Girl Sage

Ringbearer Conrad on the run

The Newlyweds

Us with the happy couple

Closest we got to having kids stand still for a photo together

Cool photo of Larry & Brenda in Rose Garden

Roses and rings

Jeff's grandparents in Rose Garden - 59 years married and going strong!

Sage & Auntie Lindsay

The beautiful bride

Sage

Kevin and Tamara were staying in Penticton to enjoy married life and have some calm after the storm, so we went to Princeton to have some quality time with the kids. Luckily Larry and Brenda came too, as the kids are quite a handful at 4 and 2. Sage borrowed my purse so I got to have a mini treasure hunt in her room finding all of the contents. Conrad is at the age where he’s a sponge and it’s pretty much monkey see monkey do. They are both so adorable:

Uncle Jeff with Conrad and Sage

Conrad with curls that any woman would be envious of!

Jeff Riding Tractor at Bear's Fruit Stand (Keromeas)

We were going to head to Vernon to play in UHF, but were glad that we went to Princeton instead and it was kind of out of the way to head back to Vernon. Plus, sleep was in short supply our night in Princeton as Jeff and I got cuddles many times throughout the night from Sage

Now back to reality after a fabulous trip.

Happy birthday to Willow as well as to Erika today!

Our nephew Conrad and our kitty Willow both turn one this week! Conrad turns one today. Happy birthday Conrad! After a year I’d say that Willow has a better grasp at walking but also talks back more. I’m pretty sure by next year Conrad will have caught up and excelled in both of these categories. I’d say they are equally competitive at being cute. Here are a few adorable pictures from the past year:

Conrad and mom

Willow and mom

Conrad and dad

Conrad playing

Willow and dad

Conrad's first introduction to video chatting

Willow enjoying winter

Conrad and Uncle Jeff

Tired Kitty

Lots of fun had at Sun Peaks this week for Larry’s retirement party. Stayed in a chalet on the hill that was literally ski-in ski-out. Just had to ski down to the Morrisey chair and then took a run back that took us to the doorstep of our place. I had been watching the weather in Kamloops for the last few months and it has been terrible for skiing. But, we totally lucked out and woke up to 16.8cm of fresh powder the first day. So awesome. Some of the best boarding ever. Met a guy from New Zealand who described it as skiing in custard. I’d say more like flour, but either way it was amazing. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to board again the next day since I was so sore (takes a bit of effort to pull yourself out of waste-deep powder all day), but it was too fun to not go. Day 2 was really chilly, but at least we traveled WestJet and received all of our luggage so we were dressed warm enough that it wasn’t so bad. The hot tub at the end of the day sure felt nice.

Thanks to Larry and Brenda’s great meal planning and Jeff’s good BBQing we ate like kings. Lots of fun had with Kevin, Tamara and the two little ones. I think I watched Finding Nemo with Sage 3 times, but luckily she was into that right instead of Barney (which she watched the entire way from Princeton apparently ). Here are a few pics from the week: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.sill/SunPeaks#

Sorry to everyone who may have tried to access our site over the last few days and received an Internal Service Error. Something random went on but Jeff’s a smarty and figured it out.

Since our last post we got back from a fantastic time in Quebec. We finally got our luggage on Saturday afternoon, so only went without it for 2 out of 4 days. Turns out the moron Airline company mentioned in our last post, sent our bags to the wrong hotel. So, they sat in the lobby of the Hilton for 24 hours. That would explain why every time I called (India) they told me our bags had already been delivered. I guess they were right in a way…

Spent the next two days wearing all of my clothes so I was sweltering but so happy to have my snowpants and mittens. Went to see ice sculptures, tobogganing, the parade and tried to see Bonhomme. That dude is a celebrity in Quebec. He arrived at the parade and was mauled. I tried to get close for a photo op and the mob of fans tossed me aside. I guess I should have valued my time with Bonhomme back in ‘95 when I got my photo taken with him. He must not have been such a celebrity then as I don’t look too impressed in the photo. Once we get a scanner I will post that picture as I don’t have a digital copy of it.

Played Ice Bowl this weekend. The weather was so nice for February and the tournament raised about $5000 for the Women’s Centre. Jeff played an awesome second round and held his own in the Advanced Division (could have had a shot at the title if there weren’t so many sandbaggers). Mark has improved a hundred-fold from last year and this tournament marked his 1-year disc golf anniversary. I look forward to next year. I came first out of 1.5 ladies in the Women’s division. Jana, before your feelings get hurt, I’ll explain your 0.5 does not relate to your skill level, but the fact that you only played one of two rounds. Jana and I both got nice prizes and I have the trophy to take home again to collect some dust until I turn it in next year. See you all out for Ice Bowl 2010 (there’s a trophy up for grabs!).

Now we are in Kamloops getting ready to head up to Sun Peaks for 4 days for Larry’s retirement party. We even got a sprinkle of snow last night so I’m pretty excited. I better run and have a nap and rest up for the chaos of our niece and nephew as Kevin’s family will be joining us for the festivities.

Very busy Christmas in Kamloops. We’ll have to go back to work to get some rest. Had our niece Sage and our nephew Conrad here. They kept us extremely busy for 4 days. They are both ADORABLE but a handful and very good birth control. We had a ton of fun at the pool and opening presents. The cute kids helped to distract me from missing my family at Christmas.

We had so much visiting and chaos on Christmas day (grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles) that we never got around to opening presents until 8:30pm.

Since the little ones and their parents left (managed to get a visit in with Kev and Tamara surprisingly), we have been playing with our new toys that we got for Christmas. Santa was very good to us bringing us a squash racket, new googles and a 42″ plasma TV!!!

We used the squash racket at some interesting courts in the back of a pub in Kamloops (Malone’s). We also went up to Sun Peaks today to try out the new goggles. When we got to Sun Peaks there was some snow, but not as much as in the past when we’ve gone. However, around 10:30 it started dumping snow and the conditions in the afternoon were amazingly perfect. Tons of powder!!!! Had a few good wipeouts but was an otherwise super fun day.

Well time for dinner and a movie. Ahhh holidays!

Hope you and your loved ones had a great Christmas. Happy New Year!

We were discussing how Christmas cards are so 2005, unless your Heather who makes a super awesome hand-made Christmas card every Christmas. So consider this an electronic Christmas card from Jeff & Lindsay.

Editor’s note: We really didn’t send Christmas cards in 2005….but you get the point.

Yes, we have a Christmas Theme and used the word “Christmas” seven times in the last three sentences. If you don’t like it, move along. Anyway, onto the year …

Editors note: Comments from Lindsay in Red and Jeff in Green.

January

We were flying back from Hawaii (from our honeymoon) on January 1st. Oh Hawaii…What a great way to ring in the New Year!

We went to Sun Peaks for our good Friend Dylan’s 30th birthday (what an old man). It was great times with phenomenal snowboarding at Sun Peaks per usual.

February

The highlight from February was one of the highlights of the entire year: I discovered and solved my migraine mystery. Turns out the thing that was causing my migraines all along was water (or a lack thereof). Not chinooks, hormones, or exercise. Who knew? (I did) If you are reading this and suffer from migraines try drinking a ton of water. I mean drink so much water every day that you pee constantly and feel like barfing from having drank so much liquid. (No seriously, I harped on this for a while)

My migraines caused me extreme pain and suffering for years. I was on every medication under the sun (vioxx, anti-depressants, anti-seizure medication, vitamin B, others…) to prevent my migraines. The medications caused terrible side effects from dizziness, to nausea to numbness in the extremities. Not to mention the potential long-term damage I may have done by taking so much Imitrex and Maxalt to take the migraines away upon onset. They are wonder drugs but not so wonderful.

Now I just drink lots of water everyday (more if I’m exercising) and I’ve had very few migraines. Of the ones I’ve had since February, I can attribute about 90% of them to dehydration.

Anyways, sorry to hi-jack this Christmas post…but this was definitely a highlight when reviewing 2008. I guess my wishbone wish came true!

Also to note was a nice visit from Larry and Brenda in February and my publication in Nature magazine.

March

I started a company! President Jeff just had such a great ring to it that it seemed like a good idea.

He was nice enough to make his loving wife the Vice President.

In March we also attended one of the funnest parties ever: Robert’s 50th. Hard to believe anyone we play ultimate with is even close to 50…maybe in age but not in spirit. I sure hope I’m still running around (or even walking around) when I’m 50 after playing the equivalent of “tackle football without equipment” (as our chiropractor calls it) for so long.

We also welcomed a new family member, our nephew Conrad, on March 11th.

April

as a side note here. Blog’s are awesome. Seriously. The year in review is so easy to do because you can just Michael J. Fox back into time and “remember” what we did. You would think I’d remember but you’d be wrong.

Some people who read this blog may be bored from the repetition. However, those who don’t care to waste their time on our babble can just read this and treat it like the Cole’s Notes of our life recently.

May

Major highlight #2 for Lindsay: Addition to our family. After a lovely visit to see Jeff’s brother and my parents in BC,

May saw our Cat-Dog Willow enter our life. She’s was so little and cute and won my heart over. For the record (ie: Wriggs) I still don’t like cats. I like Cat-Dog’s. We call Willow our Cat-Dog because she really like to be entertained, played with and has a full routine in the morning. Cat-Dog’s are awesome

We ended May with a trip down to Bozeman, MT to have a weekend-long shower. Where we learned the game psychiatrist! So fun!

June

Brief trip to Victoria for work, but other than that, June was really uneventful, except for our Garage Sale and the Toppers Heroes for Hospice Race!

July

We made it through our first entire year of marriage this month. So far so good. That sure flew by. Seems like just yesterday I was cleaning up from the wedding…er…so maybe I was. Still working out what to do with the dress….

Another significant event in July was Regionals.

August

After all the hard work to get to Nationals, we had a disappointing finish, but I guess if you can’t be top 8, you might as well win the Ninals!

I went on a trip to Toronto and had a wonderful visit with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and my mom (who came with me). Luckily all of my extended family (with the exception of my uncle in Australia) lives in Ontario so it’s like one-stop-shopping. I also visited almost every casino in Ontario…(when in Rome).

Went to Golden with some folks for a little disc golf at Infinity’s Sports Ranch.

Also had a second medical breakthrough – discovered I needed orthodics. Solved my ankle problems, back problems and sore foot problem. Guess it makes sense, the backbone is connected to the leg bone.

September

Great times had in September. Quick weekend trip to Fernie (thanks Terri!) for some mountain biking and relaxation. In case you haven’t heard, we also went to Japan. Amazing country, friendly people and a wonderful trip! Japan is seriously cool. Such a unique place and definitely recommended and high on list of places we’d like to visit (again). Highlights include Bullet Trains, Raw Chicken and Beautiful Gardens.

October

I started working part-time at my ‘real-job’ and part-time as President Jeff. We decided that it would be a smart move because I could get a lot more done and hopefully grow the company a bit. The one question I get lots is how’s the company doing. It’s doing fine and I love all the concern people have, however, this is also one of the reasons that I never told people about my sites for quite some time. You see to get indexed in the search engines takes time (makes sense that you just can’t throw something up and be highly ranked in google). So things I’m doing now is really for the future and so it can be slow going while things are growing.

The end of October also brought Halloween, one of our favorite celebrations of the year. This year Lindsay planned a 30 days till I’m 30 party. Man was it fun. Some of the highlights include meeting our neighbours in sock feet, Egg-up, 12 (or was it more?) people shot-gunning beer (including my Pa) and Anasol.

We went to Victoria for Pumpkin Pull. It was the first time I had been back in about 5 years. So much on the UVic Campus had changed but not much around the city felt different. It still really felt like home and was hard to leave.

November

Jeff turns 30! (I’m an old man now)

Oh and squash club is back in full force which is super fun!

December

We’ve been too busy writing this post to have anything exciting happen in December. Luckily we are snowed in right now and have time for blogging.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST IN THE NEW YEAR,

LOVE JEFF AND LINDSAY (AND WILLOW)