These Are a Few of Our Favourite Things (About Being Back in Canada)

1. The Sky

Isn't is incredible?! We haven't seen a real BLUE sky in ten months, so every time we look up, we are in awe.

2. Family

What can I say? To steal a quote from my favourite childhood song, there's nothing quite like "special times with special people." Yup. When my sister Kendrah reads this she will sing the next line "spending times, with ones I love." And at this point imagine a key change where my brother Josh jumps in with the echo "ones I loooooooooove."

Sadly Kendrah is travelling around Africa, and can't join us, but we're doing our best to keep the times special even though she is missed. Josh on the other hand made it home from Sudan via Zimbabwe for a happy reuniting.

While family is one of our favourite things about being home, the Chinese style of posing for pictures is definitely a favourite from China that we are putting to good use here.

My family (minus my sister Kendrah)

Scott and Josh hanging out on the Victoria harbour

3. Food. Mmmm

Now don't misunderstand me. We LOVED eating out in China. That's right, loved with capital letters. But it's been nice to eat all the food we haven't had much of for a year, like fresh berries, garden veggies, good cheeses, olives and breads. And seeing as we ate out about 90% of the time in Guangzhou, it's nice to be back in the kitchen with familiar ingredients around. Get back to us in a couple weeks to see if that novelty has worn off!

A fresh west coast crab summer supper

4. Updating Ourselves on the Latest Adventures of M&J

M&J are my mom and dad (Myron and Janice) and their life is never dull. I could try to explain, but that would require writing at least one book if not several. Most of you know what I am talking about. They recently moved to beautiful Port Alberni on Vancouver Island (where all these pictures were taken) and the current development in their life is the purchase of a sailboat. (See photo below). Do they know how to sail? No. No they don't. But that hasn't stopped them before. We are very excitied about this event and hope to mooch a little adventure off them if they'll indulge us in a trip or two.

Speaking of boats, adventure and M&J, check out what we saw while lounging around on the deck of their house which overlooks an inlet.

their house

We saw this sail by!

These ships are part of the tall ships festival held in Port Alberni every three years. The ships have sailed all over the world and include replicas of famous old boats (ie used by Christopher Columbus) as well as boats made for/used in films like Pirates of the Carribean. It was a pretty incredible sight which elicited more than a few "woweee's," especially when they started firing off their canons.


5. Relaxing

Port Alberi has a fantastic used book store, my parents have a hammock on their deck and there was always time for long leisurely walks through the woods or by the water. No further explanation required.




6. The Incredible Beauty of this Country

We are so lucky to be able to live in a place as beautiful as this. Don't take it for granted lucky ducks.