It's been the nicest spring weather I can remember in Vancouver. It was barely even a shock coming back from Thailand. It's certainly made Finny's track season more enjoyable for her....and for Les who has spent the majority of Spring weekends at parks around the lower mainland watching long jump....
...and hurdles, sprints, middle, long distance, shot put, discus and high jump. Finny will go into pretty much any event she's allowed, other than 100 meters.
School stuff is wrapping up too. Here are the kids after their big hip-hop performance...right before the band one.
The school Hamster Bob finally made it to our home too. We just happened to get a robotic vacuum named Bob on the very same day. I'm not sure which Bob the liked best.
Free days are tight in our family. I'm making up extra shifts at the fire hall so I can get away to Washington DC for the World Police and Fire Games next week, so I've been away a lot. We jumped on a free afternoon to host Lukey's (half) birthday party in the pool at Douglas park. It was a great spot for our 3 x 3 street hockey game with friends from his hockey team and school.
With all the sticks, rough concrete and 8 year old boys competing in a small space, I was happy to finish the game with nothing more serious than a little road rash. Well done boys.
Big changes this year. Molly had her graduation ceremony from Elementary school today. Next week Lukey is heading off to the Blodget ranch by himself while Finny will be at camp. The kids have reached a new stage of independence that would have felt almost unimaginable a few short years ago.
Back then, I would have pictured more down/free time at this stage...but if anything there is less. There are fewer moments sitting in the park watching a toddler stumble and fall learning to walk, fewer moments waiting, watching, observing....and many more moments doing, driving, playing.
It's hard to know exactly how the kids will look back at their childhoods, but I am pretty sure boredom won't be one of their lasting memories. Our family is on the go. Most of the time it feels great. Occasionally it's too much. Time flies by so fast. All we can do is try to catch our breathe every once in a while and enjoy the view.
Here's a view of our basketball season...or at least the final weekend of our term. We wrapped up all of our classes and leagues on the same weekend. We even hosted a party for over 250 guests and provided pizza, 3 x 3 games and shooting contests. It was fantastic. The weather was beautiful, the mood was great and it felt like the coming together of a community just like we had hoped.
Families brought appetizers and dessert. Their contributions made for a fantastic spread of treats.
Members of the winning team in the King of the Court shoot-out all got movie tickets to Dunbar theatre.
We bought 45 pizza's and had about 10 left over. Apparently there were a few too many tasty treats brought by families.
Our 3 x 3 demonstration featured 4 players who have represented their country's national team and about 55 years of professional basketball experience. We didn't look THAT good in the demonstration though as nobody wanted to shoot.
It was a challenge finishing everything up at the same. We had 11 awards in 7 different skills classes. We started leagues for the first time this spring and had 6 championship teams to present with our new trophy.
Playoffs were great. They brought out extra intensity in everybody...particularly in the grade 6/7 boys final, a 44 to 43 point upset of the top team decided on a last second shot.
Molly and Finny ended up playing each other in the consolation finals. The pictures speak for themselves as to a little extra intensity. Playoff + sibling rivalry = this ->>
After all the craziness, it was great to get away with Joey for a quick trip to Vegas.
We met up with Lukey Hrdlicka and Erwin Mach to discuss our camp in Austria next year. Lukey and Erwin were young players on Mattersburg 49ers when Joey and I won a championship back in 2002. Now they are running the club, and we're trying to arrange a Split Second camp in Mattersburg next June.
What a day! Too much going on to write about it...and the pictures describe it better than I could anyways. Lukey loved it so much that he's going back up on Tuesday to hang out with his buddy Torsten for another week.
I loved it too...but discovered I've got some weak, city slicker skin on my knees because I tore all of it off wrestling cattle to the ground in the branding process.
The choice between a 9 hour drive or an 80 minute flight on this wasn't hard.
A private jet, plus donuts makes it easy to get an 8 (and a 41) year old happy!
The plane was even cooler than it looks. The thrust is unbelievable. Art routinely flies to Hawaii and Europe in. However, I can't imagine a more beautiful spot in the world to fly over than the route we took. Straight up Howe Sound, over Whistler, Pemberton Icefield, looking at glacier after glacier and remote valleys that nobody ever sees. Seventy minutes later we are in the Chilcotin, on this amazing piece of property.
Lukey had never really ridden before. My experience was pretty limited too....especially considering I had a bike that was way over-revving and had crazy horse power. We rode 30 kilometres along the Puntzi lake ranch, in some of the most beautiful terrain. I loved how easy it was to get off the trail and ride in the grass lands on the rolling hills.
The plane cruises even higher than regular airliners...at 40,000 feet. Here's our view of the city coming home at the end of the day.
We squeezed a lot into the day. I even made it in time to hook up with high school friends for a drink downtown.
The next day morning, Molly, Les, Bryan and I headed down to a local studio to help Sam out with a project. I think the video turned out well...but Molly and my part was edited out because our height difference was a little too extreme for the shot. It was fun to be a part of, and you can see Les and Byan in the video below.
