What we've been up to

We've been doing a cooperative daycare/joyschool with some great families in our beloved student family housing neighborhood. We have a different host family for each day of the week and usually one other parent comes to help as we often have around 6 kids between 20 months and 3 years. We host on Tuesdays and I volunteer half of the Thursdays. Its kept me pretty busy (alongside three little part-time jobs: teen programming at the community centre, facilitating parent group and watching a neighboring toddler). Aurora loves all her little friends and has a great time going to others' houses two days a week.

In the above photo, our friend Nora and I took 5 kiddos to go visit the new chicks out at the UBC farm. We had a great time.

First picnic of the year! This was at the beginning of March, but since mid- February we've been having some really beautiful days sprinkled amidst the rain. We went with our dear friends Mike, Nora, and Bridger. Aurora's pose says it all.

Taken today! Wahoo, how very timely of me. Our little court had an Easter egg hunt in the mini forest behind our houses. We love our neighborhood and neighbors. It will be so sad to leave this family and child-friendly utopia.

And, as a bonus, since you're still reading our blog even though we didn't post for 2 months or so....

Here's our breaking news:

We are moving to Bellingham on May 1.

Its been a pretty excruciating decision to leave 2 months before we get booted from family housing, but Abram and I are both feeling pretty anxious to move forward with this decision that we've felt so guided to make (moving back to B-ham) and get settled BEFORE baby comes, rather than having a move hanging over our heads for when baby is a month or less old.

So, that's our news. Now you know. We're excited to return to lovely Bellingham but so, so sad to leave our wonderful friends and neighbors here.

Frisbee inventor dies aged 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, inventor of the Frisbee (Pluto-Platter) has passed away. I have enough of an attachment to this simple yet

marvelous device that felt I needed to take pause and and pay a small tribute of thanks. The breadth and depth of the market

is such that as consumers we are far removed form the invention someone somewhere has worked to organize inspiration

and materials into something worth having. Thanks Watler, for all of the good times had and many more to come enjoyed by your

simple instrument for joy and distraction.

Fun Times with the Ladies at the Aquarium

We took advantage of a rainy day to go to the Vancouver Aquarium with our wonderful friends and neighbors Lindsay and Shelby and Lisa and Zoe. I also had a little neighbor that I watch twice a week, Greta, but fortunately for me, she preferred riding in the stroller, so I only had one toddler to chase most of the time.

It was so fun to see the girls running around together and getting excited by the same things.

Lisa and Zoe

Aurora in awe of some of the BC Coast collection.

Shelby checking out the floor-to-ceiling tropical aquarium.

There's an Amazon area with bats (Aurora was psyched), giant fish, some piranha, and then a walk-through area with trees, birds, and turtles. There were two blue parrots that kept saying "Hello. Hi. Hi."

The girls were completely facinated. A few minutes later we found several turtles near the fence and Shelby walked right up to them and waved and said "Hi! Hi!"

Aquarium, Aquarium....

Climbing as usual. Aurora loves all the fake rocks and piers in the BC Coast section.

Aurora and Greta, in the discoteque-style kids area. They've got these incredible clear archways that are tanks with starfish and crabs, etc. If I was a kid winning the "make a wish" program, I would want a room designed and maintained by the aqaurium folks. In fact, I'd be psyched to have one as a grown up.

Zoe, Shelby and Aurora in front of one of the amazing jellyfish tanks. Several of the varieties they have at the Aquarium remind me of Japanese ink drawings, these included. I really need to get back to the Aquarium when Aurora is either asleep in the stroller or with someone else so I can just stop and gawk at all the amazing sights and read all the information they have posted about the animals-without having to dash off after a toddler.

December and Our First Bike Ride of the New Year

Well, here we are! Finally posting in the New Year, or as Stephen Colbert calls it, '010.

We had a great Christmas break. We were able to attend my cousin Seth's wedding reception and see many Castleton cousins. We spent time with our beloved friend Aparna, flew down and spent a week in St. George with my family, saw some good friends, and even managed to lure Abe's brother Dallin down to stay with us for a few days.

Aurora had a great time with "Namma," "Nampy/Nampa" and Auntie Erin, Uncle "Taut" and Uncle Dallin. Unfortunately, our camera didn't make it out much, but here's a few photos.

Abe and good friend Brian Poulsen made it out for some climbing, as did Dallin. I only made it out on Christmas Eve unfortunately.

It's really convenient that Abe and BP have in-laws in the St. George area, right by year-round climbing.... :)

Aurora definitely learned what presents are! She had a great time and loves her new toys, crayons and beloved hair clips.

First real bike ride of the year! We biked around the Stanley Park seawall with our friends McKay, Julianne and Banyon. It was the first bluebird day in a while, so of course, the seawall was in high use.

Looking due west (our house and UBC are somewhere on that distant dark area on the far left).

It was pretty fantastic to be able to enjoy such a sunny day in January, but Julianne and I were pretty frozen afterwards!

The Dream-Climbing Ice in Squamish

The pain of writing final papers really sets in when the winter rain gives way to pockets of cool crisp sunshine. After what was literally weeks of daily wet weather, the clouds cleared and cold arctic air poured across lower main land BC, just in time for finals. For almost 2 weeks temperatures rarely rose above freezing. With papers completed I was anxious for some adventure.

Ice climbing in the North West is traditionally inconsistent, thin, and often a dripping wet affair; as we were picking our route Kris, a local of 11 years, told me he had never climbed ice in Squamish. However, as the cold persisted I was sure that ice was forming.

We decided on a moderate WI 3-4 gully, A Scottish Tale, that if fully formed promised almost 1000' of climbing. However, after our 7am dawn start, and 1hr+ swim through the forest under brush, we arrived at the route to find another party moving up the first pitch. Rather than catch the brunt of the ice that would certainly be funneled down onto us, we explored some of the other smears we has seen out on the granite face to the right of our proposed route

.

We discovered a beautiful line, The Dream, that looked "do-able" and just barely protectable. Kris led the first pitch on thin ice. Up delicate smears and through overhanging chandeliered corners, it was a brilliant lead- especially impressive Given Kris had not climbed ice in 6 years.

The second pitch was more straight forward ice climbing, steep and easily protectable, however I found it was quite he head game. My tools and crampons felt more like awkward metal than the natural extensions of my body that they once were. Despite the mental obstacles the climbing was beautiful, with a steep pillar giving way to narrow runnels of ice in granite corners.

Kris finished the climb with another incredible lead, a full 60 meter rope stretcher through a mixture of step curtains, thin runnels, and challenging corners. I was happy to follow and feeling more comfortable as we moved upwards and acclimated with the icy terrain. As we topped out it was clear we had gotten more than we had planned on for the day, but we had certainly gone ice climbing.

We rapped the route and packed as dusk fell; it would be another 2 hours before we reached the car. We arrived after crashing through thick undergrowth, falling over rock and logs hidden in the undergrowth and darkness, but we found adventure, challenge, and a great day in the hills.

November

Well, this is my third attempt at putting up pictures tonight. I had planned a real blogging bonanza for you--three posts each with their maximum 4 photos. Alas, the first two were demolished by "Error # 400" and then a foolish mistake on my part (not that i make those very often).

So, November had its ups and downs. The major down being the rain, overcast skies, and ever-shortening days. It got so bad I was wondering if I was suffering from prenatal depression, and actually I'm not joking. However, we have since experienced almost 2 weeks of sunshine and I have felt 100 % better, so it appears that I do not have the constitution for rainy, wet winters despite my Irish heritage. What I do thirst for is SNOW. You could have seen some nice photos of Aurora in her new snow gear, but .... instead we will focus on what is often seen as a monumental moment.

Graduation

I have to admit that I strongly considered not putting the photos up because it feels rather self-congratulatory, but then I thought about how one of the primary purposes of having a blog is to share events large and small with loved ones who often live far away, it might seem odd to not include anything about it.

So, Aparna Rae (our dear friend and previous roomie) and I decided that we would "walk" at graduation despite the fact that we'd both finished several months ago. I admit that dressing up in our ridiculously expensive gowns did somehow make it feel more official than simply working more and not having any more papers due.

I really have felt like a new person since graduating--not feeling like there was always something I should be reading or writing hanging over me. I've had more mental energy for enjoying freindships and family and the rest of life. However, I do find that I am also a bit less productive with my time now, particularly in the evenings. I could also blame that on pregnancy. Yes, let's do that, shall we?

It was one of the coldest, wettest days possible. I wanted a goretex gown, but they didn't have any.

The following day was the first sunny day in two weeks. We celebrated by going to the beach.

It was pretty cold and not quite as pristine as summertime, but the coast is pretty unbeatable on a sunny day.

So, what I don't have photos of is our Thanksgiving dinner, which we had on Friday, the 27. It was lovely--great friends and food. It was such fun to have Aparna back in town, with her brother visiting and more opportunities to hang out with Stephen and the rest of her entourage.

So, yes, it's halfway through December now and its been mostly sunny and quite chilly. We've actually had little bits of snow the last few days, enough even to somewhat cover the ground today. I love it. So does Aurora, who calls snow "NooOoo!" Sometimes I wonder what she's loudly protesting until I see that she's looking admiringly out the window.

We are enjoying the Christmas season and looking forward to seeing lots of Castletons and McCunes and some Hawleys in the next few weeks. We are wishing we could see the rest of you too!

I hope you are each enjoying sweet times with family and friends in this wonderful time of year that softens our hearts and reminds us to be more loving and generous, a little more like the Savior each day.

Much love!

Shannon