Ride to Conquer Cancer 2013- Check!

First of all  thanks to everyone who donated to my fundraising efforts as without you I would not have been able to participate in this awesome event. Also, big thank you to Chelsey for driving all the way down to Seattle to pick me up and I even made you stay in an awesome hotel, thanks for letting me ride my bike so much and thanks for "letting me" get all the equipment and gadgets I "needed" to ensure a safe journey.

While I did the 160km Valley Gran Fondo last year I have never ridden back to back 120km days so I was not sure what to expect on that front. I must say the length was no issue as about 25 members of our team rode together both days and shared the workload, you could almost say it was easy. I was lucky enough to be a part of the Wedgewood Cycling Team for this event and their organization and experience made the riding very enjoyable and most of all safe for the team and everyone around them, it was awesome.

The event organizers did a great job of feeding the 2600 participants and ensuring we had clean showers and bathrooms. As we were the first team over the finish line both days, and amongst the first people to cross, the bathrooms and everything else were in even better condition for us; a case of where speed does pay! There was more than enough food and fluids to keep everyone happy and for the most part the food was damn tasty. The event raised $10.4 million (i think that was the total) for the BC Cancer Foundation and the Wedgewood Team powered by Odlum Brown and Friends raised over $450,000 of that total.

To cap the weekend off Chelsey and I spent the night at Willows Lodge and I must say it was rather nice and relaxing. We enjoyed a brewery tour at the Red Hook Brewery and then sat down for our team wrap up dinner. As the Wedgewood Team is already committed to the event for 2014 Chelsey and I are contemplating joining them also, more so after hearing some of the cancer related stories and the support provided by the BC Cancer Foundation. In the perfect world I would be in good enough shape to do the challenge route which is 160km both days and at a faster pace, fingers crossed!

I have posted a few random pictures of the starting lines and the campground below but I did not take many pictures so that is the best I can do. Also, for you tech geeks out there I have also include some of the info on the ride and you can click in to get more details, I did not wear my heart rate monitor so you will not get any of that data.

RTCC Update and First Cypress Climb

First riders to make it up, I am the fat stupid looking one on the left and was the last of this bunch to make it up

Thanks to everybody who came out to my fundraiser on Friday as well as all those who have donated; you know who you are. Your support is very much appreciated. Big thanks to my darling wife Chelsey as it was mainly her friend who came to the fundraiser as I prefer not to have the structure and costs associated with friends so I don't have any! With the help of that pub fundraiser which brought in over $200 (thanks again everyone), a well supported raffle at work and a few late donations I should be around $2800 raised for the Ride to Conquer Cancer. The team I am on, which is Team Wedgewood Hotel powered by Odlum Brown and Friends is nearing in on $400,000 raised this year which is mind boggling to this little Chilliwack person but I guess the pockets are bigger in Vancouver!

Anyways, the other cool part is this past Sunday our training ride took us up Cypress Mountain. Since I started road riding last year I have always wanted to grind my way up Cypress and Seymour so I was stoked at the opportunity. I just stuck in my easiest gear and spun my way up, it was easier than I thought so after a couple more recon rides I can try and put in a better time which should be fun; hopefully by then my chest will finally be clear! Other than thanks again to all my donors and fundraiser attendees that is all I have to say.

May Long Weekend 2013 Camping Night

With not much planned for last night Chelsey and I decided we would take the kids camping; I also figured some fresh air would be good for my chest. We settled on Hope Valley Campground & RV Park as Chelsey had heard from someone at work that it is a good spot for families and I would have to say she was right. We got there around lunch time and the kids rode their bikes while we set up the tent. It was a super good campground for the kids to ride their bikes as it was big enough to explore but small enough not to get lost. One of Chelsey's friends from work came up for a couple of hours and when they arrived everyone went down to the pool and the kids went for a swim. It had a pretty Old Skool park with some dodgy spinny things that I am pretty sure are banned from any school park now but it was pretty cool watching the kids rip it up on those things.

April Victoria Trip

Chelsey was flicking through the blog the other night and gave me shit because I never update it anymore; I promised her I would make more of an effort so here we go...

A couple of weeks ago Chelsey was super busy with volunteer stuff and the kids had a Pro-D day so I decided to take the Friday off work also and take the kiddies to Victoria to visit Nana and Papa Woods. We actually left the Thursday night so we could have more time on Friday to do stuff.

While we did some geocaching over there one of the highlights included our trip to the bug zoo. It was pretty cool in there even though I hate spiders. They had a tarantula bigger than my head and that thing was bloody disgusting. They had other cool bugs there and a neat ant farm that was the biggest in Canada, or something like that. Cohen was totally into it and was stoked to see all the bugs, Kyah had fun but was not as stoked as Cohen.

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge

Today I decided to go check out the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge with the kids and our Rotary Exchange student. The day got off to a late start because we didn't get back from Cohen's hockey till almost 9:00 last night so the kids slept in till 9:30. I don't think they have ever done that but I enjoyed every last minute of my sleep in. The funny thing is Chelsey was in Campbell River with no kids and I think I am the one who got more sleep!

It was a pretty fun day as the kids really enjoyed the hike around the park as well as checking out the bridge.  Kyah has a major rock fetish and they spent a good twenty minutes picking up rocks from a gravel road. We even found a geocache which was fun as we have not been geocaching for a while as we "misplaced" the GPS for a couple of months. Once we were done walking we checked out the ecology center they have in the park and it is cool to see the kids show more interest in that stuff as they get older. All in it was a pretty nice day outside even though the weather was hit and miss. A few pictures below, enjoy...

Family Day Woods Style

Today for the first official Family Day holiday in BC we asked the kids if they wanted to go have a camp fire and roast marshmallows and have hot dogs and obviously they were all over it. I started the morning off by puttering around and Chelsey did some yummy baking with the kids.

When it came time to leave I was thinking of going to either Jones Lake or Foley Lake and chose Foley Lake as I figured there would be too much snow up at Jones Lake. With that in mind I was pretty surprised with the amount of snow that was at Foley Lake; the good part was all that snow covered the garbage that is always scattered around our back roads. We could not do any geocaching though as, obviously, the snow covered everything so it wasn't even worth looking.

Anyways we all had lots of fun, even the exchange student, and ate tons of crappy food. The kids thought it was pretty cool to throw the marshmallows in the fire to watch them expand. We even got to pull some redneck kids out of  the snow with our truck as theirs was stuck, proving the superiority of Dodge Rams.

Pictures below, enjoy...

Family Fun at the Farm

Last Saturday morning a dude from my Rotary Club invited the kids and our Rotary Exchange student to his farm to see some of the baby sheep! Obviously I jumped on the opportunity as I figured the kids would love to see the farm animals. I must say I was surprised just how cute the lambs were. Cohen was a keener and was not scared to hold the baby sheeps at all and when we were looking at the horses Cohen had no problems letting them eat from his hands. Kyah was a little shy and had as much interest in collecting rocks from the driveway as she did the farm animals. The kids were pretty excited and were saying how cool it was when we left. As per usual I have more photos than words which you can see below, the kids took most of the pictures so I am sure you will enjoy them...

Manning Park Tubing

Today we took the kids snow tubing at Manning Park and Grandpa Darcy and Chiara, our Rotary Exchange Student from Italy, came along also. Other than plain old fun we had other reasons for taking the kids tubing and that was to get them to want to ski. They keep saying it looks too scary so they don't want to try but I really want them to learn so I can start snowboarding again and we can spend more time in the mountains during the winter. The snowshoeing was fun but we needed something that would be more entertaining to the kids and I think tubing did the job pretty well.

When we first go there they were a little hesitant and did not want to go down alone but after one slide down they were asking to go faster and they kept wanting to go faster the whole day. Kyah even decided that she wants to try skiing so I would say the day was a success on that front as if she does it I am sure Cohen will. Personally, I was a little bummed as I was hoping the tube runs were going to be a bit longer and go way faster but when they are family focused I guess you can't have them go too fast. All in all it was a pretty solid day and no body got hurt; enjoy the few pictures we took below!

Family Snowshoeing at Manning Park

Today we decided to take the kids snowshoeing at Manning Park. It was the first time we have taken the kids out so we thought Manning Park was a good spot because we knew it was pretty flat around Lighting Lake; so that is the route we took. The kids whined a touch but I think that is par for the course, they did say  they had lots of fun and I am sure the more we go the less they will whine. As mentioned above we did the Lighting Lake loop and it was great. The snow was awesome, the weather was perfect - cloudy with a few flurries falling and minus 5 degrees. The kids were pretty stoked just to play around in the snow and every tree we walked by the smashed the snow of the branch, and there were A LOT of trees. We stopped halfway through the walk for a break and some hot chocolate. There were a bunch of Whiskey Jacks around where we stopped, I think that is the type of bird they are, and the kids were laughing their butts off when they ate from our hands. One of the birds landed on a tree above Cohen and a bunch of snow fell down on him, pretty funny stuff. After our break we continued on and finished off with sandwiches on the back of the truck and the kids got to spend more time playing in the snow. We are looking forward to going again but for now enjoy the pictures below...

Christmas Fair With the Kids

Today after running some errands the kids and I decided to brave the rain/snow/sleet and see what was happening at the Christmas Fair in downtown Chilliwack. Considering how bad the weather was there were still quite a few people down there. I didn't let the kids go on any rides because it was too wet but we did get to see Santa, ride the Rotary Train, see the gingerbread house display and do some crafts. Kyah was a bit hesitant with Santa again but she did tell him she would like an Xbox for Christmas and Cohen asked for Lego Ninjago; I guess we will have to see what the fat dude in a red suit brings them.

Once we were cold enough we scooted home and the kids got a chance to play in the first real snowfall of the season, hopefully it is the first of many and the rest are much bigger! Enjoy the pictures...

Cohen and Devil Childs Christmas Play

Cohen and Kyah (Devil Child) had their Christmas play for kindergarten tonight. All the kindergarten classes were the warm up to the big show. As Kyah was in fine form this evening we only watched the two minutes they were in, not that you would want to see random kids in a play anyways. Also, if you look closely at Kyah you will notice a certain 32 year old brunette took her to a certain store in a certain mall and got two certain holes in two certain parts of her body. A certain 34 year old male brunette was dead set against a certain 5 year old getting these certain holes until at least 12 years old but I guess we now know for certain who wears the pants in our family...and it is not me or Chelsey!

Anyways, Christmas play is in the video below and I hope you all enjoy it!

More Props to my Marathon Running Pops

This is a post I have been meaning to do for a month or so. Anyways after completing his first half marathon earlier this year my Dad finished his first marathon in October at the Royal Victoria Marathon at the ripe young age of 64. He finished in a time of 4 hours and 45 minutes and 42 seconds. Not too shabby if you ask a run hater like me! To top it off this past weekend he did the Bear Mountain 10k which is said to be the toughest 10k in Canada due to the hills; he came fourth in his age group! Below are some pics of that man himself, first two from the Victoria Marathon last two for the Bear Mountain 10k. Way to go Dad :)

Kyah & Chelsey's Campout

I thought I would post this on Chelsey's behalf as I figured she would not do it. As many of you know Chelsey and her friend Nadine are "troop leaders" for Promontory Sparkes; i know nothing of it so my terminology might be off. Anyways, this past weekend they had some "training" and such at one of the Girl Guide campsites on Sumas Mountain. When Chelsey got home she told me how much fun they had and all these cool camp cooking things, etc that they learned. She said she was super excited to go camping...as long as she has the right clothes and equipment. Obviously, I was absolutely stoked to hear this and am already looking forward to going camping with my newly reformed wife. She even asked if I wanted to go for a hike yesterday in the rain with the kids! Chelsey has always liked getting outside and stuff but this is a step more so I am stoked! We didn't go for the hike as this past weekend I was sicker than the smell of a dying cats piss. Anyways, here are some of the pictures of their weekend; they are limited as I did not want to randomly post pictures of other peoples kids. Enjoy...

A Few Shots of our New Truck

Our San Diego Trip 2012

After spending 4 nights at Disneyland we hopped about an Amtrak and headed down the coast to San Diego. We stayed at a cool hotel that was a two block walk from Mission Beach and it was awesome. Having not been able to swim in the warm ocean since I was a kid I was super stoked to get there and get bowled over by the waves. It seems Cohen is just like his Dad as he loved playing in the waves and all he wanted to do was swim in the ocean; the bad part was Kyah preferred swimming in the pool.

While we were in San Diego we went to Seaworld and I must say Seaworld was a huge disappointment after visiting Disneyland; next time we will go to the zoo or spend an extra day at the beach! We also rented cruiser bikes and rode down the boardwalk and we were happy to find out that it looked like we were staying close to the funnest beach. The kids really enjoyed the bike riding, especially Kyah who is a bike riding fiend.