Maiden Voyage

This past weekend we took our maiden voyage in our trailer. Little background on why we got the trailer...I have wanted one for the past couple of years as I figured it was a good way to get the kids outside more and was good for family bonding. We rented one last September for our Oregon trip to see how much we liked it (we liked it) and I was able to bug Chelsey enough that she caved in December when I found a 2014 for super cheap when the dealership was blowing them out to make room for the 2015's; not so oddly enough the 2015 looks exactly the same as the 2014, same paint and everything...scammers!

Since this was our first trip in the Minecraft Killer we chose somewhere easy to camp and just cruised down to the KOA in Lynden. Since Chelsey had to work Saturday afternoon this also allowed me to take the kids down on Friday and Chelsey came down Saturday after work. When we arrived Cohen met a little boy to play with within minutes and I didn't see him for the rest of the night - the Minecraft Killer was working already! The kids played in the park and played basketball and I set up the trailer; it was even quicker than I thought. We spent the rest of the day playing and after dinner and more play time we watched a movie before bed. Saturday was a pretty busy day as we fished in a fishless pond, went geocaching and play lots. Seemed the kids worked me tired as we went into the trailer for a little quiet time at 3:00, I laid down on the bed briefly and woke up sometime later to a pillow full of drool and the kids were already outside playing. Anyways, the rest of the trip was more of the same, lots of fun and very little screen time, so I will bore you no more and post the pictures...

Great Wolfe Lodge Trip - February 2015

For the kids birthday this year we decided to take them to Great Wolf Lodge; this is part of our plan to give the kids experiences as opposed to stuff - last year we went to Manning Park for the day. So while you all probably just want to see some pictures of the kids having fun I will first share a couple of my observations from the trip:

My First Distressed Furniture Project

So Chelsey has wanted the distressed furniture look for our dining room set for awhile. When I saw the cost to purchase one I almost crapped myself and said I can do it myself; well the project has started. Below are a few pictures of my progress to date. I still have another 6 chairs to finish, re-stain the top of the table a darker shade and put a stress look on the bottom of the table...

Found Some Gold

With "the Wife" in Vancouver for the day and night the kids and I, and cousin Madison, took Cohen's metal detector out again for some bush whacking fun. We headed up the Chilliwack River valley to Slesse Creek and to our disappointment there were some dingos shooting guns where we wanted to go so we hit up a different location. For this trip we also took the gold pan as I remembered reading something about how Slesse Creek branches off of some creeks/rivers that flow down Mount Baker so with my limited knowledge of how gold is formed and knowing that Mount Baker is a dormant volcano I figured there should be some flecks of gold in there. So we spent some time bush whacking, gold panning and playing with the metal detector. Pictures below...

Part 3 of Our Oregon Trip - 2 months late!

How can you tell I have two weeks off work? Because I have time to do random blog posts. The pictures below are from our final few days of our camping trip to Oregon in September - never posted them then so I figured I would post them now. These pictures include our visit to the house where The Goonies was filmed, a visit to the Astoria tower and more beach visits. If you ever have any questions about the founding of Astoria I can help you out as I read the book regarding the founders; it was more like a adventure book then a history book and it was damn good - you can find it here.

Campbell River Thanksgiving 2014

Better late than never pictures. Here are some random shots from our Campbell River trip during Thanksgiving 2014. This trip included a tour of Uncle Nick's coal mine so Cohen can play real life Minecraft as well as some cruising along the beach so Kyah can relive some Oregon memories by getting wet in a freezing cold ocean!

Random Christmas 2014 Pictures

Just some random shots of Christmas 2014 and testing out Cohen's new metal detector at Cultus Lake:

2014 North Oregon Coast Trip - Part 2

Over the past couple of days we have continued to explore the area and for the most part have a good time. On Tuesday we went back to Seaside and strolled along the main drag and checked out the stores. The kids were pretty stoked to get some massive jaw breakers, go on a carousel ride and spend some time in the arcade called Funland. Oddly enough everyones favorite game was Deal or No Deal and I think the kids liked it so much as it provided the most amount of tickets which led to the candy prizes! Yesterday we strolled through downtown Astoria and went to the Maritime Museum which is awesome. Did you know that the mouth of Columbia is so dangerous that they send all the Coast Guard guys here for the extreme training, pretty cool eh. After hearing about how rough it is there my goal was so try and see what it was like and we were able to find a trail at Fort Stevens State Park that took us to the mouth, even on a calm day the waves were going everywhere - I would love to see this place in the winter! Anyways, pictures below...

2014 North Oregon Coast Trip - Part 1

I will try and keep the "words" to a minimum with descriptions at the photos where needed and let the pictures do the talking; any artsy pictures were taken by Chelsey! For those who don't know we took a week off and booked the time at a KOA in Warrenton Oregon; this is just outside Astoria, Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River.

This was my first time pulling a trailer of any size so I had to learn pretty quick what to do as we rented a 32 foot travel trailer for this trip (based on the fun level we will be buying one next spring!). As much as I tried to convince Chelsey that I needed a diesel for these hauls ( a Dodge Ram 3500 with the Cummins Turbo Diesel to be exact) I will be the first to admit my truck did fine.

We got here Saturday night and have taken a couple excursions. To sum everything up this trip is awesome, trailers are awesome, and this KOA rocks!

Random Pictures

Today we ventured back from Victoria, BC after visiting Mum and Dad and picking up Mum to bring her back to Chilliwack for a week. In case you guys care here are a couple of photos from our non-eventful ride back on the ferry.

Whales on The Ferry

Yesterday while the kids and I were coming over to Victoria to see Mum and Dad we were lucky enough to see some whales!

Tale of two Winds

One day the wind is blowing so the air is clear two days later not so much. Check out the difference in the color of the sky thanks to the air pollution...

2013 Valley Gran Fondo - The Phamlee Edition!

This year I once again took part in the Valley Gran Fondo but was joined, kind of, by Chelsey. While I did the 162km route Chelsey and her friend gave the 50km route a try; Chelsey has only had her bike for a week and her friend for a month so it was pretty cool for them to give it a go - it helped that Chelsey won a free entry through work!

By all accounts Chelsey had a good ride, they told me about the enjoyment of the ride, hanging around the rest stop and checking things out - they clearly were not concerned about beating a specific time! On the other hand, I was trying to beat my time from last year which I succeeded at doing! Last year I completed the 162km route in 5hr 31 min and a few seconds and this year I did it in 5hr 16min and a few seconds so I whipped 15 minutes of my previous time which I was pretty stocked about.

But much like last year I hit a pretty big wall and struggled at the end. Last year I lost my mojo with 60km to go and this year I lost my mojo at 120km with 42km to go. I felt like I was going to puke and was cursing my bike telling myself I would never do it again. But, once I finished and rested for a bit the feeling of completing it and beating my time of last year helps erase the bad memories on course.

Also, last year I beat the family to the finish line but this year everyone was there and it was pretty cool to see the kids there when I crossed!

For those of you who like to look at data, Dad I am looking at you, I have embedded my Garmin data above the pictures below. If you are wondering about the time difference, the Garmin data does not include my stops for water where as the "official" Gran Fondo time is from when I cross the start line to when I cross the finish line aka "chip time"

Up next I have planned to do Ryder Hesjedals Tour de Victoria in September but will see how much I ride in the next month and see how my head is before I officially sign up for that, stay tuned...But for now, I have posted some pictures of the family from Sundays ride below. Enjoy...

Third Annual Tuc-el-nuit lake Trip

This week is our families third annual trip to Tuc-El-Nuit Lake. Just to provide you all with a re-cap, we stay at The Lakeside Resort in Oliver and it is the same place Chelsey went to as a kid and the same place her Mum went as a kid, now we are taking  our kids and they LOVE IT...so do Chelsey and I!

Historically I would do a blog post everyday but I have not done that this year as we spend most of the time hanging out at the lake and there is only so much I can write about that. When we first started coming here we would take day trips and stuff but we found that the kids, and us, had so much fun at the lake we didnt really need to go anywhere else; I didnt even take my golf clubs this year as I dont want to miss an afternoon at the lake.

On the Sunday morning Kyah and I went to watch the lead groups of riders in the Axel Merckx Gran Fondo ride by, then we hung out at the lake and went to Tickelberries for ice cream after dinner. Monday we hung out at the lake and today we hung out at the lake. Today though was the sand castle competition and the kids and I made an awesome canoe. Below are some pictures of the past couple of days and I am sure Chelsey will have more on her Facebook. I will try and take some more pictures over the next couple of days but for now this is all you get! Enjoy...

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.