Year End Geocaching

It was a super nice day today so the kids and I decided to finish the year with some fresh air. Cohen has been asking for awhile to go "treasure hunting" and golfing again but the driving range in Chilliwack went belly up which is why we have not been out in while. Knowing there was a driving range in Abbotsford with heated stalls we looked for an area with geocaches out there to hit up also. We decided on Aldergrove Lake Regional Park as it has about 25 geocaches in a "small" area. I figured it would be a good spot as it would allow us to get a bunch of caches in a short period of time.

The park was awesome as the trails were all gravel and not too hilly so the kids were able to walk around for about an hour and a half with out whining. We found 5 geocaches today which brings our total for the year to 109. We also checked out a Glacial Erratic which is a piece of rock carried by glacial ice from its original rock outcrop; to us it is just a big rock but it is cool to see remnants of the ice age.

Anyways pictures of our day and a few from Christmas are below. Enjoy...

The Year in Pictures - 2011

With the natural disasters and Arab Uprising 2011 was by far a crazy year. Once again the Boston Globe has done an unreal job of capturing it all in pictures while making us thankful for what we have. Links to parts one, two and three below and like everything on my blog they are a must see:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Kids & Krafts...Plus some Hockey

Below are a few pictures of the activities of the past few days. Last Sunday once Chelsey and Kyah were all better they decided to go to Langley and do some shopping. With the rare opportunity of being lady free Cohen and I decided to take in an Abbotsford Heat hockey game. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of the hockey as well as at how nice the rink was. Based on what I saw I am surprised at the low attendance they get; I guess the fact that the Heat are Calgary's farm  team does have a huge impact. The game we saw was against Montreal's farm team so it was a better attendance than usual. Also, to our surprise it was the teddy bear toss for charity game which was fun for Cohen to see. While it was impressive it was no where near as cool as the Vancouver Giants teddy bear toss which you can check out here and I highly recommend it. You can see some pictures of our Heat game below.

Yesterday Cohen had to go to the asthma clinic in Abbotsford and for whatever reason the doctor gave both the kids this wicked toy pack. They had a bunch of crafty things in them and the Melissa and Doug stuff. Anyways, the kids wanted to do the "model" airplane that was in Cohen's pack tonight. So I pulled it out and let the kids have at it. I let them do all the painting and all I did was glue it together and throw on some stickers; pictures of that also below. Enjoy...

Chillin' at the Chilliwack Winter Fair

Today after skating the kids and I went to check out the Chilliwack Winter fair to see what it was all about. They had a couple food stands, some rides, games and of course the Rotary Train. We spent almost two hours there and the kids had a great time. The problem I have with these fair is that even a mild spinny ride makes me nauseous for a couple of hours. We went on some strawberry ride where you can make it spin faster by turning a wheel inside; not realizing how fast you can make it spin I gave it a shot, lets just say the kids enjoyed it but I am still paying for it.

Later on this evening I decided to take the kids to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. Having never been here before I was pretty excited to check it out. I must say the burger is probably one of the best I have ever had and the fries were unreal; the place is bloody awesome. I think the biggest trick is ordering the right portion size for your family as a reg fries was way more than enough for the kids and I. Anyways, as soon as we sat down Kyah started whining about being tired and wanting to go home. Having explained the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf to her numerous times for faking and whining I once again did not believe her; I just figured she was bored. She barely ate anything and when it was time to go Cohen had a "burger incident"and got really sad. Trying to get them out of the busy restaurant because everybody was looking at me I just got up with Kyah hoping Cohen would follow me out. Much to my surprise he just sat there crying, so while I was trying to get Kyah organized so I could go back in and pick up Cohen I heard the infamous "Blagh" and turned around just in time to see Kyah blow her cookies just outside the front door of the burger joint with everybody watching. So I had one kid bawling his eyes out and the other one puking; it was great. Pictures of the fair, not puke, below...

Sleepy Kyah Part Duece

Last night Kyah blew some chunks so it was somewhat expected that she would be tired tonight. We sat down and started eating dinner and I noticed her eyes getting heavy. Then she started whining and coming up with every excuse under the sun not to eat her dinner. Based on these action I knew she was close to falling asleep so I picked her up and dumped her in the shower; if Kyah naps for even 5 minutes she is even more of a nightmare to get to sleep so I do everything I can to keep her awake until 7:00 when she is sleepy. Anyways, when she was in the shower I noticed she was doing the "head nod" and much to my surprise she had fallen asleep in the damn shower. I think we can officially say Kyah will fall asleep anywhere. Below are some of the pictures of her dozing in the shower; I can honestly say she is sleeping and not sitting there with her eyes closed...

Carols, Cops & Cold Water

Another busy weekend around the Chilliwack location of the Woods Family. Much of yesterday's events were not too photogenic so this post is all about today.

Cohen and Kyah had their school Christmas play today and, unlike last year, they did not run off crying; they both did really well. There was lots of singing and "looking around," and they kids were great. They even had Santa come visit them after their play which was really exciting for them. I forgot to charge the camcorder so we only have still pictures but Chelsey did get some video footage on her phone. I will figure out how to transfer that on to the computer so I can upload it to the blog.

After that we went to visit a friend who is a Mountie as they were trying to fill their paddy wagon with food for the foodbank. We took some stuff down to donate and the kids and Chelsey had their photo taken with the Mountie. As a side note, the Mountie and his wife made us ribs for dinner last night and it was awesome. The kids played really well together, the ladies watched a movie and the men played Wii!

And before the events of the day got started I spent a few hours walking in the river with a fishing rod freezing my nuts off. All the pictures are below...

The Kids Gingerbread House

I bought a gingerbread house kit the other day when I was shopping and the kids have been all over me to build it. I told them we could do it tonight when I got home from work and they did not waste a minute jumping on me once I got in the door. I "built" the deluxe home and then let the kids do most of the decorating. The pictures below will let you see how it went. Enjoy...

Campbell River Trip December 2011

This past weekend we packed up Chelseys awesome mini van and set sail for Campbell River; I say Chelsey's awesome mini van because I always feel less of a man when I have to drive it! Anyways, we stopped at the mall in Nanaimo on the way up and as the kids and I were waiting for Chelsey to do her thing Santa came up and said hi to us; the kids were pretty happy about that then they said that was not the real Santa just one of his helpers. Sunday morning Nick and I spent some time trying to catch a Steelhead in the Quinsam River. It was a little early in the season but we thought we would try our luck anyways. We did not have much luck with the Steelhead but Nick did catch a nice little rainbow trout.

The Quinsam was a pretty nice river to fish and there were a butt load of eagles around and they were massive. It was pretty cool to see them everywhere but the bird crap was a little over whelming. The other bonus was that  the river flowed through Elk Falls Provincial Park so I can scratch another park off of our list for our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die Challenge. While I was fishing Chelsey and Kim took all the kids down to see the parade and hit up the park; Chelsey has some photo's of this on her phone so I will get her to send them to me so I can add them to the blog. Once we all got back together Chelsey, Steve (Chelseys Dad) the kids and I went down to the Campbell River Museum as Santa was there. Even when Santa is not there the Museum is still pretty cool as it has some good exhibits on the fishing industry and logging. Once finished there we went to the Maritime Museum as they had a craft sale going on there; once again I was more happy with the actual Museum and they had a boat there that we got to go on which made the kids happy.

All in all it was a great weekend with lots of great food and good company. Below are some of the pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Some "Christmasy" Pictures

Just some pictures of Chelsey and the kids over the weekend. Friday we were downtown for a Christmas Tree lighting celebration and some cool music then today we put up the Christmas tree. I will post some pictures of the outdoor lights when I am done..

Kids & Snow

Although the kids were sick yesterday they still could not wait to play in the snow when I got home from work. We ended up getting around 10cm last night which, according to the newspaper, is the average snowfall for Chilliwack in November. The paper also said it was due to this year being an El-Nino year which is incorrect as it is actually a La-Nina year; so I am not too sure how accurate their average numbers are. Enjoy the pictures, especially you Aussies baking in the heat...Suckers!

Watch This!

2012 Bucket List

As 2011 nears an end I was looking through the blog and came across my 2010 New Years Reso; I never had any resolutions for 2011 I guess. Since I never accomplished anything in my 2010 list (I guess publishing it does not make it easier to accomplish!) I thought I would give myself a head start this year and begin 6 weeks early. Also, I am going to call it a 2012 bucket list as it sounds less formal then "resolution." Finally, as losing weight is "so last decade" I am going with a number of things I would like to check off which, if completed, should result in better health; in my opinion better overall health is better than losing X amount of pounds. The bucket list is...*insert drum roll here*

1. Do a downhill mountain bike race -  Did the Gran Fondo instead.
2. Bag two more mountain peaks - these don't have to be super hard but harder/longer then what we accomplished this year; Needle Peak and Mount Thurston come to mind as two I would like to tackle
3. Knock three more things off of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die List
4. Break 90 at Sandpiper
5. Find 150 more Geocaches which would bring our total to 253
6. Catch a Steelhead - The Fish of 1000 casts!
7. Continue on my trek to "Be More Green"

While some of these things will require some luck to go with my lack of skill (catching a steelhead & breaking 90) I think this should be an achievable list time permitting. As long as I do not commit myself to too much volunteer duties the time should be there for me, as well as for Chelsey to accomplish her bucket list. Lets start checking things off!

Manning Park Snow Day

I have been pretty busy lately so have not spent as much time with the kids as I usually do. With that in mind I wanted to make sure we did something fun today and gave them the option of a couple things. The two choices were the Power Dam at Stave Falls out in Mission or playing in the snow at Manning Park. Proving once again that they are their fathers children they quickly said play in the snow.

Cohen had ice skating lessons at noon so we packed up some stuff and planned on heading out right after skating. The snow level was super low with things turning white before we reached the Hope Slide and after taking it easy we eventually made it to Manning Park. All the kids wanted to do was make snow angels and throw snowballs so we went up to Lighting Lake as it offered lots of space to screw around. After screwing around for a bit I pulled the kids along the trail for awhile but did not want to go too far in case they got cold.

After turning around and spending some time sledding down a little hill we packed up with the hopes of finding a hot chocolate. The restaurant was closed but we were able to find some chocolate milk in the lobby which was good enough. With the snow around we didn't both looking for any geocaches, maybe we will do that tomorrow. Pictures below as always...

Green Cleaning

Need some tips on "Green Cleaning?" I found the "recipe book" while trolling the internet. Click Here.

Foley Lake "Fishing"

Today the kids and I took Grandpa Darcy to Foley Lake in the Chilliwack River Valley in the hopes of finding a few geocaches and hopefully catching a fish. I knew there were fish in the lake but not sure what you have to do different to catch lake fish in the winter...Anyways, as is usually the case we did not cash any fish but we did find a geocache.

It was my first time to this lake and I must say it was quite a nice area. I always like heading into the mountains in the fall because the mountains usually have snow and any of the garbage left behind by the summer pigs is usually covered up by leaves. It was a pretty chilly day with most of the ground frozen but over all I think it went well. Enjoy the pictures

Something Funny for your Saturday

This is pretty funny and well worth watching the full clip. Sit down and enjoy!

Halloween 2011 - Our Mario Bros. Family

Mario, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy

Rainy Day Geocaching

I love walking around the forest when it is raining so I figured the kids do too! With that in mind we scooted out to find a couple Geocaches today. I got an e-mail stating a new one had been hidden by Cultus Lake so we decided to try and be the first to find it; and we were!! It took 101 tries but we were finally the first to find a new geocache! There are only a couple of pictures as our batteries started dying on the GPS so we were only able to find 2 caches. I could not find the camera so I had to use my phone, but the pictures look pretty decent anyways. Enjoy!

The things you find in the woods; this car was from the 50's or 60's  but the kids found it cool.

At the site of our first find of the day and our first FTF!

We all thought this was pretty cool. In the background to your right you can see the roots of a big tree that got blow down.  Obviously, it was a big tree as the roots were pretty big.

Cache 102 for us. October was a slow month for geocaching but we have been very busy with other things. Hopefully we can do better in November.

More Greed

And people wonder why there are protests going on everywhere and why the middle and lower class are getting pissed off at the upper class. This chart should help reduce some of that wondering and is half the problem with society today. People are so caught up with money and trying to keep up with the Jones' that they forget what is important; they just want more, more, more and will screw over anyone beneath them to attain more. Obviously the CEO's of the healthcare companies listed below, and most other Fortune 500 companies for that matter, are as money hungry as the buggers on Wall Street.

Geocaching Chilliwack Lake

After Chelsey pulled a fast one and gave me the shaft today the kids and I decided to do some geocaching. When the weather stinks I like to find caches that are grouped together or close to the car so we don't get too wet. Todays location of choice was Chilliwack Lake as it offered some of both. Not much to describe on the day so I will let the pictures do the talking. But, in general we all had a good day and we found our 100th cache; yay us. 

There is also a couple of pictures of a fish I caught in the river last week. The picture kind of sucks as I knew I had to release it and I was by myself so I did not want to have the fish flopping on the rocks while I took a picture so I just kept it on the line and tried to snap one. 

I also have a video of Cohen ice skating that I have been meaning to upload to the blog but just have not found the time recently; will try and get it up soon. Enjoy the pictures...

Sunday Funday

My Mum has been in town for a few days and for the most part we have been pretty busy with the kids activities, soccer, skating, etc. With nothing going on today we decided to head out to Hope as my Mum has yet to see the Othello Tunnels and it also gave us a chance to do some more geocaching. On the drive out we were able to pick up two geocaches before reaching Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park which is home to the tunnels.

We walked through the tunnels and then on the way back Mum became a leaf monster and started scaring the twins. Personally I thought she look more like a moose, but what do I know; pictures are below so you can decide for yourself. After hitting up the tunnels we went and looked for a geocache at the Nicolum River Provincial Park which is now permanently closed. It is still on our list of provincial parks that we have to visit for #43 on our list of 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die so we made the trip even though it was closed.

There was one other geocache I wanted to find before we went home and it was along a forest service road just across the street from the Nicolum River Provincial Park. The GPS said it was only 1KM away but I forgot that was as the crow flied. We made it to the geocache which was closer to 5km up the road which was a little dodgy at parts; then I thought that it is almost a tradition to take Mum up dodgy roads when she visits and that made me feel better.

Kyah fell asleep on the way back down so Mum and I had a good laugh at her head bouncing around as we made our way back to civilization. We started filming her to share it with you, which I do below, but then she smacked her head and cried so that made me feel bad. Mum being Mum just started laughing even harder, can you believe it?!? I need to start bringing her a pillow when we go on these drives.

Enjoy the pictures and short video clip...

Camp Kindawoods

Before I dive into our "camping" adventure I need to explain that I am very superstitious. I will never walk under a ladder, avoid the number 13, etc and I am a big believer that everything happens for a reason and that you should follow your gut. The other day when I was walking into the office I saw a crap load of crows flying around, I have never seen crows flocking like that so I was kind of creeped out. The first thing that I thought was something was going to happen, like "The Big One" or something. I have heard people say animals know when something is going to happen so I assume that is why I thought of that. Anyways, a few hours later that big earth quake hit off of Vancouver Island; weird eh.

So...The kids have been bugging me for weeks to take them camping. I kept promising I would but either the weather sucked or something else came up. Not wanting to be the Dad that promises but never delivers I figured we should head up this weekend. Last night the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow was rain so I figured if we could get the tent set-up when it was not raining we would be safe. So I loaded all the camping gear up last night with the intent to scoot off after Cohen's skating lesson if the weather was ok; as a side note, Cohen rocked at his skating lessons today!

So last night while I was sound asleep fighting my sleep apnea I had a dream that we were out camping. In this dream we went for a walk and Cohen got attacked by a bear. It was a pretty vivid dream as I remember crying in the hospital hoping he was ok; so with my superstitious attitude and the experience with the crows the other day I was a little freaked to go camping when I woke up. When I was making the kids breakfast I told them that if it was raining we couldn't go camping and it was raining pretty good this morning. Trying to be the trooper I packed up all the food, pillows, etc before we left for skating with the intent of still going camping but secretly wishing it would snow or something...

Fossils, Fires and Frogs

Today I gave the twins a few choices to find out what they wanted to do and the decision was to look for fossils and treasure hunt (i.e. geocache); I first had to explain what fossils were. Kyah just wanted to go to a park so she was easy to please.

There was an Earthcache, which is a type of geocache, up the Chilliwack River Valley by Slesse Creek which was at an area where we could look for fossils, we decided that would be our destination. After a quick stop at Timmys we headed up and into the bush. There were some people camping on the forest service road where we had to park to hunt for fossils, but other then that it was all quiet. We spent a good hour or so looking at rocks on the side of the creek and the kids had a great time throwing twigs and leaves in the creek and watching them float down; Cohen's favorite part was "saving" the leaves.

After looking for the fossils, and I think we found one but you have to look below for a picture, we cruised back down to the Chilliwack River for some traditional geocaches. The first one we looked for was around a unofficial campsite and it was absolutely disgusting to see the amount of garbage that was left around. The worst part was the ass hats who stayed there must have just left because their fire was still burning. It never ceases to amaze me how disrespectful people in this world are becoming. The fact that I can go camping with two 4 year olds, both of whom know it is "noddy" to litter, and not leave a trace while grown adults can not even put out a fire or pick up their garbage is mind boggling.

After searching around for the cache we gave up, took a quick peak at the Slesse Creek Cave, and headed off for our next cache. We found another cache up another forest service road, once again it was littered with garbage and yard waste, then took the back roads home through Mount Slesse, up the Chilliwack Army Forest Service Road, onto Chilliwack Bench Forest Service Road which took us to Ryder Lake. We took a break at a park up on Ryder Lake where the kids got to play on the swings and slides before heading home.

We had friends over for dinner which included the salmon I caught in Campbell River as well as some fresh Chilliwack corn; how can you go wrong with that! Thats all for this weekend folks; time permitting we will be heading camping for a day or two next weekend! Enjoy the pictures...

Skating, Geocaching and...Sharting!

Busy and fun day with the kids today. Cohen had his ice skating lessons at 12:00 so we decided to leave the house early and grab a couple of Geocaches. For our morning session we grabbed four and then headed off to skating. As Cohen had not skated all summer we were a little concerned that he may have forgotten how to stand up and stuff, but he rocked it and did great. After skating we went to a park by the rink real quick for some playtime and to find another geocache...Yay! Then it was time to go home for lunch and some quiet time; aka I needed a nap - I blame it on the sleep apnea! When nap time was over we went and played a little mini golf and hit up the driving range, the kids love mini golf but I think it was a little too hot for them at the driving range; it has been in the low 30's the past few days.

After our fun golfing we had some dinner and grabbed a couple more geocaches on the way home. We found a total of seven today which is a new record for us; our grand total is up to 82. I told the kids that we got a new record after the seventh cache and then had to spend 15 minutes explaining to Cohen that we do not receive a tangible item and that "record" is just a word; obviously he wanted something for our achievement.

The last cache we found was at a park so the kids played around a bit. As Kyah was coming down the slide she ripped a big one and we just laughed it off even though she has had a funny tummy for most of the day. Two minutes later I hear Cohen screaming that Kyah poohed. I ask her what happened and she said when she farted pooh came out (the good ol' shart - to view the Urban Dictionary definition of the shart click here). When she showed me her panties she had dropped a wet load, I told her to take them off and put them in the garbage and that resulted in pooh down the leg. After throwing water on her we booked it home for bath time! Enjoy the pictures, I still need to screw with the settings on the camera as the picture color is looking dull...

File this one under WTF.

It seems the In-Vetro Fertilization business in the United States is about as well regulated as their financial sector. The link below is to a New York Times article about this not-so-regulated sector. One dude has 150 kids from his one "load." Obviously, this type of idiotic behavior increases the chances of incest by a large margin (i.e. banging your half sister you did not know was your half sister) and based on the people in Wal-Mart this may have been going on for a while. You have to read it...http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06donor.html

Random Video of the Kids

I have not posted much of the kids lately so thought I would create a quick random video of them goofing around tonight to quench your thirst. We are hoping to squeeze in a night of camping this weekend so hopefully we will have something more enjoyable for you then. For now, you get this...

Poopie Irene

This is one of the funnier video clips I have seen in awhile; it may be because I think poo humor and farts are funny. Anyways, this Fox News guy was getting some killer footage from Hurricane Irene and was getting doused in the "sea foam." Turns our the "sea foam" was caused by raw sewage. This is really funny to watch especially as we know he is playing in poop and he does not know. Enjoy the clip!

'Waterful' Weekend

Just a few shots of the kids from this past weekend...On Saturday I was going to take the kids camping for the night. This was a last minute decision and it seems trying to find a campsite on a Saturday in August is impossible. All the sites were full at Cultus Lake, Chilliwack Lake, Deer Lake and Hicks Lake; I did not want to drive all the way up to Jones Lake just to find out they were full too so the kids and I decided to go for a swim at Hicks Lake instead. I also promised to take them camping the weekend after the long weekend when all the kids are back in school and the goons from the city no longer find the valley attractive; stay tuned for that post.

Then Sunday we all went to Bridal Falls Water Park for the kids first trip to the water slides. It was the perfect place for the kids first water slide trip and they had lots of fun. They had an area that the kids could slide on by themselves and a "medium" slide area with two slides where they could whip down with Chelsey and I. There were also some larger slides and a tube ride they were too small for but Chelsey and I were able to hit them up a couple of times. All in all it was an awesome day and we all had fun. I screwed with the settings of the camera so the colors look a little wonky. Enjoy the pictures...

Kids Dancing

The kids had their final dance show a couple of months back. A few things got me ticked about the whole process as there were times I felt people forgot these were 4 year olds. Also, $50 for Cohen's pants and shirt seemed like a bit of a scam; the best part was we had to pay to buy tickets for the kids to attend their own show! Anyways, with all that in mind I do not care bootlegging their portion of the show for you all to see. Cohen is easy to spot, Kyah is two right from the teacher. Enjoy...

Wud Up G' - Golfing, Geocaching and 'Gam'

As Chelsey skipped town for the day with her friend the kids and I decided to get outside and do some of the stuff that is not on top of Mum's fun list; golfing and geocaching. After a quick stop at Timmy's for some Timbits, as you can't have fun with out them, we headed on down to the driving range to work on our swings. As always the kids stole all the balls and had a pretty good time. Cohen can hit it pretty well but holds the club like a hockey stick, Kyah has pretty good form but it doesn't go as far as Cohen's.

After golfing we headed to a little park down by the Fraser River for some geocaching. I thought that the mosquitoes would be gone by now but I was dead wrong; I also under estimated how hot and muggy it was outside as it was a "scorcher." We found one Geocache pretty quick and since the kids were getting but by the bugs, I forgot the bug spray again, we decided to head back to the car. The park we were at had tonnes of blackberries so we emptied out water bottles and quickly filled them with berries. After stopping for Slurpees and some groceries we scooted home where it was much cooler.

We decided to make some jam with our blackberries and searched the internet for a recipe. All the recipes required Pectin, which we have zero of, but I found out that pectin is found naturally in many fruits such as green apples. With that in mind I boiled some green apples with the berries and took them out before we jarred the jam; now we just need to find a substitute for all the sugar! Hopefully it works out but we wont know until it cools. We finished the day off with a nice barbecued steak and ceaser salad. Pictures of our day below...

Mini Golf & Ice Cream

After Kim and Nick took the kids mini golfing last weekend in Campbell River they have wanted to go again. With the sun shining bright we thought today would be a good day to try out Giggle Ridge mini golf by Cultus Lake. With all the sheep from the city herding themselves into Cultus for the weekend the traffic was brutal down Vedder; we were able to scoot by most of it with my new sneaky short cut. Below are a few shots from the day including some of our ice cream and, of course, the token "Kyah falling asleep at the dinner table" shot. Enjoy...

Campbell River Fishing

Today while we were in Campbell River I was lucky enough to be invited to go fishing again with Nick and his Dad. While it was a tad tough rolling out of bed at 5:15am I understand that the early bird gets the worm so I was game. The plan was to leave the dock by 6:30 and Nick and I were pretty stoked when we rolled up early. Nick was pretty perplexed that his Dad had not yet arrived and after waiting for twenty minutes we realized we were at the wrong dock; that was a prelude to how Nick's day would unfold...

Without further ado I shall show you all some wonderful pictures of the day. I would show some pictures of the fish Nick caught but he only grabbed one and it was not picture worthy. While I may suck at fishing in the river my luck seemed to turn today on the ocean as I maxed out and was even lucky enough to haul in a sockeye and a spring. Enjoy the pictures of our awesome day...

Victoria Trip

Chelsey and I left for Victoria last night as Chelsey has a dragon boat regatta this weekend. Plus, tomorrow we head up to Campbell River to get the kids, yay! Today while Chelsey was dragon boating I had lunch with an old school buddy at Irish Times Pub; I sure do miss the pubs in Victoria and wish Chilliwack would get some decent ones. Before lunch I headed down to the inner harbour hoping to get a glimpse of one of Chelsey's races, but no luck. After lunch I went for a walk along the water with my folks and grabbed some geocaches. The pictures are just a few shots I took today. Boring blog post I know, but it is all I got!

Mountain Peaks Reached

This is just a maintenance post where I can keep track of all the posts regarding mountains that we have reached the summit on; all part of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die challenge:

Elk Mountain July 3rd 2011
Mount Cheam August 7 2011

Mount Cheam Hike

Sorry for the lack of blog posts since the return from our Tuc-El-Nuit Lake trip but we have been busy and quite frankly I can only post so many videos of the kids playing on the slip n' slide!

But this post will wow you with some cool pictures. Since moving to Chilliwack I have always wanted to hike up Mount Cheam as I have seen pictures of the views. With the kids spending this week in Campbell River Chelsey and I took the opportunity yesterday to hit up Mount Cheam. I will let the pictures do most of the talking but two things suprised me about this hike: the assloads of snow that was still around and the length of the drive up the logging road to get to the trail head. We actually picked up a group of 3 hikers head up the fire road trying to make it to the trail head; they stopped 8km short as they did not think their Hyundai Tuscon would make it the whole way.

So while we have made it to the top of another mountain I still do not want to cross #20 off our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list. In the spirit of good competition, even though this is not a competition, I think that in order to scratch number 20 off our list it should include at least one night spent in the back country; Chelsey and I differ on that opinion. Anyways, here are the pictures and commentary; enjoy!

Kids at Gymnastics

A few weeks ago Cohen and Kyah went to a birthday part at the local gymnastics gym. Chelsey said they had a ball so we signed them up for a week of "Gymnastics Camp." It was last week and when I got home from work the kids were always stoked to show me what they learned and tell me all about. I was kind of jealous that I did not get to see them in person so I sent Chelsey out with the camera so I can get a few shots. The video below is what she came back with; some extra footage has been added from last Saturdays "Party in the Park."

Kyah puked right before we left so she was not to keen on the bouncy castle.

Saturday Silliness

Below is a video of our Saturday. Chelsey was at the Harrison Dragon Boat Festival so the kids and I scooted out there for a visit and to watch a race. The team Chelsey is on, The Pirate Paddlers, came 9th out of 61 teams so they did pretty damn good. After our visit we went back home for a little Slip N' Slide action and to "kind of" clean my truck.

The video is of one of the races and the kids on the slip and slide. Chelsey's team is in the green boat and Chelsey is the second in from the back.

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Seven & The Drive Home

Yesterday was our last day camping at Lakeside Resort on Tuk El Nuit Lake so we thought it would be the most fun to spend the whole day at the lake. While it was cool in the morning the day turned out to be perfect with lots of sun and heat. The kids had an absolute blast playing in the sand and water all day. We made lots of castles and volcanoes and spent lots of time in the water. 

In the morning I went fishing again, without the camera, and caught my self a nice little trout. Although I did not get a picture there were enough people on the beach who heard my happy cheers to vouch for my success; Chelsey actually saw the fish when I held it up so you know this is not a fish story.

As a special treat for the kids, and me, we went to Tickleberries again for ice cream after dinner but this time we were smart enough to get the small sizes. The weirdest part about our trip was that I took four pairs of clean boxers, we were gone for 7 days, I did not do any laundry and I still came home with one pair of clean undies...Weird

Our drive home today was pretty uneventful other then the fact we scooped up some more geocaches and checked out the Hope Slide.We also picked up a cache at Bromley Rock Provincial Park so we can scratch another provincial park off our list. It was a pretty boring park unless you are into camping on the river shore; with the kids so small I think we will stick to the lakes. For lunch we stopped at the Manning Park resort area and the kids were stoked to see all the gophers running around taking nuts from people.

Enjoy the pictures and we are already looking forward to next year; who's coming with us?

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Six

One more day, two more sleeps and we have to go home; so sad. We have had lots of fun here and Lakeside    Resort is super family friendly; this kids are loving it here. 

Today the weather was off and on again so after our morning playing at the beach we went down to Osoyoos to grab some geocaches and check out another winery. We went to Haynes Point Provincial Park so we could knock another park off our list. According to British Columbia Magazine this is the hottest provincial park in BC, being in Osoyoos it would make sense. It is a pretty small park but we had fun wandering around looking for a geocache and playing by the water. 

After lunch we headed back towards home and grabbed a couple geocaches on the way back. We also stopped by Road 13 Winery as Chelsey is a big fan of their wine. The kids liked it there as it is built like a castle and there were two sausage dogs inside. 

Today was penny candy day and pie day at the "resort." Since we got back too late for the penny candies we went to the corner store and let the kids pick out a bunch of nickel candies. Luckily we were not too late for the home made pies and we were able to pick up a nice apple pie. We finished the day off with more fun at the beach and chicken burgers for dinner. Cohen is feeling much better but we are all getting bit by the skeeters now. 

No one came to steal our booze last night so no word on whether the alarm system worker; we will have to try again tonight! Forgot the memory card in the camera again so pictures are limited...

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Five

Another fun day at the lake today but this one started a little early, as in 2:07AM. There are signs around warning people to lock up their booze as I guess the local kids like to have a few. Last night I heard foot steps outside and then saw the light from someone opening our fridge. I got up and peeked over the door through the screen and saw some dude with his head in our fridge. The conversation went like this:

Me: Hey dude whats ups?

The Kid: Aww nothing much, just chillin'

Me: Havin' a few beers eh?

The Kid: Yeah, just one...

The dude then grabbed one of my beers and took off. The people in the Cabana next to ours had some of their booze taken too. When I looked outside to see where the shit ran off too they were already down by the beach and I wasnt too concerned about one beer anyways. That being said, I rigged up a wicked alarm system and if they come back tonight there will be golf balls bouncing everywhere.

Today we took off to the States to grab some Cherry Coke, some bubblegum, a $5 six pack of beer and our very first Geocache in the U.S. of A. We also went down to try and get a cache a Lake Osoyoos State Park but we learned it is no longer a State Park and is now a city park. After a few hours down there we scooted back to the camp site as Cohen was not being himself.

Poor Cohen was very whiny the whole morning and was not being super happy. He slept the whole drive back from the States and when we got home all he wanted to do was lie in bed. After seeing he had a fever and that his glands were a bit swollen Chelsey took him to the doctor; turns out the little dude has Strep Throat. It is all good though as he was his chipper old self by dinner time. Hopefully he is happy tomorrow!

After dinner we roasted some marshmallows at the camp fire then went  to check out the Wednesday night Karaoke here at the site. It was mainly kids singing but it was still a train wreck. Not too many pictures today as we were more concerned about Cohen then pictures...

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Four

Day four of our 2011 Tuk El Nuit Lake camping trip started off a tad wet. We awoke to a stiff breeze and some rain but it was not enough to keep Cohen and Kyah away from the beach and the water was still warm which made it even better. Today was the sand castle competition and we chose to make a sea turtle with some babies and some eggs. Chelsey was in charge of the eggs as she has a knack for making sand balls and the kids and I built the turtles. I thought we had a good chance of winning but we lost out to a rather impressive bat mobile; I guess we will have to step up our game for next year!

Today's visitors include the Middlemiss clan and Chelsey's aunt. While I was lucky enough to go golfing at Fairview Mountain Golf Club the kids all played together and had a great time as the weather cleared up a bit. They all rented a canoe and paddled the length of the lake; I guess Chelsey is trying to stay in good Dragon Boat condition. 

I chose to golf Fairview Mountain as it is often ranked as one of the best courses in Canada. After playing it I could see why. The conditions were perfect and the course was quite difficult for a duffer like me; that being said I still had a great time.

I rushed back to help Chelsey get the kids in bed but to my surprise it was going to be a late night. Cohen was dying to jump on the turtle castle so as soon as I got home all the kids got to destroy it. Then Chelsey and her cousin built a pretty good camp fire and we endulged in some smores. It seems Chelsey was not content with just the campfire as when it came time to cook dinner Chelsey and her aunt tried to burn down the cabana; luckily they did not succeed as my golf clubs were in here. 

After that busy day the kids went to bed super good...Yay! Pictures are limited today as we forgot to put the memory card back in the camera. Enjoy what we have...

50 Things to do in BC Before You Die: #14 - Go Tubing in the Okanagan

Great day today camping at Lakeside Resort on Tuk-El-Nuit Lake as we whipped up to Penticton and hammered #14 of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list. I awoke at the crack of dons ass and tried my hand a fishing again; I had no luck but it was awesome being out there on the dingy first thing in the morning. After breakfast we went down to the beach for a quick swim and to play in the sand. The kids love it so much that it is hard to get them to eat their breakfast as all they want to do is go to the beach, nothing wrong with that though.

After playing at the beach we had a quick lunch and headed off for our tubing adventure down the channel in Penticton. The kids were scared at first but once we got going they loved it. Even Chelsey said she was a little hesitant as she was unsure how it would work out but once we got moving she had a blast too. Chelsey wanted to go again but I had to boycott it as I was worried about too much sun; yes I am a baby but it was in the low 30's today. On the ride back to get our car we saw a water park so obviously we had to hit that up before we left Penticton; as always the kids had a blast there.

On our way back we made a stop at world famous Tickleberrys for some of their ice cream. Me being me I ordered the double scoop which actually turns out to be 4 or 5 scoops and the damn thing was bigger then my head. We got the kids child cones which were also massive so needless to say it was awesome. Since it was so hot outside it was a struggle for the kids to eat their ice cream before it melted and they sure did a good job. Enjoy the pictures...

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Two

Day two of our trip was lots of fun. The kids awoke at 7:30, 8:00 for Cohen, and we enjoyed a nice breakie of eggs, bacon, sausage and toast; better camping then what I am used to. We spent the majority of the day and the lake and had a blast. We did scoot out to check out Jackson Triggs winery and I must say I do really enjoy the ice wine; Chelsey, Colleen and Darcy checked out one other spot and I took the kids back to the campsite. 

We realized we have to adjust the kids schedule a bit as by 5:00 they were ready for bed, which never happens. By 7:15 they were both asleep which also never happens! Tomorrow we may try and knock something else of our 50 Things to Do List and go tubing down the canal. Enjoy todays pictures...

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day One

Today is the first day of our week long "camping" trip at Tuk El Nuit Lake here in Oliver. We rented this cool little cabana thing and so far it looks great; even has free Wi-Fi. Chelsey used to come here as a kid so she thought it would be fun to take our kids; I think the kids and I will have a great time, still not too sure about Chelsey! Just a few pictures today for you to all enjoy...

Cohen Slipin' N' Slidin'

We picked up a Slip & Slide for the kids a couple of weeks ago but the weather has been so crappy we have yet had the chance to pull it out. I remember how much fun they were as a kid so I was pretty excited to crack this puppy open. Poor Kyah has an ear infection so she was not too stoked to give it a shot but we will get it out for her again soon.

Anyone who has been lucky enough to spend time with our twins knows that they are unique in their own ways. As funny as Kyah can be, Cohen is especially a very funny kid and super cool. His expressions and attitude always make me laugh and I know when we look back on this video we will remember this is who Cohen is, I just hope he doesn't change too much as he gets older! The pictures from the opening credits are below the video...

Promontory House Fire

Here is a couple shots of the fire this afternoon across from Promontory school. I will upload some video later tonight which was taken before these pictures. The fire was pretty big at the start as we were able to see the flames from our balcony. It took me some time to get the camcorder and then the camera out as we were out front on the slip & slide; more on that later too!

5 Geocaches and a Mountain Top

Today Chelsey and I got a baby sitter for the twins so we could go for a hike up Elk Mountain. I have wanted to do more hiking and get into the back country more but have been too cheap to pay for a baby sitter. Realizing everything can not wait until the kids are old enough to do it with me I figured we should just suck it up and it was well worth it; a few more years and the kids will be able to do most things with me anyways. 

The hike was 8km return with an elevation gain of 674 meters and the peak was at 1304 meters. I took the GPS with me to track our trek but I still need to figure out how to upload it to Google Earth. Lucky for us there were Geocaches the whole way up and we were able to pick up 5 on the way, including one right by the summit - our total is now 45 found!

One of the things on our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list is summit a mountain. While technically this hike would qualify I want to do something more challenging before I cross that one off our list. Chelsey on the other hand, would probably be happy to cross it off now. Lots of pictures below for you to all enjoy; they do not do the view justice...

Geocaching at the Wetlands

This morning while Chelsey was dragon boating I took the kids to the Cheam Lake Wetlands in hopes of finding a couple geocaches. It was our first trip to this park and we were quite happy with the scenery. Even better, for the kids, were the two rabbit sightings! The downside was we did not find any geocaches. I blame it on the fact that the brush was so thick that we couldn't see; we have decided to go back again in the winter when everything isn't so green. There was also lots of bugs, Cohen said "Daddy I didn't have too much fun because there was too many bugs, but I do want to go back when the bugs are gone." So that is the story; we had a good walk just no treasure. Enjoy the pictures...

After Work Hike

Tonight I was fortunate enough to tag along for a hike with some peeps after work. The trail was within the boundry of Chilliwack Lake Provincial park and the chosen trail was the Goat Peak trail; although due to time there was no hope of reaching Goat Peak. The trail was a doozy and straight up most of the way, no better way to showcase my lack of cardio. To keep this post less boring I will just enter comments after the pictures. Enjoy...

Bedtime Stories

Remember this blogpost where I mentioned this lovely bedtime nursey called Go the F**k to Sleep. Well, it seems our friend Samuel L. Jackson has helped out the blind parents out there and put this doozy to words. Warning, do not watch you tube clip if:

1. Kids are around - unless you want them to Go the F*&K to Sleep
2. You are offended by 4 letter words
3. You are at work with the volume up high

Change of Direction

What do you think, does it suit me?

Photo journalism courtesy of Cait & Aaron

Square in the Left Nutt

Cohen has an addiction to Super Mario Bros Wii. Tonight I let him play it for a little after dinner and before his bath while I was cleaning up.When it was time for his bath I told him that after the current level it was time to turn off his game. When the time arrived I told him to turn it off but he wouldn't, being the well disciplined father that I am I turned it off myself. Cohen then threw a hissy fit followed by a right hand square to my left nutt. Cohen has a good punch so the moral of this story is to wear a cup when disciplining him. He did get sent to his room for his accurate punch.

BC Parks: Davis Lake Provincial Park - Geocaching

Wanting to knock another park of our list I decided we should go Geocaching today at Davis Lake Provincial Park which is just outside Mission. As has been the theme this spring the weather was horrible - cold and wet; are you supposed to see your breath a few days before summer? With the wet weather I knew it was going to be a challenge to keep everybody happy but for the most part things went well. Our first stop was by a creek, the name of which I forget, to find a cache, after looking around we realized we were on the wrong side of the creek and it was too big to cross; the plan was to try again on the way home. Before hitting the park we detoured to check out Cascade Falls, see pictures below, which was quite nice and a short hike up from the parking lot. There was a cache close to the falls we were hoping to find but did not have any luck, after some further research we found out the co-ordinates were off. Once back in the car, just a tad wet, we took off towards Davis Lake in hopes of finding some more caches.

After getting close to the lake we realized the road down was a 4x4 track. I put the ol' truck into 4x4 low and went on our way...Until Chelsey vetoed any further travel. After some discussion and me pulling the "Fathers Day" card we got out to walk down to the lake. Since we were already wet the walk did not last long as we started to get muddy; when it came voting time I lost 3-1. We decided to head back to the truck and hit up this lake on a not so muddy day. The bright side was we did find one cache on the way home so all was not lost! Enjoy the pictures...

Vancouver Riots 2011

Bunch of bloody wankers. You morons are burning cars and throwing newspaper boxes because the Canucks lost. Lets not forget how well they played to get to this position. Get a life you f**king jackasses. Then again, why post it here because most of ou morons probably can't even read. And you people that are down there watching are just as bad, get the heck out of there and let the police do their job. And if the cops beat the shit out of any morons throwing crap I hope they give you a punch in the face for me!

Canucks Rule

A song for you all to get ready for the game tonight. Most of our Canadians followers have probably already seen this but I am sure our Aussie followers will enjoy it too.

Video at the Park

With Chelsey in Vancouver all weekend and myself having to volunteer for trail maintenance on Vedder Mountain this today I took the kids for a sleepover at Nana & Papa Weavers last night after dinner and a bath. After spending far too many hours digging dirt to make the mountain bike trails better I went home and cleaned up then scooted down the hill to grab the kiddies. We decided some time at the park was in order. Enjoy the video...

Fishing & Geocaching at Hicks Lake

With Chelsey in Vancouver all weekend for a Dragon Boat regatta the kids and I had lots of time to do non "lady" stuff. With yesterday's weather being decent we decided to invite Nana & Papa Weaver to Hicks lake with us for a little fun. Hicks lake is located in Sasquatch Provincial Park just past Harrison and was our go to location last summer for many weekend days. A per usual I spent more time dickin' around with the tackle then actually fishing as I suck so bad. Obviously, I did not catch any fish but Papa Weaver did hook one that got away. We also snagged 4 geocaches on the day so our total is upto 30. Nana Weaver took all the pictures as Chelsey had our camera with her; I guess she thinks Kyah is photogenic because most of the pictures are of her...

After Todays Game This Picture Means So Much More...

Fun with the Bruins

Kids Like to Water Trees

This morning after we all got up and organized we went for a jaunt up Tea Pot Hill. It is a decent walk but easily doable by 4 year olds; actually it is doable by 3 year olds as I took the kids up here last year too. I have been accused of only doing fun things when Chelsey is working so we made sure to do this one as a family. We looked for a few geocaches and thought we were going to get skunked on the day and then Kyah the magnificent found one that Chelsey and I had spent a good 10 minutes looking for; we have now found 26 in total! Enjoy the pictures...They explain the title!

BC Parks: Bridal Veil Falls

After visiting the Eagles and Dragons (see prior post) the kids and I trekked down the freeway a bit to Bridal Veil Falls . Even though we had been to Bridal Falls before we had to go again as I want to hit all the parks as part of our 50 Things Project. We could count Bridal Falls as number 48 on the list but that would be too easy so we are just using it to knock another park off the list for number 43. At the park we took in the sights and picked up another geocache. The video clip below is of both Bridal Falls and the Eagles and Dragons; I thought I had more footage but I seem to have "lost" it on the camcorder. Good thing I have pictures to make up for it.

Dragons and Eagles

Yesterday while Chelsey was working the kids and I decided to enjoy the sunshine after their swimming lessons and do some more geocaching. We grabbed a little one off the side of the road on our way to the cache that was labelled 'Dragon Tamed.' As you can see from the pictures below there was more then a dragon at this location. I remember seeing this guy on the news a few years ago but did not realize he lived in Chilliwack. There was actually two eagles here even though I only took a picture of one. The cache was just on the edge of their property so I don't know if they put it there or not. Pretty cool anyway...

Missed it by One

Almost had our first month with 1000 page views on the blog. I guess cute pictures of the twins will do that!

Geocaching at the Base

Today I decided to battle the elements, even though it is June, and take the kids geocaching at the old CFB Chilliwack. It was the first time I have walked around the old base and it was kind of neat to see what they are doing with the place. We were able to find 3 more geocaches so we are up to 22 and hope to hit 25 this weekend! If anyone else has a geocaching account at http://www.geocaching.com/ feel free to "friend" us, our nickname on the site is mtwoods...Original, I know. I have also included a couple of pictures from Monday when Chelsey and I took the kids to the river to ride their bikes.

Stupid News Stories

So I was reading this news story and could not believe how stupid it was...

(CNN) -- One woman was killed and another injured after they fell from a 10th-floor window at an Atlanta hotel, authorities said Saturday.
According to Atlanta Police, witnesses said the two were attending a birthday party early Saturday at the W Atlanta-Midtown.
The pair were "play fighting" when they accidentally crashed through the window around 3:15 a.m., according to a preliminary investigation, said department spokesman Officer John Chafee. It was unclear Saturday where they landed.
The Fulton County medical examiner identified the woman who died at the scene as LaShawna M. Threatt of Atlanta. The cause of death is pending. The other woman, who was unidentified, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Hotel manager Michael O'Donohue said information on the investigation must come from authorities.


"The incident at the W Atlanta early Saturday is very tragic and our thoughts and prayers are with the woman who was injured and the family and friends of the woman who died in the fall," he said in a statement.

The first stupid part is when they say "it was unclear where they landed." Really? Did the dead chick get up and move just to screw over the investigators; I bet they landed on the ground.

The other stupid part is where they say "the cause of death is pending." Maybe the fall from the 10th floor killed her? Or...Maybe after falling from 10 floors she was beaten to death by a squirell. CNN is awesome.

Our Vegetable Garden

A few weeks back I built our vegetable plot in the back yard and we put in some seedlings and seeds. So far it seems that everything is surviving the horrible "spring" we are having. For seedlings we bought some romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, tomatoes, zuchinni, peppers and broccoli. For seeds we planted some corn (because there is not enough in Chilliwack), green onions, more peppers, squash and some other stuff I can't remember. This is our first year growing our own produce so if everything dies I will not be suprised but it is a fun activity and we are learning a few things on the way. Below are a couple pictures of our plot and some things I need to transfer to the plot. We are thinking of building another plot for potatoes and some halloween pumpkins as we have some more wasted space in the back.

Everything is the square pots started as seeds

BC Parks: Coquihalla Canyon - Othello Tunnels

Chelsey had to work today so after swimming I decided to take the kids out to the Othello Tunnels which are located within the Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park; now we can knock another park off our list! As well as seeing the tunnels we also wanted to do some Geocaching as Chelsey got us a Geocaching GPS off of Craigslist as an early Father's Day present; she didn't want us using her iPhone for Geocaching anymore as she was worried it would get wrecked. We were unable to find any Geocaches as it is hard to get an accurate signal within all those rocks and it is not the type of place i wanted to scramble around on rocks with the kids...It is a long way down. The tunnels were super cool to see and the kids had a great time until they got a little tired at the end. Enjoy the pictures...

More Family Photos

We had our pictures taken a few weeks back by TSA Creations. I was a little skeptical at first because a few years ago when we had our family photo's done by somebody else they turned out like shit. I must say I am rather happy with these ones though; what do you all think...

Tiger Humour

Tip of the hat to the Father-In-Law for this doozy!

My Nightmare

After the kids spent the weekend in Campbell River I must be getting punished...

tonight I find myself putting 4 kids to bed. Maybe I should get this book...

Weather Geekery

A few links of some pictures of recent weather events. Since I am a weather geek I enjoy these pictures; if you don't enjoy the please do not look at them.

• These are some aerial shots from the tornado that ripped through the US recently; it is crazy how you can actually see the path that the tornado took.
• These are some ground level shots of the same area hit by the tornado 
• These are some shots of the weekend volcano eruption is Iceland

BC Parks: Chilliwack Lake Park - Lindeman Lake

With the kids not coming back from the Island until this evening Chelsey and I decided to go out for a nice hike. We wanted to go to Greendrop Lake but we learned the snow was still pretty thick up there so we just went as far as Lindeman Lake. Both lakes are within the Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park boundry with the trail head about a 35 minute drive from our house. Although we only made it as far as Lindeman Lake it was still a super good hike as we had time to fish and do some geocaching. As per usual I did not catch any fish, probably too cold for them, but we did find two geocaches. Enjoy the pictures...

Vancouver Real Estate

I have tried to keep my financial and economic rants to a minimum on this blog but sometimes the stupidity and lack of common sense I see is too great that I can no longer contain myself; sorry but today is one of those days.

Somehow a Vancouver mortgage broker got my work e-mail and has been sending me his monthly newsletter. I don’t mind the spam as I like to see what is going on out there so I usually check it out. One of his masterful pieces today was how to buy a house in Vancouver without a down payment. I show the article here as it is relatively short:

A Male Epiphany

As I sit here watching the IPL T20 Cricket I came to the realization I am pretty lucky to have lived in a different country as a child. If it was not for living in Australia as a youngster I would only understand North American sports. Now I can watch even more sports and enjoy it all!  Not only do I get to watch the Vancouver Canucks make a run at the cup but I get to watch the Sunday AFL Footy match (Aussie Rules Football) and cricket. If you are a young person who likes sports I suggest you spend a year or two in a foreign country to broaden your horizons when it comes to watching sports in your 30's. Is anyone willing to take Cohen for a year when he gets a bit older? Gotta make sure he is well trained to watch sports and drink beer in his older years...The chicks dig it! That being said, the Twenty20 Cricket is awesome to watch, much more enjoyable then the Day Matches and Test Matches I watched as a kid. Rumour is they are trying to get Cricket to spread to North America and this new format should help. I would match rather watch a T20 Cricket match then a boring ass baseball game. With the immigration from South East Asia to Vancouver I am sure they could make a good go of it here.

CRICKET TWENTY 20 - A New Spark To The Spirit of the Game

Chelsey Can...Cook...and Bake?

It is no secret that I did not marry Chelsey for her cooking abilities. While she has been known to fire off the odd turkey once a year her cooking has been the subject of many discussion amongst the two of us. When she does make dinner (she says she never makes dinner because she works 3 nights a week...) it often comes from the freezer with the sauce from a jar. Tonight though it all changed. When I arrived home from work Chelsey and Kyah were making a Strawberry Angel Cake and dinner was fresh salmon with yummy vegetables and spinach salad. It only took her 30 minutes and it was awesome, one of the tastiest dishes she has ever made; check out these pictures...

Kyah's "Play"

Kyah grabbed me as she had a one minute play to show me; this is what she had...


Untitled from Michael Woods on Vimeo.

Black Swan - Starring the Twins

Cohen and Kyah have their dance recital coming up in June. Today they have their official "photoshoot" so I snapped a few shots before they took off. Only took Kyah 2 minutes to spill orange on her outfit but Mum did a great job of getting it out. I will upload the official pictures when we receive them, until then,  enjoy these pictures...

Trading Hockey Cards

I have an addiction to hobbies. I love doing things. From mountain biking, to reading, to fishing, to blogging, to golfing, to everything else I do; it is all fun and I never get bored. Something I did as a kid and I started again last year with Cohen is collecting hockey cards. This year we are collecting the 2010/2011 Upper Deck Series 1. What I am looking for is someone in the 'Blogosphere' to trade cards with. I copied the list of cards to a spread sheet and highlighted the ones we have, the names in italics are doubles that we can trade. I also inputed the special edition ones we have too. You probably have to click on the link and go directly to the Scribd site because the spreadsheet below is a bit of an eyesore. Anyone for a trade?


Hockey Cards

What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You

I have often wondered if the average American, or Canadian for that matter, realizes that we are helping to bail out the indebted European nations such as Greece via our contributions to the IMF. I also often wonder what the average American would do if they knew it. The chart below highlights just how much various countries are ponying up to shore up the balance sheets of the moronic countries; as you can see the US is throwing in a cool $50 billion, but hey, whats a few billion between friends?

I have my thoughts regarding who is actually getting bailed out here (perhaps it is actually the European banks who hold all of this government debt on their balance sheets) but I won't bore you with that rant. I would just like to know how many Americans actually know that they are bailing out these guys.

Seth Meyers Vs Donald Trump

Below is a clip from the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. The clip is of Seth Meyers,from SNL fame (Saturday Night Live) throwing out a few jokes - mostly towards Trump and Obama. The Trump fun begins around the 2:10 mark of the video and is a must see; very funny stuff!