44 oz any one?

One thing Stephannie missed since the move to England is a little drive-thru coffee shop in the USA called Big Foot, they  make a great dairy free chai latte. Given paper work issues we were not able to travel to the USA, but her father said he would pick her up a latte when he went to get gas. Stephannie came home to find a 44 oz chai latte! (It took her three days to drink it)

Merry Christmas

This early morning photo says it all...may you enjoy Christmas like it was your first. May it be full of awe and wonder like the lights on a tree.

Aria's First Day and Snow Day in Canada

We woke up early given we were all still on Cambridge time, so we thought we would enjoy the Canadian winter wonderland.

How we have missed the snow, and hope that there will be more  of it while we are here to enjoy. Going to walk to the local coffee shop and test out Aria's new stroller and rain/snow cover. Thanks to family for the early Christmas gift.

Our bags are packed...here we come Canada

Here are some time photos from our very long trip to Canada for Chirstmas.

Stephannie and Aria ready for the first of two train trips, surprisingly the suitcase worked ok to help move Aria around, but both hands were on the car seat.

The girls waiting for the second train which only stops for 90 seconds, to let people on and off. We did with just a little bit of luck get all the things and us on the train before the doors closed.

 Brendan and Aria on the second train, Aria was having fun looking at everything going flying by.

Dee Dee, Aria's toy dragon was taking part in air plane safety.


Multi-tasking? Aria is in a  Flyebaby  hammock, which allowed us to watch a movie and spend some face to face time with Aria.

How will Santa get in?

In all the years that Stephannie and Brendan have been married they only had one place without a fireplace, but that Christmas they were at families to Santa had a way to get to them. With it being Aria's first Christmas how were the stockings going to be hung by the fire with care if there was no fireplace?

What happens when you have a bunch of boxes from baby furniture, Amazon orders and moving and you add a teacher/artist and engineer? You  get a home made fireplace!

Aria was checking that Daddy was measuring twice and cutting once.

"Where is the end of the tape?"

End result....drum roll please....

   

New fireplace, decked out for Christmas and sporting our Lego winter village (new family tradition, added to each year). Aria dreaming of sugarplums???

  

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM CAMBRIDGE!

(Looks like it will be a green one)

Happy Birthday Brendan

Aria was a big help making breakfast in bed for Brendan's birthday, she cuddled Stephannie as hung out in the baby carrier, and watched the pancake spell out messages.

Stephannie kept her baking simple as a new mum, but still fun, check out Brendan's cake!

Funny thing...Brendan took  the cupcakes to the office and people started to "play" PAC MAN  with the cupcakes just staking the one right in front of Pac Man. What fun!

Thankful that pizza is a one-handed food

Brendan and Aria hanging out with some of the other new parents and babies at Pizza Hut.

Trick or Treat?

We sure did have a treat, with little Aria dressed up like a cute butterfly. Though when we were not looking she got into some of the candy for the tricker-treaters.
 

I want to be a Canadian Eh?!

Well we tried to travel into London yesterday however the weather had other plans...with hurricane-force winds the trains stopped running, lines were taken out by fallen trees, you can just guess what a mess things were.  We were told that the trains would be up and running in the morning but we got all three of us to the train station only to see that all the trains were not running to London that we needed. Many people that had to go into London were taking taxis or just staying put, so we went back home.

So we tried again today to take Aria to the Canadian High Commission, the train was so packed leaving Cambridge that we were thankful we were travelling with Aria as she got us a set of seats, what a good little girl.

So we got to London King's Cross to get the tube and this is what we saw...

After a long long wait we did make it onto the tube and then to Canadian High Commission, now we just have to wait and hope all the papers we need to arrive in time for our trip home for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our first family thanksgiving we were blessed to have Stephannie's parents here to cook a ***** (5 star) meal, which we shared with our friend Parousia, who is studying here in Cambridge. We have so many things to be thankful for this fall, most of all the safe and healthy arrival of our sweet daughter Aria, that family could come and help us out, and for all our new friends we are making in the village.

She is here!

Our sweet daughter arrived today! We are looking forward to getting to know her and spending time as a family, before Stephannie's parents (Nana and Gramps) come to visit.

A Room for Jellybean!

As we wait the arrive of our daugher we have gotten her room ready. While living overseas we feel like we are on an adveneture so we went with an "UP" theme, with two key things we kept in mind.
1) Adventure is out there
2) Never give up

 

60 miles on a bike!

 This morning Brendan left the house about 4:30 am to ride to the center of Cambridge to catch, as his boss called it, "a cyclist's natural enemy," a bus. The bus took Brendan's company team into London, England. After a long ride on the bus Brendan and countless others began this journey from London back to Cambridge for the  London to Cambridge Bike Ride for the Cure. (Note: it was not a race, there were stops along the way, to encourage cyclists to tune up bikes, enjoy a drink at the local pub, and just enjoy the day.)

By the time Brendan returned to Cambridge he had spent less than 5 hours on the whole ride with stops. Brendan was delighted that he beat his own personal goal he set before the ride.

Given that technology does not always work the way we would like it to, Stephannie missed him crossing the line, as the map system they were using said he was on the other end of town, but here is Brendan post race! Well done!

 

After the ride there was a smoothie station, which was really awesome as it was peddle powered!

Thank you to everyone who supported Brendan and company team!

Dino-delight!

After our busy Friday and Saturday of moving and cleaning the old and new space we helped our friend Richard into London with his many bags as he prepares to return to Canada after his year of studying in Cambridge.

Once the bags were delivered we went on a dinosaur hunt, as rumor had it Jamie Oliver had opened a pop-up diner with a dinosaur theme!

Yes Stephannie did try the ribs, with a side of avocado fries and they we dino-icious!

 

We even had a dinosaur join us for dinner, the sign says not to feed, but he looked so hungry!

 Here is one of the great posters that was around the restaurant, for all my tea lovers.

More boxes again!

Sadly we had to move, so even though our front door is not blue we are setting up our new home in Impington, which is just North of Cambridge city center.

Side trip to Texas!

After only being back in Canada a week we took a side trip further south to Brenham, Texas to take part and celebrate the wedding of Trevor & Magen. While there we saw some interesting wild life. Armadillos, buzzards, and tarantulas oh my!

Stephannie and Brendan had the honour of standing up as part of the wedding party on Trevor's side as grooms-matron and best man.

Congratulations Magen & Trevor!

Once back in Canada we spent more time with family and friends, and then we were off and back to the air port to fly back to jolly old England.

Oh Canada....it had been 6 months and we missed thee

So 6 months after we moved to the UK we flew back to Vancouver Canada to see family and friends. We had a laugh that the day we landed in Canada this was the Google Doodle.

OH CANADA how we <3 you!

We celebrated a late Mother's Day with our mothers, and  had some cake.

Many breakfasts, lunches, teas, and dinners with friends and family. So much great North American food.

 

(Left) At Pachamami Sabor Latino with Stephannie's parents. Best Bolivian food in Surrey! Stephannie counted the days until she could have one of her favorite dishes, saltenas! (Right) IHOP with Josh and Sam, yay peaches and pancakes! [There are no good places to get pancakes in Cambridge to this was a great treat]

While back in the lower mainland we got to enjoy some of the local wild life....mind you depending on who you take to they are more of a pest, but Stephannie thinks bunnies are just wonderful.