While back in TO I got the opportunity to see all of my family (which rarely happens) and meet my new nephew Issac. Totally smitten with him as were my two nieces Hannah and Brooke.





















My two favourite guys also got to hang out while we went to visit Issac, David and May Anne.

Dancing with the Stars was great fun.

We were pretty far from the floor being up in the box but that didn't stop me from seeing Nick Lachey and Vanessa Milli... walk in.

I kept thinking that Trent and I could totally take lessons and dance like that until I saw the local contest winners who got to dance before the Vancouver audience. It was a good reality cheque...normal people don't dance like that (Del excluded).

My favourite part of the show was definitely when Apollo and Julianna did their hip hop routine!

I can barely contain my excitement. We are off to see Dancing with the Stars in just a few minutes. Vancouver is the final stop on the tour and Apollo Anton Ohno is making a special appearance as he's in town training for the Olympics (2010..yeah, they are a way off).

More later when we get home!

Open water swim practice tonight. Decided it was time I give two loops a try; which depending on the tide is +/- 2ooom. Today I am sure it was closer to 3ooom as the tide was in and I swear I was against current for most of the swim and almost going backwards on the final push into shore.

Definitely had a little 'swimmers high' afterwards, followed shortly by quiet a low which required me to leave the dinner table and lie on the floor for a while.

This week saw Trent do his first open water ocean swim on Monday. Wednesday we caught the Spain vs. Brazil FIFA match and Thursday we raced OC2 together in the Big Chop race series out here (we came 3rd overall and first in OC2).

Friday night we went to the Vancouver Folk Festival and caught Hawksley Workman's performance. Will definitely make the effort to see him in a club setting next time we comes to town. Next year we will buy passes for the entire weekend as one evening just wasn't enough to take everything in.

Saturday we started the day out with a swim out at Sasamat Lake then cleaned up the apt after our busy weekend before heading the Whitecaps vs. Miami Football Club match. Whitecaps lost but it was a good game and lots of fun to watch from the stands while drinking beer and eating tiny fresh made donuts.

This morning we got a good paddle in before heading to the Kitsilano Farmers Market to pick up some fresh produce. God I have a weakness for farmers markets. Who can say no to fresh raspberries, blueberries and organic bread? Not I.

This afternoon was spent cleaning and organizing the balcony. Between us we have a lot of sports equipment and we needed to find some ways to better manage the wet suits/towels and paddles.

We have just returned from a nice BBQ dinner at Jennifer & Greg's. The little big man is getting so big and such a happy guy. I got enough smiles to last me until we are back from TO.

Continuing the updates

Last weekend Trent planned a weekend away for us. He wouldn't tell me where we were going or what we were doing, only that I had to take Friday afternoon off. I was allowed to ask questions (about one per week) and through pure chanced threw out the idea that we were going to a tree house one day only to have him incredulously respond that yes, that was what we were doing. So I didn't know where (other than on the Island) and I didn't know what we were doing there but it involved a tree house of sorts.

Imagine my surprise when we were lead through a long wild piece of property to our Spirit Sphere floating in a grove of trees. Words can't describe the Spirit Spheres, you need to check out the links to see the photos and watch the videos about them. Dan tells me there was a piece on the CBC just last night about them. Tom, the creator of the spheres was a most wonderful host and so willing to share his knowledge and ideas with us.

http://www.freespiritspheres.com/





After spending our first night nestled in our floating tree house we were off to Horne Lake to do some caving. It was so much fun and only scary when 300+ meters deep into the caves I realized how high we were off the ground (+30 m's is my est) and that one misplaced step on our climb back down and it would be a long hard fall.


We survived the caving, also know as spelunking and made our way to beach for a picnic lunch. There we learned of the Swimmers/Duck itch affecting the local lakes. We decided to take our chances and carried on to Spider Lake to do a little open water swim.

Tired from our day of spelunking and swimming we made our way back to the floating tree house, showered and headed out for some dinner at a pub up the coast. After dinner we carried on to Courtney to try and catch a few bands at the Island Music Festival. At $85 bucks a piece we decided it was a wee pricey for just 3 hours (Bedouin Sound Clash were playing the following night) so we headed back.

There was a bit of breeze that evening that gently rocked the sphere and made for the best sleep I have had in a long time. It was sad to leave in the morning but before leaving we got a tour of Tom's workshop and got to check out the latest sphere which he plans to turn into a massage studio.

We stopped for a quick swim at Qualicum Beach before heading to the ferry for our journey home.

I had planned to lay this baby to rest but its been a busy few weeks what with Trent's arrival to Van and summer finally arriving (June 28th!) I actually have some updates to post that might interest some of you back home.

Let's begin with Canada Day. Its long so grab yourself a drink and settle in.

We kicked the day off with my competing in the Canada Day Classic Open Water Swim. I've been doing a lot of swimming over the last few months and had ventured out to the open water swim practices when they started in early June. They didn't go well. I was experiencing a lot of nausea and dizziness from the rolling/crashing waves and drinking a lot of sea water. It wasn't and certainly wasn't pretty. Worried that I was in over my head having registered for the 2K, I decided to head to a local lake where many triathletes here in Van train and where the Canada Day Classic would be held. After one swim in Sasamat Lake I felt like a superstar and had my confidence restored. I could do this. I managed to get a few more open water swim practices in before race day and felt that I could at least complete the race. Looking at the past results I set myself a goal of finishing in the 40 minute time range.

Come Canada Day we arrive at the race and I quickly lose all confidence. I am surrounded by triathletes. They're buff, looking confident and all seem to know one another. My manager, Trent Waterhouse, reassured me that I would do fine as long as I just stuck to my race plan. For me it wasn't so much a race but accomplishing the challenge of competing in my first open water swim event.


The call goes out for my event (Women's 2K) and I lien myself up with the most direct line to the first bouy about 600m out. The gun goes off and according to plan I start out swimming steady and focusing on getting my breathing regulated. At the first buoy I am feeling pretty good and and make the turn with only a few arms and legs in my way. The next stretch was the longest at about 750 m. I'm focusing on what I think is the next buoy but start to worry when I see swimmers stretched out a good 200m to my left. Am I head to the right buoy, am I way off course. I continue on and reach the buoy. At this point I realize that while I may not be the fastest swimmer I do swim the straightest/shortest race of anyone in the field. After another short 200m I round the final buoy and head for the finish line. I am passed at this point by three guys racing the 4K who fly by me like I am standing still. It was unbelievable the power these guys had and it gave me a boost to swim in strong. I see the finish line buoy and focus on swimming hard past the beach with all of the spectators. As I make the turn into the finish gantry I see a pair of legs run out in front of me. I pop my head up only to find out that I have over shot the finish line and am on the far side of it. I quickly duck under the finish line rope swim the last few meters and run out of the water to see Trent with camera/video in hand cheering me on.










When the results were posted I was thrilled to see that I had finished in a respectable 36:25, several minutes ahead of my goal. To celebrate we headed to the Port Moody Firefighters Canada Day Pancake Breakfast. Yummm, deep fried sausages.