Happy 2023!
In lieu of mailing costs, we’ve donated to:
- Furbearer Defenders (ongoing)
- Ocean Wise Conservation (“adopted” an orca named Yoda–ongoing)
- BCSPCA (because of 63 dogs rescued from supposed “rescuer”)
Looking through these photos for this year in review, I can see we had a pretty good 2022!
Started off 2022 with our friends Jenn and Cam, checking out the Capilano suspension bridge and lights
2022 brought back a return to more time with friends and family, as well as a bit of travel. It felt like a slow return toward at least some degree of normalcy. We were able to gather again and celebrate a few birthdays this year, including Nana’s 102nd, Keanu’s 6th, and Mom’s 75th! We look forward to even more gatherings and travel for 2023!
Can you tell whose birthday this is? Lan’s, of course, though Keanu helped. 😊
Mom’s 75th birthday! We went to my friend’s Korean BBQ restaurant (called Kook) and we were finally able to have the whole BC family and some of Mom and Dad’s friends there.
Keanu’s 6th birthday party was held at 365Funday, a massive play space that is like a kid’s dream with things to climb, slide down, bounce on, and jump on, as well as a laser tag room! Add in the sugar from cupcakes and birthday cake and we all had fun!
Sean’s Star Wars birthday cake
As usual, we got up on the snowy mountains to do some snowshoeing. We haven’t been up for awhile now, as we’ve been busy, so we’re looking forward to at least a couple more snowshoe outings before the end of this winter season.
For Christmas this year, Sean and I gave each other a package of 10 yoga classes with our first one on January 1st. For me, it felt great to get back into a yoga studio after over 2 years of missing them. My previous studio shut down permanently shortly after the start of the pandemic. Sean had never been to a yoga studio before, having only done yoga at home via online classes.
My friend Kelly invited me to join her for a ride in her dad’s helicopter. That was a cool enough idea, as it was, but then finding out that we were going to fly over the Garibaldi Glacier was even better. And the icing and cherry on top was getting to be the pilot for a bit!
Speaking of flying high, we really felt like we were soaring when we bought a clinic from Lynn, a colleague of mine, this past May! We hadn’t been thinking about getting another business, but when we heard about My Rest, it sounded like a great opportunity!
My Rest is an open-space clinic, and the best part is that the practitioners all decided to stay, and they are a fabulous team! We have grown our team even further, and we’ve had a couple of chances to have get togethers for fun with each other too. Check it out! www.myrest.ca
We’ve done some promotion events that included “car-free day” and a combo of restorative yoga and acupuncture.
We decided to have my family over to My Rest where we hosted an “event” for them. It was a combo of belated 50th anniversary for my parents, 50th birthday for Al, and a celebration of everyone’s birthdays. We treated them to their choice of tui na massage, acupuncture, cupping, or reiki from our practitioners and a small buffet.
Our other huge thing of the year was getting to go to Disneyland with my family! We went on the Millenium Falcon numerous times, and also got to try out the new Star Wars ride, the Rise of the Resistance. Check out Sean’s look when he saw all the Stormtroopers!
Our second big trip of the year was a continuation of our annual writer’s retreat. This year we decided to take Millie with us and go to Kelowna. We found an Airbnb that is part of an RV park that has a fenced dog park, a small golf course, and a game room.
We knew it would be a challenge to get Millie there and back, as she gets carsick, even with a short drive. It was a tough go, but we did everything we could to make it easier for her. We had one of our practitioners do reiki on her, we made sure she had an empty stomach for the ride, and we gave her Gravol (had tried Cerenia, unsuccessfully). She made it pretty okay on the way out, though the ride return home was tougher. But, in Kelowna she was great and settled into her vacation setting just fine. She loved her chance to run around the dog park and go for long walks with us.
On the way out to Kelowna, there was a fire in the hills and we saw helicopters picking up water from the lake nearby to take to try to put out the fire.
For us, we got to visit Kelowna, spend time with our friend Sonja who drove out from Lumby, check out the coolest animal place (Kangaroo Creek), and, of course, get some writing done!
Some of the fun things we did with friends:
We also tried to get out more this year doing things with family and just the two of us. We’re still not yet back in full swing, but it was a start. And, yes, that is the kiddie helmet I’m wearing below.
Our version of high culture was checking out two VSO (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) shows. I think Sean’s highlight of the year was getting to see his favourite drummer, Stuart Copeland–drummer of the Police–play with the VSO. Though he also really enjoyed when we saw the VSO play the score while showing the Return of the Jedi.
We also discovered that we can watch the International Fireworks show from my clinic’s balcony. First night, we brought Millie with us, but she wasn’t a fan of the deep, resonating booms, so she waited for us at home for the next nights of fireworks.
Since we visited a Vancouver artist’s studio, Sean has been inspired to pick up his guitar more often and is expanding his repertoire, having a lot of fun with it. Maybe in a future post I’ll get a video of him playing.
I still enjoy crafting and have kept up with crochet, but have also tried some macrame.
You know my family doesn’t go halfway when planning an event, so Keanu’s Halloween party ended up being a big one, as more kids than originally planned ended up being added when parents asked. We had pumpkin decorating (not carving), colouring, and games, but I think they were mostly just excited to run around chasing each other, especially when the big kid (Sean) got involved.
More Halloween…Gotta love this picture that looks like the pumpkin is picking my mom’s nose! Millie makes an adorable devil. And my Jabba the Pumpkin won me an amazing gift basket prize.
Next thing we knew, it was Christmas!
And now, the pictures and videos you’ve been waiting for…Millie!
