New book club book...

Note there is a new book to read this month-if you have not yet joined book club, or if you have been away for a while, you can still join or come back!!! I am excited for this month's book-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Who wants to read with me, huh?!

Whale Watching

We decided to splurge and pay for a Whale Watching excursion. Mats and Heidi came with us. We were all geared up and excited to go, but in the end it was a bit disappointing. Kinda funny though because they drove us into US waters to see the whales-we ended up just off of Seattle. It was like 3 hours out on the boat. Wes had convinced me to take a seasickness pill so I wouldn't get sick-I didn't, but I did get drowsy and had a heck of a time staying awake! That aside. I am glad we did it, and here are the pics...

Wes at the start...we sat in the very front. Eagle
Sea lions

On the left is a US island , on the right, Canadian. Right before we went into US waters.

We never got really close to the whales, but here are a few of the better pics I got...

This is a baby and his big brother...

Seals

Here we are at the end

The boat we were on

Oh Canada!

Wes worked on a poster and submitted it to a conference. It was accepted, then we found out the conference was in Vancouver, Canada, and it was over the week of our anniversary. So, we decided to take Solace out of school for a week and to drop the kids off in Utah to be watched while we went on our first vacation without kids since our honeymoon (ok-that's not true-we went to Greece before Solace was born). Anyway, it was a long overdue trip alone. Sadly, Wes actually had to attend conferences, but it gave me a lot of time to just chill and relax and read and swim and hang out in the hot tub. And Wes did make a lot of time for me! Here are a few pictures from the trip. There will be a whole other blog dedicated to the Whale watching excursion we took...

The view from our hotel-we were staying in the Fairmont Hotel and the conference was across the street at the conference center attached to the Pan Pacific at Canada Place. We were on like the 23 floor and had a great view of the cruise ship dock and Canada Place. I took these first couple pics through the window of the room. We actually arrived in Canada at about 1 am, and this was the next morning-we walked over to Stanley park. Me on the river walk area on the way to Stanley Park.

Wes there too-you can see the sails of Canada Place behind him.

The lighthouse in Stanley Park

Lighthouse

Lighthouse

We also walked over to Gastown-here is the Steam Clock

On our Anniversary, Sunday May 17th, Dr Omajola took Wes and I and Mats and Heidi out to the Samba Grill. (Mats is also a resident at UNMC that had his poster accepted as well. Dr Omajola is the attending at UNMC that worked with Wes and Mats on their posters.)

Heidi and Wes with the dancers

Mats and me with the dancers

Dr Omajola with the dancers

Wes and me

Wes and the dancers

Canada Place from the hotel room again

Our hotel

Wes at Canada Place

Wes and Canada Place

Us at Canada Place

We rode the hotels bikes over to Stanley Park one day. Wes had to get out and see the wildlife...

Funny thing about that bike ride....Our friends Mats and Heidi had done the bike ride before we did. They told us that they were surprised at how quickly their bottoms got sore and they said they only rode about halfway around the park then came back. I knew of the 4 of us I was in the worst shape, but Heidi is pregnant, so I thought I could still do better. But about half way around the park, we decided to turn back. (Actually, where we turned back is right where we took the picture above.) So, I felt a bit defeated, but at least I had not fallen down or crashed or done anything embarrassing....yet! So, we made it all the way back to the convention center/Pan Pacific hotel, and just had to cross the street to our hotel. It is a pretty busy street and was particularly busy at the moment cause the people were arriving to board the cruise ship. Also, the Doctors were just finishing the morning lectures (Wes sluffed those ones to bike with me). So, we thought we ought to get off the bikes to cross the street. I was wearing a bag over my shoulder on my back, so when I tried to get off, it shifted, and I did not anticipate how jello-y my legs were, so I crashed right into luggage and bellmen and in front of a lot of people...it was pretty embarrassing, but also funny...

The sails at night

Wes and a Canadian flag

Our hotel through the sails.

Me

Again

Wes at Stanley park near the tide pools

Me at the Tide pools

Wes doing his favorite all time thing to do-checking out the tide pools...

Siwash Rock-look it up-interesting story...

That is one huge rock...notice Wes at the bottom right.

Wes found a purple starfish.

Coolest tree ever...found in Stanley Park.

Wes by said coolest tree

One last shot out our hotel room on the last day.

There was also a whale watching excursion-I will do another blog about that, but I should record our trip to China town. Note there are no pictures of that-I did not want to get out my camera-you'll understand...

So, Wes and I wanted to go to Chinatown. On the map we could see it was not too far from our hotel and we felt we could walk there. It was only a couple blocks from Gastown where the steam clock was. The guidebooks said not to go there on foot cause it was a bad neighborhood between Gastown and Chinatown. It was literally only 2 blocks and Wes and I thought "eh, how bad could it be." Well, I will tell you-it can be pretty bad...In the 2 blocks to Chinatown we met drug dealers and prostitutes of both sexes...Wes had many offers...it was bad, but we made it. After seeing Chinatown, we were walking back, and I didn't want to walk on that same street that was so bad, so I suggested a different route back-worse idea. There was one block I thought we would not get out of alive. People were scoping us out, following us. It was as busy as Times Square on New Years, but all the people on the street were drug dealers and prostitutes and one other very lost British couple. It was NUTS!!! The bellman and the guidebook warned us, but I didn't believe...I am now a believer.

We really did have a good time in Canada and it was a much needed break. I am glad we went and cannot wait to bring our kids there someday!

Hogle Zoo

We drove to SLC, Utah May 14th/15th. We drove all night, so we arrived early on Friday the 15th and had all day in town with the kids before our 7:30 pm flight to Vancouver via Seattle. We went over to the zoo with my mom and brother and sister. Here are the pics.

Anyone from Utah knows this picture-we had to get the obligatory shot of each kid drinking out of the lion (well, Kindle didn't do it, but the others did.) Here is Ender. Solace
Armour

In front of the elephants. I should explain that elephants are Armours favorite animal but he has never seen one live until this trip. He was SO excited-it was crazy how excited he was.

Army and an elephant...

Beautiful Solace

Wes and Ender

Ender and Solace