Beluga whales

There was a brand new baby beluga whale born at the Vancouver Aquarium on Sunday, June 7th at 2:39pm to Aurora. Aurora is the grandmother of Tiqa, who was born 1 year ago today (June 10th) to Qila.

Max and I went to the Aquarium today to celebrate Tiqa's first birthday and it was busy! It was so exciting to get to see the brand new baby beluga at just about 3 days old.

Here's one of Max's favourite new toys.

Of course we visited Clownfish Cove and were very happy that Alex was back, playing his guitar. We got to practice singing happy birthday and of course, sang the baby beluga song. It was great to visit with our friends Ryo, Sadie and Allister. The Aquarium was insanely busy, but it was nice to be in the somewhat organized chaos that is Clownfish Cove.

The Aquarium has done a lot of work around the beluga's and their habitat. The nursery doesn't open until 10am and Max waited very patiently in line and was very quiet when we went down to the viewing areas.

Here are some photos of Aurora and her calf:

We captured a picture of Tiqa in the background here too:

Max and I got outside early and helped sing happy birthday to Tiqa while we snacked and then raced home for nap time. All-in-all a beautiful day for a birthday celebration.

My nephew is 1!

It's so hard to believe that Brandon came in to the world just 1 short year ago...

Happy birthday Brandon!


Let's celebrate with crawling into small spaces... Don't worry, Grandma to the rescue!

Opening presents with Dad.
and then Dad gets to play with the new toys!

Max and Brandon have so much fun together. Well, Brandon loves to follow Max and Max tries to get away. They are both learning to share and Max likes to help Brandon drink water or eat. It's so cute. He says "Hi Bwandon" when we get there or "here Bwandon" when he gives him something.

Brandon is now walking a little, talking a little and generally interacting more and more everyday. I LOVE his big beautiful blue eyes! I'm so glad that we are close enough to have play time.

I am so proud of my sister for what an amazing job she does taking care of, and raising Brandon. He is so lucky to have such a fabulous Mom. Brandon's birthday celebration was perfect - a small family gathering with grandparents, aunts & uncles and his cousin Max!

I'm posting a few of the photos I took, but I'm sure none of them compare to the ones that Kiri took. Brandon's Aunt Kiri is a professional photographer and she is absolutely amazing! She did our fall shots of Max. Her web site: http://www.kirimarr.com/

May long weekend

I know the weekend is not over yet, but I wanted to post about some of our fun while I had the time to wait for the pictures to load. They seem to take forever some times and I'm multi-tasking while watching a weird Keanu Reeves movie with Ross. Heehee, happy birthday Ross! I know it was 2 days ago, but this is the first night we have gotten a chance to sit down. We had a great dinner together, all 3 of us and Max ate 1/2 a hamburger (in a whole grain pita pocket) all by himself! It was great fun. Ross and I are working on plans to do a dinner & movie date when the new Terminator movie comes out. Should be fun!

Friday night I had a lacrosse game (that was the night of Ross's actual birthday), so I was out until late, but I brought home a big watermelon for him (it's what he wanted) and it was on top of the birthday gift that Max and I got him earlier in the day.

It is the season of Farmer's Markets! They opened last weekend and we did not have time to go, so Max and I drove out to Trout Lake for the 9am start. Well, we tried to make it for the 9 am start. Unfortunately, there was no parking, so we ended up a little bit late... more like 910am and it was busy! I think in the future we will probably park around the lake and go for a little walk before we go. Oh yeah, and take the Ergo Carrier, that would be a great idea too. It's so busy with people and dogs that Max was a little overwhelmed to walk on his own. Of course, no pictures, with just the two of us. We did a whole lot of errands while we let Dad sleep in (another late birthday present), Freybe and then came home to find out that Dad was awake. A nice quick walk to the Lonsdale Quay famer's market with Dad for vegetables!

1, 2, 3, jump! One of Max's favourite things to do while walking.



A late afternoon walk at Ambleside, what a gorgeous day!

I wanted a picture of the Lions Gate Brige and Stanley Park in the background, so I got a few. I don't think anything Max is wearing matches, except for his cool shorts that Grandma & Grandpa brought back from Hawaii and his cool flip flops. I try to make sure he sort of matches, most of the time, but today, his dad dressed him (heehee). Poor Max.

"Cheese", on the swings. Oh yeah, I had to switch his hat to a smaller one, the other one kept blowing off in the wind. This one has red lobsters on it and also, doesn't match at all - sorry Max.

and nearing the end of our walk, Max's preferred mode of transportation - Dad's shoulders.


We got home to get dinner ready and Max disappeared. I was cutting up vegetables and he came out with his big bear. So cute!

and then it became a game for mum to get a picture.



Max likes to move a chair over to the counter so that he can play beside me while I prepare food or clean up. Today, he was getting a chair for a different reason...

What a fun day, I wanted to post some pictures of it. I'm not sure what we'll get up to for Monday, but hopefully I'll get some fun pictures to post.

Grandpa's birthday!

Guess what we're staring at?
What could have possibly grabbed their attention away from their toys and each other (and at the SAME TIME)?!

It's Grandpa, playing his harmonica (apparently it's called a mouth organ). Old McDonald...
Happy birthday Grandpa, we had a great time!

Max and Brandon just stopped and stared. They were absolutely enthralled with it.

I'm so glad that we got to see Grandpa on his birthday (even though I got the date wrong and thought it was the following day).