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We're still having a ball up here. Last Saturday we went with a bunch of other families in our community to the Nitobe Memorial Gardens. Its a Japanese garden which is just beautiful, and we get in for free! I have pictures but I can't upload them yet. We had a blast, the place is amazing. I'm going to make trips back there to meditate. Later that day I took the kids to some robot racing, which was really fun. There's just tons of stuff to do here, and most of it is free and the kids love it!

The whole week has mostly been about hanging out and enjoying ourselves. We've been trying to stretch our groceries out a bit, and cook in some new ways. We've walked around to see more of the area. We've decided on some favourite places to frequent. Its really nice here.

Alyssa is still hard at studying, trying to get ready for her coming year of being a grad student and a teacher (and her entrance exams, to boot). I've started a language exchange with someone from Paris. She is teaching me French while I help her with her English. We've met once, and I think we're meeting again today.

The kids are just great. They love to play; its so easy to take them to a park for for a hike in the woods. We live a stone's throw from Pacific Spirit Regional Park, which is a forest 3 or 4 times the size of UBC campus (for those of you who don't know, UBC is about 3 or 4 times the size of UO campus). We've barely scratched the surface of its trails. (And we expect to find several Stargate SG-1 shooting locations!)

Wednesday night Alyssa went to the Distant Worlds concert that I got her tickets for. It was a stroke of luck that they were coming to Vancouver when we'd be here, and we payed extra for her ticket so she could actually meet Nobuo Uematsu and Arnie Roth! We have a picture of that as well, but I didn't bring the right computer with me to upload the photos, so another time. She said it was the opportunity of a lifetime, so I'm glad we were able to send her.

Tomorrow night, Paula and Kellie get in to town to visit us! They'll stay with us that night since they get in so late, and be here for 4 or 5 days. It'll be really fun to hang out with them and show them the area. And the kids can't wait to see Grandma. :)

We finally got doctors up here. See them in the second week of August, which is not too long a wait for first appointments. The insurance pays for everything, so we can get dental, massages, acupuncture, I can get my foot looked at, and we can come in as often as we need. Plus, the hospital where all these doctors are is a half-kilometer walk up the road from us.

Well, I took advantage of Freya falling asleep on our walk to sit and write this. Better get back home. :)