Fun in the sun!

I suspect that my updates will be farther between but greater in length, owing to the lack of internet in our home.

We are having a great time here. There's been a few bumps as we get used to what things cost, but it'll work out. The weather has been a little strange; rainy but warm for a few days, and now plenty of sun, but I hear that is happening elsewhere as well so I don't chalk it up to the region just yet. We do get some nice hot, sunny days, and we've taken to adventures outside to enjoy them.

There's so many free community events going on in our neighborhood to take the kids to go play. It's really amazing what there is. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we take Freya (and sometimes Odin) to a massive play date in a multipurpose room about twice the size of a basketball court. There's toys everywhere, play houses, cars to ride in, and they do a snack, book reading, singing, and other such things. We signed Odin up for a free class every Tuesday in the same room where he does guided arts and crafts. Last week (the first week) he came home with a fridge magnet of him and one of Freya, plus a 5x7 wooden photo frame which he had painted himself. This week he made masks for himself and Freya. (We got some pictures of that, but I haven't uploaded them yet.) Today Alyssa is taking Odin for some quality time to a Biodiversity museum since she gets in free as a student and he does as a child. (There's actually a ton of museums and attractions to within walking distance which are free for all of us except me until I become a student as well, so entertainment is really easy.) He's been excited about it all week, I gave Alyssa the camera.

We've found a lot of our favourite little places to hang out or go eat, such as forest trails, parks, walks in gardens, and the like. One of the kids' favourite treats is Tim Bits, which are small boxes of a few donut-holes from Vancouver's version of a Dutch Bros, called Tim Horton's. There's a lot of really cool looking restaurants around here for any kind of food we could want at any meal, so it's going to take us a long time to try them all.

Lately Freya loves to draw. She gets paper and a pen whenever she can and draws all over it, then comes to us and says "Look what I draw!" or some other proud exclamation. We're working on her table manners and trying to start the potty training.

Odin also likes to draw, but he's been focusing on building and imaginary play with all his toys now that he has plenty of room to play in the house. It's actually surprising how much space we have, when you stop to look around at it all.

Alyssa and I have been experimenting with new ways to cook on a smaller budget. We're making a lot of raw recipes, because it's easy to get cheap produce here and it tends to make a lot, plus there's no part of anything that goes to waste; excess or un-used parts of food can be used in another recipe. In fact, last night we made our own almond milk (way cheaper to make it with almonds than to buy it) and today we are using the leftover pulp to make an almond bread, so we spent way less on something that made tons more food, twice.

Alyssa's been hard at the studying for her first year. I'm really excited for her; she gets to teach a class and work in a really nice, new lab. One thing that killed us about her old lab was that she only had it at certain times so she had to go no matter what was going on at home, and it was really far away. Her new lab is a 5 minute walk from here, and it's open 24 hours without scheduling, so she can go one night she feels like it, and the next night she doesn't have to if the kids are staying up late, or something. It's going to be really different.

I'm trying to use my year off to catch up on some studies. I promised myself I wouldn't worry about it until we were all settled (which would give me a few weeks to relax), but we are now and I'm trying to motivate myself to get back in the saddle. So far with no success, but I'll get my act together. :)

We still have to find doctors for all four of us, but it looks like our insurance is going to come in in a day or so, so we can get whatever treatment we need. We still need to get Alyssa's Social Insurance Number so she can get paid for working, but after that, there's no red-tape to take care of, so we can just relax and enjoy ourselves.

It's so nice here being able to live in a nice area, with lots of community around, and plenty of fun and free things within walking distance for us all to have a fun day. Just a couple days ago we found the beach. It was about a 10 story hike down some wooden stairs (which was murder coming back up) through a beautiful forest, and the beach was perfect. There's hardly any wind (because it's in a bay, though still ocean water), and the water is about as warm as a public pool so swimming is super easy. I swam in the Umpqua and it was colder.

Well, that will do for now. Alyssa is at the museum with Odin and I'm out for a walk with Freya, so I think we'll go. I thought it would be a long post.