The Chadwick's Online - A Family Blog

Vacation Blog Update - Videos

2011-10-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know. Blog hasn't had a good update in awhile.

Going to stay that we for a bit as we are heading into the busy season. :) An end of the year update will happen before the New Year though.

Anyways, as promised here are our vacation videos:

Stuart and Nicholas at Disneyland's Main Street Station:

Emma on the Train Waiting to Go:

Trip Around Disneyland Part 1:

Trip Around Disneyland Part 2:

Trip Around Disneyland Part 3:

Trip Around Disneyland Part 4:

Nighttime of California Adventure from the Disney Vacation Club Roof Deck:

Nighttime of Hotel Pool Area:

The Train Arriving at Main Street Station:

Around the Rivers of America aboard the Mark Twain Part 1:

Around the Rivers of America aboard the Mark Twain Part 2:

Chip and Dale (And Friends) on Main Street:

Nicholas on King Triton's Carousel in California Adventure:

Disney Channel Rocks in California Adventure:

Various Short Videos from Universal Studios:

Our Trip to California in May

2011-06-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all to our long overdo vacation blog.

We visited the Disneyland Resort the week of May 15th. In addition to the resort we also visited the USS Midway museum in San Diego, Universal Studios and the Los Angeles Zoo.

The trip includes myself - Dan, Nicole, Nicholas, Emma, Eric, Pat and Stuart.

We have lots of pictures (over 960 of them) and have included some of them in the blog with a link to the whole gallery at the bottom.

So without dragging this into on for much longer, let's get started shall we?

DAY 1 - May 14th, 2011

Ok... Technically we weren't supposed to leave till the 15th but I made a rather large error in my trip planning. It almost prevented us from going at all.

As we live in Canada, when crossing the border into the US via land or sea the kids do not require passports. However when crossing the border by air they are required to have passports.

I did not discover this until I went to check us into our flight from YVR (Vancouver International Airport) to LAX. After a couple of quick phone calls I started to panic. Despite being told by our airline that we didn't need passports when I booked the tickets back in January it was still my responsibility to verify and I didn't. Needless to say we now have a fairly large credit with that airline to be used in the future.

I called Nicole and Pat in a panic and asked them to come home so we could discuss our options.

A couple hours later we had finished packing, loaded up our two vehicles and were on our way down to SeaTac so we could fly out of SeaTac into LAX early Sunday morning. Cost us a small fortune to get flights that late but we were lucky enough to pull it off. Disaster averted.

This is me sitting in our van outside the Target store in Bellingham, Washington after we had eaten dinner. We still had a two hour drive to SeaTac so my wife had run in to the store to get some bottled water.

After a miserable night in the SeaTac Motel 6 we were ready to start our trip.

DAY 2 - May 15th, 2011

We had an enjoyable flight with Alaska Airlines down to LAX. Nicholas has flown before but for Emma this was a first flight. Both of the kids did really well considering the horrible night we had just spent in the Motel 6.

This was also Eric's first trip to California.

Nicholas on the plane, sitting between his Grandma (Pat) and Uncle Stuart.

Stuart, Pat, Myself (Dan) and Nicole on the plane.

Emma on the plane.

Nicholas and Stuart on the plane looking out the window.

A shot of Downtown Los Angeles from the plane.

After the flight we gathered our luggage and boarded a shuttle to our car rental place. We used Enterprise this time as I have used them many times in Canada for various business trips and have always been happy with them. Last year we used Hertz and it was a disaster.

Stuart at Enterprise Car Rental. We were loading up the rental vehicles for the drive to the resort.

At this point Nicole was very tired as this photo shows.

After a pleasant drive with light traffic we arrived at the Grand Californian and unloaded our luggage. Eric and I parked the vehicles in the self parking lot and walked back to the hotel to check in.

Front doors to hotel. They kept opening and closing so this was the best shot we could get.

After a smooth check in and as our room wasn't ready yet we wandered over to White Water Snacks for a bit of lunch.

Pat and Nicholas eating lunch at White Water Snacks.

In the middle of lunch we got a text message stating that our room was ready. Now there are five adults and two children in our party so how could we only have one room... Well we don't really. As members of the Disney Vacation Club we were on our first trip since buying into the club. We were lucky enough to get one of the two, three bedroom villas for the length of our stay at the resort. This villa is bigger than my house. We used up three years worth of points to get this villa and we don't for one second regret our decision.

Pool Table in Villa.

One of the upstairs bedrooms.

Villa stairs.

Living room clock.

Villa Dining Room.

Villa Kitchen.

Villa Living Room.

Villa Master Bathroom.

Villa Master Bedroom.

The front view from the Master Bedroom balcony. (There are three other balconies in the villa.)

The side view from the Master Bedroom balcony.

The view from Living Room Window from the upper level (adjacent the pool table).

The kids in living room, taken from the upper level looking down.

After we got settled Pat, Nicole and I took Emma to go do a bit of grocery shopping while Eric, Stuart and Nicholas went out into Downtown Disney for a bit.

Lego Woody at the Lego Store.

Nicholas and Mickey.

DAY 3 - May 16, 2011

We got up and went for a bite to eat at the Rainforest Cafe for breakfast. We like eating at this restaurant and always try to do breakfast and dinner there when we are at the resort. Nicholas on the other hand wasn't to impressed and got freaked out a couple of times and Emma was feeding off of her brother but we still managed to enjoy ourselves over all.

After breakfast we headed into Disneyland.

Breakfast at the Rainforest Café. Nicholas wasn't too sure of this idea.

Neither was Emma to be honest.

At the entrance gate, getting our online prepaid tickets converted into actual park passes.

Finally inside Disneyland.

The Sign. Need I say more?

On the Disneyland Railroad. (Nick’s second trip and Emma’s first.)

Emma is having fun.

Me videoing being photographed. I kept the camcorder on for the entire trip around the park. I may update this at a much later date once that video is processed and uploaded.

After the trip around the park on the railroad we got off and wandered up Main Street.

What’s Mickey looking at?

Oh, it’s a Military Helicopter flying over. There were a couple of them flying in formation.

The Castle.

Once we got to the central hub we decided to go for a spin on Mark Twain. During our last trip the Rivers of America had been drained so the track could be replaced and we all missed out on the Mark Twain.

The Rivers of America from the Mark Twain.

Sailing ship Columbia.

By this point it was getting close to lunch and nap time for the kids so we started heading for the exit.

On our way out we passed Minnie Mouse.

Nicholas enthralled by the Downtown Disney fountain.

After lunch and nap time we headed back into Disneyland.

Walking through the crowds.

Emma heard Turkey Leg and thought we meant her own leg. Nom, Nom, Nom.

Father and Son at the Disneyland Fire hall.

After a long day we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

Time for a quick crawl under the coffee table before bed time.

DAY 4 - May 17, 2011

We split up a bit on this day. Eric and I drove down to San Diego (in miserable weather) to pay a visit to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. This was my third trip to the museum and my brother's first trip. Pat, Stuart, Nicole and the kids would stay behind and spend time in the parks.

Midway Hangar Deck.

I was trying to get out of the shot and failed miserably.

Eric In the Midway Brig (where he belongs.)

Random Midway corridor.

Same type of plane the first President George Bush flew during WW II.

Model of the first US Aircraft Carrier (USS Langley) and the next US Aircraft Carrier (USS Gerald R Ford)

Meanwhile back at Disney, Nick tries on Mommy’s shoes.

Plastic pancakes anyone?

Exterior side shot of the Midway.

Midway’s Flight Deck. We got a real good feel for the life of a sailor with the rain blowing sideways up on the flight deck.

Midways Control Tower.

Meanwhile back at the resort:

Disney Junior Show.

Nicholas enjoying the show.

Pixar Pals.

Nicholas meets Mater and Lightning.

Nicholas, Emma, Stuart and Pat in front of a waterfall.

Emma, Nicole and Nicholas with Tigger.

Around dinner time Eric and I returned to the resort and rejoined the group as we spent the evening in California Adventure. As it was dark we didn't take many pictures.

DAY 5 - May 18, 2011

We took a break from the resort and headed up the 5 and then the 101 to Universal Studios.

Eric, Stuart and I went on the backlot tour first as we felt our kids were to young to go. Pat and Nicole stayed behind and we would swap afterwards.

Taken on our way out to Universal Studios.

The Mini Van is full.

Emma and Nicholas with with Curious George. I must be getting old. I remember reading about Curious George when I was a kid.

Courthouse Square during the Backlot Tour.

Emma and Nicholas with Easter Bunny from Hop.

Emma and Nicholas with Frankenstein’s Monster.

Emma and Nicholas with Homer Simpson.

Mr. Potato Head – Universal Studios Producer by Day, Toy Story Carnival Game Hawker by night at Disneyland Resort.

The Courthouse in the Backlot.

King Kong managed to crush one of the trams before they got him into his new home after the massive fire in 2008.

Going into King Kong 3D. By far the best thing about the already great tour. If you haven't experienced this yet I strongly encourage you to as soon as possible. It is awesome.

We were lucky to survive an encounter with Norman Bates. What's that lunatic doing out in public after all these years anyways?

Dan, Emma, Nicole and Nicholas with the sign.

Eric with the Universal Globe. The rest of us already have similar shots from previous trips.

The weather wasn't the greatest and we had pretty much seen all we wanted to so we went into Universal City Walk for some lunch at Johnny Rockets where Nicholas showed how much he loves his sister.

We took a long scenic drive back to the resort and I guess Stuart was tired.

Even though we live near the ocean, we don't have a single beach near us without some island or another blocking a straight view to the horizon so we wanted to stop to see such a view. Weren't counting on the oil rigs but we weren't going to complain to hard.

The view we got was great.

DAY 6 - May 19, 2011

Spent the next three days in both parks, even doing the early Magic Morning entry into Disneyland on Day 6 where I finally got to ride some of the Fantasyland rides that after two previous trip I had somehow managed to miss.

The crowd just before regular opening on a Magic Morning.

Emma, Nicholas, Walt and Mickey.

This butterfly decided to wait with us in the Casey Jr. Circus Train line.

On the Casey Jr. Circus Train.

Yes, Nicholas and Emma, elephants can fly.

On a Storybook Land Canal Boat.

Emma makes a new friend.

Emma and Nicholas spend some time with Tinkerbell and Vidia.

After Pixie Hallow Nicole and Pat took Emma and Nicholas into Toon Town. We had promised to take Nicholas to meet Mickey in person for weeks before the trip. Nicholas loves Mickey after watching Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse on Disney Junior (which we also get in Canada).

Once in Mickey's house Nicholas was lucky that they weren't that busy as Mickey spent a fair amount of time with him.

Nicholas and Mickey at long last.

Later in the day, Eric, Stuart, Nicole and I braved a nearly hour long lineup to try out Indiana Jones Adventure. Enjoyable if a little intense for me.

Searching for Indiana Jones.

Once we left the parks we hit up Build-A-Bear and Ridemakerz to get something for the kids. Emma, Nicholas and me.

For Nicholas and myself I built a remote control version of Lightning McQueen.

Nicholas and Dan with the completed Lightning McQueen. This is the Cars 2 version of Lightning.

DAY 7 - May 20, 2011

Emma (as Cinderella) and her Build-A-Bear (Cat) Mittens.

Breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen.

Nicholas and Alice.

Emma and Alice.

Pluto and Emma.

Nicholas and Snow White.

Chip and Emma. Emma really, really liked Chip. She wouldn't let go of him. He found this rather amusing.

Donald Duck and the kids. Is it me, or does Donald appear to be eating Nicholas's hand?

After breakfast we headed into the parks.

California Screaming and Mickey's Fun Wheel.

Even though I find it's a small world kind of creepy I went on it again for Emma. My brother who was sitting next to me also didn't really like it much. But then he doesn't like the Jungle Cruise either. I think he's a bit goofy personally.

DAY 8 - May 21, 2011

Our last full day at the resort. Didn't take to many pictures but we do have a few to share.

Nicholas, Emma and Miko during breakfast at Storyteller’s Cafe.

Dale with Emma, Nicholas and Nicole.

The fountain near the Haunted Mansion.

Emma and Nicholas with Aviator Minnie.

DAY 9 - May 22, 2011

If you recall there was a slight mess up with regards to our flights. Originally we were to return to Vancouver on this day but because of the mess up we ended up staying an extra day before we could fly back to SeaTac.

We had originally thought about going back to Universal Studios as our tickets were good for two days but we ultimately felt that we had done what we wanted to there and the kids would end up bored for most of it so we decided to try out the Los Angeles Zoo which none of has had been to before.

I got to eat my first churro here. I liked it.

The front entrance sign.

Nicholas looking at a waterfall.

Eric taking yet another photo. Seriously he took over 600 of them.

A nice rose.

Nicholas looking at some Meerkats.

Not even two yet and Nicholas already has a monkey on his back…

Emma enjoying the zoo.

Koala out of a tree. Notice I didn't type Koala Bear? Koala's are not bears contrary to what many people think.

I wonder where his lion friends are. I thought all sleeping Zebra’s had Lion friends… Can you tell I went on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland twice this trip?

Nicholas is still working on the whole walking thing. (He was fine if anyone is wondering.)

A wild lizard in a zoo. I found that amusing for some reason.

Stuart taking Nicholas on a wild stroller ride.

Emma kept trying to get her socks off.

Yep, she’s a Canucks fan. But Daddy’s hat is to big. Shortly after we got home the Canucks eliminated the Sharks to move on to the Stanley Cup Final. Sadly as we all know they lost the cup final in Game 7.

Nicholas has lots of teeth.

Emma? Not so much.

The family in front of The Front of Water.

The Back of Water (Disneyland isn’t the only place to see it apparently.)

The elusive ATM. The LA Zoo must feel honoured to have one in their collection. (And so ends the lame jokes.)

Once we were done at the zoo we headed to the Holiday Inn near LAX. This allowed us to return our rental cars early so we would have one less thing to deal with the next morning.

DAY 10 - May 23, 2011

We woke up bright and early on the last day of our trip and got down to the airport. The flight home was great.

Once we got to SeaTac we gathered our luggage, paid for the week plus long parking and headed for the nearest IHOP for breakfast / lunch. After that we hunted around for a gas station that wouldn't give us grief for our Canadian Visa's so we could top up our tanks.

Finally we got on the road and drove the 5 north to the Canadian / US Border only to get stuck in a two hour long lineup going into Canada. Guess that's what I get for booking our return flights on a holiday in Canada. (It was Victoria Day.)

So that was long, but a pretty good record of the trip. Thanks for reading.

If you want to see the above photos in more detail or any of the other photos (over 960 of them) from this trip not included here please go to this page.

New / Old Home for the Family Blog

2011-06-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

I'll be returning our family blog to this site and allowing our website to shut down on June 21st.

All my old posts made when I was single will vanish at that time as I am only moving posts made after I met Nicole.

Stay tuned.

So Far in 2011....

2011-02-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

So much for updating more regularly.

Anyways, things keep on rolling along as always.

House renos are slowly advancing with the bathrooms seeing the lions share of the work at the moment. Though the kids bedrooms are mostly complete as well. All that’s left in the bathrooms is the new toilets and replacing the old electrical outlets / light switches and base board heaters with more modern white ones. I will get to that once the toilets are done.

Once the bathrooms are done I need to get the upstairs hallways, our bedroom and the spare bedroom done. Upstairs will then be complete and we can get started on downstairs. We have a guy working on a new wood stair railing to replace the old metal and wood one. He’s also going to fix the pocket door to our office and put a new bi-fold door on our pantry so we can get rid of the stupid one currently on there.

Next major project is repainting all of the kitchen cabinets and putting nice new handles on the doors. Once that’s done we’re going to paint the kitchen walls, replace all of the downstairs outlets, light switches and some of the lights. After that we just have the garage project to deal with and of course the outside landscaping etc. Most of that will wait until the next year however as we can’t afford to replace the fence at the moment. (Not to mention we have to discuss that with the neighbors on either side first.)

Nothing new on the work front in that I’m still unemployed. I’ve decided to stop accepting contract work from my former employer after March 15th for a variety of reasons. I’m going to use this time to get into shape and to finish the house as much as possible before we head down to Disneyland for a week in middle of May. After that I plan on applying for a job at specific companies in a specific line of work. Will share more about that after I actually do it.

Emma is doing really well, she’s sleeping in her own room now at night and has been for just over a month now. She generally sleeps all the way through with usually only a wake up once or twice to be fed. She’s a happy little girl who is free with her smiles and is just starting to laugh / giggle when she gets tickled.

Nicholas is also doing well for the most part. He’s a happy, social little boy who sleeps through the night most nights and is very free with his smiles and his laughter. Though he also likes to screech allot which is a bit painful on the ears. We have a couple of growing concerns with him in that he’s not talking yet and the few words he did have seem to have dried up for the most part. He’s also not walking yet even though we’ve seen him take a few steps a few weeks back but not much since. We’re beginning to think he may have an inner ear thing which is making it hard for him to hear or maintain enough balance to stay upright enough to walk but we’re not 100 percent sure on this. We’re working with Langley Child Services to get some auditory testing done to see what’s up. Initially we thought he may have decided to delay himself in his development after we moved and his sister was born but now we’re not sure. Regardless we’ll work with him and see what happens. I’m sure he’ll catch up and if not we’ll roll with what ever happens.

Nicole and I got ourselves some new cell phones… Well I guess the correct term is smart phones. We really like them. Angry Birds is really addictive. We also have unlimited incoming and outgoing text messaging in Canada and the US (from Canada, cost extra to send in the US) so if you want to text us and don’t have our cell numbers send me an email with your cell number and I’ll text you back.

Not much else to add aside to point you all at the newest gallery of pictures on our online photo gallery. This is from Christmas last year through to the last few days. I think there’s even a couple of short videos of Emma in there. Enjoy:Photos from Christmas 2010 & Early 2011

Till next time…

Peace!!!!

2010 in Review and A Sneak at 2011

2010-12-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Wow…. We got so busy that the blog suffered for it big time… Here’s hoping this does not happen in 2011 (but as we’re a young family I wouldn’t count on it… Priorities you know. )

Anyways, just a year in review post. Some of you will have already seen this as we typed up the below as part of our Christmas cards this year but I have added some more recent stuff at the end of it, so here goes:

The Chadwicks in 2010

In January, Dan continued to enjoy his time off from a regular job and being a Dad, Nicole continued volunteering her time as a Girl Guide leader and enjoyed being a Mom and Nicholas just kept right on growing, exploring and learning. Dan also completed his business management course and received his diploma.

In February, the family enjoyed an awesome, once in a lifetime, two week vacation in Southern California. Nicole’s mom and brother along with Dan’s parents joined in on this vacation. They went to Universal Studios and spent some time in Hollywood. They even shared an elevator ride with Catharine O’Hara at a Target store in Hollywood. From there they went to the Disneyland Resort for a few days. To end the trip they spent an entire week in the fantastic city of San Diego where they spent some time at Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and various other sites. Nicholas can say he went to Disneyland when he was only 6 months old and that he handled his first airplane ride like a pro. Dan and Nicole also found out while they were staying in the Hollywood Hilton that they were expecting their second child.

In March, Dan and Nicole began discussing the future of their growing family and after much back and forth and various discussions with Pat; it was decided to start prepping the house for sale. As this was occurring Dan began hunting for a new job. It was also discovered that Nicholas had developed some food allergies and can no longer enjoy apples, rice, bananas, peaches, whole egg or peanuts. But he eats everything else very well including paper products…. He has several books with bite marks missing from them. And he does this with a cheeky smile on his face.

In April, Dan turned 36 and he continued the job hunt. Nicole returned to work part time as a substitute daycare teacher at a local daycare. Nicholas’ cheeky smile is now a toothy cheeky smile, and he said his first word which was Dada. He also began sitting up without any support.

Life carried on with out anything of note in May.

In June, after sending out about 40 odd resumes Dan finally got a job interview but was not chosen for the position. Through the rest of the year he has not gotten another interview despite sending out another 60 or so resumes. Nicole continued to sub at the local daycare and wrapped up Girl Guides for another year. Nicholas continued to be Nicholas, a huge joy in the life of Dan and Nicole as they celebrated their second wedding anniversary.

In July, Dan continued to get the house in order for selling. He had the master bathroom skylight replaced, the flooring in both bathrooms replaced and he painted both bathrooms. Nicole continued to work and enjoyed her 33^rdbirthday. July was a big month for Nicholas as he began crawling, clapping his hands and waving. Dan and Nicole also found out that they were having a girl and planned on naming her Emma.

In August, with the house finally ready for sale it was put on the market and Dan and Nicole began the hunt for a new house. Nicole stopped working as her pregnancy moved into the finally trimester as her “morning” sickness lasted all day, every day, but was brought under control with help from her doctor. Nicholas also hit two more milestones in his life as he turned one year old and figured out how to pull himself into a standing position.

In September life sort of went into a holding pattern as they waited for the house to sell and for Emma to arrive.

In October, Dan and Nicole found a house they loved and decided that should their home sell they would make an offer on it. In the meantime Emma was born on the 13^th via c-section. Nicole did much, much better with this birth versus Nicholas’ birth and was even released a full 24 hours ahead of schedule. Two days later they accepted a sale offer on their house and had their offer on the house they wanted accepted. Moving dates were set for early December. Nicholas became a big brother and wasn’t sure what to make of the new addition to the family but Dan and Nicole continued to show him the same level of attention as before and he adjusted well.

In November, packing commenced for the big move. Nicholas continue to grow accustom to Emma’s presence. Towards the end of the month, Dan was forced to clear the driveway of snow for the first time since living in the old house which he thought amusing as they would be moving in two weeks. Dan also began working on a contract basis with his former employer, WPS Disaster Management Solutions. He hopes that this might result in something more permanent in 2011.

In early December, Dan, Nicole, Nicholas and Emma moved into the home that Nicholas and Emma would grow up in. Dan and Nicole look forward to many happy years watching their children grow in this new home and towards a happy and prosperous 2011.

Since we typed this up things have continued onwards. We had an excellent Christmas, despite all of us feeling a bit under the weather. I’m having some neck pain issues that have been going on for a couple of weeks now. When it first started the pain was so severe it spiked my blood pressure to unsafe levels and I ended up in the ER. My doctor is on vacation this week and I don’t want to go to a walk-in-clinic for something like this so I’m taking over the counter pain killers and will go see him right after the New Year to see if it is serious or something that will go away. (After two weeks though…. I’m thinking not.)

Contract work for WPS has been going well and I have been enjoying it though working from home has not been as easy as I had hoped. Brings back to many unhappy memories of living and working in the same place while I was in Toronto. There are also many distractions. I will be resuming the hunt for a full time job after the New Year as well. Don’t get me wrong, the contract work is nice and all but it’s not enough to get us back on solid financial footing. It does not appear that going back as an employee is going to happen (nor did I expect it but I will admit I was hoping for it) so I must move on. I also would have had to register myself as a sole proprietorship or get a second part time job as the feds have all kinds of nasty rules with regards to income taxes and what is considered an employee versus a contractor. We’ll see what happens.

Aside from that and having reno’s to do on the house still (both by contractors and by myself) the only other major issue is my weight. I have decided to take a two prong approach to finally getting it under control. First, watch my calorie intake and bring it down (which includes cutting out fast food and cutting down on carbs etc) and second, walk (to start) or run for 20 minutes everyday on my newly purchased treadmill.

A treadmill removes my excuse of not wanting to go for a walk in bad weather. This one can also handle my weight, has shocks to lessen the impact on my knees and back and can do inclines at the touch of a button to increase the work out. It’s a start and I have to start somewhere.

I started the year at about 250 pounds and am currently at about 280. I want to be down to 240 by May when we go to Disneyland (yes, we’re going again but this time my brother is coming with us which fills a life long dream we’ve both had of going to Disney together) and I want to be at 190 by the end of 2011 as my ultimate goal though I will accept 200 if those last ten pounds won’t come off.

So 2010 was about enjoying our family, finding a home for that family to grow up in, me learning a few things about myself and accepting the things I can’t change. I also learned that plans are good but must not be so rigid that you can’t accept changes to them when the need arises (still learning to accept this though I understand it know).

2011 will bring finalization to our home (once all reno’s are done), a new job (knock on wood) and a healthier me.

Sounds like fun.

So with that we wish you all a Happy New Years and much love from Daniel, Nicole, Nicholas and Emma.

Peace!!!

Quick Update

2010-11-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings.

Long overdo for an update. And that still stands as this is just a quick one to share this:

The Chadwick Family Photo – November 2010

Will be updating with more details soon I hope.

Till then….

Peace!

Baby #2 and Patience

2010-07-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Time for another long overdue update.

We now know the gender of Baby #2. Nicholas is going to have a baby sister on October 14th (C-Section Date). 3D Ultrasound Photos can be found here.

Speaking of Nicholas, he’s good as always and has just started to crawl. Little wobbly so far but he’s slowly getting the hang of it.

Not much else to add on the child front.

One thing we’ve learned since the last update is that sometimes life requires you to have infinite amounts of patience. Time and time again we have roadblocks put up in our paths and we patiently have to wait for things to change before we can make any attempt to get around, over, under or even go through said roadblock.

Examples would include my job hunt and trying to get our house ready to sell.

So far nothing new to report as summer is typically slower for employers to be asking for new employees. I’ve also recently (today) made some changes to my resume in hopes that will help. Time will tell.

As for the house… Well we wanted that listed a month and a half ago but ran into nothing but problems getting our skylight replaced and the light-well beneath it repainted. We’ve just accepted a quote from the third company too be involved and we hope this will finally bee done by the end of next week.

Then all we have to do is tidy up, uncluttered a bit and then get it listed. After that we just have to be patient in our house hunt and hope that someone will like our place enough to make an offer.

Will have more to add soon I hope.

In the meantime…

Peace!

Changes, Changes and Even More Changes

2010-05-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well past time for an update don’t you think?

But first a note on our vacation videos. Some of them have been processed and are uploading as we speak. The rest will be done and uploaded over the next several days. I’ll update the blog when they are all up.

So since our return from vacation, Nicole got a new job and was then let go (things weren’t working out) a mere two and a half weeks later so she’s know doing sub work for another day care facility that is giving her lots of shifts.

I have been hunting for a job since we got back and so far I’ve not had any luck though I’ve been applying for a number of them, including a few that would be great jobs to have. Not to worried about things yet and will continue the hunt.

Now aside from that, we have another change that is pretty much common knowledge at this point and that is, Nicole is expecting again and we will be welcoming our second child towards the end of the October. We’re really excited by this turn of events and will let you all know what we’re having (boy or girl) once we find out. For the record, we’re sure it’s a girl and want it to be so but we’ll be happy no matter what.

So that brings us to the next change, we have decided for a couple of big reasons (one on an emotional level and due to the upcoming addition to the family) that our current house isn’t large enough for our growing family and the future.

With that in mind we are currently making some small improvements to the house so it can go up on the market by the end of May. We will then begin searching for a larger house in the same area (we like Murrayville)

So job, no job, job hunt, addition to family and a new home.

The other major change occurred when we were on vacation. At that time we decided to become members of the Disney Vacation Club. The Disney Vacation Club is (for lack of a better way of putting it) a glorified timeshare run by the Disney Company. We are members until 2060 and can use our club points to pay for accommodations at the Disney Resorts and about 400 other hotels / resorts around the world. We’re planning on using this years points (which we had to bank as we had already gone on vacation) and next years points to spend a week in a 2 bedroom villa at the Grand Californian Resort and Spa at the Disneyland Resort next May (jobs permitting). (The villas include a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. This means we can cook our own food and save money on the expensive restaurants and pack lighter as we can do laundry.)

We can bank a years points and borrow a years points to use up to three years of points at one time. This will allow for a two week trip to Walt Disney World Resort when the kids are older.

Lots of fun stuff planned.

So, I think that’s it for now. Back later as time allows.

Peace!

Vacation Update Part 6 (Final)

2010-02-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

We’re home after a nice long and enjoyable vacation.

Not really much to add as I think the photos speak for themselves.

Speaking of which, here is the last set from Dan’s Dad, from Nicole and from Nicole’s brother Stuart.

Dan’s job hunt begins on Tuesday. Should be able to update you all on the meeting we had at Disneyland soon as well sometime later this week.

Oh… One other thing, our vacation video will take some time but we’ll update when we can.

Till then….

Peace…

Vacation Update 5

2010-02-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just another update.

Hit the San Diego Wildlife Park yesterday after we left Disneyland. Didn’t do a whole lot today though my Dad, Stuart and I did check out the San Diego Automotive Museum and the Flight and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Killed a couple of hours.

Tomorrow we’re hitting Seaworld.

Photos can be found here (Nicole), here (my Dad), here (Stuart) and here (Pat).

Internet connection is very slow here sadly.

Should have another update tomorrow.

Peace.

Vacation Update 4

2010-02-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

Bit overdue for an update by the looks of things.

Since the last update we’ve been having fun at the Disneyland Resort.

It has been crowded. Very crowded but it has been a great deal of fun.

We got busy doing stuff in Downtown Disney that we didn’t really do a whole lot in the actual theme parks till yesterday and today.

Finally got to ride on some of the rides we missed on our honeymoon. Such as the Nemo Subs (almost did it Thursday but as we were the next in line I reminded everyone we had to be somewhere at a specific time so we left and did it this morning), The Haunted Mansion (my favorite ride at Disneyland) and Pirates of the Caribbean (we were the very first riders on it today).

We also did the Jungle Cruise, Astro Blasters and Star Tours. The only ride at California Adventure we managed was Soarin Over California. Nicholas got to go on the Winnie the Pooh Adventure and the carousel.

We’ve come to the conclusion that a three day park hopper ticket simply isn’t enough to see or do everything. We’ve taken steps to ensure future visits will be much easier but we will discuss that in another blog once we have returned home.

Tonight is our last night in the Disneyland Hotel. We head down to San Diego for the final 5 nights of our trip.

Here is some photos from the past 3 days and here is some photos Dan’s father took when we were still at Universal.

Peace!

Vacation Update 3

2010-02-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

The air was so dry in the area around Universal that my throat has been sore and scratchy since yesterday. With my recent bout of strep not that far behind me I’m doing my best to keep it no more than sore and scratchy. Picked up some lozenges to help with that today from the West Hollywood Target store where we were lucky to ride the elevator up from the parkade with Catherine O’Hara.

It was my Mom who first recognized her and after we got of the elevator she (my Mom) asked if any of us recognized her. I did but it wasn’t until I saw her profile as she started her shopping that I recognized her for who she was. I named her and then had to proceed to explain to everyone (except my Mom) who she was. SCTV or better yet “the Mom from the first two Home Alone movies”

All of this occurred after we spent a couple of hours at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum at the Hollywood & Highland Center. While we enjoyed the tour we felt it was very expensive for what we saw and the vibes we were getting from the people in the shopping center really turned us off. I ended up in a fairly foul mood and couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there.

After we were done at Target we had lunch at Pasta Pomodoro, a great Italian place. We then headed south on the 101 and the I5 for Disneyland Resort which is where we are now. We’ve had dinner but that’s about it.

Photos from today can be found here.

We will be hitting the parks tomorrow.

More tomorrow evening.

Peace.

Vacation Update 2

2010-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

Good evening.

A quick update as it is getting late and we have to get ready to check out tomorrow for the trip down to Disneyland where we will be spending the next four nights.

We spent the day at Universal and had a great day.

I ended up video recording about 70% of the back-lot tour but I won’t be posting that until we get back home.

All in all a good day.

Photos from today can be found here.

Till later….

Peace.

Vacation Update 1

2010-02-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

Good evening all.

A quick update as we are well into our vacation to Southern California at this point.

Everyone is well. Nicholas had a hard night in the SeaTac hotel near the airport and kept waking every hour or two and just would not stay down. He handled the flight down to San Diego as well as can be expected though his ears were hurting badly during the decent but we got through it.

By the time we landed, got our bags, and got our rented vehicles (no thanks to the slowest Hertz Rental Employee I have ever seen) we decided we need dinner before we braved the two hour plus drive up the I5 to the 101 and eventually the Hilton here at Universal.

We stopped for a bit at the very hotel we will spend 5 nights in next week as I knew there was a restaurant in it and I knew it was very close to the airport.

Once we ate (and damn was it good) we headed up the I5. We actually ran into traffic which surprised us as it was a Sunday night. But we did eventually arrive and got ourselves checked in. This is a great hotel. We have a nice view of Universal Theme Park (which we are going to tomorrow.)

We ordered room service for breakfast this morning and then headed out to a nearby Target to pick up a few things (we were so wiped by yesterdays travel that our original plans for today will now happen tomorrow) and then we came back and had a late lunch.

I needed to chill out for a while so I stayed in the hotel while Nicole, Nicholas and my Dad headed to the Hollywood and Highland Center (home of the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Madam Tussauds Wax Museum and the Kodak Theater (home of the Oscars) to check it out and get some pictures. Part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame runs in front of this place as well.

Speaking of pictures, you can find today’s here.

We’re heading to Universal after trying the breakfast buffet tomorrow. Should have another update tomorrow evening along with some more pictures.

Till then…

Peace!

Quick Update

2010-01-25T16:04:00.000-08:00

Greetings.

Been a bit busy as of late and getting behind on my updating.

We’ve got plans to replace the current way of doing photos and videos on our blog so we won’t be adding anymore until this has been setup (most likely after our vacation). The quality and length of the videos won’t really change much but they will be relocated so that they are with our photos. The quality of the photos however will improve massively. To give you a sneak peek please check this gallery out at the new location Blodel Conservatory.

Once we’ve “renovated” the existing stuff, all of the links in other blog updates will be changed to match the new location (which is located here: Chadwicks Photo / Video Galleries). The sidebar links on the right hand side of the blog will be removed aside from a general page with links to the various galleries at the new location. (Note: This has now been completed.)

Aside from that we’re keeping busy. I’m nearing completion of my course and have accepted a contract position with my former employer to help them out and to earn a bit of extra cash until I go back to work full time (March I’m hoping.)

Not much else to add so I’ll leave you all in the usual manner.

Peace!

2009 Year in Review

2009-12-30T22:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

So 2009 ended up being a fairly tough year in some respects but it was balanced out by many positive things.

Nicole’s grandmother passed in April but we were joined by Nicholas in August.

We listed our condo in April and it didn’t sell until October but we moved into a house and paid off the mortgage on the condo.

We nearly lost Nicole during child birth but she recovered fully and we have a healthy baby boy.

So it was a year of bad things that had a positive thing to balance it out. But I think the entire world was having one of those years.

The year ended with an excellent Christmas. For the first time in 15 or so years my parents and my brother and I celebrated Christmas together (with the welcome addition of Nicole, her Mom, Pat and her brother, Stuart. Not to mention it was Nicholas’ fiirst Christmas.)

On the professional front after nearly 16 years I saw an opportunity to begin down the career change path so I decided to leave WPS. Hunt for a new job will start in March 2010 (but that is for next year).

Most of the big event are covered in detail in the blog. We hope to do a better job for next years “Year in Review”.

Our next round of updates will probably occur in the second half of February during our vacation.

Till then we wish everyone a great 2010. Stay safe.

Peace.

Dan, Nicole and Nicholas

Overdue Update

2009-11-15T17:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Salutations everyone.

Time for a quick update.

First, new photos of Nicholas taken over the past three months can be found here.

As you can see it has been sometime since the last update. To put it mildly we’ve been busy.

The biggest news since Nicholas was born was my decision to leave WPS after nearly 16 years. I left on good terms and have wished them all the best.

The reason behind this decision are fairly straight forward in that I had an opportunity to finish the Business Management course that I was taking and more importantly to spend some time off from work to spend with Nicole and Nicholas. With my old job no longer being a satisfying daily activity and with chances for a promotion very slim I came to the conclusion that it was time to move on so I did.

Come March of 2010 I hope to have my course completed so that I can peruse further eduction to allow my entry into the commercial property management industry. So we’ll see how that goes.

We traded in our 2006 Hyundai Sonata for a 2007 Ford Taurus. Unfortunately as I was the primary driver of the Sonata I was uncomfortable driving it after 20 minutes as the car was not really designed for someone my size. I am very happy with the Taurus though.

That’s it for now. Further updates will be coming as we have time.

Till then, Peace.

Nicholas's First Video

2009-10-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks.

Yes, we’re overdue for an update.

This isn’t it.

What this is, is a test. You see we purchased a new HD Handycam today and this is the very first recording from it. It’s also the very first recording of Nicholas.

Can’t promise we’ll do lots of video but it’s something we may try from time to time.

Anyways, here is the first video.

Full update soon. We’ve been busy.

Nicholas Is Here - The Story of his Birth

2009-08-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings all, Dan here.

Most of you are aware of this but our son Nicholas Frank Chadwick was born at 5:22 on August 16th, 2009. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was about 21 inches long.

It’s taken us awhile to upload some photos and update the blog. The photos can be found here.

The reason behind this is we just brought Nicole and Nicholas home yesterday. Nearly a full week after Nicole went into labour. Many of you know the reasons why already, the rest of you are going to find out by reading onwards.

Last Saturday we were waiting to head got up at 6:00 in the morning so we could call the hospital about getting Nicole induced into labour as at that point Nicholas was 11 days overdue. Langley Memorial’s Maternity Ward was very busy that morning and they did not have the nursing staff available to monitor her at the time so we were told to call back at 11:30. When we didwe found that they still couldn’t take her in and that they would call when they could. Hour or so later they called and told us to come in after lunch.

We arrived and they started the induction process while monitoring Nicholas and Nicole. After a couple of hours we were told we could leave and come back in six hours for a second application. So we went to Ricky’s for dinner.

Once we returned to the hospital it was decided that Nicole’s contractions were to close together to risk a second round of the induction jelly so they admitted her and started her on oxytocin at about 11:30 Saturday night. At this point I discovered that I wouldn’t be getting much sleep due to the type of sleeping arrangements and my bad back. So I dosed from time to time and watched TV while Nicole tried to get some sleep. All along she was being monitored by a nurse.

Things progressed so that by 4:30 am Nicole was 4 cm dilated and well into active labour. Half an hour later she was 9 cm dilated. At this point we call our parent’s as both mothers wanted to be there for the delivery. Neither arrived on time as Nicholas was born a mere 22 minutes later by the same nurse that had stayed by Nicole all night.

Nicholas came out as healthy as could be and is very cute. He was not the problem however.

Because of the speed of the birth and because this was Nichole’s first child her cervix and birth canal did not stretch enough as needed and Nicole was torn up inside very badly and was loosing blood fast. The on call doctor tried to stitch things up as best she could be was unable to get the bleeding to stop so she called in the on call gynecologist who after a couple of minutes decided that there was simply no way to finish the job while Nicole was awake and made the call to move her into an OR so that they may finish the job.

Now at this point we knew it was serious but we weren’t convinced it was life threatening. I was exhausted and there was nothing to be done by me waiting at the hospital so I came home to catch a few winks. I was called back in about two and half hours later and was updated on the situation. Nicole had to have 4 units of blood transfused as she had lost so much. They nearly lost her and we were told that she might not make it. At one point they even indicated that they might have to transfer her to another, bigger, hospital to get the job done.

Fortunately they got the job done and Nicole spent the next 24 plus hours in the ICU. I was able to visit her a couple of times and each time I did she looked better and stronger. Nicholas was only allowed down to the ICU once during that period and was formula fed for those first few hours as Nicole was unable to breast feed. I spent the night upstairs in the maternity ward with him getting a crash course in feeding, burping and diaper changing. I was unable to get any sleep that night either. Watched alot of Discovery Channel though.

After the initial 24 hours or so had passed Nicole was moved back up to the maternity ward but was confined to her bed for several days. For the next week, her mother Pat would spell me during the day so I could get some much needed sleep and I would stay at the hospital at night to change diapers, keep Nicole company and pass him over to her for regular breast feedings. I personally want to thank Pat for her help. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I also want to thank those of you who offered your assistance though we ended up not needing it and thanks to my parent’s for the moral support as always.

Nicole was finally able to get out of bed on Wednesday, was much stronger on Thursday and was finally discharged on Friday morning. Before we returned home we went to Ricky’s Restaurant for breakfast bring the whole event full circle.

Mother and son are healthy and home safely. (Nicole is well on the mend.)

We cannot thank the doctor’s and nurses at Langley Memorial Hospital (specifically the Maternity Ward and ICU) enough for their great care. They saved Nicole’s life and helped Pat and I care for Nicholas when Nicole was unable to get out of bed. They aren’t paid enough for what they do and there isn’t enough of them. Shame on Fraser Health Authority and the Provincial and Federal Governments for allowing that to happen.

Since Nicole and I got married we have been blessed by many things. Our son, our marriage, our honeymoon, our new home (Photos of that to be added in the future), our family and our friends have been unbelievable to us since we met in 2007. We do not take any of it for granted and our thankful for it everyday.

Further events in the next month or so will be discussed on this blog after they occur. Until then, with much love, we end this in our usual way.

Peace!

Is This Thing On?? Oh And A Bit of an Announcement Too.

2009-04-05T09:06:00.001-07:00

Hello folks, Dan here.

As the title sort of suggests we’re well aware that an update has been a bit long in coming. Life keeps you busy and sometimes the blog gets forgotten.

Such is life I guess.

Anyways, time for an update.

So we’ve had three ultra sounds. Even with that we still have no idea what the sex of our unborn child is. Going in for one of those 3D ultra sounds in May though so I suspect that’ll change.

Work has been keeping us both busy. So far the downturn in the economy hasn’t affected my job. But then again what I do is a requirement of law so even when things are slow in the business world, people still need their fire and life safety plans. As for Nicole, well her job is child care. Generally not affected much by the economy. Least not here in BC.

I turned 35 on this past Wednesday. Only 5 years to go for the big 40.

Nicole and I are planning on taking some good friends of ours down to SeaTac at the end of April. We decided it was as good an excuse as any to get away fro a romantic weekend so we took the Monday off as well to make it a long weekend. We’re going to spend two nights at a nice hotel on Whidbey Island and celebrate our wedding anniversary two and half months early. May seem a bit odd to some but with Nicole’s pregnancy nearing it’s end point when are anniversary really is we decided to celebrate early while she can move around easier. We’re both looking forward to the trip.

Now, previous postings over the past several months showed off our new condo which we bought and moved into in October of 2008. We won’t be in this condo come October 2009. In fact we’ll be putting it up for sale here sometime in the next four months. (On a side note if anyone who live in the Lower Mainland of BC is looking to get into the housing market and would love a 1234 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with a family room area let us know or make an offer. Once it actually gets listed we’ll pass those along to our real estate agent. Please note that it is not suitable to be purchased with the intent to rent. Strata Bylaws forbid rentals in this building for all owners with the exception of those original owners from 11 years ago when the building was built.)

Nicole’s grandmother has generously offered us a chance to move into her old house. A three bedroom, two bathroom rancher at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac not 5 minutes from the condo. Once the condo sells this move will put our family on solid financial ground for many years to come and for that we are extremely grateful. (And yes Shane that was the announcement I was holding back from ya. )

Anyways, sorry for the length of time between updates. Hopefully we’ll be a bit more frequent in the future.

Till then…. Peace!

First Blog of 2009

2009-02-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Dan here.

As the tile says this is my first blog of 2009. Only took me a month to do. Been busy so I have an valid excuse.

Not a whole lot new to report aside from noting that our due date has changed to August 5th now. Apparently we weren’t as far along as we thought. In reality the baby will arrive when it is ready to arrive.

On other news I got my first new pair of glasses in 8 or 9 years yesterday. As always they are very expensive with the new glasses and new lenses in my prescription sunglasses (even with the BCAA discount and the $200.00 bucks I will get back from my extended health) we’re still down about $400.00. But they are kinda necessary. Perhaps I can save up one day for the laser surgery. Something to ponder. On the good news front only one of the lenses is a touch stronger. Doc said despite the length of time between checkups my eyes are not really any worse than they were. My high blood pressure has also not caused any damage what so ever. So I’ll take it.

On a less important front I have to have a little talk about movies.

You see I love movies. Not as much as say Harry Knowles from Aint it Cool News but I still love em.

Enough that I have a top ten list of movies I hate and there are only two movies on it.

The first one is Mars Attacks. What a waste of talent and effort. Many people enjoy it but to me it was just bad all the way around.

The second one is Mortal Kombat 2. Now I loved the first one but the second one had me jeering out loud at the screen much to the laughter of my friends and many of the audience. Takes a lot to get me to deliberately disturb movie goers as I respect their right to enjoy a movie without someone yaking through it. But in this case the movie was so bad I think I was justified.

Sadly, last night, I added my third movie to the list. The Happening.

I like Shyamalan’s movies. And I enjoy most of Mark Whalberg’s acting. But good god I think they were really not interested in this movie. It was poorly thought out, poorly scripted, poorly acted and poorly directed.

It was so bad I’m not going to even bother rehashing it. I watched it at 1.5 speed through the last half just to see if it got any better as it went along. Sadly, no, it did not. Whalberg was so bad I thought they had Andy Samberg impersonating Whalberg acting in the movie. Least he didn’t use the line “Say hi to your mother for me.”

Though I think if he had I could of at least laughed at it.

Speaking on Andy Samberg I’ve enjoyed most of this seasons SNL run. Last night was weak however, which is to bad as I usually enjoy it when Steve Martin is the host. The oddest thing was the Pepsi ads masgerading as the often used MacGruber skit. Just before it came on I was saying to Nicole that it would be hilarious if they got Richard Dean Anderson (who played MacGuyver in the old 80′s show) to spoof himself in the skits. Sure enough as soon as the skit/ad started there he was. Gave me the biggest laugh of the show.

Anyways, just felt the need to share some thoughts today. Going to go get some lunch and then try and watch something on TV that isn’t Super Bowl related. (Decided to ignore it this year.) Will probably end up watching some more of Stargate Atlantis Season 2 on DVD.

Take care. Till next time… Peace!

Final Blog of 2008

2008-12-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Dan and Nicole here.

Been awhile since either one of us posted last and we figured with the year coming to an end that it was time.

While most of you know this, lets just make it official in the blog. Come July of 2009 our family will be growing as Nicole is pregnant. A most excellent way to end what has been the best year of our lives.

In 2008 (in no particular order):

We got married
Went to Disneyland
Went to Universal Studios
Went to both the San Diego and Woodland Park Zoos
Went to Sea World
Went on a 2 week, 5000 plus kilometer road trip
Spent many hours aboard a famous (now retired) US aircraft carrier
Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge
Bought a Condo
Moved into said Condo
Found out we were expecting

Whew….

What a year. The memories we have, the times we shared with our family, friends and co-workers from this year will always be with us.

We have to thank our family and friends yet again for helping to make it all possible and we know that as we embark on an even bigger adventure next year you will be there to help if we need it.

Thank you one and all. We will never forget what you did for us over the past year.

With that we will say farewell to 2008 and to you our faithful readers. We look forward to continuing to share our lives with you over the coming new year.

Till next time.

Peace!

Where I've (Dan) Lived

2008-10-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Salutations all. Dan here.

So we’ve been living in our new place for a couple of weeks now. Feels like home already. We have new appliances and a new dining room set coming in over the next six weeks or so. So no knew pictures of the place until those are in. Early December more than likely.

In the mean time I was recently reading the blog of one Sarah Lane (she of former Tech TV, Revision 3 and current TWIT fame). She had posted a blog about various places she’s lived over the years and it inspired me to do the same. Was hoping to have it up yesterday but I needed some assistance from my Dad to pinpoint the old mobile home park we lived in until I was about 4 or so.

So here they are in order of when I lived there. I did change a few things versus Sarah’s idea. I’ve not included the actual street address, I’ve included my current residence and I’ve included anyplace I’ve lived in for a month or more. My memory on the dates are probably going to be wrong so they are rough estimates only.

Coquitlam 1974 to 1978

This was a mobile home we lived in. I barely remember it which is why my Dad ended up assisting me in pinpointing it. Surprisingly enough it is actually still there. The area around it is heavily built up though these days. Multiplex theatre and many many retail stores.

Langley (Aldergrove) 1978 – 1996

After the mobile home we moved to Aldergrove. I grew up in this house and have many fond memories of it. My parents no longer live here and the current owners recently decided to remove the vast majority of the trees which was a bit sad but I don’t miss the place. Aldergrove not my favorite place on the planet anyways.

Surrey (Clayton) 1996 – 1996

About a year after my grandfather passed away I moved out of my parent’s place for the first time. My good friend Shawn and I had originally planned on moving in together after his parent’s moved up to the Salmon Arm are of BC. I wasn’t ready and backed out at the last minute. Shawn ended up moving up with his parents. After some time passed I ended up moving into a mobile home on a rather large plot of land in Surrey, near the Surrey / Langley border. My roommates at the time were Tara, Shane (two of my closest friends) and a friend of Tara, Julie.

Abbotsford 1996 -1997

Six months of mowing an overly large lawn with a push mower including over an area overgrown due to a busted septic tank we decided to move. Julie did not come with us but Tara, Shane and I went to a townhouse in Abbotsford. Shortly after we moved Shane moved out and Jim moved in.

Langley (Aldergrove) 1997 – 1997

For some reason I ended up moving out and back in with my parents for about three months. Not really sure why I did but I figure it was over something silly. But for those who’ve read my blog, you know what I was going through back then.

Abbotsford 1997 – 1998

After three months with Mom and Dad I moved back into Abbotsford with Tara as my roommate. We were on the third floor of a mult-level apartment building. The memory that sticks out the most at this place is that I was here, watching TV the night they announced Princess Diana had died.

Abbotsford 1998 – 1999

Tara and I ended up back in the townhouse again. We had a new roommate, Lana and I recall picking Tara up from her graveyard shift at one of the local Burger Kings. I got breakfast out of it before I went to work so it was all good.

Aldergrove 1999 – 2001

Eventually I decided that I needed to live on my own and Tara and I went ourseparate ways. I ended up in a basement suite in Aldergrove behind the local Subway. (It’s since moved to the other end of town but it was sure handy having it there when I lived there.) Great landlords. I used to run into them from time to time at the Superstore in Langley but not since before I moved to Toronto. I hope they are doing well.

Langley 2001 – 2003

Shawn decided to move back down to the lower mainland only a few years after he moved up north with his folks. He lived with various roommate and by himself in various locations. We got to talking and we decided to try the roommate thing out for a while. It worked very well and we had a decent place. Another major world event happened while we were there. 9/11. Need not add anything to that.

Toronto (Scarborough) 2003 – 2005

The move that changed my life. I had resigned from my position at WPS at the time and they offered me this move to Toronto as way of trying to get me to stick around. I took them up on it. You all know that story so I won’t rehash it. Don’t regret the move at all. I still like Toronto. Not home but I do like to visit.

Surrey (Clayton) 2005 – 2005

I only lived here for a month and half but I still count it. My good friends Shane and Stephanie had just bought a condo for me to live in as a tenant when they found out I was moving back to BC from Toronto. But it was undergoing somereno’s so I live at their place for a month and half until it was ready.

Langley (Langely City) (2005 – 2007)

I lived on the 2nd Floor of a condo building in a fairly unstable neighborhood of Langley City. I was safe for the most part but it is not the nicest area of Langley to be sure. I generally tended to avoid walking the streets after dark. The few times I did I never felt safe. But it was here that I lived when I met and fell in love with Nicole.

Langley (Walnut Grove) 2007 – 2008

We lived on the 3rd Floor over looking the ravine and Colossus Movie Theatre. Great location but ultimately proved to be too expensive for rent and the building management sucked. (The caretaker was a decent enough fellow though.) We were living here when we got married and went on our honeymoon. Shortly after we got home we decided to look at buying a place so we’d stop wasting our money on rent.

Langley (Murrayville) 2008 – ? (2011 Edit: Yeah this needs to be added to. I'll get around to it eventually. :) )

And that brings us to our current residence. We own it. Only been here a couple of weeks but it feels like home already. Who knows what the future will hold for us here.

And that’s it for now. I’m sure this will get updated if we move in the future. If anyone thinks my dates are out of whack, let me know and I’ll fix em.

So I’m off for Thanksgiving Dinner tonight at my Aunt and Uncle’s. Have a great Thanksgiving all my Canadian readers.

Till next time… Peace!

The Move is Almost Upon Us

2008-09-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Dan here.

So it’s Wednesday night. The move is almost here.

Went to the lawyers yesterday and signed a bunch of paper work.

The bank has transferred the money to the lawyers in trust.

We’ve packed up 97 percent of our stuff and cleaned 60 percent of the apartment from top to bottom.

We’ve lined up a moving van and several friends and family members to help us move.

All we have left to do now is actually move.

And I tell ya, that can’t happen soon enough. The excitement and stress of this has been an interesting mix.

The move will happen in two phases. Phase one will happen on Friday (I’m off on Friday.) when myself and my brother in law (Stuart) will move much of our electronics and kitchen items over to the new place using our van.

Phase two will happen on Saturday when our helpers arrive at 10:00 to load up the moving van and get everything over to the new place.

So we’re getting there.

Next update will come from the new place. We’ll upload some photos once we’re all settled in.

In other news we bought some new tires for our van. Bought them from Costco and they’ve made a noticeable difference in how the van handles. I’m very happy with them.

Work is going strong. We are going to make our monthly quota and get our first bonus under the new bonus structure. Having some issues with our current site audit setup but I’m hoping we can put them aside and work as a team to settle them once and for all.

Not much else to add at the moment so I’ll close this with a stay tuned and a Peace!

New TV

2008-08-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Dan here.

Yesterday Nicole and I ventured out into the rain and headed down to Best Buy.

We had been looking at the possibility of getting a new TV for some time now and lucked out as Best Buy had a financing deal on 24 equal monthly payments, no interest.

We figured it would be easier to do this now before the move so we weren’t stuck moving our old TV to the new place only to turn around and replace shortly there after.

We settled on this TV

When we went into Best Buy that model was the best floor display model of all on display. It also has twice the refresh rate of most current model LCD TV’s which should help with the blur motion many people complain about in LCD’s.

All was going well until it came time to process the purchase. We got stuck with a nice guy who really didn’t know what he was doing. He made a number of errors about the financing options and finally after about 20 minutes we ended up at the customer service desk so they could reverse what he had done and then do it right.

When they finally got to the final point of having it right (which took another half hour) they informed of the 99.00 financing charge. Now to be fair to the guy who was trying to fix the mess it was in the flyer. But by this point my famed patience had begun to run very low and I basically told the guy that they either removed the financing charge or they could reverse the sale and forget about. They then pointed out that the charge was noted in the flyer and I pointed out that I had been standing there for almost an hour while they fixed their mess. I then asked to speak to a manager.

The guy made a quick call and went back to talk to the manager. When he came out he informed me that they couldn’t remove the financing charge but could knock $99.00 off of the TV cost. Because they don’t charge tax on the financing charge we ended up saving $99.00 and we paid less tax on the purchase.

To me that was satisfactory in responding to my annoyance. Truth be told had it not taken so long I’d have just let the financing charge go but to have that slapped on me after such a length delay in something they messed up on just tipped the scales.

Anyways, they got their sale, I’m happy and we get our new TV from the warehouse (which is a block away from our current apartment) today after work. My parent’s get their first HDTV sometime on the weekend. Everyone’s happy.

Aside from that things are great. Nicole’s off this week from work. We get serious about packing for the move after Labour Day and we sign the final mortgage papers on Saturday.

All in all life is good.

I’m out.

Till next time… Peace!

Our New Home

2008-08-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hello to everybody out there.

It has been awhile since our last post. We have been busy getting used to married life and coming back to reality with our jobs.

We have big news, as we have just purchased a condo. A place we can call our own. (Edit June 2011: Hard to believe we've moved twice since this place.)

The condo is located in a complex known as Murray Green. The building is located in Murrayville, one of Langley’s many neighborhoods.

We are in the southwest corner unit on the ground floor which is one of the largest units in the complex (1234 sq feet).

We also have a fairly private backyard area because we are on the back corner of the property.

The unit has two bedrooms and two bathrooms (no pictures available yet), in suite laundry, two parking stalls in our underground parking level along with a storage unit and a place to wash our vehicle.

It has a nice bright kitchen with lots of cupboard space for all our dishes and appliances we got at our showers and wedding.

The living room has a gas fire place (natural gas is included in our strata fees), and will most likely be coming with the furniture seen in the picture (this is not set in stone yet.)

Last but not least is our family room, which is where we will have our library and computer station.

The building also has various amenities such as a guest suite, amenity room for get-togethers, exercise room and a hot tub.

We take possession and will be moving in at the end of September. Once we are settled in, we hope to hold an Open House in October.

The other piece of news is that Nicole will be starting a new job on Tuesday with Fort Langley Child Care Society.

I am just getting over a two week plus battle with bronchitis, but I'm otherwise okay.

Till next time . .

Honeymoon Day 15 – June 29, 2008 & Wrapup

2008-06-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all.

This is our last post regarding our honeymoon and wedding.

Our last day before we returned home was spent at Deception Pass State Park. Washington State’s most popular park. It’s about 1.5 hours south of the border where we live and is a great place to go camping.

On our way back up to Canada we stopped in Bellingham at the Bellis Fair Mall. Ended up being a bit of a waste (though Dan did buy a new book).

Prices for the most part are about the same (in US dollars) down in the US as they are in Canada. So buying stuff there really wasn’t a bargain. Makes us question why so many Canadians think they are getting a good deal by waiting 2 or more hours (sometimes) to cross the border and go shopping. Sure gas is cheaper but we’d think the time wasted would more than offset the pricedifference. Weird…

Anyways, we got home and have been chilling out for the most part. Heading over to Nicole’s mom’s place for dinner tonight. While we are there we will wash the bug graveyard off of the van and set up our new camping gear for the first time.

Speaking of the van, once we left Seattle we drove another 334.5 klicks. This brings our trip to a round trip total of 4985 klicks. That’s a heck of a lot of driving. Dan did all of the driving and he is most impressed with how our 2003 MazdaMPV van did on the trip. He’s a fan of Mazda now needless to say.

So the trip is over but we technically don’t consider our Honeymoon over until July 7th when we both go back to work. But this is our last blog about it.

Going forward please check who posted the blogs. If it is posted by Asylim, then it was Dan who posted it. If it is posted by Asylim’s Bride then it was Nicole who posted it.

Over the coming months we plan on registering a domain and setting up a web site that will replace this blog and our Picasa site. (June 2011 Edit: This was done but we've since reverted the blog portion back to this site for financial reasons. The Picasa Albums were all relocated to chadwicks.smugmug.com.)

Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 14 – June 28, 2008

2008-06-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 14 Photos

Howdy ho folks.

Today brings us to our last full day on our honeymoon. We will be home tomorrow.

We went to Fort Ebey and Fort Casey. (If you click on Fort Ebey it will take you to a wiki entry on the entire Ebey Landing area. Clicking on Fort Casey will take you to a wiki entry on the fort. Some interesting history for both of them.)

Didn’t really do a whole lot else except chill out. We think we’re both tired and are happy that we’re home for a few days before heading off to Harrison Hot Springs for a couple of days. While the trip is over we don’t see our honeymoon as being over till we both go back to work on July 7th.

Have lots of laundry to do on Monday though.

Please be aware that there will not be a blog post tomorrow. We will do a final wrap up post on Monday including our thoughts on the whole trip, our totalmileage driven etc.

Lastly, we will include our plans for the future of this blog. We have some interesting things in the works.

Oh by the way, our friend Fraser who came from Ontario to our wedding took a few pictures during the wedding. Please go here to have a look and thank you Fraser for the great pictures.

Talk at you on Monday. Till then….

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 13 – June 27, 2008

2008-06-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 13 Photos

Howdy ho folks.

We had a good day today. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle today. It was warm but not uncomfortably so, so that may have had something to do with us having a good day.

After comparing Woodland to San Diego we’ve decided that we like the Woodland zoo much more. Though to be fair to San Diego it was a) too damn hot, b) much larger and c) on a hill.

Anyways, this was Nicole’s first visit to this particular zoo and Dan’s first visit since the summer of 1992. Much has changed since Dan’s last visit and he was very much impressed with what he saw.

We spent about 3.5 hours at the zoo and then headed for Whidbey Island. We are staying in the Best Western in Oak Harbor for the last two nights of our honeymoon before we head home for the last week of our time off from work.

Once we got on the Island we took a slight detour to South Whidbey State Park. Dan did some camping with his grandparent’s a number of years ago (early 90′s) and he has fond memories of his time there. Sadly the trail down to the beach was closed as they try to fix up winter storm damage. But we marveled at the large trees and then continued on our way.

Tomorrow we’re going to spend the day exploring Fort Ebey and area and Fort Casey.

Look for more picture tomorrow though highly likely it won’t be as many as today (which is the 2nd most of our trip.)

Look for another post tomorrow. Till then….

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 12 – June 26, 2008

2008-06-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 12 Photos

Greetings and salutations after a very long day of driving.

We left Medford at 8:00 this morning and arrived in Seattle at about 5:00 this evening.

We drove a total of 766.2 klicks.

There is a handful of pictures uploaded but nothing spectacular. Nicole does take really great pictures from a moving vehicle though.

Anyways, not much to report really so we’ll sign off here.

Going to the Woodland Park Zoo tomorrow so the blog and photos will be much more interesting.

Till then….

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 11 – June 25, 2008

2008-06-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 11 Photos

Good evening all.

Today was mainly another drive day so this will be another short post. We drove 623.5 klicks.

We did drive over the Golden Gate Bridge today and we stopped on the other side to get some pictures.

The shot of us both in front of the bridge was taken by a nice guy who offered to take the shot and then proceeded to tell us how nice Vancouver was.

Now you may be looking at the haze in many of the pictures and assuming that being in the San Francisco area, it is fog. You would be assuming wrong in this case as the haze is actually smoke from all of the wild fires burning throughout the area. Fortunately it didn’t dampen our experience to much, though we would have loved to break out the binoculars for a closer look at Alcatraz. Next time perhaps.

Was chilly when we woke up. Both of us actually had to wear a sweater until we got more inland. Medford is rather warm however. Still not as hot as Anaheim or San Diego was though.

Tomorrow we continue on towards Seattle were our trip will take a pause as we go to the Woodland Park Zoo on Friday before we head to Whidbey Island for the last two nights of our honeymoon.

More tomorrow (short one tomorrow). Till then….

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 10 – June 24, 2008

2008-06-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Edited – June 25th at 6:36 to fill in the distance blank.

Good evening.

Short post today. Also, no photo’s today.

All we did was drive about 4 hours from San Luis Obispo to San Bruno (just south of San Francisco). We can actually see the San Francisco airport from our hotel room.

By the way we did a total of 534.4 klicks yesterday and another 383.8 klicks today.

Tomorrow we have 6 or 7 hours worth of driving to get into Medford, Oregon. But as we are going across the Golden Gate bridge we should have more photo’s to upload.

We’re having a great time still but are glad we are heading north on our way home.

That’s all for now. More tomorrow.

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 9 – June 23, 2008

2008-06-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 9 Photos

Like, Moooooo….

hehe

Sorry. We forgot to mention that from Sea World yesterday. We were heading for the exit and we passed this life sized plastic dairy cow wearing Bermudashorts. As we passed it’s head we heard a “Like, Mooooo.” We thought it was funny and had to share.

That said, much later update than we thought but here it is.

We went to the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum today. Ended up being the highlight of our entire trip down here. Only areas of the ship not opened up (so far) is the propulsion areas.

We took more pictures here than any other single day of our trip. The pictures speak for themselves so this won’t be a long post tonight.

We got to the carrier at about 10:15 and left at about 1:30. We drove over 500klicks to get to our current location in San Luis Obispo. Long drive as we hit LA traffic at rush hour. We then hit two more patches of rush hour traffic in some of the other towns on the 101. Stopped for dinner around 7:30 and were checked in to our hotel at about 8:30.

Couple of comments regarding the photo’s. In one shot you will see two other carriers in the back ground. The one on the right is the USS Nimitz. She’s being retrofitted between deployments according to the tour guides aboard Midway. The one on the left is the USS George Washington. She should be in Pearl Harbor on her way to Japan but as you may recall she had a major fire of the coast of South America about three weeks ago. USS Kitty Hawk is due to bedecommissioned once George Washington has been repaired and meets up with her in Pearl Harbor. Some of the crew’s families are already in Japan waiting for the Washington’s arrival. That fire did some bad damage to more than just the ship.

If we had stuck around for another hour or so we could have watched the USS John C Stennis coming in to port. That would have made 3 of the US’s 10 active carriers all in one location which would have been cool to see.

For more information (if interested) on Midway please go here: USS Midway

Pretty good wiki entry on her history.

Next stop will be San Francisco. Will be an even shorter entry as we are just driving but we’ll see how things go.

Till then…

Peace!!!

Honeymoon Day 8 – June 22, 2008

2008-06-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 8 Photos

Hello all.

So today we went to Sea World. Today was also the day that Dan hit the wall. The constant go, go, go of activities everyday since we arrived in LA on Tuesday have finally caught up with him and he was rather tired most of the morning.

But it was a little cooler today and we went and enjoyed ourselves at Sea World for about three hours this morning before we returned to our hotel room to vedge out.

None of the show stadiums at Sea World are covered so we decided against going to any of them. (It is only a little cooler after all.) But we did buy a DVD of their newest one. Pretty cool stuff.

There were three small indoor aquariums, a artic exhibit with Belugas and Walrus, a Shark Encounter which includes a tube that goes under the water so you can see the sharks beneath the surface. We went up in the Sky Tower and got some nice pictures of the park and San Diego. We saw Penguins (both cold and warm climate). We got to see sea turtles up close and dolphins. We also saw sea lions and harbour seals (during feeding time which noisy.) Pink Fl amigos were cool as well.

The only major complaint we had was that it was blatantly obvious that the makers of Bud Beer own the park. They even had a gift shop exclusively selling Bud Beer items and had their Clydesdale’s on hand.

Aside from that we enjoyed our stay at Sea World and as with many of the other parks we’ve visited this week, we will have to come back when it is cooler.

For dinner tonight we plan on having Chinese and just chilling out in our room. Tomorrow we spend a few hours aboard the USS Midway (aircraft carrier – museum) and then begin the slow trek north on our way home. (And by slow we mean the 6 day trek).

We figure we’ll be at the museum for about 3.5 hours. It is then a five hour drive to San Luis Obispo which is were we are staying tomorrow night. So it could be a late update but we will have carrier museum shots.

Till then….

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 7 – June 21, 2008

2008-06-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 7 Photos

Late update today. We decided to wait till after dinner today.

So… we had hoped and expected cooler temperatures today. Didn’t happen. They’re having a bit of a heat wave down here right now. It hit 33 celsius today. Add to it a bit more humidity than we’ve had recently and it made for a very hot and sweat filled day.

But we made the most of it as best we could.

We left Anaheim at about 9:30 and made it to the San Diego Zoo at about 11:30. Took a bit longer than it was expected to because of a traffic accident that slowed us down for pretty long stretch of road. By the way, once we arrived in Anaheim and including the drive down to San Diego we’ve driven an additional 257.2 klicks.

Once we cleared that though it was clear sailing. We made our way to the zoo and found some parking. (Which for once was free.) Once we got out of the van though we discovered the heat. We shrugged it off and made our way to the zoo itself.

We checked out a few of the animals, taking it slow and then decided to have lunch. Expensive. We thought Disney was bad but this was worse. At least the food was good.

For the next couple of hours we wandered around the various exhibits. Dan is fairly familiar with the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and was expecting this zoo to be far superior. At first he was disappointed with what he saw but as we moved around we discovered that it indeed was superior.

As there was not much shade and the breeze was not often felt we decided that we had, had our fill of the heat and decided to make our way to our hotel around 2:30.

One thing we’ve learned since we got down here, aside from the need to drink lots of water, is that perhaps the best way to enjoy Southern Cal is when it is in the off season and much cooler. Something we will keep in mind the next time we come down. Which we do want to do.

We got to our hotel. It is an older hotel (which we expected) but we didn’t expect was that all of the rooms had recently been renovated. This is probably the nicest room we’ve stayed in since we started our honeymoon. Couple of days back we canceled the reservations we had at Motel 6′s for the trip back home and changed them to a Super 8 in San Luis Obispo and Medford and a Days Inn in Seattle.

After a couple of hours of rest and a chance to shower we headed for a local mall to have dinner at Ruby’s Diner. Ruby’s is a restaurant that is right out of the 50′s and makes an excellent cheese burger. After dinner we hit Target to buy a couple of extra pillows as our hotel only gives us one and we need the extra cushioning while watching TV.

Tomorrow is our last full day in San Diego. We’re heading for Sea World. We’re beyond hoping for cooler weather at this point so if we get it we’ll be surprised.

That’s all for today.

More tomorrow.

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 6 – June 20, 2008

2008-06-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

5:45 Edit: Wowsers…. We just came back from Dinner. Originally we were going to just go down to the local Subway but we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory instead. It’s a full restaurant and it does serve cheesecake but the name is misleading. It was goooooood eating! New photos added.

Honeymoon Day 6 Photos

Original Post

Greetings and Salutations faithful readers.

We called it a day early today due to the heat (It was even hotter than yesterday but we survived.)

Our plan to go in early accomplished very little as it was just as crowded by the time we got there. Well… we did end up one level lower on the parking structure so that’s something we guess.

We wandered (via the Disney Railroad) back into Tomorrowland to try the Finding Nemo subs. Lineups were too long in direct sun to make that worth doing so we went over to Star Tours. That was a blast. We both had huge grins on our faces throughout the entire ride.

After that we went over to Fantasy Land and Mickey’s Toon Town to check it out but this is one of the few areas with very limited shade and it was also very crowded so we decided to make our way over to California Adventure park (through the world famous Cinderella Castle). We paused to get a photo of a statue of Walt and Mickey.

We hiked up Main Street USA to the main entrance (all in the blazing hot sun), crossed the main entrance plaza between the two parks (still in the blazing hot sun) and entered Disney’s California Adventure Park. Fortunately we found a gift shop just inside the entrance. As with all of the gift shops the AC was cranked. Thank god.

We looked around in there for a bit till we were cooled off and then decided to have lunch. (Again good, but expensive.) Once lunch was over we went over toSoarin Over California. This was the first major line we braved (as it was mostly covered and had misters blowing water mist over us.) The line was about 45 minutes long but boy was it worth it. Our favorite attraction out of both parks.

At this point we decided that the day was done (about 2:00 or so). Even with getting and leaving early we were still there for about the same amount of time as yesterday.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a Wal*Mart to pick up a few things including some more bottled water.

A quick note on the water. We definitely agree that a thermos or some other suitable container is the way to go. Cuts down on the cost etc but when you are going in and out of rides etc you need to limit how much you carry with you. Nicole has a bag that hold two bottles just perfectly. So it’s expensive but much more convenient. At home we use a Brita Filter rather than buying bottled water. We also know that most of them are just filtered tap water. Coke even flat out admits that with it’s Dasani water.

Anyways, we’re trying to decide what to do for dinner so we’ll cut this off here.

Next blog from San Diego tomorrow evening. We’ll have a full report and more pictures from the San Diego Zoo.

Take care.

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 5 – June 19, 2008

2008-06-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 5 Photos

Well hello all.

Coming from our hotel room after a rather successful first day at Disneyland.

Anyways, we left our hotel room around 9:30 and went to IHOP for breakfast. Not bad. Though as with everything around here it was a bit on the pricey side but all things considered we think that is to be expected.

After breakfast we headed for the massive parking structure. (Dan had a silly plan to walk but with the heat….) Once we finally got parked we headed down for the 5 minute tram ride to the main entrance.

We finally figured out what to do with our tickets and entered the park around 11:30 or so. First stop was a trip around the park on the Disney Railroad. Cool ride. After that we went in and checked out a 50th Anniversary museum type display on the creation of the park and subsequent attractions. This included a 15 minute movie hosted by Steve Martin and Donald Duck.

Once that was over we came outside and got some shots of Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Pluto. Donald was even kind enough to look at Nicole and wave as she took his photo.

Heat wise it was as bad as Universal but there was a nicer breeze today and way more shade than we had yesterday so Dan was doing much better. (We also drank way more water, though we think we will try even more tomorrow. Bottled Water aint cheap here though. We paid $5.50 for two bottles of water. (591 ml so they weren’t tiny but still….)

We proceeded to Frontierland and took a ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat. It was a fun ride. Once that ended we went to the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country. Nicole had some chicken nuggets and Dan had a Grilled Chicken Salad (minus the dressing which had Calcium Chloride in it.) No food reactions today thankfully.

We went back to the Railroad and took the train to Tomorrowland. We were going to try out the Finding Nemo subs but the lineup was too long. Autotopia was not as busy but it was too long when you consider the waiting area has no shade. So we went to the Innovations building and saw some interesting things. (Basically it’s a science museum.) Unfortunately the “home of tomorrow” on the lower level was being updated so it really was the “home of tomorrow”.

After that we went and saw “Honey I Shrunk The Audience” which was a 3D movie starring the original cast (plus Eric Idle) from the movies. They had some other surprises for us aside from it being in 3D but we’ll let you discover that for yourselves if you ever go.

After the movie (which was really cool by the way) we went to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters which was just plain fun. We both want to do it again tomorrow if we have time.

By this point it was about 4:30 and we decided that we were at the edge of what we could stand considering the heat. We took the monorail to downtown Disney (another exterior mall that they seem to like so much down here. Must be the lack of rain.) and checked out the Lego store, Build A Bear and decided to go for an early dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. Good food but expensive. Dan was by this point at the outer edge of his limit as there was no shade in Downtown Disney but he managed to pull through.

Once dinner was over we hiked across the mall to the parking tram and took the five minute ride back to the parkade. Made a quick stop to fill the gas tank (and get some dessert) and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we’re going to go in earlier and try and catch stuff with shorter lines. It’s due to be even hotter though but as long as we take it a little easier than we did today and avoid Downtown Disney we should be ok. If we have time we may try and hit the other park next door (California Adventure)

So that’s it…. till tomorrow.

Peace!

Honeymoon Day 4 – June 18, 2008

2008-06-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon Day 4 Photos

Well hello there folks.

So… Today was interesting.

We got to Universal at 9:30. Paid for parking and got a decent spot near the entrance to City Walk (the outdoor mall attached to the theme park) we went through City Walk and into the theme park.

All in all a pretty decent start to the day. Biggest problem we found was that it was already hot. It hit 34 celcius. Being from the Vancouver area we aren’t used to that sort of heat.

It was a dry heat for the most part so we didn’t sweat as much as we would, had it hit 34 in Vancouver (which while rare does happen.)

We started by going to the Backlot Tour. It was about 40 minutes long and really, really cool (not temperature wise though. ). Won’t give details just in case you, our faithful readers, plan on going there yourselves one day. We didn’t see anyone famous though.

From there we went on the new Simpsons Ride which took over for the old Back to the Future ride. We stood in line for a good 35 minutes but it was well worth it. Again, no spoilers here. (We’ll give details to family and friends when we get home.)

We decided to go check out the Animal Actors after that, it was a neat show. Little cooler thankfully as the audience seating was covered and a nice breeze was flowing through. The animals were great performers. We saw birds, dogs, a cat, a rat, a raccoon, a pig and even a couple of orangutans.

By this point it was lunch time (Yep, it took 2.5 hours to just do the three things.). Dan was sweltering but holding up. Anyone who was with him in New York last summer will remember he doesn’t do well in the heat. Keep that in mind as we progress.

We decided to hit the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood which is part of City Walk. Neither one of us have been to a Hard Rock before and it was pretty cool. Food was a tad pricey but boy was it worth the price… at least in taste. Must have been something in the mayo or perhaps the bacon on our Chicken Clubs cause Dan had a reaction to something. (With his body under the stress from the heat it was just amplified.) (And yes we were drinking lots of water but probably not enough under the circumstances.)

Anyways, with his heart racing and realizing he was having a bad food reaction and feeling like crap from the heat Dan mentioned to Nicole that he might be having a problem. We headed back into the park hoping it would pass and went to see the Waterworld Stunt Show. Great show and we enjoyed it.

As the show ended Dan decided that he needed to call it a day or he’d probably end up sick and possibly in need of medical attention. So we thought perhaps going to a movie (in City Walk) would work but the showtimes were out of snych for us. So we made the decision to end out day at Universal and to head for Anaheim and our hotel near Disneyland.

Dan drained an entire bottle of water just before we left and as we drove down the 101 and then the I5 he began to feel better and as he types this is he pretty much back to normal all be it a little tired. Nicole is also feeling a bit tired but glad we didn’t push beyond ourselves today.

Lessons learned: 1) Drink more water. Lots more. 2) Don’t push beyond what you can handle. 3) Watch what you eat.

Tomorrow we hit the “happiest place on Earth”. We were gonna just walk as it is a ten minute walk but with the heat we don’t think that’s a good idea. We’ll probably just drive and pay for the parking. At the end of the day it’ll be better for our health we think.

Probably going to hit 32 celcius tomorrow. The forecast for San Deigo which we hit over the weekend is high of 27 on Saturday but dropping to a high of 21 on Sunday. That we can probably live with if it is accurate.

So, that’s it for today.

Peace!

First Post as A Married Couple

2008-06-17T17:19:00.001-07:00

First of all this is the first post on this blog as a married couple. Going forward this will serve as a family blog.

That said we apologize for the delay in getting this first one done. We didn’t get the net access we expected on Sunday or Monday nights. We have it now so we will include our thoughts on the Wedding Day, Gift Opening Day / Honeymoon Day 1, Honeymoon Day 2 and Honeymoon Day 3 (today). Each section will start with a bolded heading so feel free to skip to what interests you as this will probably be long.

So without further ado:

Wedding Day – June 14th, 2008

Those of you reading this were most likely there so we’ll keep this short.

It was a blast. We have no complaints. Considering we only had two minor issues we were lucky. Everyone was at their best and helped ensure we had a excellent and unforgettable day. Thank you all.

Here are the photos from the Wedding and Reception.

Gift Opening Day / Honeymoon Day 1 – June 15th, 2008

Gift opening was great. We were spoiled rotten and have a lot of shopping to do when we get home to spend all the gift cards and cash we received (on top of all of the other gifts). At this point we have no idea what we’re going to do with it all. (To be worried about after the honeymoon as far as we’re concerned.)

After the gift opening we went home, grabbed our stuff, loaded up the van and hit the road to Seattle.

The border crossing was a smooth as could be. We waited about ten minutes. Were greeted very politely by the Customs Official. He even managed a “How are you?” to which Dan replied “Great, and yourself?”

He replied positively, asked where we were going as he scanned our passports. Once we told him we were headed to southern Cal on our honeymoon, he handed back the passports and told us to have a good time. Neither one of us can recall that last time a crossing at the US border was that fast. No complaints.

We then drove 250.6 klicks to our hotel in Seattle. It was cheap and clean but the ceiling squeaked which kept us up and we had no internet access. Dan then proceeded to get us lost trying to find dinner. But we made out ok.

Honeymoon Day 1 Photos

Honeymoon Day 2 – June 16th, 2008

We woke at 8:00 after a poor nights sleep and headed for Weed in northern California. All of this on the I5 making a few stops at various rest areas and food and gas stops.

We drove a total of 837.3 klicks and arrived at our hotel at 7:30. It was broiling hot and the AC in the room did not work. And again no internet access. Needless to say we did not sleep well.

Bottom line, avoid the Motel 6 in Weed.

Honeymoon Day 2 Photos

Honeymoon Day 3 – June 17th, 2008

After another poor nights sleep we woke at 5:30 and left a 6:00 for LA. (Actually Universal City.) Again all on the I5 with a detour around Sacramento due to a major re-construction project that has closed southbound I5 for a few days (fortunately we will not be returning that way.)

We drove a total of 997.7 klicks and arrived at our hotel (surviving LA area rush hour traffic) at 4:30. We are in a very nice room with working AC and a king sized bed. We are a five minute (non-freeway drive) away from tomorrow’s big event, going to Universal. (Read about it tomorrow evening after we get to Anaheim.)

Honeymoon Day 3 Photos

Much love to our friends and family.

Love Nicole and Daniel.

Peace!

It’s the Big Day

2008-06-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

I’m getting married today.

Ceremony is at 4:00. It’s currently 8:40 (as I type this).

Managed to get about 7 solid hours last night so I’m as well rested as I can hope for.

My thoughts are scattered all over at the moment so this will be short. I just felt the need to make a final blog as an unmarried man.

Really looking forward to tonight.

There will be some minor changes to the blog layout tomorrow when Nicole and I make our first blog on our honeymoon.

Till then…. Peace!

"I Am Indy" No I AM Not – AKA The Bachelor Party

2008-06-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

So in two weeks I’ll be a married man about to head out on his honeymoon.

As is the tradition I had my bachelor party yesterday. Shane organized it and it went off really, really well.

Shane and Shawn picked me up at noon at home and we headed back to Shane’s place. Shane, Shawn and I hung out for about an hour before my Dad and future brother-in-law, Stuart, showed up. Shortly after my cousin-in-law, Sean and my brother Eric arrived.

We all headed downstairs and started playing pool. There is a cool multi-player game of pool known as golf. Much fun. About 20 minutes later my Uncle Thom, Uncle Rob and cousin Tristan arrived and joined in on the game. Last but not least my future cousin-in-law Jason arrived.

We managed to get through 9 holes of pool golf before it was time to head out to the restaurant. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory which is exactly what it sounds like. Cheap but good food with decent service. The cost of your meal includes, coffee or tea, bread, soup or salad, main entree and a small bowl of ice cream for desert.

My boss, Terry, joined us there for the meal. We were having a good time.

As we got closer to desert time I was expecting something to occur that I knew would prove to be embarrassing. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate to be embarrassed, but I figured in this case I’d just grin and bear it.

The moment arrived when they delivered our desert to us. The waitress put an aluminum pie plate on my head that had been sliced open to appear to a crown. They then put an alcoholic beverage in front of me known as a muff dive.

I could deal with the pie plate on the head but when I was told I was supposed to consume this muff dive thing I balked. See the ting of it was I was supposed to do it without my hands. This means I’d end up having whipped cream all over my face and I decided to draw the line there. For two reasons. One I was already embarrassed and two I have food allergies and I didn’t really have a clue what was in this thing and after the bad night I had the night before I wasn’t about to make it worse.

Much to the disappointment of the wait staff and some people around the table I flat out refused. I wasn’t mad or anything cause I knew that the beverage was not the idea of Shane or Shawn but of the restaurant staff. Shane and Shawn know me well enough to know how much I will tolerate on the embarrassment level and the pie plate was it.

I’ve been called a stick in the mud by many people. And I really don’t agree with that assessment. There are certain things that I just do not like doing for a variety of reasons. Granted most of them are because I hate being embarrassed but some are due to food allergies or because doing said thing will end up causing my physical pain or some form of distress later on. Sadly many people don’t see it that way. But at the end of the day that’s their problem and not mine.

Anyways once we got passed all of that silliness it was time to pay the bills and head over to the movie theatre to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Eric left us at this point so I said goodbye and headed over to the theatre.

We originally wanted to go to the 7:00 showing but the billing process at the restaurant took to long so we were going to try for the 7:30 showing. HA. Right. The place was packed so we would have ended up in the front row. So we went for the 8:00 show.

We got to sit in the theatre for a bit of time but it ended up being worth it. The movie was a lot of fun. It felt like an Indy movie, which considering it’s been nearly 20 years since the last one I wasn’t sure of. This is a potential spoiler so skip the rest of this line if you haven’t seen the movie: The movie ended with a wedding which considering it was my bachelor party I thought it was very fitting.

Anyways, today is Nicole’s bridal shower so I’ll be taking her over to her Mom’s at 2:30 and then I’ll be hanging out with my Dad, Stuart and Uncle Thom upstairs while the shower is going on in the Basement.

We’re really down to crunch time at this point. One more full work week and then three work days after that and we’re on vacation.

This will most likely be my last blog as an un-married guy. The next one will be a joint one by Nicole and Myself from the hotel in Seattle on Day One of our honeymoon.

Till then, Peace!

"I am Prince Caspian" Or Not.

2008-05-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Come up with better post title.

It’s sweltering here right now. It’s abut 7:30 and it was 30 degrees last time I checked. It was 15 or so on Thursday so as you can imagine the sudden heat has not been at all fun.

To make matters worse we’re supposed to get cold and wet again come Monday when we were planning to break in the new BBQ. Oh well. I can BBQ in the rain.

Nicole and I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian today. We were joined by my friend Shane.

Oddly enough two days ago I was in the exact same theatre to see Iron Man. I must profess I really like the digital projector. It’s nice.

Once we got past the idiotic trailer for the Chihuahua movie that Disney has coming out we settled into the movie. This is the 2nd movie in the Narnia series. Nicole had not seen the first one so we watched my DVD copy of it last night while we ate dinner. (Dinner turned out to be my best batch of spaghetti in a very long time.)

She enjoyed it so we had no problem going to see the new one. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it to be just as wondrous as the first one. A bit slow to start it snow balled into a great adventure.

I think what I appreciate about the two Narnia movies is, that although the main characters or “the Heroes” of the story are teenagers and younger the movie, when it comes to the battle sequences, doesn’t pull any punches in the reality of that kind of battle (minus the gore of course… this is after all a Disney movie.)

Anyways, if you liked the first one in any way I strongly recommend you go see this one. It’ll enjoy this week at the top of the box office. Next week… not so much. Indy’s back.

I won’t be seeing it opening weekend. This one will get watched during my bachelor party on the 31st.

No promises but I’ll try not to blog about that one with the title of “I am Indy”.

Peace!

"I Am Iron Man"

2008-05-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

So five quick posts in a row and then nothing… What can I tell ya. Work and Wedding stuff have got me busy.

Anyways, as you can probably tell by the title I just got back from seeing Iron Man.

One of my best friends (who happens to be my Best Man) just took me out for a belated birthday dinner and movie.

We saw it in the fairly new digital projection theatre at the Colossus in Langley. If that’s the future of moving going, count me in.

I did not miss the film artifacts at all and at times thought I was looking through a very clean window.

As for the movie… It was simply awesome. Very much enjoyed it and am looking forward to the sequel in 2010. Robert Downey Jr. was great.

Anyways, not a whole lot new to report really. Nicole and I are starting to feel the stress of our upcoming wedding and the various ongoings at our respective places of employment.

I see major changes coming for both of us on that front after the honeymoon. I plan on at least making a last ditch effort to discuss my concerns with my boss before I make any decisions though. 14.5 years make it hard to just simply throw it away. Even though some would say I owe them nothing. My place of employment, as expressed in the past is the last major thing in my life that remains unchanged since I graduated from high school. But time will tell.

Quick update. Gonna sign off for now in my usual fashion.

Peace!

Ok… I guess we do need a fridge afterall…

2008-04-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Or so my landlord tells us.

He left a note on the back of his business card stating we’d be getting a new fridge tomorrow.

With me going out of town for a couple of days this isn’t an issue.

That said, what is going on here…. I don’t blog a whole lot over the past year or so and all of a sudden boom…. lots of blogs in a very short period of time.

Weird.

Anyways, I’m out. See ya on Saturday more than likely.

Peace!

Changes & A Last Minute Trip

2008-04-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just made some changes to the template colours and font size. I think it works better.

Lucky me just found out I get to leave at 6:00 am tomorrow morning for a flight out to London Ontario to do a couple of client site audits.

Once that’s done I get to fly home Friday for arrival at 11:45 at night. Talk about a whirlwind trip.

Understandably Nicole’s not all that pleased about it, and neither am I really, but unfortunately it can’t be helped.

That said, we still haven’t heard what’s up with our fridge. Hopefully we’ll find out tonight when we get home.

Back to work…

Peace!

We don’t need no stinkeen fridge!

2008-04-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Or so our fridge decided to tell us today.

Nicole picked me up at work at about quarter to 6 this evening and we headed for home. Somewhere in the conversation I could have sworn that she asked if I wanted to go out for dinner tonight. (She didn’t but that’s what I heard.)

We decided to go to Ricky’s for dinner and we had turkey club wraps which were really good.

We went home and I heard an odd click as soon as we walked in the apartment. I didn’t think much of it until a few short minutes later it happened again and again and again.

I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from at first so I stood in the kitchen until the click happened again. Came from the fridge. I figured it was the compressor by the sounds of it. I opened the fridge and everything seemed cold at first. I opened the freezer and noticed frost on the meat. This is a frost free freezer so I knew immediately that something was up. Upon closer inspection I found the meat was half thawed.

After a second look in the fridge where I noted some of the stuff was not so cold after all we decided to empty out the fridge and unplug it.

On Sunday we went and did some grocery shopping. We lost it all. We didn’t want to chance that it was thawing / warming, refreezing / re-cooling. Eating anything like that is just asking for trouble.

Once we got home and found out this we decided that me hearing Nicole ask if we wanted to eat out may not have been a bad thing after all. Weird how things work out.

Anyways, the landlord will be in tomorrow to look things over. We’ll be eating out of cans for the next little while I guess. (Though we’re out on Thursday so that’ll help.)

On an unrelated note I actually started my course today. Will take my first exam tomorrow. Pretty handy that I can do that all online before I receive my first course related shipment.

I’m out.

Peace!

Whoops… Little Late

2008-04-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

So later today or tomorrow turned into a few days. What ya gonna do about it? Sue me?

Anywho…

Nicole’s at a Guiding camp and has been since yesterday. I miss her.

So what’s new with me?

Overwhelmingly positive with a few minor negative items.

If someone had come to me this time last year and told me that I was going to be very happy and satisfied with my personal life over the upcoming year I’d have laughed at em. Then May rolled around and I met Nicole, the love of my life. I know it’s probably a cliche to say this considering the move Jerry Maguire but she completes me. I was content and happy for the most part before I met here but after meeting her and knowing I loved her almost immediately… Well, I guess I didn’t truly know what happy and content meant until that moment.

As I type this we’re at 69 days and about 17 hours till the wedding. And if all goes as planned 9 or 10 months after that we’ll be starting our family. But we don’t have total control over that so we’ll see what life brings us.

Nicole reads this blog so I’ll just end that part of this post with: I love you Nicole. I can’t wait till we’re married.

So what else… Work… Wow, 14 years and counting at this point. This is the one (aside from my health that is) area of my life that I’m not content with. I’ve been doing essentially the same job for all of those 14 years and to be frank I’m getting a touch bored with it again. Last time that happened I ended up in Toronto and we all know how that turned out. Though, oddly enough had I not gone to Toronto I wouldn’t have figured out a few things and I most likely would not have met Nicole…. Odd how things work out.

Anyways, at this point I really only have one option and that’s to tender my resignation and try to find another job. Don’t want to do that though. I may be bored with what I do but I like my boss and I don’t want to leave them in the lurch. So what I decided to do is enroll in a business management course via correspondence. Will take a minimum of 9 months to complete though I have up to two years to finish it. When I finish the course I can sit down with my boss and tell him that I have a new skill set and see what we can come up with to allow me to change jobs but still remain with the company. If that isn’t doable I’ll have to decide what to do but at least I will then have some education to back up my experience so it will open up my options more. Got my first set of course materials online so I’ll start on that on Monday. 1 hour minimum everyday except Sunday.

Canucks miss the playoffs again and lose their final game of the season to the stinking Flames 7-1… ’nuff said about that.

Health wise… When I came back from Toronto I weighed about 260 pounds and was taking 10mg of Altace a day for my high blood pressure. Over the next year and a half I dropped 30 pounds and was able to cut my Altace down to 5mg a day. Currently I’m sitting at about 263 and I suspect my doctor is gonna freak on me and probably have to up my Altace intake when he sees me again in a month or so.

At this point I’d like to try and drop at least 10 pounds by the wedding. Only have 70 days or so to do so. Now I’m not a huge fan of “diets” but my good friend Ryan (aka McC) has blogged about the Fat Flush Plan. It appears to be working for him and I trust him and value his opinion enough that I’m seriously considering it. I was walking to my Mom yesterday and mentioned it and she’s interested as well so I’ll probably pick up a copy of the book and split the cost with my Mom. You can read Ryan’s thoughts on it here: http://blazer1000.livejournal.com/.

Anyways for now a bit of exercise will be in order. Nicole and I are going to go for a good walk every day before dinner. I’m also going to have to look at some sort of weight training by the sounds of things. My Dad used to have some weights… I will have to ask him if he still has them and if so could I borrow them. (And Dad, I know you’ll probably read this so if you do, Do you still have them and if so can I borrow them please? If you’re not still using them that is. )

Aside from the obvious health benefits of dropping the weight at the least it’ll take the pressure of my back which has been bugging me a lot lately. I also need to get my doctor to look at my left elbow. Seem to have a pinched nerve in it or something. Causes pins and needles in my hand and sometimes hurts like hell.

Speaking of Ryan… Back in August of 2001 I participated in the filming of a parody science fiction film loosely based on an offshoot of Star Trek that Ryan created. Some time went back and he decided to not to complete it. Recently he’s decided to finish it after all so my 15 seconds of fame on the internet may happen after all. I’m looking forward to seeing how I look with my huge glasses (the ones I wore back then where huge) and goatee when I was covered in chocolate icing that is doubling for shit. You’ll see. Trust me.

So… I think that’s about it actually…. I’ll try to update more often going forward but I make no promises.

Till then… Take care.

Peace!

Long Overdue Update

2007-12-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s been a long time.

Since my last update I’ve moved in with Nicole. We really like our new place.

Enjoy.

And for those of you have been wondering here’s a picture of the engagement ring:

Things are great.

Before I go though I just wanted to let you know that while we our on our honeymoon in 2008 we plan on blogging about our experiences and adding select photos to our Picasa albums. (EDIT JUNE 2011: Since moved to chadwicks.smugmug.com)

Hope to get back into some regular updating as time allows. Till then. Peace!

First Comment About Marriage

2007-07-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, had to drop the word “single” out of my header.

I’m not single anymore. Hell I’m beyond single at this point. I’m staring down the big old “m”* word at this point and ya know what? I don’t have a single solitary problem with that what so ever.

Life is awesome!

* The “m” word I refer to is marriage.

TV Update + First Mention of Nicole

2007-06-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Wow… Been a few changes since my last post.

First, Jericho got renewed for 7 eps as a mid season show. Congrats to the fans for fighting so hard on that one.

Second, Veronica Mars is totally dead. No chance of it coming back for a 4th season. Slim chance of a movie though.

Third, I highly suspect I’m gonna be to busy in the coming months to watch anywhere near as much TV as I have been. So plans for adding new shows are done as of now. And I’ll have to think on which shows that I do currently watch I’d be willing to give up. I have a few candidates.

That said, Hi Nicole. <- Reason for Third above.