Nels & Tricia Anvik

One of the things to show up under the tree this year was a bird feeder. We live right along a creek and green space so the bird life out our window is fantastic. Along with an ordinary bird feeder we’ve also hung a humming bird feeder. While it hasn’t had as much attention as the seed feeder, it hasn’t been ignored either.

Off the top of my head here’s a list of confirmed visitors thus far.

Dark-eyed Junco
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Chestnut-backed Chikadee
Spotted Towhee
Purple Finch
Anna’s Hummingbird

Today I managed to spend some time up close with the big lens on the camera. I think I managed to get some reasonable shots. I’m hoping to get some hummingbird shots at sone point, but I won’t hold my breath!

Every year the LDS community in Victoria puts on a Nativity Pageant for the community. It’s well attended by people all over town with 4 shows a night for 3 nights straight. Having a baby this near Christmas and being part of the LDS community, the newest edition to our family had a chance to play the role of baby Jesus for a couple of showings. Not sure what the record of for youngest baby in the pageant is but he’s probably close!

Here’s a few pictures from last night.

No better way to spend the first day of November on the wet coast then playing a little baseball! I love living in Victoria.

Evan and I did a little fishing again today. It rained hard all morning but had let up by early afternoon. I hoped it was going to hold off for the rest of the day. It didn’t.

Looking back now, I think I can blame it on a Beaver Camp. Evan came home that weekend raving about how they went fishing. I don’t think they caught anything, but he was hooked. From that day forward it was a constant question of when I was going to take him fishing. Not being much of a fisherman I figured that I could wait this one out. Eventually he’d forget and loose interest, right? He’s only 5, so surely my plan would work. I managed to hold out for about 4 months I think, then finally realized my plan had failed. A couple weeks ago Tricia told me that ‘tomorrow night, you are going to get some fishing gear’. And so it began.

Luckily the first time out we actually managed to catch something. A little rainbow trout. Not big enough to keep, but enough to feed the habit. Unfortunately it met an unintended demise as we couldn’t get out the hook it had swallowed deep down. We’ve since learned that in such a case it’s best to just leave the hook in and cut the line. Beginner’s ignorance I guess. We’ve been out a few more times since, including a full on camping trip complete with canoe and many hours of fishing. Nevertheless, we’ve been a rather empty handed since. Again early this morning before work we headed out to Elk Lake for an hour and a half. No luck today, but Evan holds out with that eternal youthful hope that one day we’ll bring home a whopper!

So I’ve had the itch for a while, and finally I got a chance to scratch. The weather has been getting warmer and my legs have been feeling good. This last week there was a slight change in the family routine allowing me to get out and ride in the weekly race series.

This was my 2nd bike race ever (if you don’t count the hill climb I did last fall). It was a Road Race format, which in this case means you go multiple laps around a long course compared to the short course Criterium format. I’m not sure how long the course was, but we did 15 laps in what I think was between 1 and 1 1/2 hour racing. I don’t really know how long it took, it was all a blur, quite literally.

The course wasn’t for the faint of heart with a screaming downhill run and a couple sharp corners. The organizers did a great job setting up the course and sweeping the road in key places. I raced in the ‘B’ group (a.k.a - slow group), which consisted of 22 men and 7 women.

The group stayed together pretty much the entire race. There were a couple breaks out front which were quickly swallowed up by the pack. I generally just focused on keeping the rubber side down, staying out of trouble and keeping up with the group. On the last lap I managed to sneak up a ways which put me in the an OK spot for the sprint to the line. Turns out I managed a top ten spot! It wasn’t for skill, strength, or endurance. I’m sure it was just dumb luck since my daily training is just a bike ride to work. Although my lungs and legs took a beating it feels good not to get completely crushed.

If you’ve got the patience, Tricia took a bunch of photos as did the race organizers.

Now that spring is finally starting to show itself it seemed high time we took the canoe out for a dip. We got together with the cousins and headed on up to Spectacle Lake. It’s a nice little body of water tucked away near the top of the Malahat and Shawnigan Lake.

It was a nice calm day with not too many people. We had the beach all to ourselves (which is a good thing given there were 11 of us) and only shared the lake with a couple fly fisher-women. The fish were jumping most of the day and those with rods seemed to have enough luck to hook 4 or 5 fish while we were there.

The kids had a blast going for rides in the canoe, exploring or digging in the sand. We managed to capture a few pictures of the day.

This year we bit the bullet and plunged into the world of the family ski vacation. With half priced mid-week lift tickets and cheap on mountain accommodation (split with another family), we figured we’d give it a go and hopefully not break the bank doing it.

Evan’s been making the odd trip up in the last couple of years, and Brett had his first taste of skiing during the Christmas break. That day was pretty much a full on blizzard and both of them skied all day long. Knowing that, we figured we’d be able to spend most of our time out on the slopes. Evan was right at that stage where he was ready and capable to do more on the mountain, but needed a couple of days in a row to take that step.

The trip up the highway started out well enough. The drive up to Courtenay was as nice as could be. Then we headed up the Mt. Washington parkway… usually a pleasant drive as well. It wasn’t long before red lights were blinking on my dash. Coolant sensor; lovely. Within minutes, the temperature started to rise beyond what it should. Just as it hit the red line, we managed to find a safe place to pull out. Sure enough, coolant leaking everywhere. Great. We managed to hopscotch our way up to the top of the mountain, letting the car over heat and cool down again. What little water we had, we poured on it. That isn’t usually a good idea at that elevation this time of year, but thanks to a massive temperature inversion there was no risk of freezing for a quite a few more days (highs of around 14 degrees). Once at the top, we parked the car and headed out for some skiing. After all, we had a couple days up there anyway.

The townhouse we rented was one of those do-it-all-yourself kinda places. We took care of the day to day, cooking, cleaning, and basically moved in for a couple days. Evan skied for 2.5 days, and could probably have done more. He managed to make some good progress and has ventured beyond the bunny slopes and onto one of the big chairs, and even the odd blue run. Brett tuckered out pretty good after the first day, and didn’t really have the legs for much more. Can’t really blame him, he’s only two and a half. Tricia and I managed to switch off a bit and take a few laps without the kids, which was kinda nice for Tricia as she’s never really skied Mt. Washington before. We spent our last afternoon on the tube park lapping up and down for hours. The little rope toe that took us to the top had Evan going until he was too tired to pull his tube off the run!

Despite some very tired kids, an unbearable bed time routine, a blown radiator and a tow off the mountain, we managed to make it all work and still have tons of fun. We were lucky enough to get the car fixed by the end of our second day. Despite the tough moments, it was more than worth it. We’ll certainly give it a shot again next year. If it wasn’t for the car troubles, we might have got away without breaking the bank. So much for that idea.

Here are some pics from the adventure.

So I woke up the other day and thought I was in Alberta.

After a long flight from London and a quick hop into Victoria, I’m finally home. As far as work goes, I think the trip was rather productive. It was a bit tough to be away from Tricia and the kids, but that’s how these things go. Our friends in the Ukraine took good care of us and were supper friendly and hospitable. We spent a night in Kiev on our way back so that we could have some time to do a little shopping and see the city. I was pretty impressed with Kiev, and would be happy to go back there just to explore, if only I could speak Russian. After only saying the odd ‘thank you’ for a week, I’ve got half a mind to take a course or two. If I could manage to add a couple hours to our 24 hour clock, I think I would actually do it.

I’ve uploaded the rest of the decent pictures from the Ukraine, so enjoy.