A Very Monster Christmas

Having some snuggles on my Gilly blanket

This year has been a big one. I was born, so obviously the world got a little better. Not sure how it was managing before I came along, but that's now in the past. My first three months were awesome. I had my brothers and sisters to play with whenever I wanted and the couch was free for the taking. Then something horrible happened, I got taken to this place called "The O'Hara's".

After the first shock of being taken away from my family, life slowly got better. I made a new friend called Gilly, who I think is my new big sister. She was cautious like me while I was still nervous going to a new place. I got so nervous in the car I got sick twice. They seemed to stop the car whenever I got sick, so this is probably how I'll get out from now on.

Sharing my bed with Gilly

I've made lots of new friends this year, London is my Goldie friend who keeps telling me she wants me to be on the "A-Team". I don't know what this means, but she plays rough and loves tug. I just lick her butt when I want her to calm down. Freya is my puppy friend who's only 2 months younger than me. She was small when I first met her, but something has changed. She seems to be growing faster than me. Luckily I'm the fastest. I also have my little friend Finny. I loves him. He's small. I find other Yorkies at that park and harass them like I would Finny. They like it.

This one is my favourite

As As I'm a fancy pedigree, my breeder wants to put me in dog shows. I've done 2 shows now, and keep winning ribbons (by default - but shush), but I'd rather just play with all the funny dogs. Alexis also keeps calling me "Boo Boo" which is totally mean, but maybe it means I'll be famous one day. The best part? I get to keep my balls, which is great because licking them is my favourite activity.

Sometimes when my housemates are at work, they drop me at a giant play pen called daycare. At first I was nervous, as I don't like it when they leave me. After 2 days though I made some new puppy friends, and I started to love going. Then something weird happened, they made me swim. I've tried to tell them I don't have the body design of a swimmer, and I'll never be the "Thorpedo" (whoever that is) but they are persisting. I've also been going to daycare with Gilly and Freya on the weekend, except my owners are there and we do tricks for treats. There are tunnels and jumps and all sorts of strange things that I do, but O'Hara doesn't. Fat arse. Gilly is a massive showoff, she wants my treats I think. I like when O'Hara tells me I'm a good boy, but I also like smelling things and trying to get Gilly and Freya to play with me.

My favourite things in 2014 have been:

Merry Christmas!

• Playing with my boxer friend at daycare
• Chasing small dogs that I confuse for rabbits
• Going to Kenna Cartright park with my friends
• Playing at the beach
• Snuggling on my Gilly blanket
• Annoying Gilly
• Jumping on the couch
• Stealing food that my slob housemates leave lying around

There was the dark time during the pink eye incident of 2014, which occurred after my housemates deserted me at a kennel over Thanksgiving. I made the most of the situation by sniffing a lot of new butts, but I might have gotten a little close as I ended up with a persistent eye infection. Huge mistake.

My housemates keep talking about how I'm going to be a big brother in 2015. Not sure what this means, but I think it's a good thing. I'm hoping it means they are getting me a Yorkie!

Merry Christmas!!

Love Monte
a.k.a The Monster, Monte Boo Boo or "what sort of dog is that?"

Gilly, Finny and Me being restrained by a stranger

A True Northern Adventure. Whitehorse, Yukon.

So, I've been incredibly slack in the blog updates. I'm going to play the "busy" card which I HATE with a passion... but a lot has been going on since Easter. Trip to Europe, holiday in Portland, new puppy, new fun stuff going on at work, and I've been growing a fetus. Yep. Come February 2014, O'Hara and I will be joining the world of parenting. Terrifying! Anyway, let me take you back to April 2014. A whole 6 months ago.

Anyone who has spent any time with us over the past two years have almost certainly heard us *me*, utter the phrase "I have got to see the Northern Lights while I'm here!". One afternoon I was casually complaining to my boss, that it was so expensive to travel north. He looked at me like I was a bit of a moron, and said "Not really. Air North flies out of Kelowna and it's pretty cheap". 5 minutes later, he'd sent me a link to the winter packages and a plan was born. A week later while chatting to our Aussie travelling contingent (Wilson's and Greg and Lil), dates were set and a week after that the flights were booked.

Hello Yukon!

It turns out there is plenty to do in the Yukon, and we didn't really get close to the other things we considered. Depending on the time of year, your activities can vary. I read reviews that Spring was a shitty time to visit the Yukon as winter activities are done and summer activities haven't started. I'm calling bullshit, though there is a chance we got super lucky. The weather was incredible, we saw the Northern Lights, the snow was gone from the road, it was light until 10:30 at night, and my body was loving the extra sun.

Checking out the sunset over Whitehorse

O'Hara and I arrived on Thursday night before Good Friday, and spent the next day wandering the streets of Whitehorse and visiting the museum. We found a fantastic breakfast place, the Burnt Toast Cafe, so good in fact that we ate there 3 days in a row.  We visited the Whitehorse museum which had a bunch of information on how the town started up, and all the wildlife that exists in the area. As a gold town, there was a lot of interesting information for two gold miners.

MOUNTAIN GOAT! It's a real animal!!

We drove out on our second night in an attempt to view the Aurora Borealis. We'd been told to drive towards the hot springs, as you need to be away from city lights in order to have good viewing. While driving out there we spotted it in the sky. We were pumped. With added determination we drove on and found a park a few minutes outside the Takhini Hot Springs. We set up shop, made a hot milo, and waited. Nothing. All reports were saying the aurora should be raging, but we couldn't see a whole lot. After about 20 min of shivering and trying to spot what we thought was the aurora we packed up and drove towards home. Not 5min down the road, we saw it... apparently we'd been parked just out of view.

My camera isn't designed for this... but awesome none the less

The next day we went to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to check off a few animals of our bucket list. Unfortunately the moose was MILES aways, so really could be anything. We did see a mountain goat though, which was pretty damn exciting. After viewing some nifty creatures, we went out to the Takhini Hot Springs. They have an amazing crepe restaurant which was ridiculously good after a morning of walking around the wildlife preserve. The hot springs were HOT. It was really relaxing, but I can imagine it would be an incredible experience to be there at night, in the snow, drinking beers. It would also be awesome to sit back and watch the aurora overhead.

Hot spring times

That night we had grand scheme plans to view an aurora "storm" that was coming through. We found a beautiful lake that was still frozen and we set up shop complete with fire, beer and sausages for dinner. As it was spring we had to wait until about 11pm before it was dark, which meant plenty of time for fun photos. Lil was in charge of this because a) she's the best photographer, and b) I forgot to charge my camera battery. Genius. I think we were at Lake Laberge, but I can't guarantee that. Unfortunately the storm didn't come through until about 5am, way after we had gone to bed and the sun had started to come up. Now I'm an expert and aurora watching though, I'll try it out in Kamloops if a big storm comes through again.

Lil Difilippo took these stunners!

From what we managed to see of the Yukon in the 3 days we were there, it's a pretty special place. I hope we get up there again!

Our Yukon crew. Aussies taking over Canada!

Australia Day in the Snow

This year we didn't go down to Vancouver for the amazing spectacle that is Moose's Down Under. As we'd just got home from being in Texas, and it was a Sunday it just wasn't worth the drive over the Coq. Instead we celebrated as only Australians know how. Up the hill.

Now, unfortunately this year the snow has been nothing short of hopeless. Fortunately for us however, the weather was particularly warm this weekend. Therefore it was spring conditions in January, so the little snow that was left was at least soft. This was particularly useful this weekend as O'Hara and I decided it was necessary to do a run in our bathers. Or in O'Hara's case, his undies and the Australian flag. Does this count as desecration? It's probably lucky we have more lenient rules about the flag in Australia.

As it's pretty standard for Australians to want to take their clothes off, there was a huge group of transplants that were stripping off for a run. Because we didn't know anyone there, we decided to do it ourselves. This was a good and bad idea. Good because there was sun on our run, bad because it meant we had to explain ourselves. It was awkward on more than one occasion.

The worst part of my time was when I managed to loose my snowboard down the hill, while I was wearing nothing but a string bikini. Anyone who snowboards knows it's a huge rookie error to leave your board flat side down... well I did that on the worst possible of days. Luckily for me I was spared the agony of having to trek down the hill to get it as a very kind snow patrol guy was bringing it up just as I realised it was gone.

Unfortunately the bikini I wore, was bought back in about 2006. The southern cross on my butt looks more like a square than a diamond, but hey. You win some, you loose some.

White Christmas Round 2

The first year was just a practice round, this/last year was the real deal. This Christmas we again congregated at Kelly and Paul’s house for an Australian Invasion. The main course… a Turducken!! For those that don’t know, a Turducken is a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken. The turkey is a whole bird and the duck and chicken are de-boned. It was absolutely freaking delicious. As is the Canadian thing to do, the whole thing was chucked in a turkey fryer. These miraculous contraptions are the easiest way to cook a turkey. Rather than waiting around the over for hours, a bird can be done in about 45min! As the outside skin of the bird is the only part in contact with the oil, it’s also not nearly as bad for you as you would expect.

 

I made Christmas ham! All by myself! I think that's why O'Hara wore the jumper again.

The most delicious birds you've ever seen, and Master Chef.

I ate myself stupid and suffered from the turkey sleeping power for a good hour after dinner.

On Boxing Day, Kamloops was the lucky recipient of freezing rain. Australians, this is rain that is super chilled so as soon as it hits any surface it freezes. It also happens to turn every flat surface into a skating rink. We were planning on leaving early and driving to Whistler to meet a friend from high school, but this mess and black ice on the road meant we delayed until after lunch. Luckily for us it warmed up and the roads were clear and we got to see Sarah and Shaun. Unfortunately we could only stay for one night as we had booked Silver Star for the next 5 nights.

 

Friend! High school friend!

Silver Star was a great success for the period between Christmas and New Year. The Wilsons, Ouimets and Greg and Lil were all there to ski with, drink with, eat with and play games with. We managed to get 4 solid days of snowboarding in, though I’m unsure if my skills progressed at all. O’Hara and I have taken it upon ourselves to learn how to do jumps on our snowboard. I think this should be quite easy, as children seem to have no problem doing it. Sadly for us this isn’t the case.

 

I look casual, but really fell about 5 times trying to get this pic.

With views like this, why wouldn't you get a pic in the snow in your bikini? 

We went on a snowshoeing adventure while we were there. That was a good time! A guide took us on all these paths you'd never see by yourself. Or if you did, you'd likely get lost and die. We had one near miss where we had our own adventure, but everyone made it back safely. New Year’s Eve ended up being a slight fail. The boys made the mistake of going way too hard, way too early in the hot tub. As O’Hara has found in the past, this can and will end badly. 

A Christmas Letter

This is our second Christmas in Canada. We've never been organised enough to send out Christmas cards, let along write a Christmas letter. We love receiving them, bring them on please! So here is our attempt.

The O'Hara's Christmas Letter 2013

Well, haven't the last 20 months just flown by! We've had too many good times to count since we've been here. We've eaten great food, made great friends and travelled to some amazing places. As we keep telling our bank, we're here for a good time, not a long time. Some highlights of our Canadian time include;

• Meeting my brother in New York;
• Travelling with our Canadian and Australian friends to Vegas;
• Going to Taco parties in LA;
• Going to Chicago with our friends from Mexico;
• Going to weddings in Wisconsin and California; and
• Visiting the Niagara Falls on the American side.

We've been doing our best to integrate ourselves into Canadian life. I'd say around 50% of the time it's been a success. Sometimes lost in translation gets us confused, sometimes it's our skills. Here's some things that we haven't quite gotten right:

• O'Hara has been fishing around 10 times. Not even a nibble. He has seen them swimming past his line on an underwater camera. They're just not interested.
• I can't shovel the snow from the driveway with any success.
• O'Hara ran the car into a snow bank, because he was distracted by an excavator.
• I spend too long talking to border security, in the hopes they are distracted and give us extra passport stamps.
• O'Hara's toenail has left a scar on someones ankle.
• I will be the only one in the room laughing at beaver jokes. Other times I make beaver jokes in inappropriate company or at inappropriate times.
• O'Hara is maintaining the Ugg boots are appropriate to be worn by men. No one agrees.
• I still think that east is towards the coast. I get people lost when giving directions.
• O'Hara is a retardant for wildlife. He's down about 15-1 for bear sightings with me.
• I thought that the large bins that appeared around Halloween were for waste pumpkins. O'Hara carried mouldy carved pumpkins up our driveway to the street, only to find them full of sand. For the ice. Obviously.
• O'Hara bought one set of warm, one set of cold lights for the Christmas decorations outside. Two-toned is not trendy.
• I make fun of Canadians too much. It's too easy. #sorrynotsorry.
• O'Hara asked two girls if they wanted to dink with him on his bike to the pub. That means something different here.

We've had some great successes. We've travelled to places we never saw in our future and seen things most people only see on TV or in postcards. Some of our best successes include:

• Living in Canada for nearly 2 years and not ending every sentence with 'eh!";
• Instead referring to everything as "brutal";
• Doing fully sick "jumps" on our snowboards;
• Conveying sarcasm;
• Using our "Canadian" accents to translate from Australian. "Oh Heeirra";
• Fly kicking Christmas trees;
• Loving the shit out of poutine; and
• Travelling further east in Canada than most of the Canadians we've met. 

We love having guests and have had some wonderful times with our friends and family. More of you are welcome. Have I not made this clear enough?! We've explored, hiked, fished, kayaked, camped, swam, drank, eaten, played candy crush, snowboarded, sledded, skated and talked with some of our favourite people in the world. Our most favourite guest of all? ...... Gilly! I managed to win her back over after two nights and a few walks up Kenna Cartwright. I thought that friendship was over, so what a relief when she loved me again!

As my Christmas gift to every one, O'Hara and I got out the cheese and created some wonderful "traditional" Christmas photos. I am taking a huge risk putting these online guys. These photos will probably end up on that "AFP" website (I'm not saying the full name, otherwise it might come up in a search). Y'all are welcome! Merry Christmas xxx

Oh my GOODNESS! Gifts xxx

Cringey, cringe, cringe!

You can probably tell, we're basically Canadian now. I'm surprised they haven't handed us new passports yet.

A Christmas Preparation Weekend

Christmas preparation has began at the O'Hara household! Last year we were out on the east side for the few weeks before Christmas so we didn't get too involved with decorations. We didn't even have a tree, it was depressing.

This year is different. We have no holidays planned until next year *sob*, so we had to get a tree. And put up some decorations. And drink eggnog. And make a Christmas wreath. It's been a fun weekend.

Crazy wreath ladies!

On Saturday we got up semi early to get our second day up the hill in. One of my favourite things about Sun Peaks is we get some random inversions happening. It means it will be freezing cold and raining in town, but then sunny and wonderful up the hill. There has been record snow for this time of year, which means our boards haven't suffered the rock death that they normally would for his early.

Saturday snow day!

Saturday night I had a girly night, with some Canadian friends attempting to teach me how to be crafty. I needed a lot of assistance. A lot. Luckily Alexis is super nice and stopped my wreath from becoming a Jersey Shore disaster. There was still bulk glitter, even with assistance.

The process!

On Sunday we went out to Woodward Christmas Trees. It's a Christmas tree farm just outside of Kamloops. They also have a wine tasting room. Amazing. We went out there on Sunday morning with Alexis and Hal. There is already snow, and it was a winter wonderland.

Tractor ride! Clearly I can't pull of the half shaved head look. 

We mastered the Canadian experiences this weekend. The weekend was perhaps only topped by O'Hara's last weekend. That weekend involved snow boarding, ice skating and hunting deer.

Learning to Curl (and be Canadian)

I'm sure you've all heard of curling. Probably mocked it at some point in your life. Laughed at the guys sweeping the ice with a broom. Made a joke about how women should be good at it. Well laugh all you want, this game is freaking hard!

We joined the McArthur Island Curling Club's Learn to Curl program. It's an 8 week course where they teach you the basics of curling, and give you the the opportunity to join a league once you're done. We've been doing it for 5 weeks now, and I think to some extent we've improved. Those first few weeks I was in a whole lot of pain every Wednesday.

Let me set the scene, you have a shoe with a teflon coating on the bottom... and you have to slide on it on the ice. It's been going about as well as you would expect! The ice is actually covered with tiny little ice bumps that they apply with something that looks like a spot sprayer. The bumps help the stone move to the end of the ice, fast ice is "keen" ice.

Teflon and strategy

The basics are there are 4 people on a team, and everyone throws 2 rocks in a row (one team at a time). The captain "skip" throws last, and if you win the toss you get the choice to have the last throw "the hammer". Scoring is done the same as lawn bowls. You push out from the "hack" and the rock is thrown from something like a lunge position (hard), and you have to try and balance and slide on your teflon coated shoe with your back foot out behind you toes facing down. The slide is how the rock gets it's momentum, you're not supposed to push out the rock at all (but that is hard too).

Focus face, and they're "hurrying hard!"

The rock is thrown with a slight spin, either moving your hand from "10 O'Clock" to "12" or from "2" to "12". The Skip at the other end of the ice tells you where the want the rock, and which way they want you to curl it. For 3 weeks I think I needed bumpers, as I had huge issues getting the rock to stay inside our sheet of ice. The sweepers have to work out how fast the rock is going, and whether they need to sweep (to make it go further) or leave it in order for it to land where the skip is requesting. This is also really hard to gauge, and the majority of the rocks I'm sweeping for either run out the back or don't make it into play. The struggle is real!

We're cool!

I'm also not someone you want on your team. Not just because I'm a hazard, but I also get too much enjoyment from other people falling over. Twice I've actually said "YES". Out loud. Sorry team!

Autumn Weekends

I am not Autumn's biggest fan. I've always struggled to get into that season, because in Australia there is nothing good about it (aside from my birthday... obviously). We don't have the holiday season coming up, no Thanksgiving, Halloween or Christmas, no beautiful trees or colours and often it only cools down a few weeks before winter. It's just the doom and gloom before Winter hits. Given, in places like Cobar that's when the weather is actually at it's best. I still don't like it.

The majority of North Americans are obsessed with "Fall". Ask them, you know it to be true. They love the holidays, the beauty, crafting, cooking, decorating, eating, family. They love the fashion "you can look cute with boots and layers without needing full Winter clothes", and everyone loves the harvest. I've found a few that side with me, "it's cold but there isn't anything fun to do" but they're definitely few and far between. 

Poser(s)

Confession. This year I've become a bit of a sucker. I don't know if it's because the weather is better, or if I've started to notice the beauty and have a better wardrobe... but I've kind of fallen for Fall. I love Thanksgiving, and layering and root vegetables, and pumpkin pie, and the way the sun comes through the coloured leaves. Sucker. It reminds me of the first time O'Hara and I travelled to Europe in September/November. We were walking to the top of a hill in Switzerland somewhere and we finally understood why people liked Autumn. It's freaking beautiful!

Yay for wearing gumboots! O'Hara loved playing photographer...

This weekend I travelled to Vernon for the Pumpkin Harvest Fest at Davidson Orchards. They had everything you could possibly want (harvest wise). Mulled apple cider, pies, cakes, pumpkins. It was worth the drive. Sunday we attempted for the second year to see the Salmon Run. We've been in "off" years since we've been here, and this year was an improvement on last year (zero) but we're still waiting for the big kahuna. Still, I got to see some fish, splash around in my new gumboots and marvel at the beauty of the leaves.

The giant dead fish are particularly beautiful!

Canadian Thanksgiving. Round 2

Despite what How I Met Your Mother says, Canadians have quite a lot to be thankful for. I think everyone who is lucky enough to get paid for working, have the opportunity for an education and lives in a free country has PLENTY to be thankful for. This is our second Thanksgiving in Canada, last Thanksgiving we learnt all about some Canadian specialties. No Wheat Salad this year. Yet.

This year we were invited to KD McG's (AKA Korah) mum's house for a Thanksgiving feast. I don't use the term feast lightly, but that is what it was. I thought I would burst from eating, then had three pieces of dessert. I'm sorry but you haven't lived until you've had pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese icing.

Before dinner we went around the table and said what we were thankful for, for the past year. Korah had warned us that's what would happen so we had some time to think about it. Do you know what? Having to think about this, really made me realise I lead a very blessed life. I am thankful for a whole lot! This is what I had.

Firstly, I am thankful to have two loving and supporting families in Australia. Who (while barely) have forgiven us for living in Canada. I'm also thankful that my wonderful friends from home still love me.

I'm thankful that I was able to have the opportunity and job that lets me work in Canada and we were able to buy a home here. I'm thankful that I've been able to make new wonderful friends while living here.

I'm thankful for having Korah in my department for the last year, which has let me become friends with her and Mike and the opportunity to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family. I am so thankful that they invited us to their family dinner, and included us. They are wonderful people.

Finally, I am thankful for my husband. He makes every day a good one.

I'm also pretty thankful for Stacey (Steve's GF)

We bought a house..... in Canada!

Wow! We didn't really see this one coming, but after about 15 months of renting our condo (townhouse equivalent I think to the Aussies) the unit next door came up for sale. O'Hara and I had talked about buying on and off. We'd think about buying, then something would happen that would make us think we'd be home sooner rather than later. Then that would sort itself out and we'd start thinking again. Being an expat is like being on a roller-coaster of emotions. I'm slowly getting used to it!

Excuse the scrubbiness, but us drinking champas in our new house. I promptly smashed the bottom of the light.

The housing market in Canada (in Kamloops at least) is cheaper than it is in Australia. Vancouver is ranked one of the most unaffordable cities in the world, but I think part of that is to do with wages and I'm sure Sydney is up there as well. There is also often talk here about a housing bubble bursting because the interest rates are so low, but that seems to be a risk here and at home. The deciding factor for us was when we worked out we were paying about $200 a month more in rent than what a mortgage + property taxes + strata fees would be for exactly the same place.

So we did it! The whole process was fairly simple. We don't have Permanent Residency (or the application submitted) so we had to have a 20% deposit. We were able to use our contributed NRSPs. These are kinda the equivalent to super except we don't get a tax break because they aren't "registered". We may end up getting registered "RRSPs" now, because we shouldn't need to draw on the cash before we leave (famous last words no doubt...).

With a 20% deposit it meant we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance BUT we did end up having to pay Property Transfer Tax. If we had PR we wouldn't have had to pay this as we are first time home buyers. That was a fun little surprise as O'Hara was signing the paperwork 2 days before possession. Please, we actually need another $3,600... Luckily we had a good lawyer that told us we needed to pay it (after everyone else told us we didn't), otherwise we would have been pinged come tax time. Thank you Fulton & Company.

We went with a variable interest rate which may have been a bit risky, but we're only paying 2.6% at the moment so there's no complaining here. Now we just need to get a couch so we don't have to sit on dining chairs when we're at home! Unfortunately we just booked a trip to the UK, and I bought the new iPhone so it may take a while. I clearly have the right priorities.

The best way to move! To an empty lounge room with a view (now full of sh*t)

We have three things that were super exciting. 1) Our bed faces the other way so we have a much nicer view. 2) The condo was literally one across from our rental, so we just passed everything across the balcony. In Canada appliances come with the house even if you're buying, so Teresa we did not move the fridge this way! 3) The old Man Cave (they left the sign of rules - they're gone) is now a Sophisticave. It's the game room where we can hang out and drink scotch from the bar that's now there. Much better.

It's not creepy guys!

Visitors are welcome! You can stay in our shrine room for the non-existant child! You're welcome!

Vancouver Colour Run

I have been waiting to do this since I first got to Canada. There was one in Seattle shortly after we arrived but it sold out in seconds. I think the novelty has worn off a little since it started, as this one wasn't hard to get tickets for. YES!

We didn't make an Australia on purpose, but it's cool!

The Gold and Green Machine was our team, and there was 12 of us that ran/walked on the team. The Colour Run was held at the PnE in Vancouver which isn't the best location. I think Colour Me Rad (just another version) is held at UBC which would be a bit nicer. We were following witches hats around a big concrete area for a lot of the run, which meant we just cut across. It was kinda silly.

The colour part through was awesome. Just running through doesn't really get you super colourful, but we worked out pretty quickly you can just pick up handfuls of the colour powder and use that to throw/smear at each other. There was a big group of us which meant a lot of people throwing colour at you... which meant we looked pretty amazing by the end. We had perfect weather for it, not raining and not so hot you were a sweaty brown slime by the end.

I think this run has got a fair bit of negative press recently, as it's clearly more of a money making scheme disguised as a charity run. This is obvious, but it doesn't make it any less fun! If you realise you're just paying $45 for a fun day and some awesome photos, it doesn't seem so bad.

Below are some videos we made, posted here for the parentals who don't have Instagram :) - side note: does anyone else hate it when people take blurry photos for you? You touch the screen to focus?! Not hard.

Jasper - We Saw a Bear!

We had one final weekend with my parents before they (sadly) had to go back home. We decided to do  a trip up to Jasper. a) because we hadn't been there before and it's on our bucket list, and b) because it's supposed to be bear central, and O'Hara was getting desperate. 

Dad loves having his photo taken almost as much as O'Hara

I also developed an obsession with photographing wildflowers

We booked our accommodation really late so the only place left was the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. Fairmont Hotels are generally pretty fancy, and this one had some really beautiful grounds but the hotel room was pretty sketchy. There was a mouse in our room, never a good sign. 

Our room was shit but there were fun props!

Jasper however was incredibly beautiful. Canada in the summer, especially the Rockies is incredibly busy. There seems to be a huge mix of people touring, but I guess when you have 300 million neighbours you're always going to have lots of visitors. 

These are the things tourists come and see!

We spent the weekend hiking, viewing lakes and canyons, eating and drinking out delicious stash of wine from the weekend before. We also managed to fit in some pretty incredible wildlife viewing. O'Hara finally saw his first bear. He's only been here 15 months. Pretty sure Mum and Dad managed to  get into double digits in their 2 week trip. It was a decent sized black bear who walked in front of our car, stopped next to us to eat some berries and then wandered past our car. O'Hara had the biggest smile on his face. We also saw a herd of Elk ladies with their babies, and one daddy Elk with his giant set of antlers. Best.

Hi family! Hi bear!

Can't wait to see the family again, I hated having to say goodbye all over again. Sometimes being and expat is truly shitty. Luckily Skype and the Internet exist. I wouldn't have coped nearly as well 10 years ago.

Penticton with Friends and Family

We've had my family in Canada for two weeks and O'Hara did an amazing job of host for the first week. They arrived after a long journey and thinking they were going to have a chance to rest a bit... but no chance of that. The first three days while I was at work they went hiking, downhill biking at Sun Peaks and canoeing down the river. None of those activities are restful!

Extreme downhill biking and kayaking

For the weekend we went to Penticton for a wine tour and channel float. Another item on the bucket list all checked off. Win! We also visited the farmers markets in Penticton and I had my first PROPER Aussie pie in about 18 months! You probably can't understand how good that was. It has since lead to the discovery that there is a pie truck in Vancouver by a different Australian. The bastards cost $8 a pop there but it's worth it.

MEAT PIES!!!

For our wine tour we toured again with Grape Escapes which was again amazing. We went to Naramata bench and visited 5 wineries and well and truly worked out our credit card. Our wine rack is stocked up for summer which is always good. Hopefully we get more guests to drink it with us!

On Sunday we braved the cloudy skies and floated down the channel. The original plan was to only do a half float, but the water was moving quickly so we decided to go the whole way. This. Was. FUN! We finally got to get out our giant floating Havs, luckily the water wasn't too cold as these bad boys are not really designed to keep you dry. O'Hara was nicknamed Señor Froggy as he wore a sombrero and pulled us around by frog kicking on his thong. It worked a treat!

Finny is a float dog with Señor Froggy 

Floaty float and now a floating eski dog

I love our weekends in Penticton, they're always a blast and it was great to see it in summer.