Our Visit "Home"

It's been a loooooooong time...

Did you ever have memories of your parents saying to their friends "Kailan ka uuwi?" or "Uuwi kami next year" and "uuwi" always referred to home. Home to my parents was the Philippines. My home is Vancouver. I heart Vancouver.

Right after Ethnic Dance festival, we left the next day for Vancouver. I can't believe we spent just a little over 3 weeks there visiting family and friends. Isaac had some good quality time with his cousins, Kyla and Jalen. The two boys just hit it off great right from the start and were inseperable during our trip. They even had a joint birthday party, even though their birthdays are a month apart. Jalen went with us everywhere. We really were traveling around town with 3 kids all the time. People were always asking us if the boys were twins. At least we know we'd be able to handle it if we did decide to have a third.



We were able to go to Whistler and Seattle for a few days at a time. One thing's for sure, with the American dollar right now, it just ain't worth shopping in Canada. We spent time going to parks, swimming, spending time at the beach and just walking around enjoying the scenery. Isaac develped a fascination with totem poles and was always excited to see one. It was the same fascination he got with the windmills in the Netherlands. Malaya discovered the water and beach and couldn't get enough of sand and rocks.





While we were there, my grandma got really sick and was put in the hospital. She stayed there for most of our trip and so we spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital because we thought we were going to lose her. Miss you Inay! As far as I know, she's doing okay now. Since my grandma was sick, I got to see the cousins more often and we had a couple of family get togethers. Two of my younger cousins both had kids this past year. Our family is still growing...





Things I miss about Vancouver...
FAMILY. :( Mom's homecooking especially.
FRIENDS. :( Loved hanging out with the girls and their kids and miss my KP family.
White Spot Triple "O" burgers, of course.
Being 10-15 mins. away from a beach (best time to take advantage of it is the summer)
Being 10-15 mins. away from downtown.
The forest and greenery. You don't know what you're missing until it's gone. Nothing like it here in the bay.
The mountains. Fremont hills just don't cut it for me, especially when they're brown in the summer. YECH!
Cold water. I think only Ed understands this one, especially after brushing your teeth.
Stanley Park. There are so many things the kids can do there.

I wish I had posted more about this earlier, because there is sooo much more. Oooo... just remembered a good one. One thing that almost made me move back home was watching "Sicko". This movie just really put things into perspective. If any of us get really sick, I am movin' my family back north.

So the questions is... will I ever move back? I did give myself five years of living in the Bay. Right now I am in the middle of year 3. Just to give you a teaser, we have been working on citizenship papers for the kids. The next one we'll be working on is Ed's. Nothing's for certain. But it's good to have back-up just in case... I don't want to end up with only 3 fingers just because my health insurance won't cover the damage (See "Sicko" and you'll understand).