living like a local: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Awww man, Seattle was so much fun! And Hendrik was so well-behaved... he just went with the flow of it all and soaked up attention and love like it was his job. I'm not going to play-by-play our weekend, but will let you check out the pics and see for yourself. Sarah did have a few fab hot-spots (thanks to some tipoffs from a friend), and Alki Beach was probably our favourite part. And the shopping. And the hanging out. And the Diller Room. Hm, well yeah sure, it was all good. It made me wish (for the gabzalillionth time) that we lived closer to each other... maybe one day! Voila, les photos.

Hendrik loved staring at this giant sculpture outside of the Seattle Art Museum, the Hammering Man WHO - interestingly enough - hammers away from 7am to 10pm all day every day except for Labor Day. Yikes.

Crafty craft ideas inside the museum's gift shop

Observing the Hammering Man

Drinks and the sunglasses game in the perfect-for-late-afternoon drinks Diller Room

same outfit oh yaaaa....

oh ya ya ya ya ya yaaaaaa!!

Alki Beach and some more dance moves?

his first time in the ocean... it was oh so so so cute!

and cuter

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Vancouver!

There are finally a few pictures up in our place.. well, finally more than one. And shelves too! I think I blogged about these things quite some time ago - something about how I'd bought them (shelves, canvases) ages ago and how they'd been still sitting around accumulating dust forever... well, after some more forever, they are finally - thanks to the Brinkmans - up! The canvas - our piece de resistance - is up above the tv, and shelves are on the walls in the bedroom and the bathroom. The one thing we did not get around to is zee art destined for our room, and it looks like it might hide beside our dresser for a few more months - woops.

shelves up in the bedroom

to do... when? hmmm...

Vancouver has been great so far - I'm posting this from the (Sisters in) Seattle weekend, so I'll keep it short, but here are a few pics from Day Uno in beautiful BC. Hendrik and Maggie love each other, and as per usual, the backyard kiddie pool/water time was a hit. Signing off - Seattle pics and blog to come soon!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

a solid weekend!!

The guys won game two against Puerto Rico and qualified for next year's World League - yaaaay! So yes, all in all it was a solid weekend. There was a full on cat's and dogs downpour-deluge on Sunday, and Grandma and Grandpa Brinkman and Hendrik and I did oooh about 99 laps of the Cataraqui mall - during which Gramps, babe and I almost got stuck in the elevator in a brief power outage (eeeep) - quel excitement. When the clouds parted and the skies showed their smiley blues we motored downtown but then got stuck once again, this time in a coffee shop that heralded the worst service EVER... really, ever. I waited in line for what felt like eternity while slow-slowest-Sally heated my ready-made lentil pakoras-or-something; I even had to remind her to actually give me my food after I paid for it. Anyhow! We made it to the gym high and dry thanks to Bob's Tours - he picked us up at the coffee shop and dropped us off at the K-Rock Centre amid more cats-and-dogs rain, and showed up looking like he'd jumped in the lake. But! It was all good, the boys pulled out another solid win.

Hendrik, my good little traveler, was well-behaved throughout the trip, and slept well, ate well and read well too; he has a new favourite book, Sandra Boynton's Moo Baa La La La which, by the way, has its own app. Too bad Hendrik doesn't have a smart phone or a tablet yet, or else I'm sure he'd be all over it. Yet? Did I just say that? Hm... I'm thinking that I'd better get myself a phone that can run kids book apps etc etc before he does, but for now, my cheap little Huawei from Wind is cutting it.

And after a hectic few weeks of games and travels for Steve and his teammates, they have (/had) three days off. We spent Sunday night in Kingston and headed home on Monday with this to-do list: 1. RELAX! 2. get stuff done around here. We've picnicked (twice!), spent an afternoon up at the lake, and like I said, just lazed around here a bit too. All three of us head out on Friday - Steve leaves for Puerto Rico in the evening, and Hendrik and I are making an early departure for Vancouver; hopefully the five hour flight at 6:45 doesn't mess with us too much. It'll be bed early for sure tomorrow night.

He is a climbing machine these days and despite some no no nos from us, loves getting up on his chair

yes, i love it! what a sweet, toothy smile :)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

team canada!

These words (not sure how many of them there'll be) are coming much later than I thought they would - the week flew by. Like I sort of said in my last picture-post, Montreal was amazing, and I'm pretty sure that - as long as we're able, time-wise - we'll head back up there again again again. Maybe next time we'll just kidnap Miss Choptain and spend the entire weekend with her, or infiltrate her working quarters and quarantine the work away muhuuhuhuhuhahahaha! Er, anyways, the rest of the week was good too - round two of vb camp went off without a hitch and all the girls (and guys) seemed pretty happy with it all sooooo yeah, that's good! And ouf. That was Wednesday and Steve got home Monday night and so I didn't really see much of him until Thursday and he left on Friday to come to Kingston for games contra Puerto Rico (the first one was tonight - big win woot woot!), so... yeah, next week's days off (Mon - Wed) will be amazing for Steve, for me, for our family and they can't come soon enough. I'm sure I have more to write about - oh, yeah, so get this: last night, because I had babysitters in town, I decided to dust the cobwebs off and go out - for the first time in hmm... a very very very long time. And! And I get a beer spilled all over me and my lovely purse - !! Go figure. I didn't stay out super late (12:30) and this morning wasn't as painful as it could have been (add more drinks) - the 6:30 wake-up call was a bit earlier than I would have liked but hey, whatevs. OOoooh and have I mentioned that I booked a flight to Vancouver? I am so stoked! Hendrik and I leave next Friday for two whole weeks, and of course I'm very happy-excited-etc that I'll see my friends and family and beautiful Vancouver but at the same time I'm a bit sad that that means another 2 weeks away from Steve. Mrrrrrr... but he'll be in Puerto Rico knocking down the opposition (in Team Canada's bid to qualify for the World Cup) so again, whatever. Time will pass and then we'll be together again.

Dan-o came out to the game tonight... yay!

Big win for Dad's team - hurray!

Hendrik and Dan - two of Dad's favourite dudes

And Hendrik will be 9 months in a week and a half, and it is so true what everyone says about the time just flying by - flying by at the speed of light I'll say. He has EIGHT teeth now and hmm, I'm not sure if there are any other really significant updates other than the fact that he only slept for 3 hours today (nap total) and was awake through the entire volleyball game tonight at the K-Rock Centre. Oh, and he's been a pooping machine lately... I'm not sure what's up with that but sure, @#it happens.

So tune in tomorrow night (if the timing works) to check out Team Canada show Puerto Rico they mean business - live webcast means the game starts at 7pm ET. Go team go team go team go!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

montreal

in his two-piece jammies

Montreal was amazing, this week (with round two of vball camp) has been hectic, and Steve is home - hurraaaaay! Pics now (before I get too far behind), words later.