last days in long beach

proud of our NORCECA silver medalists!

Wow... what a week! Our trip to Long Beach was great, but ultimately it missed just the one thing - a berth to the Olympics. :( But the guys played so so well and really left it all out there on the floor, beating Puerto Rico in five sets in the semi-final on Friday night and giving the USA a real run for their money - at least in the first set - before taking home the silver. Sadly, because Canada (ranked 18th) trails Cuba (5th) and Puerto Rico (17th) in the world rankings, there will be no second chance to qualify for the London games; both the aforementioned teams - even though they finished behind Canada in the tourney - already have a spot. Sooooooo yeah, that's it. The good thing is that their run this time through was much more solid than the last Olympic qualifier in 2008; hopefully we'll see Team Canada in Rio in 2016...

Staying on the beach was great, and we enjoyed walks down to the water and playing in the sand, making and destroying sand castles, climbing giant sand piles and more more. Some pics:

tearing down buppa's castle with glee!

feet in the water - he looooved it!

climbing the giant sand pile with grandma

relaxing in someone else's garden... no big deal! love how much he loved the sand and sun :)

at the park on saturday morning - he was at this wheel for 80% of the time we were there - the kid loves driving!

And I don't know if it's because he's been around more English speakers in the past few weeks but Hendrik's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. He's repeating so much, and manages to string together two words on a regular basis ("red light" (!!) "yellow car" "coffee, hot") and even threw three words together on our way home on Sunday - lady, drive, van. For real! And on that note I have to say that our travels home weren't soooo bad, even with the four of us snug and cozy in three small airplane seats. Steve flew back to Ottawa with the team, and after a morning workout joined us this afternoon in Bowmanville for a few nights - yaaaaaaay. They have World League games this weekend in Toronto - vs. Finland on Friday, Brazil on Saturday, and Poland on Sunday. Saturday's game will be broadcast live on CBC, so try to catch it if you're around. Apparently it's almost (or completely?) sold-out, so that alone will be a pretty decent show - seeing 7, 000 + Canadians cheering for volleyball. Before signing off - some vids!  

He's discovered hide-and-seek, but doesn't get that by talking he's telling us where he is... it's adorable!!

WIN! + aquarium

the view from our place for the week - like like like

Not that our days have been so full, but they're already running together - exclusive of the volleyball of course. And that should be what I talk about first, because the guys beat Cuba (!!!) yesterday 3-0, playing soooo so so well... it was awesome! It was near domination, and I hope they continue to play as well as they did last night; they've got two tough matches coming up tomorrow night and (hopefully) Saturday night as well - they'll play Mexico or Puerto Rico in the semis at 6:00pm mañana, with the winner meeting the winner of USA vs. (most likely) Cuba... eeeeyikes. I'm so stoked that we're here! That we made the trip down to catch all of this action and cheer in person, and catch some sun and do some sightseeing on the side.

jellies! 

We hit up the Aquarium of the Pacific yesterday morning and Hendrik loved it! We loved it too, but one of the best parts was seeing his reactions to the huge tanks and the giant sea bass etc etc. He touched jellyfish and a shark - ayee! - news which prompted some questionable looks from dad earlier this afternoon. We've enjoyed more time at the beach, and walks along 2nd Street have taken us in and out of a few shops and more than a few restaurants; on day one we ate at Open Sesame (I had the vegetarian platter, yum), day two took us to Yogurtland and day one two and three saw me in Sweet Jill's bakery salivating over everything. This morning I met up with a friend whose husband plays on the American team  - Steve played with Scott in Greece and his wife and I met up again in Istanbul a few years later - and we strolled with our kidlets and coffees (after a delicious apple sinny-bun at Jill's) up and down the Ave... it was great! Great to catch up and meet her little one and talk about life during and after volleyball, then (sans kids) and now (with kids).

And then this afternoon Steve made it down here for an hour or so after practice + team trip to Walmart (yeah, really) and before meeting + dinner, and we had a nice family walk down on the beach. An hour or so later he was back at the hotel in the zone... getting ready for tomorrow! It was great to see him, and I can't wait to cheer him and the guys on tomorrow night... go teaaaaaaam!!

looking good Gamma and Buppa!

a proud and happy family

24 weeks today - !!

And I have to add that Hendrik is LOVING The Tiger Who Came to Tea - it's his favourite book right now hands down. The info pamphlet from the aquarium was also hot hot hot today, and has seriously contributed to some new vocab; otter, puffin, jelly, shark, clown (-fish) are all part of his repertoire. I'll get the cam out tomorrow - we need some vids!

wins!

YES! The first two days have seen two wins for Team Canada - may it continue tonight against the Cubans! A first place spot in the pool would be huge, giving the guys a spot in the semis against I'm not sure who BUT it would mean not meeting the USA until the finals, if all goes well. You can catch the games here (tonight at 6pm PT) if you're interested, and read a few articles here and here too. Hendrik has been such a good little guy (no real surprise there) and has even been cheering; I say gooo canada! and he says something like gooo caga! It's pretty cute. We'll have to see if we can get it on tape.

hendrik was loving the yellow chairs!

so so good to see these guys back in action again!

a pretty big triple block on this dude... love it!

After the game on Monday afternoon we stopped by a great playground on our way home - fun was had by all. And fun was had by all on the beach  - our views were complete with trucks and diggers and tug-boats... it might not have been ideal for just any beachgoer, it was heaven for the little one. Last night was a bit of a late one... and for our sake I'm hoping that tonight's game is a 3-setter instead of a fiver. Jet lag is still in the blood - this morning's 5:45 sound-off is much too early for me, especially if I can't be sleeping by 9:00. What else, what else.... I'm kind of (but not really all that) surprised that there aren't more recycling bins around; everything goes in the garbage, eeep. Which got me to wondering, with more than 37 million people living in California where does all of the garbage go? It's something to look up another time - mom duties are calling! Looking forward to tonight's game... go TC GO!

hendrik was big time in destructo-mode... building sandcastles was just for the big kid in this frame!

from b-ville to beach

Gatineau-Bowmanville-YYZ-LAX-Long Beach - we're here! The sun is out and Hendrik is napping - this time change might be a bit tough (bed time came early at 5:30 last night, and he was up at 5am this morning - eek). But at least game one of the tourney for Team Canada is early; we'll head to the gym soon-ish for the 1:00 game vs the Dominican Republic... exciting! Here are a few pics - from yesterday in B-ville (where an AMAZING new yellow truck was waiting for Hendrik, courtesy of Marg and BFM... he loves it!), the voyage here and this morning's trip downstairs to the beach. We rented a condo right on the water and the location is amazing... better than staying in a hotel for a week maybe? More to come soon!

on the plane - he was such a good traveler!

with Buppa on the car-rental shuttle

our casa for the week :)

early out to the beach; we were all wondering when the sun was going to come out and then realized that it was only 9:00!

he LOVED the sand, the water, the waves... 

vids - 17 months

We went to the museum of Science and Technology this morning and Hendrik LOVED it. At snack time we asked him if he remembered the visit and he told us all about the giant rotating globe / earth ("big"), the fishies, the trains ("big" and "around around" go the wheels), the snowmobile ("bumpy"), the canoe ("tippy") and more.... he is talking so much more than he was a week ago and it's adorable - I love it! Bed time is fast approaching so this will stay short - hope you enjoy the vids!

from one home...

From one home to another to another and we're back in the Gat. Hendrik and I rolled in yesterday afternoon, just beating crazy rush-hour traffic - ouf, I need to think about traffic again. Anyways, it's good to be home and it does feel like home here - having all three of us together, in our space, with our stuff.... but to be honest, we're still missing our home in Vela and I'm still thinking about it as if it's our home. We're constantly comparing - the traffic, the food, the grocery stores, the attitudes, the cars, the people, the weather, the landscape - and I guess this is part of getting used to being back here... right? Because it's soooo so different! I came back from a trip to the mall late last week all buggy-eyed with a bad case of culture shock (apparently Oshawa can do that to lots of people); the different shopping experience and the different people and the bad music and chain stores and all the Tim Hortons cups and teenagers with face piercings and babies... what a world apart from Trento's pedestrian streets and historic city centre. Anyways! There's good here, there's good there, and really, home is where my family is and where the people I love live - and I'm lucky to have more than one home. Lucky lucky lucky... and I hope we'll be lucky enough to head back to Vela one day to revisit memories and people and places... and to eat. :)

The week in B-ville was great! Hendrik loves his Gamma and Buppa and it was amazing for me to have some time to relax a bit, get out, organize, enjoy their company, and have help with the little one. Some pics from the week:

Steve's car was a fave - he is such a boy with his love of cars and trucks and diggers...

Bob and Marg put together this awesome table - he LOVED it! I love it too :)

artists at work

outside on a chilly day, sporting a lovely BFM jacket!

Buppa and our boy (no longer a baby!)

reading with Pam - the fire truck book was a fave :)

this kid LOVES helping out around the house: unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, swiffering... long may it last :)

making his first pizza, yum yum!

one cute Dutchie - with his new orange soccer ball from Pam and Bob

happy after bath time

the keyboard was a huge hit too...

he knows all of his letters!

And here we are in Gatineau for a few days - we'll drive back to Bowmanville on Saturday and then fly to CA on Sunday.... it's going to be busy! But good. From one home to another to another....