Summer in PG

In early July we took our annual summer trip up to Prince George to visit my family. We typically arrive on or before Canada day but this year school went right to June 30th and we really didn't want to be travelling on Canada's 150th so we arrived on July 2nd. Our first full day included a trip to the Ancient Forrest. This is an inland temperate rain forrest which is quite rare and was only recently protected. They've done a good job with the park and the trees are quite impressive for the area.

The majority of our trip to Prince George was taken up by trips to West Lake where my Grandmother has property. The kids look forward to our time at the lake every year and this year we got the opportunity stay overnight where usually we just make day trips. (It's only 15 minutes away from my parents house.) My bother Eric recently purchased a trailer and camped it at the lake. It slept all of us comfortably and allowed us to spend more time then usually. It would have been better if the sky was clear for star watching. We did manage to get several canoe trips in including a trip past the boy scout camp to the area where the lake gets fed. We used to be able to go quite a ways up stream but now it's almost entirely blocked by trees. The lake itself is also quite a bit higher than it has been historically. I usually do some sort of project and this year I took some time to build a section of stairs down to the outhouse. Only got four stairs in but it did soften the steepest part. Will do some more next year.

The other favourite part of our vacation was multiple visits to see GG. (Great Grandma.) It's always fun listening to her stories about Prince George and there are always goodies on the table for us. We helped her start another puzzle this year which I'm sure she enjoys and hates at the same time. We got quite a bit done so hopefully the rest doesn't take her too long.

Canada's 150th Birthday

Happy Birthday Canada! Ordinarily we are in Prince George for Canada day but this year the last day of school was on June 30th and we would have had to travel on July 1st. This seemed like a bad idea for the 150th birthday so instead we stayed home. Surrey has one of the largest Canada day celebrations in Canada and it's only 10 minutes from our house in Cloverdale. It has a similar feel to the one in Prince George only much bigger. A main stage, lot's of food and people everywhere.

We don't enjoy packed crowds so we went early with an unlikely intention to go back again later for the concerts and the fireworks. Parking was pretty easy and the lines at the rides were manageable. The prices however were not. Almost six dollars for each ride. Carter thoroughly enjoyed one that whipped people around pretty good. First with a friend and then with Kerry. When Kerry was on the ride her hair was almost horizontal. We finished the day with lunch at the food trucks and as expected decided not to go back for Chilliwack and Hedley.

Conference in Seattle

In June of this year I got to go to a conference for work. The city of Bellevue Washington wasn't really my first choice but the topic was very relevant to what I do at work and it was a good opportunity to learn some topics that will be required for future projects. There were four of us going from various areas of the company so to save money we took one of our company cars and drove down together. It's only about a two hour drive and it was a good opportunity to get to know a few of my colleagues. We arrived on Sunday evening and the conference schedule started right away with a meet and greet at the bar in the lobby. I stayed for a bit but one of my colleagues and I were hungry so we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I know it's useful having the calorie count listed beside your food but quite frankly I would rather not see the calorie count listed beside a slice of cheesecake. Thankfully I was able to ignore it.

I won't bore you with the details of the conference since even Kerry doesn't know what I do. The hotel that hosted was well suited to a conference and the bulk of the space was booked for us. It's near Redmond Washington which is where Microsoft and several other Information Technology companies are based. The area felt like a university campus. Lot's of your people, pubs and restaurants. I wandered around a bit but didn't do the usual tourist stuff I typically do for a conference since we come to Seattle often. The highlight of the conference evenings was when they set up a casino. We spent the night playing poker. No money but we could change our chips in for raffle tickets. A fun week.

Callie's Dance Recital

Callie had another amazing recital this year. It was Grandma Schwab's turn to come down and watch. The theme this year was Musical Legends including Whitney Houston, Prince and Michael Jackson. This was good for Kerry because she likes music from that era however it was a bit of a disappointment for me. Besides seeing Callie, one of the best parts of these recitals is the opportunity to hear new music you don't usually hear on the radio. Every song was one I already knew though there were at least a few interesting covers of hit songs.

Callie's first two dances were to Whitney Houston songs and her first style was lyrical. I call this the running and looking dance style and it didn't disappoint. Flowing dresses, no shoes and lot's of running and looking. Callie was excellent and now that I've seen the dance I think this is one of Callie's favourite styles as well. Every once in a while I'll catch her practicing at home and the moves she's doing are definitely from this dance.

The next dance was hiphop. A very different style from lyrical with much more abrupt moves and for this dance a much bigger class. The interesting thing with this year was I think she can actually use some of the clothes from this costume rather than having the costumes end up in our dance outfit graveyard. I think we still have all of them. Hopefully one year we'll convince her to donate some. We have to buy new every year but I'm pretty sure someone collects used outfits for school recitals.

Dances three and four were Jazz followed very quickly by ballet and were Michael Jackson related. There was only a single dance in between the two which they call a 'Quick Change'. Callie and some of the others in her group that are in both dance styles have to get undressed, then dressed followed by an update to their hair all in about 3 minutes. There was an ever so slight pause before they came out for the last dance but it isn't the worst of the night and everyone was excellent. I don't even think I could change that quickly and be ready for a completely different dance. The recital was great again and Callie continues to love dancing.

Cinderella's Castle

Uncle Ronnie comes over for dinner every so often and sometimes surprises us with a gift. This spring he stopped by with Cinderella's castle. It was a 5000 piece lego set of the castle at Disneyland. The family had been admiring it for several months but it was a bit pricy to purchase for ourselves. Carter and Callie were tasked with the build and I don't think we've ever seen them work together so smoothly. There was no yelling, no hitting and no lego pieces were thrown around in the making of this castle. The book that comes with this puzzle was about a half inch thick and was broken down into some fairly clear sections with each bag nicely marked. They took turns doing each section and within two days had the entire castle completed. The back is open and you can see into each of the rooms and there are about two dozen character figures. They had a lot of fun and it now has a prominent place in our living room.

Jesse's Marching Cube Show

My cousin Jesse is one of those people who I think has trouble explaining to people exactly what it is he does. His profession appears to be a professor at a university in California and either through that or through past jobs he has the opportunity to do some pretty interesting things. From taking pictures in the dead of winter in the Yukon to art shows across North America.

I caught up with him in Vancouver with his 'Marching Cubes' show. I don't write professionally about art so I won't be able to use fancy words like organic or symmetry but I will say it was an art show I was looking forward to.

Marching cubes is a series of 3D printed blocks that fit together in specific ways and connect via magnets. With about a half dozen forms and hundreds of blocks every installation is a bit different. The one I saw had 3 human forms that Jesse toppled as the show went on. Everything came apart spectacularly with minimal breakage and the kids on hand had fun playing with the results. Adults had fun too.

Callie's Bow and Arrow

One of Callie's school projects this year required her to read a book and then do some sort of art project about that book. Callie doesn't like to let me help with her homework but a making project was a good opportunity. The book she chose was Hunger Games so the obvious project was Katniss' bow and arrow. This was a perfect project for Callie because it required a bit of artistic ability but was also easily broken down into a series of steps.

We started with the bow because although it looks simple, it required the most steps. The first was a fun one. It involved steam bending the wood. I already have steam bending supplies so we just had to pick a wood that bends well which in this case was white oak. Callie set up the steamer, put the wood in and helped me make the form for doing the actual bending. When it came time to pull the wood out of the steamer I took care of that but Callie had to put all the clamps on. Success first time with no breakage.

The next steps involved shaping the bow so it was rounded and felt good in the hands. Callie took care of this with the spoke shave which is a fairly easy tool to master once you get the hang of it. We glued on an extra bit of wood where you hold the bow and Callie proceed to use the spindle sander which was her first big power tool. Don't worry, so far all of these steps have been very safe. The only parts that I had to do were the big saws like the bandsaw. I'd prefer to wait until the kids are at least in grade 8 before I start them on any of the bigger machines.

The quiver for the arrows started with a cardboard tube I got from work followed by gluing on some fake leather. Callie helped drill holes in the cardboard so she could thread the top and bottom of the leather. It gave it a nice finished look. We used some rivets to keep the strap on.  The arrows were pretty straight forward. Callie cut the feathers in half and glued them on while I did a bit of work on the arrow heads. I turned them on the lathe and Callie spray painted.

Callie did most of the steps herself and the end result was very good. A fun project for both of us.