Halloween and the First Snow Fall

Griffin decided he wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. It took a little convincing the first time to get the costume on but once he had it on he thought it was pretty funny. We went to 7 houses around our place. We knew the people had 5 of them, and that was a good thing. Griffin assumed that once the door was opened you should be able to walk right in. Something we will have to work on. He was right into the spirit of Halloween - he said "Trick or Treat" when the door was opened and said "thank you" after he received the candy. It will take us a year to get thru all the chocolate.

We woke up this morning to and early snow fall. We got on our snow gear on and headed outside. Griffin was able to still find a few ripe raspberries. Hopefully the snow will not last long.

Griffin has is own little snow shovel to help with the driveway - although he can not do much with his mittens on.

A Long Awaited Update

I know it has been a while since I last updated the blog and I apologize. Life has been flying by.
After we returned from Maui in Feb we enjoyed watching the Olympics; but I have to admit we did not really get into the celebrations. We did go downtown one day to meet up with some of Jordan's family who were in town, but for the most part we enjoyed it from our house. Pretty lame.
March arrived and so did my parents. They came to help Griffin celebrate his 2nd birthday. It was pretty low key. As many of you may know, on Griffin's birthday I had a 5 hour job interview for the position that I have been waiting for the past 4 years. Luckily my parents stepped in to make the dinner and cake - in keeping with the family tradition it was my dad's spaghetti and my mum's chocolate fudge cake.
Jordan's mum, Allen and Jordan's sister and Matt were also able to join us to celebrate.


Jordan has not really had much down time since returning from Maui. Our tenants moved out at the beginning of December last year and we offered our place to Jordan's grandparents to move into. But before that could happen there was some major renovations that had to happen. The kitchen and bathroom were down to studs and Jordan has spent every weekend since working on it. I am afraid I was not much help except for painting when Griffin went to bed. It is coming along and we are almost finished. Jordan's grandparents arrived in the middle of July and their boxes arrived at the end of July. They are slowly unpacking and will move in soon. Some before and after (almost complete) pictures of the reno's.





I was fortunate to get the job that I interviewed for on Griffin's birthday. I am now working on my Canadian College of Medical Genetics Molecular Genetics Fellowship at Children's hospital in Vancouver. I finished up my post-doc at the beginning of June and took 3 weeks off to spend time with Griffin and to get some things done around the house. It may be hard for some of you to imagine, but I did not do one peice of work while off - almost a record for me. Unfortunately, the weather was not great, but when it was nice, Griffin and I spent it outside.

Griffin is becoming quite the shell and rock collector. He loves to explore the beach at low tide, and play in the tidal pools. He is not such a big fan of the seaweed or the muck but I am hoping that will grow on him.

I started my new job July 5th, the same day that my daycare lady went on vacation for 3 weeks. Luckily, we called my mum (Nana) in to the rescue. She came for the month of July to look after Griffin. They had a great time. I am now in the process of 'unteaching' Griffin all the things that Nana taught him like how to turn his playdo rolling pin into a pea shooter - thanks mum.

Here are some pics so far from the summer and I promise to update it more often.

Fun in Maui

On a somewhat last minute decision we took our first solo vacation. Flying to Maui for a week was a great pre-olympic getaway.

It was just a short walk from the condo we rented to a fantastic beach. Relaxing on the beach was not part of Griffin's program. He did let us chillout for a moment and watch the sun set.

We went for a hike up to Iao Valley State Park. It was actually just a short walk up some stairs to a lookout. This photo is about as close as you can get. We went off the beaten track until Griffin started freaking out. I guess he takes after his dad.

We only need a couple surf boards on our heads to recreate the Endless Summer poster.

We drove to the top of Haleakala to check out the crater. It was a beautiful clear day. After hiking around for a while we drove back down the winding road to the warmth below. Winding is a slight understatement. As we got near our next destination, a small goat dairy farm, Griffin felt all the s-curves as he worked up his breakfast in the backseat.

We spent a few hours wandering through Maui Ocean Center. I think Griffin like watching the birds at the concession stand the best.

Holidays

At first Griffin was a little confused by a tree in the house, but he soon realised the fun potential it had. His obsession with balls was fueled by all of the ornaments. Not to mention the friends he made with Santa and reindeer. He would drag them all over the house and their were frequent battles with the stuffed dinosaurs (in the background).

Griffin was a little slow to open presents, but with a little help from dad, he got the hang of it.

Evidence of just how good Griffin got. And yes, Grandma hooked us up with 2010 Olympic gear.

Although we have not really started potty training, we keep the potty out so Griffin will get the idea - I think he has got it!

Happy Halloween

Sorry there are not any more pictures - we were lucky to get this one. Griffin stayed in the costume for less that 1 minute and we were lucky to get one where he was not pulling it off. We figured Griffin was still too young to go out to Trick or Treat so it was not a problem that he did not want to stay in his costume.

Autumn and Hockey Season is Here

Griffin has taken a liking to hockey sticks. How very Canadian of him. Jordan on the other hand is trying to curb his hockey enthusiasm, the thought of early morning practices at the hockey rink is already haunting him.

With the autumn leaves falling, Griffin and I took a sunny afternoon to play and kick around in the leaves. He is growing up so quickly, and changing everyday.

Our First Trip to Ontario

Well we made the 5 hour flight back to Ontario for my friends wedding. Despite being a great wedding, none of our pictures turned out. However, this was a cute picture of Griffin helping my nephew Drew with the ukulele. The two of them had a great time playing together.


We made the 4 hour drive from Waterloo to Kingston to visit my girlfriend and her new baby, Devin. The drive tired us all out, but only one of us was able to sleep.

We managed to get the boys to sit still for 2 minutes for a photo-op. Griffin is not used to having younger kids around, as was very evident. He is still going through his throwing phase and was not quick to pickup on the fact that Devin was too little to play catch.