Let's get this parting started

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Pictures: breakfast in Laguna Beach with the Roaches; Gabbi's Girl Scouts troop; Peter and Anya; Gabbi and Lovisa; Reuben and Alexander; Knut and Susanna; looking over the hills of Monaco (2); Italian family portrait; Italian coast at night; swimming sibs; "one more" 10k loop of the marathon for Tim; Taylor and Alvand


It's hard to believe that we've been here almost two years and we'll be heading back to Ontario in a couple weeks. We certainly have enjoyed our time living in California and look forward to spending more time here in the future.


Here are some things I'm looking forward to with our return

• spending time with friends and family


• running hills (ok, not really). Davis is extremely flat (really)


• attending two weddings


• seeing a friend's new dog after having met it on skype


• driving highways where people use the left lane for passing, not for driving 100 km/h


• a more spacious kitchen for Cam to cook in

And of course there are things I'll miss from our life here:

• riding my bike for just about everything I need


• fresh produce and the Davis farmers market


• hot weather without humidity


• our new Blue North office in Sacramento


• eating frozen yogurt


• all the amazing day trips we can so easily do


• friends that we've made. Yes we have some friends, even good friends, even ones that are having babies

It's been a few months since I last blogged so here's what we've been up to:

• my brother Peter and his wife Anya visited us for a week in April


• Gabbi finished up a fun year in her Girl Scouts troop


• Cam and I saw two fantastic concerts at the Mondavi Center: Buddy Guy and then Lara Downes


• we spent a weekend in Laguna Beach and LA, spending time with Jeff and Priscilla Roach and their girls


• Blue North bought a quaint old house in midtown Sacramento that has a main floor office and we're renovating the lower level to accommodate Blue North out-of-towners


• we spent two and a half weeks in Europe visiting friends in Sweden, spending several days in Italy and connecting with friends from Toronto in the south of France. A big highlight was watching the Nice IronMan in which our friend Tim Rowley competed. I never knew an IronMan could be so exhausting...as a spectator


• our nephew Taylor Shapansky and his friend Alvand were here for a couple nights as they passed through Davis on their cross-America-road-trip.

Seeing as we'll be crossing America soon ourselves, I guess I better go and start packing. See ya.

It's rainin' again

SF Giants mural with three guys on park bench; Yantzis with Alcatraz in the background; Bryan Moyer Suderman; dining in Mexico; walking on water; Jay and Marg Strom with Gabbi and Reuben; Cam, Tim and John; Joyce and Tim; fun in the snow.

We've just come through a solid two weeks of rain. We've been feeling a bit housebound and lazy. While we get rain, the Tahoe area gets snow. They got 150" last week, yup that's over 12 feet. There's a 60' base of snow there currently. A skier's paradise. We spent a day back in February enjoying the snow. Our area has gotten 22.5 " of rain, 3" over the annual average. Good news is, we're getting sunshine and warmer temps this week.

Life has continued on as usual since I last wrote: winter visitors, rain, getaways, work, school break, rain, spring break coming up, more visitors, more rain. We've had a number of people make the trek to Nor Cal. Jay and Marg Strom came in December for a few rainy days. Tim, Joyce and John Snider came for a long weekend of hiking, Napa Valley wining and just hanging with us. Bryan Moyer Suderman stopped in on his tour and did a concert at our church. Andrea, Jim, Steffan and Claire Yantzi were just here for a week - the rainiest week any of our visitors have experienced. We're looking forward to having my brother Peter and his wife Anya come in mid April.

In February, Gabbi and Reuben had a week off school. The Monday was Presidents' Day and then there were four furlough days (a result of cuts in the school system). We were able to get away and enjoy a fantastic week in Mexico at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's condo with our friends the Hiffs from Cambridge. I've decided that's where I will retire, like next year... Mexico, not Cambridge. It was a relaxing week full of great food, beaches, swimming, exercise, cooking and friends.

Some of you know I experienced some difficulties a few months back - the shortage of OB tampons. Like Debbie in the following article, I was stricken with panic after I raced from store to store only to find their shelves bare of OBs. I knew something was up and I was worried they had stopped making this one-of-a-kind feminine necessity. Thankfully, my stock has been replenished and I don't even know if there's still a shortage. My friend Marianne brought 300 of them to Mexico. I guess the shortage didn't affect Canada. Maybe I'll sell some on ebay. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ob-tampon-shortage-somen-upset-paying-premium/story?id=12648760

It seems our time here is winding down. We plan to return in August...with mixed feelings. It really has been a wonderful place to live and work for almost two years. We had a slow start on the Blue North (South) front, but people now are in place and there's a good vibe going on. We know we'll be back in some way or another. In the meantime, we're going to enjoy the last four months and take in more of everything we love about being here.

Happy Holidays

(Click to enlarge) Photos top to bottom: Canadian girls on the beach in Santa Barbara, Reuben lounging on Butterfly Beach, Thanksgiving dinner with the Roaches, sky and rice fields near Davis, run Reuben run, Gabbi and Charlotte (friend) enjoying the leaf pile, Halloween, Mike and Wendy, Reuben soccer

We just returned from a whirlwind trip to Ontario to celebrate the holidays with our families and our colleagues. It was cold and snowy and felt a bit like Christmas. As we're approaching our second Christmas away from home, we are happy to have been able to be at home a couple weeks early and now look forward to a quiet break here. Here's what our busy fall looked like.

• Reuben enjoyed playing fall soccer. He made some new friends on his team and as a result we made some new friends with some of the parents


• Gabbi has joined Girl Scouts and is finding it to be a fun way to get involved in activities with girls her age


• The early fall was mostly about the San Francisco Giants. Cam became a big fan early on and then a die hard fan as the season progressed. Cam took Reuben out of school one day to go to a game. There was much celebrating in our house when they won the World Series. Go Giants!


• Reuben got into the Giants so much that his Halloween costume was the SF Giants' closer - Brian Wilson. People weren't disappointed to be pulled away from the game once they saw Brian Wilson aka 'Fear da Beard' at their door. Gabbi made an awesome vampire


• Mike Thiessen and Wendy Adema visited us over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. We had so much fun checking out Canadian shoe designer John Fluevog in San Francisco that we all bought a pair - unique soles for unique souls. http://www.fluevog.com/


• Blue North (South) hosted the Do More Good Summit in Sacramento with our non-profit clients. For two days we learned about trends in marketing and shared best practices. It was a great success for Blue North. There were six Blue North employees from Ontario that attended and three of them stayed with us
• We haven't heard a single rat this fall. Thank you Rusty-the-rat-tracker


• Our family competed in the annual Davis Turkey Trot. We all ran races ranging from one mile to 10k. It was a cool rainy day but we all felt like winners


• We spent American Thanksgiving weekend in Santa Barbara, one of our favourite places on the planet, with Jeff and Priscilla Roach and their three girls. The Roaches live the school year in Laguna Beach and the summer at their cottage in the Muskokas. We had a great time hanging out with people who say "eh?" and kids of very similar ages. Jeff is a cool guy who is all about cool and hip marketing. You can follow him here: http://twitter.com/glitteration. Priscilla and I were pleased to discover our common interest: grammar


• Our friend and neighbour, pianist Lara Downes, put out a new CD. Check out this interview with Lara and learn about her latest CD at the Canadian Yummy Mummy Club. A great CD for young kids http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/lara_downes_nocturnes_for_night_owls


• Speaking of celebs, Cam and I saw Leonard Cohen in Oakland the night before we came home to Ontario. We both commented that it was probably the best concert we've seen. Cohen is 76 years old and still has the gift of a golden voice. In Cam's words, "he drips cool"


• As we approach Christmas, the leaves are almost off the trees, the rain has settled in and it's gotten quite cool. We plan to spend the Christmas break in Davis. We've made a list of things to do including a day in our pjs, watching movies, playing games, going to San Francisco and just hanging out together


• We wish you all the best of the holidays and a happy new year

One year later

Pictures: The Swedes and Canadians in So Cal; Reuben's new chin; Yosemite; Yosemite; Yosemite; backyard family; Don and Kristen Penner; LA girl.


Doesn't a year go fast? It has for us and it appears we'll be here a while longer unless anyone wants a family of four to move in with them for a few months in 2011. We've rented our house for another year and plan to be in Davis until some time next summer. We've been making progress on the workfront but have also experienced some discouraging setbacks.

Here's a look at what we've been up to.

• The summer has been wonderful. According to all Californians it was a very strange one weatherwise. I was dreading the heat in the beginning but it ended up being a moderate summer with only a few days in the 100s. Every single day was, and still is, a beautiful sunny day. We have about 2 more months before that changes



• We spent 2 weeks' vacation in So Cal with some friends from Sweden. We checked out Legoland and Seaworld, ate lots of sushi, started (and have just about finished) the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series and bumped into the Vice President of the US, at least 24's version of him



• Gabbi and Reuben enjoyed several weeks of swimming lessons and a week of camp



• We enjoyed a 3-day visit from Don and Kristen Penner. While they were here we had dinner with Angie and Joe Mercier in San Francisco



• Before school started we went to Yosemite National Park for a long weekend. This was the closest our family gets to camping (we stayed at a nice lodge in the mountainous wilderness). We enjoyed hiking and mountain biking, stripping down and swimming across an icy cold pool of water above a waterfall. Reuben made a new best friend - a former SF Giants pitcher



• Gabbi and Reuben started back to school on August 25 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



• Reuben started playing AYSO soccer and Gabbi continues with piano (Reuben is having 'a break' from piano)



• Two days after school started, Reuben split his chin open while attempting a fast downhill entry onto a ramp at the local bmx park. He got 5 stitches and lots of attention



• We spent a night at our Canadian neighbour's Tahoe area cottage

Here's what we still enjoy very much about living here:

• Biking everywhere



• Being no more than two hours away from 100s of amazing places



• Davis Farmers Market



• Hot days and cool nights



• Californians' intolerance of bad food



• Great produce

This is the Life

Pictures: Gabbi and Reuben with Disney Channel star Bradley Perry; Angela, Kim, Gabbi and Reuben; Mandy, Kerry, Cam and I having fun in Mexico; Lyle and Reuben splashing around; the Golden Gate on a foggy day; chillin' with the in-laws; three Shapansky boys.

It's been a while since I've blogged but here's what we've been up to since I last wrote:

• Cam and I enjoyed 5 days in Mexico with Kerry and Mandy at their new condo while our kids enjoyed staying here with Kim and Angela Penner



• We also got to spend several days with Kim and Angela when we got back



• Gabbi and Reuben finished school on June 10. They both passed!



• We loved having Lyle and Wenda (Papa and Nana) with us for 10 days. It was nice to relax around the pool and enjoy good family time



• We went home to Ontario for 9 days. It was a busy time of work, seeing as many people as we could, getting our visas renewed (sorry, yes, they renewed them), and returning in time for the 4th of July



• The kids spotted 'Gabe' from Good Luck Charlie (http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/goodluckcharlie/) at the Toronto airport (see photo above)
  


• Davis pulled off a very impressive 4th of July fireworks show



• We leave for 2 weeks' holidays to So Cal with some friends from Sweden

Here's a list of the top 10 things we enjoy doing in and around Davis (not in any particular order)

1. Going to market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings (http://www.davisfarmersmarket.org/)


2. Biking everywhere: school, doctor, grocery store, church, soccer games, swimming lessons, piano lessons (http://californiabicyclemuseum.org/)


3. Wine tours to Napa Valley (http://napavalley.com/wineries/)


4. Wine tours to Amador County (http://www.amadorwine.com/new/pages/home.cgi)


5. Swimming in our backyard pool


6. Shopping at Target (my fellow Target lovers get it and support me on this one)


7. Visiting San Francisco. We've been there over a dozen times now and it's always something different. There's still lots more to explore (http://www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com/)


8. Hiking at the Headlands in Marin County, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge(http://www.inetours.com/Bay_Area/Marin/Marin_Headlands.html)


9. Enjoying a good burger at In 'n Out Burger (http://www.in-n-out.com/menu.asp) and eating frozen yogurt at Cultive (http://daviswiki.org/Cultivé_Frozen_Yogurt)


10. Dining out at some of Sacramento's coolest restaurants

It's not that bad. We're handling it. It could be worse.

Too busy to blog

Life's been busy of late.

We had a great visit with the Dale Cressman, Brenda Martin, and Hannah family and a little after that another great visit with the Dennis Flaming, Jana Papke and Devan family. In both cases we took one day off during the week and spent evenings and weekends with them, leaving them to do day trips and exploring the area on their own the other days.

This weekend, well let me tell you, it's a litle crazy. Friday night, after soccer, Gabbi and Reuben prepared us a great dinner and Cam and I exchanged birthday gifts. Saturdy we went to the Bay area to have lunch at the home of fellow Blue Norther Mat Thomas and his wife Jayana and their kids Asher and Julia. After lunch we explored the Berkeley Hills with them seeing great views of San Francisco across the Bay. Saturday evening we were supposed to go to other friends for dinner but it fell through. Sunday Reuben is off to a UC Davis baseball game with his best friend in the neighbourhood along with Cam and Rick, their adult chaperones. Later in the afternoon we're having another family over for dinner. Man, it's a busy weekend but strangely it's starting to feel more normal.

Lacking the time to do a full-fledged blog I'll throw out a few other events and details:

• I ran the American River Half Marathon last weekend, suffered through a leg injury and dehydration in unexpected heat but still beat my personal best time by over 2 minutes and finished in the top 10 percent of runners in my category - go me!!


• We know we're settling in to Davis when going somewhere rather than saying 'let's take our bikes it'll be fun' we say 'why would we take our car?' The car tends to sit in the driveway almost all week.


• We are looking forward to 4 days in Mexico with Kerry and Mandy next week. The kids are looking forward to Kim and Angela Penner coming from Ontario to look after them while we're away.


• The Amgen Tour of California rolls through Davis while we are away next week. Lance Armstrong, team Radio Shack and all the other big boys will whiz by about 750 meters from our house - very exciting.


• Gabbi is singing a duet at the Spring concert at school on Monday night, we're looking forward to that performance.


• All of our visitors are causing us to discover great new day trips. Before we leave we'll write a book 101 great day trips from Davis CA.


• Thanks to some new solar heating panels, our pool is warming up nicely and the kids have already been swimming a lot.

Gotta go, got too many friends around here to be spending any more time at this. We just got invited to a neighbour's for dinner on Tuesday night too. I gotta get someone to help us manage our social calendar. :)