busy in british columbia

This weekend we made the trek up to B.C. to visit Grandmom. She has been looking forward to our arrival, and planning carefully to spoil the kids. She bought two packages of bacon to fry for Josiah (He was thrilled- "I can even eat two strips at once!" he said. ) and had a lot of overripe bananas to make the highly acclaimed and expected banana fritters. It was wonderful to spend the weekend with her, though we packed it full of activity and it passed too quickly.

The children love to hear Grandmom's stories- she tells them, usually accompanied with a song- late into the night. We arrived at her house at 9:30 pm, but the kids got a burst of energy, of course, and she said they could all sleep with her. They scurried into their jammies, and asked for some water- Naomi said discreetly to me "Apparently Grandmom doesn't have a kitchen sink! I'm glad to see she has one in the bathroom!" Confused about her misperception, I questioned her, and she told me that Grandmom had poured her a drink from a little jug. Naomi, having read so extensively about foreign lands (and Canada being one) just assumed she had fetched it from a well somewhere. I had to explain that actually Grandmom just has a filtration system, which we don't. Finally ready for "sleep," they laid in bed (and I later heard, jumped on the bed) and heard stories for hours... Jason and I fell asleep quickly, but just before drifting off, I heard from the next room "Once upon a time there was a shepherd boy named David..." and my heart was glad. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by how blessed my children are, and most of this is because they are surrounded by so many dear people who love them completely.

The next day, after Josiah had his fill of bacon, we went to Dim Sum with Grandmom's Taiwanese neighbor, Landy. She wants to take us to her favorite restaurant every time we visit. We enjoyed sampling all the different treats- the girls were quite adventurous and tried nearly everything but the chicken feet. Josiah was adventurous for him, and tried the "outside white part" of a few things. Jason enjoyed one of his childhood favorites, "hum bow." Landy remarked that the hum bow there was not good- nothing like homemade or from Taiwan, and she didn't usually order it. For dessert, we tried to order mango pudding, but it never came by. Landy said that it was easy to make, and she would come over that evening to teach us how. Well evening came, and she kept calling mysteriously to delay her arrival. When she finally came over at 9:30, she was carrying a steaming plate of homemade hum bow! She wanted Jason to try the real thing. It was truly far superior to the restaurant version. Homemade bread dough filled with gingery seasoned ground pork and perfectly shaped into a decorative dumpling- no easy feat! As Grandmom said, "Do you see what sort of person Landy is!?" Her generosity is inspirational.

Sunday we headed off to the Vancouver Aquarium, one of Jason's favorite places to visit as a child. It is a great aquarium, and we were all fascinated by the variety of life inside. The kids could have spent the entire time in one room- they never wanted to move on from a display. A highlight was seeing the baby beluga, just born this June. Brings the much loved Raffi tune to life!

After a few hours at the aquarium, the kids were "starving," but, cheapskate parents we are, we couldn't bring ourselves to buy even one order of french fries for $5.95, so we loaded them up hungry, and promised food soon. Poor Josiah doesn't do too well with hunger and fatigue, and when we got about 45 minutes down the road, all of the sudden I felt his hand on my arm! He had just unbuckled himself and walked right up to the front of the van because he was so sad that he "just wanted to snuggle." I was alarmed at his dangerous behavior, which made him even more upset. Just when you think you know what your kids will and won't do... Anyway, he got some food shortly, and was a different boy.

We stopped to buy ten salmon from a family friend who fishes the river in Fort Langley; they are great looking fish, and comparatively local- exciting to have them in the freezer for winter! Then we took Grandmom home, and said our farewells. As Eva said wistfully, "It's hard to say goodbye." Grandmom is so dear to us, and we would love to see her more, but will cherish the time we have with her, however short.