Vancouver Girls Reunion 2012

Last month, I had the amazing opportunity to reunite with some of my nearest and dearest girlfriends from Vancouver days. You may remember we did a similar trip 2 years ago. We are on track to do these reunions every 2 years. Grace and Shelley did great updates on their blogs if you want to check them out.

Shannon, Jess, Shelley and I all arrived in Boise to meet up Grace and the fun began!

We promptly headed to Happy Hour at a local Boise restaurant and I am pretty sure we never stopped chatting. It was so refreshing and real to be with these amazing friends.

After one night at Grace’s house, we packed up van and headed  two hours North to Grace’s family cabin on Warm Lake.

We arrived at the cabin and the relaxation began!

We spent 3 glorious days together floating, drinking, cooking, eating, hiking, laughing, talking and of course, dancing

    

Words can’t really describe the unique and genuine relationship I have with these friends. I miss these ladies on a daily basis and I am so grateful that we were all able to be together, even if just for a short time. I look forward to many more reunions for years and years to come.

 

Headed North!

When we lived in Vancouver, Levi and Shelley (real Canadians!), became some of our very best friends and still are to this day. Nearly 4 years ago, they stood on the street curb and waved goodbye as we drove away and left our Canadian adventure behind. We have not seen them since that day and though we stay in very good contact, it’s not quite the same. Life has changed a lot…we have each had a baby (and they have another on the way!) and moved a couple different times, etc. They are now living in Eston, Saskatchewan where Levi works at Eston College. Derek has been invited to teach a mini-semester course (a full semester class crammed into 1 week) at the beginning of September and we are so excited! We have officially booked our tickets and in a few weeks we will be headed North to see our dear friends and spend 10 whole days with them. September 1st cannot come soon enough!

Levi and Shelley (Dec 2006)

Shelley and Katie – besties! (Feb 2007)

This was just too cute and funny not to post and even though Shelley will probably hate me for posting it, I will anyway. This was a secret video they took for us at our going away party 4 years ago:

 

To Boonville and back

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to see some of my very dear friends. As you will recall, I posted a blog a little while back telling you about my upcoming trip to Missouri. Five of us, from near and far, gathered together for a Vancouver girls reunion! Katie flew from Vancouver, Grace flew from Boise, Jess drove from Kansas, I flew from Oregon and we all gathered at Shannon’s in Boonville, Missouri.

Together at last!

It was so incredible to be with these girls again. Some of whom I had not seen since we left Vancouver 3 years ago.

We had a great time chatting, eating, walking, lounging, avoiding the Missouri heat and just spending time together. The ease of being together was refreshing. It was the perfect weekend with good friends and it’s hard to believe that I can’t just go see them anytime I want.

At the 63 Diner in Columbia, MO

It was so fun to introduce Evelyn to these girls and to also have the chance to meet Owen (Shannon’s wee boy) who is just 5 weeks older than Evelyn. And of course it was fun to see the babies interact! They sure kept us all entertained.

We even had t-shirts made and had a fun photo shoot (thanks to Lucas, the surrogate husband for the weekend, for being our photographer!).

Lucas and Shannon were amazing hosts to an unforgettable weekend. I miss you all already! Though I think our husbands were all quite glad to have us back home.

For your viewing pleasure there are lots more pictures, check them out here.

 

Leaving Vancouver

Friday morning Derek and I permanently ended our time in Canada as we drove away from the life we have known for 3 years. The fact that we will not see our friends on a regular basis or go about our daily lives in Vancouver is still unreal and incredibly hard for us. Though we are moving on to a great and exciting new adventure, our time at Regent will forever be close to our hearts.

The night before we left was spent cleaning and doing our final packing. About 8-10 of our friends were there helping out the whole time. By 9:00pm all had been cleaned and our basement suite was empty, but the night did not come to an end by any means. We all sat around on the floor for hours telling stories, eating cold pizza and not wanting the night to be over. By nearly 1:00am it was time to say our final farewells and we did so with hesitancy. We did not want to say goodbye and are determined to cross paths with these friends again. We ended up sleeping at our friends, Josh & Grace’s, house because they were out of town and we no longer owned any furniture (thank you craigslist!). Friends, Levi & Shelley, stayed the night with us for we had always talked about having a slumber party and it finally happened! We stayed up until 3:30am playing dumb games and watching TV. Morning came all too quickly but there was no regret to staying up as late as we did. Tim Horton’s was our breakfast place of choice that morning, soon followed by some strategic packing of the car (see updated pics). Finally the time game to say our last goodbye to the Simpsons which was harder than I had expected it to be. Our friends mean the world to us and have been our constant and our family over the years.

When we reached the border we had to wait for 2 stinkin’ hours. It was horrible but we made it through no problem and they didn’t really seem to care that we were moving away. Our drive to Oregon was the worst we had ever experienced as we had stop and go traffic from Everett to past Olympia. What should have been a 6 hour drive turned into 10 hours. Needless to say we were quite happy to finally arrive to Derek’s dad house later that evening.

We are now in Oregon where we will spend all of August. We will keep pictures updated at least weekly.

 

The essence of our last three years

 

Our last week in Vancouver

We are down to just two days left in Vancouver and it still does not feel real that we will actually be leaving this place and saying goodbye to all our friends. The boxes are piling as we pack up all our things, the walls are empty and more trips to goodwill are in store. We will officially drive out of Vancouver on Friday morning and bid farewell to the place we have called home for nearly 3 years.

It’s been an amazing last week in Vancouver, which kicked off with a gathering down at Locarno beach with most of our dear friends last Thursday night. We just hung out, ate dessert and had fun together. This past Tuesday the Endicott’s hosted a finale home group BBQ. It was great to be with the home group one last time, and what a blast we had! We’ve been with friends nearly every night for the last week and it has been amazing. Tomorrow is our last night in Vancouver and we plan to finish up packing and cleaning and invite all our Vancouver friends to stop on in to say goodbye. You can see pictures of our last week by looking over at the side bar. We will continue to add to these pictures the next couple of days.

To our friends – YOU are what we will miss about Vancouver the most. You have been our friends, our family and you mean more to us that you can know. We love you.

 

Last day of work

Today was my last day of work…at SCARP…at UBC…in Vancouver.

The situation is bitter sweet as I long and look forward to some time off and the month that lies ahead but am sad because the end of my job also means the end of our time in Vancouver and leaving all of our dear friends.

My last day of work went well. I have been training my replacement all week which has absolutely and in every way worn me out. So while I should and want to be feeling excited and joyful, I instead feel exhausted and tried. I received a huge bouquet of flowers from everyone in the office first thing this morning which I displayed proudly on my desk. Several students popped in to wish me farewell and I received phone calls & emails from some faculty and staff thanking me for a job well done. I felt flattered and undeserving. I also received a very unexpected phone call from my great friend Jess (who lives in Chicago) just congratulating me on my last day. It was great to hear her beautiful voice. I was taken out to lunch, along with the other office staff, to Sage Bistro, our favourite little restaurant on campus (I was also taken there last week by some of the PhD students!). A little before my day was over, I had to go to the key desk to return my office keys and get back my deposit (!!!) but as I did that I quickly went to the pub across the street where a friend of mine (who works down the hall) was also celebrating the end of her job. I said hello, drank a beer and went on my merry way back to work. The day finished unceremoniously and I left 15 minutes early. My work there is done.

 

Au revoir to Vancouver!

In just about two weeks we will say goodbye, or Au revoir, to the beautiful city of Vancouver. For the past three years this city has been our home, but alas, all things must come to an end. In anticipation of departing Vancouver, we present this list of the top ten things we will miss about living here.

1. First and foremost, the wonderful friends that we have made.
2. The perfect Vancouver summers. They may not begin until July, but one fine summer day with a sunset like the one below is enough to erase the memory of ten wet and gray months.
   
3. Numerous game nights with our friends (okay, so this is really an extension of number one). Specific highlights include getting demolished by the Cramers at Nertz and the Hands detesting games and yet still willing to occasionally participate.
4. All the fantastic restaurants in Vancouver. Two of our favourite experiences have included the downtown revolving restaurant Cloud 9 and, of course, the bar & grill that is no more—Lou’s.
5. The Lord of the Rings movie marathon in the Fall of 2004. The Reimers, the Cramers, and the Browns gathered three consecutive nights and watched the extended version of each installment of the trilogy. We ate far too much and Jeff got emotional when Frodo sailed away to the undying lands.
6. The proximity of Vancouver to our beloved Oregon. This has allowed us to travel home for holidays and for family and friends to visit us—all with just about 6-8 hours in the car. To put it another way: Portland to Vancouver=314 miles; Portland to Edinburgh=4,594 miles.
7. Our amazing home group and our church, University Chapel.
   
   (NB-Ryan, who is in the middle of the back row, is not in our group, though we still like him; the Gorlicks are, but are not in this picture).
8. We had to split this one. For Katie: SOS/RSN/girl’s group. Mine: Beerswap.
9. The fresh produce stores that are around just about every corner.
10. Mantracker—the single greatest reality show in television history. Canadians should make this man their next Prime Minister. If you haven’t yet seen this show, you need to do so.