I love going to America. Americans just do things differently. They talk different. They drink different beer. They just see the world in a different light. But the America I'm talking about is more or less fifteen minutes from our house, but once you're there you know right away it "ain't" Canada any more.

This year's summer trip south to Winthrop, Washington started at the Vancouver International Airport though when Grandpa Mike, whom I refer to as someone who put the "camp in camper", arrived to spend a week with our boys in the good'ol American outdoors. And judging from how tired Bodhi and Rian were after the trip, I'd say they had a fantastic time being entertained and watched over by their grandpa.

Every year when we visit Winthrop, we're on the look out for something new for the boys to see and do. This year was no different as we learned that Winthrop itself is the birthplace of "smokejumping", which was convenient because Bodhi is slowly transitioning from a fascination with trains phase to a fascination with fire trucks and firefighting. Now while there are no fire trucks in smokejumping, there are plenty of other cool things to look at inside the main hangar of the Smokejumper Base in Winthrop. And he got to meet some real, live smokejumpers who gave him a Smokey Bear comic book to read at the campsite.

For this month of July we will have been out camping every week except for one. Next week, we'll be at it again, this time our annual trip through the Cascade Mountain range to Pearrygin Lake in Washington State. Bodhi is looking forward to this one particularly because grandpa from Ontario will fly in and join us for it.

Our latest outing though was to Manning Park, about a two hour drive east from our place in Surrey. Now while two hours may not sound like it will put you very far from the city, Manning is quite the contrary. Highway 3 bisects the 60 kilometer long park, which itself occupies about 7% of the total area of British Columbia. What this means to the camper is that you can drive right in with your car and vehicle-camp in the front-country or leave your car, strap on a backpack and trek-camp in the back-country. Among the many things in my life that I have a difficult time recollecting these days, I had forgotten that I had camped Manning twice before, both times in back-country camps back in the early 1990s. Though we stayed this time for only two nights-three days, we did manage to get in some hiking, canoeing, and some early morning fly-fishing.

One thing Bernadette isn't letting me forget is how chilly it can get at night time in the mountains, even during summer months. So if cold isn't up your alley, and I don't know too many people where it is, then suggest bringing more than just an average temperature two-season sleeping bag, or get a toasty tent heater.

We went looking for some lakeside camping, but we found so much more. Along the way to Harrison, BC, is a hazelnut farm, a cheese plant, and a chocolate factory. Who knew? Who cares. You better believe we made pit stops at each one.

Our first camping trip of the summer was a spur of the moment thing. Last Wednesday, after having already spent the day at Crescent Beach in White Rock and the day before at Golden Ears lake, I suggested to Bern that we leave for Sasquatch Provincial Park the next morning and stay out there for a couple of days. Now since we keep all our car-camping gear in Rubber-Maid containers loading the car takes all of about ten minutes, and all we had to worry about was seeing what food was in the pantry that we might be able to cook on a portable stove. A can of chili, a box of "hamburger helper", some hot dogs, the leftover vegetables to stir-fry (there's nothing quite like a stir-fry in the forest), some bread and eggs, and we were set.

As has been our tradition since Bodhi was born four years ago, we have made at least one summer camping trip each and every year. Bodhi has learned some lessons the hard way, but he's a trooper and loves pretty much everything about camping, except slimy fish caught from the lake. Rian, this his second camping trip (the first one last year he couldn't walk), is a full-time wrecking crew. He's everywhere and grabbing everything. It seemed like the only time he slowed down was at the campfire at night, and that was only until he saw Bodhi throwing what seemed like every little stick he could find into the fire.

With the exception of the shot above, Bernadette took every other picture posted here. Fishing was slow, but that didn't matter because on a fly rod, just trying to repeat the perfect cast over and over is the challenge itself. Kids and water equals hours of fun exploring, so both Bodhi and Rian tired themselves out each day just looking for things on and around the shoreline.

As for sasquatch, I'll keep you posted.

Bernadette says I tire the kids out. That I don't know when to stop. That I mess up their routines because I like to go, go, go and that I take one or both of them with me all the time. She's right about most of it, especially the tiring them out part. But it's both of us that like the go, go, go feeling. It's too much for the kids at times. She knows it and I know it too. I just want them to experience as much as we can offer them. And really, despite it all, I still don't think we off them enough. For starters, it's only natural to teach children, your own children I am talking about here, knowledge that you already have. And this knowledge is more than likely rooted in your own personal interests already. Between Bernadette and I, we have a wide variety of interests. Thankfully, a lot of those interests revolve around outdoor activities. Today, for example was A Day out with Thomas, you know that Really Useful Engine that honestly I had never heard of until someone bought a train for Bodhi when he was about a year and a half and for about the last three years all he has ever been talking about is how he plans to be train conductor.

Thomas the Train was in Squamish today. And we had tickets. The more I go to Squamish the more I like it. In fact, the signage on the way there claims Squamish to be the "recreation capital of the world". That may actually be quite truthful because today, not only did Bodhi and Rian get to ride on Thomas, we also stopped for some fishing, swimming, picnicing and rock-climbing, all in one spot next to a lake.

Now are fishing, swimming, picnicing and rock-climbing something the boys genuinely have an interest in? Well, that's hard to say. Rian is simply happy running around free and with a smile on his face-- it really doesn't matter where we are. And Bodhi. Well, Bodhi is Bodhi. He always finds something to occupy his own complex mind, and once he does it's pretty hard to get his thoughts off that track. We only provide and allow the opportunity; it's up to them to find the real interest.

It didn't matter to Rian that it has been raining for about 18 hours straight now. He thinks he's a pretty skilled bad-weather operator by placing plastic Easter eggs in the run-off and chasing them downhill in the water. All the while, Bodhi has already run inside complaining that summer couldn't come sooner.

Four days off has meant I've begun our summer vacation plans, which on our budget means camping and more camping. Deception Pass and Pearrygin Lake, both just south of here in Washington State are booked on our vacation list so far. Pearrygin is a beautiful lake side spot great for families with young children. We went there last year and plan to make it an annual thing until the kids get big enough for more rugged stuff. The Rocky Mountains, Banff and maybe a day or two in Calgary are also in the works. Drumheller, the Badlands, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Head Smashed In (Buffalo Jump Provincial Park) in southern Alberta all sound like a worthwhile visit as well. I think, too, that Bodhi is big enough to come with me camping at the Chief in Squamish this August to scope out some future climbing sites. Bodhi has been indoor climbing with me once a

week for a little while now, though at the moment, he's more interested in climbing a few meters up and then launching himself off the wall to see how far he can swing before the rope catches him. And Last week, Bodhi got up one morning and decided he didn't want the training wheels on his bike any longer. So far the past few days he and I have been riding on two wheels only. Another day or two and I'm sure he'll be completely comfortable, independent and, hopefully for the most part, safe. Today, Easter Monday, is sunny so I'll let him have a big bite of his dinosaur chocolate and then we'll head outside again for a bike ride. Can you say hyper-kid?

Throughout the day we had about twenty-five people drop by for some food, cheer, and spirits to help us celebrate our second St. Patty's Day here at our place in Surrey. Last year we had just moved in a few weeks prior to the Shamrock holiday so we weren't able to host a get-together then. Bern more than made up for that this year by spending two days preparing everything, and I mean everything, by hand or from scratch. Shamrock sugar cookies, baked hams, Irish stew, butter tarts, boiled cabbage, boxty patties, corned beef sandwiches and brownies. Oh, and let's not forget about the soda bread and raisin loaf. I didn't really do much except cook the boxty and make sure everyone's drinks never reach half empty. Kind of handy since I never strayed too far from the drink cooler and the Irish stew, which I love.

Baby Rian, who's not really a baby anymore at fifteen months, didn't exactly know what was going on but he loved the hat he found with the colors of Ireland on it.

Spring break has officially begun. It'll be all about the boys with various day trips planned like visits to Science World and the Vancouver Aquarium. Bodhi will join me as usual at the climbing gym where he's getting to know some of the other climbers now. And he also likes to hang out with the gym's owner to see what goes on behind the scenes when they're teaching people how to climb. Plus the owner gives him gummy bears for helping out, and who can resist that?

Among the growing list of things to do that I never actually get to whenever we are on break from school, I did manage to bring our '07 Prius in for regular service today. Like many other people, I cringe at each service call because the final bill usually comes as a shock, but I do live by the maxim -- at least when you own cool car with features like automatically turning itself on and off depending on the traffic situation -- that if you bought it, then you should at least find the gumption and money to keep it running as pristinely as possible. And I haven't missed any of the service calls yet though with the way the costs keep escalating after each affair, I don't know how much longer that will last before I try to find someone cheaper to do the work. That is, someone other than an actual Toyota dealer mechanic.

Take today for example. And maybe I just got talked into things, but here's how the call(s) went:

Me: Hi, I'm here for my 11:30am Prius service.
Service person: Great. How many kilometers are on your car?
Me: 34,800.
Service person: You're due for the first full maintenance service.
Me: Okay, what do you do and how much will it be?
Service person: Here's the list of what will be done (she goes through the list). It will be $149 plus any parts like the cabin air filter, which is $50 parts and installation.
Me: Okay, thanks, call me when you're done.

(1 hour later, cell phone rings)

Service person: Hi, Mr Mah, the technician recommends a rear brake service to clean and adjust the brakes.
Me: Okay, how much?
Service person: $58
Me: Okay, I can live with that.

(30 minutes later, cell phone rings again)

Service person: Hi, Mr Mah, the technician found some rodent droppings and shredded paper in the cabin air filter and he thinks he saw a tail run away into the car. He recommends getting the air conditioning vent system cleaned out.
Me: A rodent?! You mean a mouse?
Service person: He thinks so.
Me: (in disbelief) Well, I certainly don't want any mice running around in my car. How much will this cost?
Service person: $86 to flush out the air conditioning vent system.
Me: (feeling like I'm not the person holding the gun in a hostage situation) Okay, I can live with that. Call me when you're done.

After picking up the car I'm not sure what Toyota used to clean our the air vent system, but we had a lysol-like disinfectant smell in the car for the rest of the day. And when we got home we discovered the smell had adhered itself to our clothes and body. I'm going to call Toyota on Monday to find out what they used, but man when a $149 bill goes to over $300, partly because of a mystery "mouse", you've got to wonder. Here's one article I found about suspicious repairs on the Prius. On a side note, I did manage to find on the Internet this discussion thread and another discussion thread on mice or mouse droppings in the Pruis, as well as how to change the cabin air filter myself if I'm ever feeling so mechanically inclined. Perhaps the mouse thing isn't so unbelieveable after all. I also found out how to use a Prius as a backup generator, which has to be joke. Did I mention that this was a cool car or what?

Blogdate: Friday, February 27, 2009
"There are no seven wonders of the world in a child's eyes. There are seven million."

That's a Walt Streightiff quote I found on the Internet today. I don't know who Streightiff is, but the real alarming part is that I can actually name off the seven ancient wonders of the world without having to look it up online or in a book. However, when I found the quote it reminded me that yeah so many things I consider grand or spectacular as an adult, there a hundreds, thousands, perhaps literally millions of other things that while seemingly small or insignificant to me or other grown-ups, children will find an abundance of joy and excitement in.

That was little Bodhi today, whom we took for all-out-whatever-he-wanted-to-do kind of afternoon. And that was after Bern had already spent the better part of the day making his fourth birthday a special one by, among other things, letting him eat grandma's special chocolate treats sent all the way from Kitchener. So for a few hours on this Friday afternoon, after rushing home from work (though it only takes me five minutes to get home when I have the car) to begin what little Bodhi had been waiting for all day long, we made good his request to go to Chuck E Cheese for a token-dropping, game playing, pizza eating, soft-drink drinking small but special birthday party.

Tomorrow we have another surprise for Bodhi and that's a family party at mama's house where Bodhi will get his cake, a "Lady" train cake that Bern spent almost all last night making while Bodhi was asleep. That's a picture of it below. It's also the third such train cake that Bern has made for him in as many years. Not surprisingly she's getting kind of tired of it, and is hopeful that Bodhi will grow out of trains by next year. At which point he'll probably get into sharks or dinosaurs and then Bern will spend the next three years making those kinds of cakes for him. The fun never ends.

Only one thing put a glitch into an otherwise perfect day: I didn't take enough pictures and the ones I did take were all just a bit fuzzy. I blame my camera; it's coming on five years old now and has been to places like the Gobi and the Annapurnas with me. Camera notwithstanding however, a blue sky, fresh snow and everybody in a jovial new year mood made our first annual ski trip a blast. Now granted when you're talking about taking a 3-year-old skiing, things didn't get off to a very fast start, what with the three bathroom stops and two hot chocolate breaks later, little Bodhi finally got on the bunny slope with Christian, Bern and me.

No party, no presents, there wasn't even any cake today. But there was Bern, Bodhi, Rian and I out back in our so-called "yard" building a snow fort for the better part of the morning. And after three or four hours, and two partially frozen children later, we had our fort walls up to about seven feet high, with a carefully smoothed out interior with enough space for four people and a few cups of hot chocolate. After forty-one birthdays already, sipping Bailey's hot cocoa in -3C weather surrounded by a circular wall of snow with the little Bodhster making funny faces and silly jokes with me made this 42nd one particularly special.

We started December off with Rian's birthday. Then came our fifth wedding anniversary on the 22nd. Christmas, of course, was three days after that. And now it's my birthday tomorrow. So with a backdrop of about two feet of snow outside, and in-between shoveling the driveway out, we've managed to get out a few times to enjoy the white stuff with the kids. Bern and Bodhi built an igloo; I managed to pile enough snow into a snowbank at least seven feet high outside our place, and little Rian got to walk in some deep stuff for the first time though he didn't actually have enough mass to actually break through the partially frozen surface the other day.

We're planning to take Bodhi skiing in a couple of days provided that the weather doesn't get too cold and the roads get icy. I think he'll love it, or at least I hope he will love it because it's something we want to be able to do together as a family.

Other than that it'll be a pretty tame new year with us and the boys at home.

Rian turned one year old on December 5th. While we had only a modest celebration, it was made special by Rian himself because he has started taking his own baby steps. He also said his first word too: "duck". Exciting stuff for the little guy and for us. When Bodhi turned one, I posted a picture of every month of his life and I want to do the same for Rian, so that's number 1 on the to-do list. Rian also got to play in the snow for the first time a few days ago too. Lots of firsts. And it looks like the white stuff will stick around into Christmas so hopefully a white Christmas here we come. Bodhi is anxiously waiting for Santa to come down our chimney and plans to sleep in front of the fireplace from now until the big day so that he can say hello to Saint Nick to make sure that Santa knows which cookies to eat and which glass of milk to drink. Amazing that it doesn't matter that the diameter of our chimney is no larger than your average coffee tin, Bodhi believes whole-heartedly that Santa is going to sqeeze his butt down through it and into our house. Fun stuff.

Bodhi also joined me at my school the other day for a Christmas party for kids that was put on by one of the grade 12 classes in the school. To little Bodhi, being in grade 12 or actually being a grade 12 is the epitome of schooling and he really looks forward to meeting and talking with them whenever he can, especially since he knows a few of the grade 12s that I teach.

So a little more shopping to be done, a couple more strings of lights to put up and we are pretty much set for Christmas. Christmas is at our place this year and then Bern, Bodhi and I plan to spend a day or two skiing somewhere. Time for little Bodhi to strap on some planks and see where gravity takes him.

Bernadette asked me today if I thought that we spend too much time with our kids. I was perplexed by the question, but only by the notion that I didn't think it was possible to spend too much time with one's own children. My answer, like many of my answers I find, was a question in itself: "Well, if we didn't spend this time with our children, who would we spend this time with (notwithstanding each other of course)?" I wasn't really expecting an answer. Our lives are such that Bodhi and Rian have become our lives. Having them meant making choices, and some of those choices have meant adapting our lifestyles and expectations to something quite dramatically different from what we were used to. And I'm both pretty sure and hopeful (if that's possible) that a big chunk of the population has done the same thing because raising compassionate, energetic, inquisitive, persevering children requires immeasurable amounts of time and sacrifice.

Having and raising children has been and will continue to be no easy task. And anyone who thinks it's a piece of cake, really hasn't raised them yet.

The November rains must make people more introspective or something, me included. Time to take the kids out. But first, it's going to take 25 or so minutes to get them and all their gear together. Piece of cake.

Well, we're back from three fantastic weeks of our biennial trip to Ontario to visit the Irish side of the family. And let me simply say for now, and briefly (I'll add more later because we still haven't had enough sleep since returning), that we're still recovering from all the things everyone had planned for us. I can't think of a better time Bodhi and the rest of us have had with the grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

If you ever want to see just how deep you can reach into your bag of patience, try camping with two little ones -- one of whom can't stopping running around exploring everything in sight and the other who is just getting going in the crawling stage. And while Bern and I have camped enough that heading out on the road for four days with the boys isn't as daunting as it could be, these two guys can certainly keep us busy trying to address all the things on their young minds.

Put simply though the boys love camping. Mosquitoes, dirt, hard-ground and all. That's good because we love camping with them. This is the third such trip in as many years, and as was our original goal, we have managed so far to continue this summer camping tradition regardless of their ages. For now we've been relying on using only what we can fit into a single vehicle, which having switched to a car instead of a van, has presented a new and unique challenge trying to cram two car seats, a family sized tent, medium sized cooler full of food, four sleeping bags+mats, cooking supplies, clothing for four people, plus toys for the kids, not to mention three lawn chairs, into the space of a standard sized car trunk means some pretty creative packing.

For now, however, it works for us. And besides, being out somewhere away from the amenities of home and with minimal things to help you get by forces Bodhi, as well as us for that matter, to explore and invent his own alternate forms of entertainment and enjoyment including trying to draw all the animals he saw on this trip: a deer and its fawn, chipmunks galore, rainbow trout, crawdads, a not-so-shy duck, and even a baby gray-wolf pup.

Having dusted off the baby backpack, we spent most of the day on a short hike nearby. Now the weather of late hasn't been much of what we'd call summer, but then again, summer hasn't officially begun yet here in BC. Either way, some warmer temperatures would certainly be welcome since hiking on a wet and muddy trail with a three-year-old who thinks running through soggy muck and losing a shoe is funny each and every time he does it. Rian seemed to love the fresh air, but who wouldn't sitting inside a comfy backpack bought just for him.

Speaking of seeing summer, Bodhi and I have some big plans in the first few days starting on July 1st. As we've been doing in the past since returning to BC four years ago, we've got row 1 seats for me, Bodhi, Brandon and Christian along the first base line at the annual Canada Day C's baseball game at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver. Grandma lives a ten minute walk to the ball park and there's always an impressive fireworks show on this particular evening. Two days later, Bodhi and I get to hop on the Whistler Express to Whistler mountain for a day. That's my Father's Day gift for him and me from Bernadette. That's all Bodhi's really be talking about for the past little while now. His obsession with trains hasn't waned in the least ever since he got his first Thomas train a couple of years ago.

A camping trip is still in the works, though we're not sure where yet. Rian is six months old now so it's about time we got him sleeping in a tent and freezing his little buns off. We'll be in Ontario for a few weeks during this summer too. I'm supposed to do some painting here in our new place as well, but how all this is going to get fit in during a two month summer is still anybody's guess. In the meantime, we'll keep looking for hiking trails as a family.

Okay, so we've only got about 30 square feet of backyard, but that didn't stop Bodhi and Bern from planting some peas and carrots in the small strip of earth just in front of the fence out back there. Given that Bern asked me how one tells the difference between a perennial and an annual plant, I'm not so sure we have the experience needed to be "horticulturaling" some of our own food. Either way, it's fun to see Bodhi get so excited about little seeds, then get all dirty planting and watering them. Who knows if he even actually planted it or just shoved it where he thought was a decent place for it to go. I'll let you know in a few months.

It was also my school's recent Environment Week this past week, which really is a misnomer since we, and presumably many other schools in our district, try to be environmental all year long, year in and year out. It's funny how when we used to live in Malaysia, other than trying to walk places or take transit, it was a challenge to be environmentally-friendly since there weren't any recycling depots around yet. And then I remember reading about someone who had finally capitalized on the big idea of doing something -- like recycling all those millions of plastic water bottles lying around that he basically became ka-billionaire overnight. Good for him; the potential for people to make a pro-environmental impact in a place like Malaysia, and other countries like it, is immeasurable both from a earth-friendly point of view and a personal economic one too if one has the wherewithal and entrepreurial skill. Back here in Canada-land though, we'll have to settle for sorting our own weekly discards and placing them by the curb for pickup. With Bern being home though and monitoring our waste the way she does, I was happy to see that as a family of four we've gotten our actual land-fill waste in the garbage can down to a single bag of about 18 pounds or 8.16 kilograms a week (about half a standard size garbage can equaling about 424 kilograms/year...which is still a lot considering I heard David Suzuki once say that his family generates only one bag of garbage per month!...read more on waste management stats at gov.ca). Couple that to the fact that I can walk to work now, and Bern also walks the kids to their programs nearby, and we only use the Prius two or three times a week, we're slowly realizing our goal of minimizing our ecological-footprint even more. There are so many other areas that we're still working on like decreasing our water usage and meat consumption, but decided that these two – reduce and walk – were instant-impact kinds of things. Try a "footprint" test here yourself to get an idea of your areas of usage.

Bodhi, along with Bern, and to a lesser extent, Rian too, spent the better part of the two weeks leading up to spring break bed-ridden. I don't think I have ever wiped Bodhi's nose more times at any other time than in those couple of weeks. It was strangely unfamiliar to watch someone whom we usually can't get to stop running or jumping around to simply be content to just lie in bed or in front of the television watching Diego or Thomas videos.

However, once he was better, it took no time to get back into the usual swing of things: like making me chase after him down the driveway in front of our house, or run wild in front of the Surrey Museum during their annual Easter egg hunt, or up and down the pedestrian walkways at the nearby Greater Vancouver Zoo. Spring break is two weeks this year for whatever reasons and we have till March 31st so we'll take a couple of days and probably go south into the U.S.; after all we only live a 15 minute drive from the border crossing. Where we are we are actually closer to the States than we are to Vancouver, and crossing as a family the US border guards barely even look at the identification before waving us through.

We spent last Saturday moving into our new place in south Surrey, which means we've been here now for just over a week. Removing my [and what used to be Bern's as well] daily 50-minute x 2 commute has meant a significant rise in our quality of life, not to mention being in a place where the kids have their own rooms, plus 1900 square feet of split-level living, has also created a renewed sense of freedom and sanity.

Bodhi loves his new place and is gradually making many friends in this very family oriented townhouse complex. I'm just so happy that I can wake up almost one hour later, eat my toast and drink my coffee before leaving the house for a fifteen minute walk to work.

Rian is doing great, and Bern has been telling me daily how much she loves the place. Bern has spent time exploring the various kid's programs, and has already signed Bodhi and me up the nearby YMCA for Bodhi's third installment of swimming lessons. Today, they all spent the day nearby in White Rock at Crescent Beach where she tells me that Bodhi spent some time drinking the sea-water, much to the shock of many on-lookers. He doesn't have very many inhibitions about trying things including testing the taste of the salt of the ocean.

Our place is still a little empty though as we await the arrival of various pieces of furniture like the sofa suite, which won't arrive for a few more weeks yet. At least our new table came a few days ago and we can stop eating off of Bodhi's plastic kid table. I've been busy unpacking still so haven't had a chance to take many photos but I will try to post a couple in the next few days. Bernadette snapped the one above just this past weekend.