Summer 2009: Part IV

Consistent with with the family theme of our lives this summer, we took a little boat ride to Alaska to celebrate Boppa and Lita's 60th birthdays this year. Talya obviously thought the cake was hers, but has been singing "Happy Birthday DearBoppaLita" (one word, obviously!) ever since.. Photos are compliments of Tio Daniel. For more great shots of this beautiful trip with fantastic company (Uncle Andrew, Aunty Rachel, Uncle Jon, Aunty Flavia, Uncle Daniel, Aunty Libby, Uncle Pinky, Aunty Jan, Grandma Dori, Boppa, Lita, Daddy, Mommy, and Talya) see the rest of the gallary at: http://www.galleries.curiousimagery.com/nelson_alaska_web/

Aunty Masie

Aunty Masie is daddy's aunt (and my grandaunt) who lives in Perth, Western Australia. What a wonderful surprise that she was visiting Singapore at the same time! To honour my distant Indonesian heritage (Kwee is the variant of the Mandarin "Guo" or Cantonese "Kwok" in the former Dutch East Indies), she took us all out to a fabulous Indonesia meal. It was great to visit with her and catch up on our lives in our respective far-flung lands.

What we did this summer III: Singapore

Talya got in some fun in the pool...
Played in a hard rockin' band with her cousins Chris and Cheryl...

Feasted on spicy southern Indian food at the Apolo Banana Leaf

And of course hung out with her Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh
at the zoological gardens

Fort Langley, British Columbia

...and the big orange truck that contains most of everything we own pulls up to our new house in Fort Langley. What exactly brought us here? We never did really mention it in the blog, did we? Well, basically we wanted to move west to be closer to family in Bellingham, WA. By "west" we weren't intending Canada initially. But only the Canadians seemed to really want to employ us. We now teach in the Counselling Psychology program at Trinity Western University and Alex does some part time work as a behavioural health consultant with a rehab clinic (http://www.back-in-motion.ca/), along with maintaining his independent consulting in the US.

Happy reunion

Talya is reunited with her Xana. Xana was not thrilled that she had to wake up for this photograph.

What we did this summer II: Road trip with Boppa-Lita

Pushing through the Cascade Mountains, which divides eastern and western Washington and psychologically demarcates the Pacific Northwest--our new home.

Talya, Lita and Boppa pay a visit to the biggest bison in the world--that's a lot of bull, you know.

While most of our stuff went off in a big ol' Allied moving van, we still of course had to move ourselves and Frida and Emoh (the cars). Boppa Dave and Lita Lynne gave us a big hand and joined us for the road trip west and north--through the plains of Minnesota and North Dakota, the rugged beauty of Montana and Glacier National Park, and finally into the Pacific Northwest.

What we did this summer: Goodbye Branches

No we haven't abandoned kweeblog. It's been months, of course, since the last entry; our excuse is a big move to our neighbour up north and a transitional phase which has kept the focus elsewhere. With a slight reprieve from all the craziness, we finally have a chance to update folks on our lives. Let's begin at the sad end of our sojourn in Wheaton, IL. We said a tearful goodbye to our community and on the very last morning, our neighbours, the Branch family--Anne, Chandler and Nora--came to bid us farewell. Nora was Talya's first best friend, and a special little girl she is. God bless you, Branches, and thank you for your friendship and neighborliness!