So, another hello from Victoria. After visiting with family, and family, and family for the past couple weeks, we are heading to the mainland to bring in the new year with some old friends. Then it will be back for the final pack before heading south for the winter. For those we did not get a chance to catch-up with ... our home in Florida is always open to visitors.

With that, we took back our ride over the last few days ... an '07 Nissan Maxima. A nice car with a ton a little features I am going to miss heading home. Though the heated seats and steering wheel is not really required in Sarasota.

Grandma Bev also took us all down to the beach for a little west coast excursion. With Aunt Amanda in town with the boys, Joe had to show those prairie boys how to play in the sand and surf ... and they did ... until Joe realized that playing in the water on the west coast of BC was slightly cooler than than he is use to. But we all had fun!

Joe explores

And as the year draws to a close, Owen had one more milestone to meet. He has now reached a full crawl ... a full knee up from his inch-worm rendition. And it was caught on video so you can all see it later. Oh right ... yes, we have a new camera. Our main camera had a slight oops on boxing day, and for the second time it has a lens that will not retract. So before the day was out we had picked up a new, slim, sleek Canon SD1000. And we like :) ... Though we will have to fix the old one for more of those "fun" shots.

The peaceful coast of home

This Christmas is one for the history books ... and really it started about 10 minutes before we boarded the plane out of Tampa... WARNING: NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACH!!!

Joe and I had taken a short walk down the terminal to watch the planes take-off and land while we awaited ours. And just after our plane landed and taxied past the window on the way to the gate ... Joe's lunch decided to also ... ahhh .... arrive. From there through Toronto it repeated about every 15 minutes, he was basically empty for the trip to Calgary - but still sick. But, through it all Joe and Owen were great travelers -- and the WestJet crew were excellent.

We ended up being stuck in Calgary over-night (thats another story about Krishen, a missing bag, and bad-weather) - the plus side; we saw Amanda and Grandpa, and had breakfast with Nana and Papa. Joe was feeling better through Victoria - seems the 10 hour bug was finally on its last legs.

Once arriving at Grandma Bev's we had lunch and took a nap ... only to wake up to Owen showing us how much he is like his brother. Great ... there goes another 10 hours. An to top things off, I had come down with a nasty head-cold. And as we left for Courtenay, Doug (Bev's husband) was in bed with his bucket.

The trip up to the middle of the island seemed to be almost a break. My head cold was starting to clear and the boys were doing much better. But my cold was passed on to Melissa and Joe by the time we reached Victoria again ... and it still lingers (runny noses suck!).

However, Christmas eve tops the cake. Aunt Te
a woke up sick to her stomach ... Cameron (Aunt Kari's boyfriend) was down just after dinner. Kari dropped about 10pm, and Tracy (Uncle Brendan's fiance) added to the body count before bed. Though by this time almost everyone had a queazy stomach!

Now we just wait and see ... who is next??? DUN DUN DAAAAA!

Christmas in Victoria, BYOB: Bring your own Bucket!

On a side note, here are some pictures of our trip so far...

Its great to be home

Worlds largest hockey stick. Duncan BC

Owen shows nana some love

Ahh, the sweat smells of home

Sitting Lady Falls, short hike from my grandparents

Joe jams with the Saunders

What?? Nana's kissing Santa

He even did the rounds catching great grandma Hemphill too

Santa ... I want a...

So, it is our final night in town. This past weekend we did the traditional santa visit - which Joe really enjoyed this year. And, since we were not going to be in town ... and don't want to cart everything the 5000+ km home ... we got a little preview of life on the 25th ...

Pre-christmas extravaganza

Oh oh oh!

Owen enjoyed the paper, but we liked the piggy bank still hidden inside

Joe ... ahh ...

Yep ... your right, that is a cool toy! Thanks Josh, Janna, and little Anna

And from Mom and Dad a wagon for the little excursions

See you guys all in a few days ... and if we won't ... well, Happy Holidays. Hope the season treats you well ... but, watch treating the season ;)

So ... that was fast! Owen is now half a year old, 13 lbs 10 oz, and 25 inches tall. To top it off, he also cut his first tooth today - with another pushing for a holiday visit.

So, at the milestone what do we learn? ... Owen is part of the family :) ... and maybe he should eat a little more.

Great news this weekend ... Owen calls me by name! Dad wins!

Holidays! Holidays! Don't we all just love the holidays!

The helping hand ... the lift ... the slip from little fingers ... the shattered remains.