Dueck Family Happenings

This last week we were very happy to have the Duerksens come out to visit us. Claire and Nicholas were really excited to have friends come over and have someone to play with everyday and Ryan and I had such a great time catching up and hanging out with Everett and Tanya again. Tanya and Everett arrived on Tuesday night and on Wednesday we headed to the Aquarium. A trip to Vancouver wouldn't be complete without a stop at the Aquarium, not to mention the fact that the kids all love watching the big fish!
Here is the Duerksen family - what a good looking lot they are!!
Sitting and relaxing in the front yard one afternoon while the kids ran around and played. The neighbor kids even made it into the mix when they stopped to play on their way home from the park. It was a real 'block party' so to speak!
Claire, Eve and Maddy dancing and playing. Eve and Maddy hit it off right away, maybe it is because they are the same size, who knows, but they were holding hands and playing really nice together.
Ariana celebrated her 2nd birthday while they were visiting! I didn't have a cake but I did have pancakes that we put candles in and sang happy birthday. I don't know if she really cared that it wasn't a cake and it was a pile of pancakes, she was just happy to try to blow out her two candles!
No visit would be complete without taking our friends to Steveston! Ryan and I love it down there and so far everyone we have taken there likes it too. The day we chose to go to the beach was supposed to be 21 degrees, but if you notice from the pictures our hair is flying all over the place and we are all wearing our hoodies or coats. Oh well, it was good times despite the cool temperatures. On the positive side, no one got a sun burn and we didn't have to lather the children in sunscreen that makes the sand stick all over them.
Would it be a time of visiting without coffee??? I don't think so! Tanya is my coffee friend that can drink a cup of hot coffee in record time. I don't know how she does it, but she can down a scalding hot cup before I even take a little sip!
There was some serious sand sculpting happening at the beach while we were there. I think Ryan was reliving his childhood days building walls and tunnels and bridges. It was pretty cool what they created. The kids loved it and did their part to help. It was good fun!

And to finish off our wonderful visit we got an amazing babysitter (thank you Laura) to come and watch all four kids while the four of us headed out on the town. We ended up at a restaurant overlooking English bay downtown. We sat outside on the patio and watched the sun set over the water and enjoyed great company.

Thanks guys for making the trip to come visit us! We loved having you and miss you already. Sitting on the deck out front feels a little empty now that you aren't here!

On Tuesday evening we received the news that Neighborhood Church in Nanaimo voted 100% in favor of hiring Ryan as Associate Pastor of Congregational Care! We have accepted the position and will be moving over to the island some time this summer. We are in the process of finishing things (thesis, school, work commitments) and finding housing. So until some of those things are finalized, mostly the housing situation, we won't know when exactly we will be moving.

We are excited about this new opportunity and are really looking forward to settling down more permanently than we have the last few years. Our time in Vancouver has always been 'temporary' in our minds because we kind of knew we wouldn't end up living here (cost of housing a MAJOR factor). We are really sad to say goodbye again to good friends and neighbors but trust we will find a place to fit in well on the island.

We headed over to our friend Tracey's house on Friday afternoon so the kids could help Abbey christen their new pool!! The pool has a heater but they hadn't turned it on yet so the kids were in very cold water. Do you think they cared? Check out the pictures and I am sure you can see the answer.
After Nicky jumped in and came back up he had a look of complete shock on his face because of how cold it was. He did manage to make it to the side but I don't think he went off the diving board again!

My children are complete fish in the water. They absolutely love being in water and they love swimming.
Friday was also "crazy hat or hair day" at school. We managed to make Claire a "crazy" looking hat and Nicky wanted a Mohawk. After much hair products and some serious hairspray we did manage to keep his hair standing up straight.

The other day Nicky came running into the house to tell me that they found a hurt bird outside and I needed to come see. I went outside and found Claire sitting beside a ice cream pail with a pigeon inside it. I asked where she found it and she told me in "neighbours" yard. She said she say if running around the yard and hiding in the flowers so she went around the back of the yard, went in through the gate and scooped the bird up in the pail.

I took a little peek over the fence to see a yard covered with pigeon feathers so I could safely assume this bird was hurt quit badly. Claire told me it had a hole in it's chest so I took the bird out of the pail (it was sitting on a piece of paper so I didn't have to touch it) to take a look at the wound. Claire was right, it literally had a hole in it's chest. I don't know what got it but it had fought a good fight and now it was dying. According to the kids, it was just sleepy.

Well, Claire picked it up and carried it around and made a nice home for it in the bird cage Nicky had found in the alley and brought home a little while ago (our yard is so full of garbage! My son finds stuff and hauls it home, his Opa Pankonin would be very proud of him because he used to do that to!!) The bird made it through the night, the kids had given it some food and water, and was still breathing in the morning when the kids headed off to school.

Needless to say after school when the kids came home we noticed flies were flying around our little pigeon and it's little body was still. We wrapped it in the blanket it was laying on and put it in the garbage! Claire wanted to bury it but I didn't think that would be such a great idea so we compromised and laid it really nicely in the garbage bin. Claire is taking care of her pigeon. She has a very soft heart towards animals. It is amazing how quickly she got dressed before school so she could run outside and take care of her pigeon before breakfast.
The other night we meet up with J and Andrea and Dave and Julie down in Steveston for a bbq. The weather man said it was supposed to be 16 degrees on Friday but he was very wrong. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures or not, but we are all freezing! We managed to eat by the water and let the kids play in the sand a little bit then quickly headed back to our house for some hot coffee and a little "Office" watching.

I don't know if you noticed, but Julie and I are wrapped in our blankets trying to keep warm. I had three layers on as well. It was chilly there and the sun decided it should stay behind the grey clouds filling the sky. Oh well, our hamburgers tasted awesome, for some reason when you are cold your food tastes really good.Good times were had by all!

Here's some pictures from Naomi and Hilda's day at the Vancouver Half Marathon...
Claire and Nicky each got new runners yesterday and both were keen to tell us how much faster their new shoes made them. Both were also quite convinced that they wanted to run a marathon next year (we'll see about that...).
Nicky was roaring around all morning banging the thundersticks that came in Naomi's race-pack. Very soothing...
The conquering heroes in BC Place after finishing the race.
Proud papa...
And proud dad and kids. They did a great job and we're all very proud of them.