Movin' on out...

We have some big news.

In late September/early October of this year, the boy and I will be paring down our stuff, packing up the rest of it, and moving out west. To Vancouver.

This decision has been a couple of years in the making. Actually, the trip we took a year and a halfish ago was supposed to sell me on the idea. There are so many great things about Vancouver - environment-wise, climate-wise, culture-wise - but for me, this move is less about the destination and more about the move itself.

I love Toronto. I love all my friends in Toronto. My family is here. But I was reminded recently about why I studied German, of all things, in high school. It wasn't because I planned to specifically live in Germany, but it was definitely because I had never planned to live my life in one place. After my sister was born - just before I started college - I'd put those thoughts aside because I did not want to leave her. She is now 16, soon going to be starting college or university herself, and I finally feel ready to stretch my wings.

There is so much scariness that comes along with making this type of move in your mid-30s. Thankfully, we are not in a position to have to sell a house (we rent) or to uproot a child (we're DINKs!), and we look forward to changing things up in our careers. I plan to look for a designer position with a company that aligns with my own ethical views (they are out there!) and the boy plans to do freelance web development. We also plan to take in a lot of nature in the way of hiking, camping and biking. And Seattle is only a couple of hours away!

It is with much sadness that I leave all my loved ones - but what better time is there in our history to make this sort of jump? With the online presence of blogs, flickr, Facebook, we'll be able to stay in frequent contact with everyone "back home".

Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers

It's time to change things up a bit. Or, rather, change things back. As many others have commented about their own blogs, mine has also lost focus to the point where I sometimes find making a post extremely daunting. I'd rather post bits here and there than fret about writing one big long catch-up post.

I started the blog to reach out and seek others. Now that this has happened, the original things I wrote about have taken a back seat. My hope is to get back to some goodness, some crafting, some veganism, and blurbs about my life in general. When I find a post might be larger than I can devote time to, I will express myself in photos.

Now that that's out of the way, here are a few photos from the second half of our BC trip. We drove just past Kelowna to Big White Resort on December 30th. The 4 hour trip there was not too bad. The condo was beautiful and the view was breathtaking. We spent New Year's Eve Day snoeshoeing and tubing, and the Eve down in the resort village and back up in the condo. New Year's Day awoke us with snow and fog, and the 4 hour trip back to Vancouver took 6 hours through snow, ice, slush and rain. We like to think that the province was just sad that we were leaving :)

the view of the ski hill from the condo


the view directly from the condo balcony


ah... morning coffee...


the incredible sights from our shoeshoe trail


the incredible sights from our shoeshoe trail?


tubing!


this is the foggy and snowy scene we woke up to on New Year's Day


and this is the best part of the treacherous drive we had to take back to Vancouver. I was too skeered to take pictures of the really bad parts.

Oh, and somehow during our trip I developed a love of good quality deli green olives, which I have always vehemently hated. I especially love the garlic stuffed ones. Weird.