✓

This summer Mia and I have been meeting at the Art Gallery quite frequently. We never make it in, we just really like the cafe. These are the things I find out in our conversations: Mia has quit her job as a lawyer, she is getting married to McKay in October, and they will be moving to Cambodia shortly after. And that’s why I love Mia – she goes for it!

Mia at the finish line of a triathlon last year

My twin – a few years ago when we bought matching dresses.

After picking up our looooooong-awaited best people Amie & Jared at the airport Wednesday night (it was Thursday morning by the time we finally got to hug them), Evan and I went on a roadtrip to see Doris and Bill. The timing of this trip wasn’t perfect, but we needed to get out of the city and this was the only long weekend that would work for us both.

We stopped at some wineries along the way and bought some fresh cherries and peaches. With Doris and Bill we panned for gold, watched their chipmunks, enjoyed the sun, spend many hours on their huge porch, went to the Ymir pub for life music, and swam in the river. Lovely times and we hope to be back there soon!

The chipmunk enjoying his organic cashews 🙂

Awwww

Ymir

A couple of weekends ago we packed up our nephews for an adventure on the Sunshine Coast. My mom and Bob made this trip possible by welcoming us into their home, Evan and I enjoyed the time with Bjorn and Eileif, and Laurence and Ainsley enjoyed their first weekend alone in 6 years.

A few years ago I took a Philosophy course with Susan Gardner. She was friends with (tall) Matt and Aaron who both took her class a few years before me. I met her again last semester and she invited me to the P4C (Philosophy for Children) conference here in Vancouver. The timing was perfect, I submitted final grades for my summer course at the end of June and then I was off to the 3 day conference.

And here is the next connection to another era of my life… At the conference I listened to a presentation about my previous job. Margaret & Warren talked about the work they’ve been doing with the children and teachers 🙂 I could imagine everything so clearly and loved seeing everyone in a video about their project.

And of course a connection to the present: One of my students also attended the conference. She has taken Yoga classes with Ainsley many years ago and we’ve bumped into each other several times on a Friday night at the Quay.

Jörg: “Hey, what are you doing on September 9th?”

We’ve been missing Jörg all year and are thrilled to hear that he is coming back to Vancouver so soon. Looks like he is going camping with his Canadian family -love it!

 Above: Our trip to the Sunshine Coast to visit my mom and Bob. Volker and his family got to see whales from the ferry!

Below: Fifa Women’s World Cup final: USA-Japan. The day the forest fires in BC filled all of Vancouver with smoke.

Teaching: I taught a summer course entitled, “Guiding Young Children”. This was probably my favorite course so far. A colleague and I co-taught the course, which meant that we did much of the planning together and then I went to teach the course in the evenings. We had so much fun and both of us think that we were able to try things that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. We read one of my favorites by Vivian Paley, “You can’t say you can’t play”, my friend Anne was a guest speaker and shared her passion for children’s literature, and towards the end of the course our program coordinator observed my class and the students submitted an evaluation.

This marks the end of my first year of teaching!