Sunday, July 1, 2007

July 1, 2007 - Happy Canada Day!


One beautiful little happy girl, one handsome curious boy, one spectacular country.  It's nice to reflect on life during holidays such as this.  Ana and I have been so fortunate with everything we've done and a lot of this we owe to growing up in Canada.  After living in so many different countries we have a good perspective on the differences between them and what constitutes a great country.  Growing up in Canada gives you a great head start - an excellent and free education, safety, unparalleled natural beauty, freedom of speech and freedom and ease of mobility.  It really is an easy and fun place to live and we are so happy to be back here to offer this gift to our kids.  For me, after I had lived away from Canada for several years I never expected to return to live here permanently as I had built such a nice life for myself elsewhere.  But once I met Ana and we decided to start a family, that changed everything.  We couldn't imagine ourselves living away from "home" and raising children that would not grow up playing with their cousins, spending time with their grandparents and being spoiled by aunts and uncles.  Yay Canada!

In other news, in two days we'll be sitting with our toes in the ocean drinking cheap beer on the wonderful island of San Miguel in the Azores.  The best part about it is our old buddy Toddy Van Hees will be joining us there for a few days.  He's sick of the crap weather in the UK so needs a nice sunshine break.  One thing I've learned about meeting up with Todd - the place may change but the hangovers remain the same.

Last weekend we drove up to Ottawa to visit Marty, Jen and the big Leif.  I haven't seen my nephew since he was a small raisin-like creature so I was surprised and happy to see a sturdy, tough little boy looking back at me.  He's still a little young to start giving him gotchie pulls and the "pull my finger" trick but it won't be long.

That's it for now, here's to a great Canada Day and a superb summer.


Kris