Travelog for: Thiele

Today I saw a little piece of Beautiful British Columbia (they even have that on their license plates).  Part of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, which is the next city over, are farmland and there are a lot of dikes that the public is allowed to walk on.  This particular area is near the Allouette River.



This is the river.

Today I went to the local recycle depot.  They recycle pretty much everything.



Abby was only able to get this one photo of the other side before she was yelled at by an employee for taking photos.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year Abby and her family have a big meal.  This year there was a turkey roast, stuffing, brussel sprouts and candied yams, with sparkling apple juice to drink.  Yum!



For dessert everyone got a homemade pumpkin tart.

We all went to the local pumpkin patch!





There were lots of things to see.  They had these big teepees, where people could sit inside.



There was this maze thing that had a lot of different displays.  Abby didn't take anyone's picture with most of them because it was not sunny in the maze and therefore very cold, but there were animals, Disney characters, and lots of other things.

This was near the pirate display.  Can you see me?



This was near the dinosaur display.  Creepy.



There was even a gnome village.



Then, we had a look at the pumpkin patch itself.  See that bush on the right?  It continued on way behind that.



Hey, look!  It's Charlie Brown!



Abby's family bought lots of pumpkins for carving and baking, and they will carve them in a couple weeks.  Maybe I will even be around to help.

Today I went to the UBC Apple Festival.  It is held once a year at the University of British Columbia's botanical gardens.



This is where the main event is.  There is apple tasting, cider apple chips and candy apples for sale, information about local apples, experts on growing apples, people selling crafts and even a kids zone where there were crafts and balloon animals.



There's even chili being served in an authentic WWII chuck wagon!  It's going fast because it's cold out and could rain any moment.



Part of the botanical gardens is an area where they grow fruits and vegetables.  All of the produce is donated to the Salvation Army.



Abby bought everyone tickets to the 1:30 apple tasting.  There are volunteers handing out samples for about 60 types of apples.  Abby and Erin say they have a tried and true method for tasting every single kind before the half an hour is over.



We were first in line.  Abby took this picture of me before we went in because she said that we would be busy eating and would not have time for pictures if we wanted to try every kind of apple.



I did it!  Every single kind that they were handing out, including the apples that astronaut Yuri Gagarin took into space, and a brand new kind developed in the interior of British Columbia that does not have a name yet.

The apple fest was a lot of fun. I didn't even know that many kinds of apples existed...

It is Abby's nineteenth birthday and we are baking her a tea cake.

The first thing we did was make the tea.  We are using organic creme brulee rooibos from David's Tea.



Next we mixed butter and sugar.



Then added eggs and almond extract.



We mixed flour and baking powder,



Then added it and the tea to the batter.





The whole time Lou was helping.



In the oven!









It was really good!

Happy Halloween!  This year I'm a cowboy!

We helped Abby carve her pumpkin.





We decided on pumpkin pi.



Then, we decided to roast the seeds.



While we were waiting, we put the pumpkin outside.



Yum!

Dear Mommy,
I have excellent timing! I arrived the day before Thanksgiving. Jayme lives in Japan, but she celebrates the American holidays since she's American. Its a good thing too, after that long ride in the envelope I was famished! We started in with the cooking the day before. First we had to go get some supplies. One of the places we went to was a place to get very fresh organic eggs. Its a weird sort of place. They had many animals for the children to look at, and then only a small store with the eggs and some pastries. Here are some pictures.


A monster almost got me!

After we got home it was time to start the cooking. Jayme said she was only going to make dessert early this year since it was just her family we had to cook for. We were making buckeyes. Yum! Here you can see the peanut butter balls.

Then they had to be dipped in chocolate.

Oh they were delicious. And I think we made a few too many for just her family, don't you think? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I can't wait to tell you about it!
Love,
Thiele

Dear Mommy,
We woke up to the most delicious smells... and we headed towards the kitchen. Only to realize the baby gate was up and Jayme was threatening everyone who came near her kitchen with a spatula. Yesh, I didn't know Thanksgiving was so serious! We waited and waited and finally just in time for lunch the Thanksgiving meal was served. It was worth the wait!

After lunch we went for a walk along the beach to burn off all the calories! Here is where we started. See the sea wall in the distance?

Well we walked all the way over there. Its really quite pretty. Some of the graffiti on it is just great.

And since the tide was out it was a nice place to rest and take a break.

We walked on a little further and found a small beach called sunset beach. Its really too cold for swimming, and there are lots of jelly fish this time of year, but some people were walking at the waters edge.

Finally it was time to turn around. Back where we began was a playground shaped like a pirate ship. We stopped there to rest while Jayme's children played.

Overall we had a very relaxing Thanksgiving. I wonder what adventures we'll go on next?
Thiele

Dear Mommy,
I'm sorry I haven't updated more quickly! Jayme's been quite busy. Us toys have been trying to help, but there's lots to do. We have done a few little trips though. First we went to a place called Comprehensive Park and took a walk. There are many walking trails here. Today we simply walked along the beach then to a small fish pond so that the boys could see the fishes.




More soon,
Thiele

Dear Mommy,
We also got to go to a place called Murasaki Mura. Jayme was excited to go. Here we are at the entrance. The dog/lions next to us are called Shisas. Shisas are the traditional protectors on Okinawa, and culturally are taken from the Chinese. Okinawa was not owned by the Japanese until recently and it has a rather unique blended culture since it used to be a very common trade stop because of its location. Culturally they have picked up many things from the Chinese and Japanese, but because the Americans have been here since World War II there are also some odd American traditions interspersed with it all. But the Shisa are the protectors all over Okinawa. They are lion/dogs and are found in pairs, one to let the good spirits through and the other to catch the bad spirits. Almost all homes and businesses have them and you can make your own here at Murasaki Mura. Jayme says she assumes there are ones people made and either couldn't or wouldn't pay for so they added them to the many decorations.

We got to walk around Murasaki Mura, but unfortunately we did not get to do any of the crafts there as it began to rain! Boo. Here are the pictures before the rain.


Maybe we'll get to go again one day, it sure looked pretty and some of the crafts they did there looked very neat.
More soon,
Thiele

Mommy,
Today we went to a very special place on Okinawa. It is the Peace Memorial Park. The Peace Park here on Okinawa has taken many years to build. It is to memorialize all that were killed on Okinawa during World War II and also a reminder of the cost of war, and the value of peace. The Peace Park consists of different sections. There is a museum there that has maps and a history of the battle on Okinawa as well as exhibits to see and stories of those who survived are told. There is also a Memorial that you can walk through outside that lists the names of all those killed during the Battle of Okinawa on the edge of a cliff. Finally there is an area with many memorials you can walk through, most of which are stones with the information carved into them in Japanese, which unfortunately Jayme can not read. Today we only saw a small portion of the park, the last area where there are memorials and nice walking paths. Here we are at the beginning of the walk, below us you can see the black stone with engraved names and the museum.

Here you can see the water at the base of the cliffs, isn't it beautiful?

Next to some of the memorials are paper cranes like these. Many of them are donated by local school children who come to visit. Isn't this an amazing amount of cranes? And these are the ones displayed outside where they must be replaced often. There are many in various locations and inside the museum.

Here is an example of one of the memorials up here.

Finally here is the view of the stones again as we were walking back to the car to go home.

It is a very beautiful and sad place to visit. But it is time to celebrate peace as well, and Jayme says we have a few plans for Christmas upcoming, I hope I'll be able to tell you about them soon,
Thiele

Dear Mommy,
Today we went on a long ride up to a base called Courtney. They were having a small Christmas festival here. Here I am at the entrance.

First we sat and watched some carolers.

Then we took the kids over to the kiddie land. They had an area for rides and for bounce houses.


Then we went to look at the hmmwv they had out. They also had a larger truck and police car, but there were too many people there to take a photo.

We wanted to see Santa, but it was far too busy so we couldn't this time Maybe another time. But we had lots of fun and I'm sure we'll do more soon!
Thiele

Dear Mommy,
We had lots to do! We made cookies and put them along with buckeyes in these little bags. The bags are for the Marines to take home with them along with other stocking stuffers from the Christmas party. You see, there are many single men out here who are very far from home and so Jayme's job is to try to help them (and the other families) to feel a little less lonely, especially during the holidays. So we cooked and cooked cookies!

Then we bagged them up.

Look at all these bags! 100 of them here, another woman was doing another 100. That's a lot of cookies!

Finally we also made a couple of Christmas tree cakes for the party itself. Doesn't it look yummy?

And then we were off to the party! It was at the bowling alley. They were supposed to have things outside as well, but it was raining This isn't a very good picture, but it was quite crowded and we didn't get to bowl at all! But here is the party itself.

But most importantly...someone very important came to the party. After he was done greeting all the children Jayme was able to ask him to take a photo with us as well. Did you know that Jayme knows Santa?! I'm very impressed. Here are all of us visiting right now with Santa!

Whew. Very tiring! I wonder what else we'll do for Christmas?
Thiele