Spring Travels ~ Mar.14- 26th

In striking contrast to destination and purpose, two of our sons headed off for adventure over Spring Break. As mentioned previously, Scott and Thomas were off to Las Vegas for 5 days of mostly Taekwondo testing and competition, but they managed to find time for fun together, too. They stayed at the Stratosphere, which has various scary rides available from the top. Thomas paid for one, but after he was all set to take off on some kind of coaster, the ride was closed due to heavy wind. But at least he was willing to be brave...

Unlike at home, sightings of blue sky were in abundance.

Like other tourists, Scott & Thomas walked all over, viewing the colossal hotels.

Eating gelato at 10 am was one of their pleasures, despite a comment from a
 passerby of "Who orders gelato this early in the morning?" Could be worse!

The things that amuse Thomas...

The MGM Grand, where the guys got cheap tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "KA"

Fifth row tickets were incredible, I guess... (I wouldn't know!)

Thomas enjoyed the roller coaster at "New York, New York" ~by far his favourite hotel.

Scott was able to relax considerably more after his 7th degree black belt midterm, early Friday morning. He had been experiencing back pain since the previous week and had not worked out prior to the testing in order to prevent further injury. He was fairly confident of testing well afterwards, and only needed to take Tylenol a couple of times to recover. Thank you everyone for prayers in this regard. :) He will now need to test in July at World Championships as the final step in working towards his 7th degree.

Doing his form at the Convention centre.

Thomas competed later that afternoon in the creative weapons division, using his sword. The videos of the other competitors are just insane but I'm not able to download them. Thomas did well with his focus and confidence among such kamikaze adolescents. Canadians are just too gentle...

Bowing in to start...

Thomas got a few tips on sword techniques from a friendly peer.

Saturday was time for competing in forms, sparring and weapons. Thomas didn't get the memo that everyone was wearing black... must be an American thing!

Scott only had to judge one ring, so was able to watch Thomas compete.

Three competitor medals to add to his collection.

On the way to the airport, this store seemed like a logical stop.

Nora was so excited to see Daddy home, and even more thrilled about her new (tacky) fridge magnet. You know I just had to tease Scott about his gifts... A mood moustache ring and bacon-flavoured toothpicks for James... you get the picture.

The most treasured gift of all.. a napkin from "Paris, Paris"...sigh.
 I have some training ahead about the preferences of little girls, and big ones, too! :)

Lewis, our magician, was enthralled with his most
 appropriate gift of another card trick set.

Our week back at home had been considerably quieter. Nora had special occasion to wear a green dress as St. Patrick's Day fell on Sunday. In honour of a distant relative of mine on my father's side? I don't know, but it's fun to wear a green dress anyways. (Makes me think of the song If I had a Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies... "I'd buy you a green dress, but not a real green dress that's cruel...")  :)

We increased the girl quotient in our household by having Maisie stay with us for four days. Nora thought it was great having two dogs, but Maisie wasn't so taken by her. :)

 An attempt to match Nora's shirt?

To say the two dogs are tolerant would be correct.

With other absent family members, it was fun to have Maisie as a distraction.

Charles left for Guatemala early on March 14th via Dallas. Wifi access was slim, so we had very few updates during their 13 day trip. Thankfully the teachers posted photos and messages on facebook occasionally so we had glimpses of their time. Wasn't too long into the trip that Charles had his camera stolen, so we're relying on photos from others. Looks like it was a fantastic experience, and thank you again to everyone that helped Charles to get there and be safe.

Proof that Charles, left of centre, did do some physical labour... not sure what, though. :)

After major sunburn from the first day (above) the kids wised up
and adapted their shirts as a new form of headgear.

The group of 24 students and 3 teachers.

After riding in tuk-tuks to tour a Mayan village.

 Enjoying bartering with local vendors.

Experiencing the jungle at the coffee plantation. (Charles-centre)

Charles arrived safely last night, feeling better after a couple of days of sickness. He had an overwhelmingly positive experience with his biggest regret being his inability to speak Spanish, which resulted in having poor communication with his very nice host family. We're all happy to be home together once again, all wearing Guatemalan jewellery of some kind. :)

Not appreciative of Dad's attempt at a welcome home photo!

James didn't have Spring Break, now that he's attending university but last Wednesday, he definitely made it happen that he can't go anywhere for sure. He accidentally rear-ended a car on a dark, rainy night when the car slammed on his brakes approaching a green light, as a police officer was approaching from the street on the right. James couldn't avoid hitting him, and sadly he heard last night that his Ford Ranger will be written off despite the low gas mileage. A very sad day for everyone, although we are truly thankful that James and Kelsey weren't injured. It put the lost camera in perspective...

RIP 1992-2013

We've been sharing vehicles for a week now, but it won't be able to last too long. So, that will be the next thing to deal with. Hope you're all having a good Spring Break, too. And an early Happy Easter to you also. :)

A General Family Update ~ Feb. 26 - Mar. 15th

Any of you who have ever had a high school student working on a big presentation can appreciate that last minute stress of helping your child pull all the details together. Thomas was involved in a Heritage Fair (pertaining to Canada) and chose an interesting choice in James Cameron. (Apparently being born in Canada is enough of a claim to influence our heritage?) Let's just say that the kitchen island was covered in paper scraps, and I spent too long scouring libraries for resources the morning of the deadline. In general, Thomas was very creative and pulled off a great project. I'm not sure if his real motivation was to be able to watch all of James Cameron's movies, but that concept didn't go too far. :)

 

Lewis is at the piano fairly often, preparing for piano exams in June. Not that he's excited about that, but rather prefers to make up his own songs. Either way, we enjoy listening. :)

 

Mom and Dad Karpiuk celebrated a special milestone in celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. (Good things they give us reminders!) Congratulations to a beautiful couple... wishing you many more years ahead. :)

 

Many of you know that my Dad, Art, was waiting for prostate surgery. He was able to have it on March 13th, and is recovering well. The surgeon was optimistic that the cancer was successfully removed. We are thankful to God for such good news, and appreciate all of your well wishes and prayers on his behalf. He will hopefully be home on the weekend to continue his recovery. (Sorry, no pictures about that! ) Nora was a little hesitant about our hospital visit this morning. On further discussion, she seemed to feel that the "night-gown" was the strange thing about her first impressions. :) And, she told Grandpa that she doesn't want to be a nurse... Here's some twisted surgical humour, that fortunately didn't happen to Dad.

 

 

Our week was also preoccupied with getting Charles off to Guatemala with a suitcase weighing less than 50lbs. He is part of team of 24 students and 3 teachers from his school, to make a service trip there over Spring Break for 12 days. He was able to upload his status to facebook yesterday (Mar. 14th) that they made it to Dallas, TX successfully. We later heard his flight to Guatemala was delayed, but eventually they arrived late at night and went home with their host families. We don't expect any correspondence with him, which is fine, but there may be the occasional update on facebook by the teachers. You can follow on the SCS Guatemala 2013 page if you are interested. We anticipate hearing fully about the experience after his return. We greatly appreciate all the support he's had in fundraising the trip, and for your prayers for health, safety and to appreciate the impact of all he sees and experiences. Meanwhile, we're enjoying Nora trying to pronounce "Guate-mama" and wondering how she knew to ask him to bring her back a gift?! :)

 

 

Scott and Thomas are off to Las Vegas at Spring Nationals right now, as Scott had a mid-term taekwondo testing for his seventh degree black belt. Thomas is planning to compete over the next two days also. So we're having a very down-sized family version right now at home... I keep doing a head count subconciously. Spring break plans are minimal as I work 6 shifts next week, which I am truly dreading as I've never done that many shifts in a row. Hopefully our second week off will be restful as we anticipate Charles' return and Easter. Sending smiles your way, the Karpiuks :)

Be My Sweetheart! ~ Feb. 10-17th

It's been too long since I've written, my apologies to those who regularly stop by for their "Nora-fix"... There hasn't been too much going on photo-wise, although life has been busy enough. We hope that you did have a good Valentine's Day a month ago! It's a Hallmark holiday that Nora has really enjoyed. Every little Valentine card is deeply treasured. With such enthusiasm, we made the most of expressing her affection to her loved ones, which is pretty much everyone she has ever met. :)

 

Dressed up for Sunday morning...

How's that for a Valentine's kiss? No thanks...

To celebrate B.C.'s newest holiday, Family Day, we invited our Karpiuk family out to our favourite pizza parlour, Me-n-Ed's. So yummy, especially the perogy pizza.

 

Charles was not impressed to be at the "kids' table"...

Nora's gift of a rose to her grandparents...

One for Auntie Charlene, too.

In an attempt to be a "fun Mom", Nora and I baked Valentine's Day cupcakes the day before. I quickly recalled that icing is just not one of my giftings... this is as fancy as it's ever going to get. :)

Nora's enthusiasm for the candy was hampered after finding out they were too "spicy".

Thankfully, the cupcakes passed the taste test.

I still like to buy chocolate treats for the boys.. Nora gets pretty wired with extra sugar so I went more with a couple little gifts. I'm a sucker for ladybugs...

A little stuffed kitty is always appreciated. :)

Rosie is always available for some loving...

 

And, over-arching all our special days, Chinese New Year goes on for 2 weeks, so Nora went off to church a week later in her cultural dress. (We need to wear these sweet outfits sometimes!)  Unfortunately we only made it to one Chinese dinner. We'll do better next year. Meanwhile, Nora has started asking us frequently if we can go back to China soon, as well as Disneyland?! She better start collecting more red envelopes to fund her future travels! Hope your February was full of memorable days, too. :)