Trip home!

I'm home! I was able to fly home early but not for good...just enough time to quickly catch up with friends and family. The water meter shipment was late (classic) so I flew home Saturday and will be leaving for Ucluelet Sunday for 4 days (parent's 60th birthday) which will follow with a flight back up to beautiful FSJ Thursday night. We had resos in Tofino but that town ran out of water...apparently they need to install some water meters. Anyway, the entire town is shut down so we are heading to the next best thing...Ucluelet! Dad and I wanted family cattle drive but that didn't fly. Can't wait to get tumbled in waves.

I really hope I have an opportunity to catch up with you all in the next couple of days when I am here at home! My sister, Olivia and I did some backpakin in Golden Ears park today so here are some pics.

Chat later....

New cell #

I forgot to post my new cell 250-261-9722.

call me anytime.

Found Fort St john!

Hey guys!

What a process. I made it safe and sound after driving approx 1,250 kms north. It took one day (6am-8pm,)a stop in Cache Creek for lunch with Richard, and my cousin Chad and family and every Tim Hortons from there on in. After passing Prince George and facing 5 more hours of driving it finally hit me that I was moving far far away. And that the pine beattle is one of the worst things on earth. The amazing landscape kept me excited and awake cause I'm corny like that and couldn't get over it. This was the furthest north i have ever been and i was like giddy for what was around the bend. I took tons of pics of the scenery but they were't doing it justice. You hit like a summit (See Powder King) and you are surounded be mountains and then it flattens out and rivers, lake and valleys are the norm. It was so great.

Except for the time I pulled over to take this one picture. The silence was classic eerie and I felt like I could fall over and die and no one would find me for years. That's how alone I was. Then a semi comes up the road like a bat out of hell, it takes like 8.4 secs to reach me after covering like 2 km, honks at me and almost takes my car door off. I got back into my mini and beetled on. Who did he think he was ruining that moment for me. Loser.

Sorry for the lack of pics in the entry but I forgot my camera's plug in thing...inconvienent. i'll fix that up. Neptune has rented 3 townhouses. I share one with Gui (a small french guy with a black mowhawk who wants to be like borhter and sister...) and Daniel (a small phillipino dad with broken english but great heart!). The accomodations are clean and nonsmelly which is great. Thank goodness I got the biggest room because apparently I brought alot of stuff. I'm glad I like my room cause I think I will spend alot of time there.

So far I have been checkin out the town on my own time. Me and my little civic almost got trampled over by 8 of the biggest trucks I have ever seen. I think it may get akward when snow comes and I'm still the only civic on the road up here. The trucks are like GMC vans...and then an extended cab. I swear. Plus tires larger than my car.

I saw a girl with Bart Simpson tatooed on her arm? Maybe she thought it was ok cause Bart was holding a sling shot. She caught me staring at it. This of course was at Wal-mart. Taco Bell is closed down due to lack of staff. And all I wanted was a chicken burrito! They pay 12.00 to work at Wendy's or Timmy's yet the staff still has no idea the difference between a bagel and a donut.

Gui made me drive him to the SPCA to look for a dog or something? Ew. Gui, I dont want to share a dog with you. There is a couch and and car engine out on our duplexe's front lawn. There are alot of boys up here. Yep. The shopping mall is wicked if you like mariposa and bootlegger. Or a poster shop featuring Rocky or tigers.

No one drives faster then 49km an hour which is fine cause I figure less chance of me crashing a second vehicle. Once I reached 51km and a construction dude waved a slow down sign my way. I feel like lots of people here smoke or spit.

Anyway, superficial and quick judgements so far. That's all I have. We really haven't started work yet other than a couple training sessions. We park in the public works yard of the city of fort st john. Hopefully they like me enough to give me a job so I can stay here forever. Or not.

Love you all! All the bestest!

Love Chief

Finally, Graduation

After a few too many years, I graduated with Kinesiology from UCFV! What a day...
My parents, Ashley, Colin, Olivia, Auntie Shirley, and Connie all attended..maybe because they didn't believe. What ever the case, Jamie Born and I had a great day, saying goodbye to our favorite and not so favorite faculty. Walking across stage had its special perks! Not only did we recieve our walking papers but hugs all around! Hugged by none other than our buddy Skip (school's president), and my favorite abbotsford firefighter, Brent Newman (alumini representative). I was the only gal to get the hug from the alumini pin guy! (with me in pic) Later that night we headed downtown for celebration and I couldn't have asked for a better night! Tanya, Justin, Kalish, Thomas, Est, Paul, Clav, Connie, Jenelle, Jamie, Sam, Wells, Sandy, Big B, B-rad, Sean Beatty, and Eric were the guests of honor! Love you guys!

Olivia's 1st birthday!

My niece is growing up so fast. No one can believe that this beautiful little girl is already one! Talk about denial. It was hard when she learnt to walk on her own...it took Grandma Alonzo days to be ok. She is now walking Dexter with Grampa, chatting on the cell phone, loving the beach, and has 2 little front teeth. Ashley hosted a birthday party with about 40 friends and family Sunday. The burgs were tasty and Olivia cashed in huge with the amount of presents. Her first tricycle (princess pink), a tootoo, and tons of other stuff!

Nor Cal

We went to California!













Clav, Wells, and I rented a jeep and headed south to visited Deeker down in San Jose. Although there was a rough start (1am) our trip it was great times.

We stopped in Yosemite National Park on the way down which was amazing. Clav and I were blessed with a wise tour guide who took us on one of the easiest hikes of our lives. After 6 hrs of pure climbing we had to buy the "failure to reach the top" t-shirt. Our excuse was the large black clouds rolling in which, in the end, did not develop into anything.

We stopped in Gilroy at the outlet stores on the way back up to San Jose and tried a garlic Jelly Belly. That afternoon we got to San Jose and met up with Kevin. Next stop, Clav's choice of fun, the amusement park. For a small chunk of change(50.00!) we rode every ride in that Great American Amusement park. What a burst. Everyone cowboyed up and rode every ride in the park - with the exception of a couple size restrictions! Walk of shame, happens the best of us Clav....

Kevin, his girlfriend Laura and his roomates were very welcoming. Great hosts. The 3 of us are so unconspicuous;-) 3 visitors averaging 6'4 in size...no one asked us if we played basketball at all...-It was so good to see Kevin and where he is at down there. He gave us a grand tour of his school and cadavers. San Jose is something else...I was able to determine the economic status of each girl in the safeway by the size of their diamonds. I also shopped in the largest safeway ever. Kevin and his roomates had school during the days so... the tour guide (Wells) and his 2 little followers (Clav and me) were on our own...

One day we visited Santa Cruz to see where the guys had previously set up shop right on the beach. Santa Cruz is so cute and loaded with great shopping. Ladies, the shopping...breathtaking. Maybe cause I was broke that it was truly suffocating. We frolicked in the surf. Clav more that others. I lost the suite in the first wave. Yikes. I sat the rest out.

Another day of shopping and again one of largest malls I have ever seen. After miss placing Clav for 3 hrs and a trip to the largest Home Depot ever...we headed back to Kevin's place where we put on the suites and hung out pool side. Other than Clav's ADD it was peace full at the pool. And so, why not bring down the maragrita mixes...and just because I was not able to catch the foot ball with my feet, and because I am a girl, they made me walk miles back to the house and get goods...once back by the pool Margaritaville was on.

That night was what we all (especially Wells) had been waiting for! It was July 20th and Rascal Flatts were playing in San Jose at an outside venue. Opening act.... Gary Allan! That's right, Gary. And he was just great. Did I mention dead sexy. Thanks Kevin and Laura for that experience cause it made my summer!














We headed home the next day...only a 24 hr drive (usually shorter but we had Clav...."chronic wanderer everytime we stop for gas") Trip home was decent...until I had to chose the grass patch outside of the jeep vs snuggling in the back seat where I had made my home. The boys had to sleep since they were the drivers so they went ahead, layed back their chairs (hey Wells, would you like to use my pillow - I don't need it) I'm not 2ft tall....so i picked the ground. The grass was totally sleepable except for the fact sprinklers came on at 4:17am, my pillow was unavailable, i had one blanket, and we were in America.