Funcouver!

Our time in Vancouver went by SO fast. I'm happy to report that not only did we have a fabulous time with family and friends, but Lowell's eyes had a successful trip!

Let's start at the very beginning because it's a very good place to start.

We arrived in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon, met Shareen at the airport, and drove our rented car to Chilliwack where we had a belated birthday party for Shareen, and cooed incessantly over Tyrn.

Do you like our toques? The very talented Shareen made them!!

Kylie made a birthday cake. It was chocolate. And it was yummy. (And I don't know what's going on with Lowell and my faces).

It was nice and uncharacteristically sunny outside, so we went for a little jaunt.

While we were stopped for a little snack, we pulled out the tunes and danced like never before.

The SOLE reason for the music and awesome dance moves was to get Ty to laugh. Well, after 2 or 3 unsuccessful numbers, we would have been thrilled with a mere smirk... but nothing. Zippo. Natta.

The kid looked at us as though we were crazy, and I'm pretty sure that others in the area thought we were on drugs (which we weren't).

Not even Lady Gaga got him going. I don't know about you, but Lady Gaga's tunes never fail to get ME going!

Never fear, he was his happy smiley self soon enough (he was probably thrilled that we put our tunes and dance moves away)...

And oh gosh, isn't he just a doll?

Just like his mama...

Bright and early on Monday morning, we headed into Vancouver for the start of Lowell's treatments. Dr. Yu began by informally testing his peripheral vision, and these measures indicated that Lowell's vision had not deteriorated since September's treatments!! This is HUGE, folks!!

At the end of THIS round of treatments, he gained more vision in his left eye, and experienced minimal improvement in his right eye. The reason for the lack of progress in his right eye is likely because of his worsening cataract... that's next on the list. Still though, we're absolutely thrilled with the vision that he HAS gained!

During our lunch breaks, we either went for little tours/walks or met up with cousins, and the evenings were filled with family-and-friend fun.

We stayed at Nelson & Lorna's place (my cousins), and had a blast getting to know them and their kids better. This family has PERSONALITY, and the kidlets (who are fluent in French, by the way) are successful little musicians, athletes AND students... ALREADY. Not to mention they're chatty, fun, social people. Lowell and I even got a personal concert. Let's call it 'variety hour'. Very entertaining...

Four year old Zachary formed a special little bond with Lowell...

And I'm pretty sure he wants to be a cop when he's all growed up...

We went to Alexandra's basketball game and boy was it ever more intense than I anticipated it would be. They were one point behind, and with one second left, one of Alexandra's teammates scored a basket and they won by one point! Go Dribbling Duckies! I wasn't expecting to get so into a Junior High girl's basketball game! (Alexandra is the only non-Asian you see flying by in the following photo...)

What a fun family!

We also had a blast with a variety of other friends.

Martin, Sonya, Janessa, and Michael used to live in Lethbridge. Even though they live in BC now, they're still like family. We never had extended family in Lethbridge and neither did they, so we became each other's extended family. It was so great to catch up with them again, and I can't believe how mature the kids are now! Janessa is in University and Mike is nearly a foot taller than me. Funny to think that I used to change their diapers (hehe).

We also got together with some speechie classmates of mine. I hadn't seen any of these gals since graduation, so it was great to catch up...

On our last night in the city, we had the pleasure of hanging out with soon-to-be-married Shelley & Erik. We even went to a restaurant that Erik was somehow connected to, and they brought us free appetizers and dessert. I LOVE free stuff!!

Oh, and also- the cast of Twilight was in Vancouver! I DID locate their hotel (thank you people.com), but sadly I did NOT track down any of the stars (although we DID see a few limos and we have our suspicions!)

Our trip just FLEW by, and now we're back in the real world at home.

Thanks again to all of you who made this trip possible!