Ahhh Beautiful Canada

It's true, we haven't updated this website for a long, long time. The reason is that we were planning a surprise visit to Canada this summer and didn't want the 'surprisees' to find out. We flew back to Vancouver from Quito and managed to surprise Steve's brother, Nathan, and catch up with his family for a week. It was great to see the nephews again...lots of growing and changing in the few months we have been away. We also spent some time on Vancouver Island with our friend Diana, followed by a drive back to Edmonton in our newly acquired 1980 Westfalia van. (Yeah, the adventures never seem to stop!) The day that we arrived back in Edmonton we got to surprise Steve's father and Sylvia by dropping in for his birthday dinner. It's great fun to surprise people, but just a warning, they are slightly more wary of everything you say after that! :)
We are planning to take the summer to catch up with family and friends, do some errands that are much easier in Canada than abroad, look at some real estate and head off to Asia at the beginning of September. We will be staying with Loewens who have generously offered the use of their extra space (and super comfortable bed) for the summer months.
We have appreciated so many things about returning to Canada, and feel so fortunate to call Canada home. The air is so fresh and clean, there is very little trash on the roads, all toilets are sparkling clean, have toilet paper, running water and soap, food is varied and what we expect it to be each time. We understand the language, have hot showers, comfortable beds, seat belts and manicured lawns.