Expat Travels : From Switzerland to Canada

The Water Park

2013-08-10T09:38:00.001-07:00

We've been able to enjoy a great little water park not too far from our home lately this summer. It's a great place for little ones from age walking to about 6 years old. It's open from around 10am until about 6pm in the summer months. Our little Cam has grown to love this place. She's so silly in what she does at the park. Here are a few snapshots from our recent visits. What I love about it is that they can run around in a closed environment and go on the slide and a zip line. The kids are in her age range so she doesn't get too trampled and it's free fun for kidlets who only can last so long outdoors.

Playing with her butterfly net.

Sticks are good play tools.

Saying Cheese

Taking a rest from playing

Watching others play

Fun on the slide

Up I go

Having fun!

So silly!

Look mom I'm getting my hair wet!

Needless to say we will be going back here again and again.

The Grandparents Visit

2013-08-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't count how many months it's been since my parents last visit, but I do know it has been nearly a year. Time sure flies by too fast. Luckily with today's technology, we are able to video chat with the grandparents daily. I definitely love that.

My parents finally came up to Canada to play and relax with their grand daughter. She's a little busy bee and loves to be active. We did a lot in the 2 plus weeks that they shared with us. Most days consisted of waking up by 6am, going out for a morning walk, coming back to play in a park, eating lunch or taking a nap for a few hours, going out again for another play at a park, dinner then going outside for a walk or a park play again.. Yup Cam is one active gal!

Here are a few pics from the visit.

Cam playing at her favorite park

Waiting to get into the car, confused face I think!

Checking out the kitchen of our rental house

We got to visit Parksville for a few days, enjoyed the low tides, sand dollars and the little things a small town has to offer. It was relaxing without fast food, and without shopping. And that's exactly what a vacation should be like.

Hair Day Shower

2013-07-21T13:25:00.003-07:00

Image courtesy of Darren Robertson / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I needed to wash my hair today and was planning on taking a shower, but my little one had other plans for me. She immediately put on her rain boots and got out her bucket full of sand toys. I was told I needed to take a bath mommy so that she could go in there with me and monitor the situation. Well her exact words were so I could go too. She secretly wanted to play with water!

I complied with her wishes this time, but boy does it take longer to wash your own long hair when trying to do it sitting down. Now when I see all of those expats where there is no shower in their flat where they live in Europe, I will really feel for them too. It's not easy washing your hair in a bath tub!

It was definitely so cute to see my little gal in the bathroom telling me to use her shovel and then she proceeded to tell me to keep on playing mommy and to use this toy or that toy. She would go out every so often and get more toys for me to play with in the tub. Of course I was more busy washing my hair and scrubbing to bother with the playing part, but it was a cute way to keep her busy while I tried to shower in a tub..

In the end it was a win win situation. I got my hair washed, and she got time to play outside of the tub with water and her rain boots on. I was impressed, no water mess and good listening skills. She is now 2.4 years old and going on 4 I think!

Working to Live or Living to Work

2013-07-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

These days I seem to be a bit too drained to be posting and blogging. I know I miss posting about Cam's growth, my foods that I've been enjoying and the little travels we've been taking on Vancouver Island. I'm a bit sad about that because I love the blogging community and friends along the way I've met through this. It seems I've been working in order to pay the bills and not too much else.

Some ten plus years ago now I had quit my job so that I would work to live so that I could do what I wanted to enjoy life. I was on my way to living to work and loved living in Switzerland.

The question I ask myself daily is "Why wait to do what you enjoy tomorrow, and are you really doing what you want to be doing now? I definitely want to find a better balance so that I'm working to live, and taking time for vacation again.

I know I'd like to try and catch up a bit on blogging and doing small reports again so that is what I will start doing to getting back into doing what I enjoy.

So my question for you to ponder is What do you want to do today, so that you will have no regrets tomorrow? What is it that makes you tick, that you enjoy? For me, that's always traveling, photographing and being in Europe... For travels I know I want to be traveling and seeing Vancouver Island. I think I'd like to also write a few books, soon. It's so beautiful on Vancouver Island and there is so much to see and offer. I know I'm lucky to live here, especially with great ocean views and a walkway only 3 blocks from our house.

A Parksville Vacation

2013-07-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

On July 9 we headed out to Parksville to spend a few days soaking up the sun, playing at the beach and just relaxing. That's exactly what we did. Parksville is a tiny city located just above Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. It takes about a 2 hour drive from Victoria to get to this beach paradise. What I love so much about the Parksville area is that the low tide is incredibly low. You get to walk about for many meters and see sand dollars and other sea life, while playing in warmer waters.

We ended up going during the perfect time of the week before the famous sand castle festival started and where we still got to visit the Tuesday night market. One great thing about Parksville is that there aren't many places to eat out, lots of camping sites to camp out at and a bunch of parks to have fun if you want to take a break from the beach. It's basically a kids paradise for any kid under 12 (or adults for that matter).

I definitely love going up this way. We don't visit enough and it's much cheaper than visiting Vancouver because we stay on the island and don't pay for a ferry ride. This was our 3 time up here and certainly not our last visit.

22 months already

2013-01-19T13:57:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I celebrated another birthday. The day was amazing because I got to see friends and Cammie was photographed. The photos were amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present..

This past week, Cam and I stayed home while she was sick with a bad cold and mild fever. She also turned 22 months old. Time is just flying by. She's super adorable at this age. One moment she's curious and trying to talk with us. She already knows where the house is when we come home and can't stop talking about going to see her cousins. She's starting to try to ask questions and trying to say two or three words at once. Most of the time, she just says the end of what you are telling her to say because that's how she sees it. Like: Where are you? Comes out "Are You?"... If a name is long she'll cut it down to size, like "Bel"..

Here are a few of my favorite shots from last weekend that my friend took, when Cam got to play with some cute kittens. She adores animals and loves to play with them. Yes these photos are amazing. Great photographer, with one amazing camera!

She definitely melts my heart even if she isn't ever able to sleep in. Yup I'm up at 5 am EVERY morning... Well there have been 4 days of exception, slept till 6:20 am. What goes around comes around. Yes I did this too, I'm told.

2013 is here

2013-01-01T14:44:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I don't really make resolutions. But if I make wishes, it would be for more of everything, especially better sleep. More travels, more photography, more blogging and more time off from work. I've been too busy stuck doing the things I set out to avoid 10 years ago.. Who knows where it will go this year, but I definitely would like to change at least one thing.

Hope everyone got to enjoy their day off. Or consecutive for many...

A mini Vacation

2012-10-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a boat trip across the water to Port Angeles and then a little tour over at the other side that we can see but hadn't really explored. I wanted to see Cammie ride on the ferry and see all of the other fall colors.

We drove to a beautiful pumpkin farm and enjoyed all that fall had to offer, including our last great little run of sunshine.

The next day we went up to Port Townsend and really loved the area. Cammie charmed all of the people along the trails and met a few dogs who she was very fond of.

We also got to go out to the state park near the water. We really loved the area.

We also went across one of the Dundgeness Bridge in Sequim

And we finally got a photo of the three of us again. I know finally I've posted... Work keeps us too busy!

Grandparents Visit

2012-07-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

In Mid June my parents came for a visit and some play time with their adorable little grand daughter. We are fortunate enough that my parents do chat with our little one almost daily. We did accomplish some pretty cool things during their visit but as always the time went way too fast!

We decorated Cam's room a bit more, got to visit Butchart Gardens, went to the Beacon Hill Petting Zoo, went swimming and managed to visit a park nearly every day.

Ironically they make their way back again for some more of their precious gd. I know they are VERY excited!

Using Your Chipped Visa

2012-07-13T11:35:00.001-07:00

I'm a bit amazed at a few of the changes since I was living in Europe. I think we take some of these things for granted, like being able to use your credit card anywhere. I had this issue a few years back while visiting California of all places. I thought my Canadian credit card would work just fine.. Wrong! I was lucky to have a few back up cards with me.

It's also the same way in Europe, your US credit doesn't get you too far in Europe. Most European machines accepting cards only accept chipped cards, with some accepting your card if you know your PIN number. Ironically, the US is a bit behind in technology and does not offer these chip cards just yet from the major banks.

One great place to get a chipped card for travel without fees is from a bank offering GlobeTrek Visa. From what I read, the Visa card seems to be totally worth it if you are visiting Europe and would rather pay by VISA that works.

Whale Watching in Victoria

2012-06-22T13:26:00.002-07:00

I'm nearly a full month late on this post, but better late than never! Just one week after our mini island vacation, we got to go out do some whale watching and be out on the water to see the annual Swiftsure 2012 International Yacht Race. I was very excited P's work was having it's annual gathering and doing something together. The biggest issue was that we were so busy beforehand that I really didn't have much time to prepare. That meant I wasn't prepared enough with charged batteries. Ugh!

The Whale watching company we used was called 5 Star Whale Watching, which took us out on a very stable catamaran with an upper deck and front and back deck for viewing. We were able to spot some transient orcas, a minke whale, another whale, Sealions, Seals, a Bald Eagle and more orcas. The highlight was definitely being able to watch the Swiftsure yacht race on a warm sunny day.

View Exiting the Harbor

Swiftsure waiting for some wind to get moving

P and I staying warm while going fast on the water.

We got close to some of the Orca's

I did learn that it's hard to photograph and zoom in with dead batteries. All in all, it was a great trip even without that much of my camera.

Here's a bit of video not from our tour or from me but it's still interesting from whale watching.

A Mini Island Vacation

2012-05-30T19:44:00.001-07:00

For May long weekend we decided to head up island to enjoy the beach and a long vacation weekend. That's about as far as we want to go right now and about as much time away from work as we are getting at the moment.

We stayed in Parksville, BC, which is famous for it's Sand Castle building contest along with km's of beaches that can be enjoyed during low tides. Parksville is definitely is one of my favorite places to visit on the island. But that's just where I have visited so far, which just isn't enough!

Here are a few pics from our trip.

Cammie being ultra cute one morning

Miles of beach and the view of the mainland

Walking onto the beach

Low tide and so much area of beach to walk on

Little hands walking

Taking Daddy for a walk!

I love mom's glasses

Dad those are crazy lizards!

That fern just tickled me!

Leading dad around the butterfly world

Enjoying exploring inside butterfly world

My big kid straw

Looking like I'm eating

My first time eating ice cream, i loved it!

So happy playing!

Look out!

Playground heaven!

Going down the stairs on my tummy like I learned

Throwing rocks into the water - at high tide

Hiding my rock and looking like I own the place!

She keeps getting cuter by the day! Our first trip was for the most part a success. I think the hardest part is just keeping them occupied enough to eat and find foods Cammie can eat that aren't chocked up with salt!

Spring weather on the island

2012-05-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

Spring has finally arrived in Victoria. This was long awaited since last year the weather wasn't all that warm and with my luck I had that time off to enjoy the cold weather.

Now that spring is in full gear, we are enjoying our evenings outside playing at the park or exploring outside. Cammie seems to enjoy being outside from the second she wakes up to the second she goes to sleep. She usually points to the door or insists on sitting there until we get her outside. Of course she in her cute ways gives us those adorable subtle hints that we need to get out now... You know like bringing us our shoes or walking around with dad's shoes in her hands..

I know I need to get better at taking more photos even when I've gotta have her in town on one side.

Her favorite window lookout spot.

Ah Spring!

Hi Everyone I'm a big girl now!

Peek-a-boo!

Swinging with a smile!

Having fun!

Practicing the stairs

daddy and cammie

Hope you are outside enjoying the spring weather!

There Goes April

2012-04-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

So I've been back to work just over 2 months already and finally getting back to feeling like I'm not so out of place. The draw back is that the time keeps flying by and I don't seem to take as many photos as I did with my year off. I don't think I've totally gotten my groove back just yet.

We will be changing day cares, adding in some vacation changes but hopefully all great changes. Cam is finally walking more and more on her own. She can fly through the house if we hold her hand but is up to about 10 or so steps before she plops down and crawls. I know how she is, she's a perfectionist like me.. She doesn't like to fall, and wants to be perfect and not fall.. It's cute still. She's already taken to catching and throwing the ball, as well as kicking it. She catches on quick!

Cam also has taken to playing chase. It's adorable to watch P and her. I'm sure when grandma and grandpa come in another month, they will be playing too. She's also curious about everything and trying to say the words. The cutest thing is her singing in the car and her love for the swing at the park out the door.

1 Year Ago

2012-03-13T14:51:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe our kiddo turns 1 this week! It's been more than we ever would have imagined, and a bit harder at times when I expected but all worth it in the end. We ended up with a little Gerber baby who loves to smile, laugh and explore. She's starting to point and ask what words are and try to talk. It's ultra adorable.

Here's a look at here 1st year!

Cammie's 1st 2 months

Months 3 and 4

Months 5, 6 and 7

Months 8 and 9

Months 10 and 11

This weekend we will celebrate Cammie's birthday with a small gathering. Bets are on if she even touches the cake. Yup, she's one picky little eater. But we are working on that..

Next up P's birthday (always 3 days after Cammie's)...

A Piece of Switzerland

2012-02-13T15:24:00.002-08:00

A few weeks ago, the Swiss Consulate in Vancouver contacted me about my blog. I was very excited to see them interested in connecting with people from the blogging world. One of the main reasons why I enjoy keeping this blog going is because I've connected with so many people from around the world. I LOVE that! I am so thankful for all of the people I have met along the way and all of the great friends I have made since living in Switzerland.

That's how my expat journey all started in fact, long before I met some of the bloggers who have been connecting with our bigger network of Expats and World Citizens. I was able to connect with a first contact in Switzerland, long before I had ever heard of a blog, which lead me to keep the connection going.

Last night I got to enjoy a little piece of Switzerland again thanks to my steady blogging presence since 2005. I had the opportunity to meet the Consul General of Switzerland, Mr. Strausak, at the Victoria Film Festival. I was invited to attend a viewing of a Swiss film, involving a very influential modern design master, The Visual Language of Herbert Matter.

The film itself was very enjoyable. It caught my attention since Herbert Matter was from Engelberg an area I knew the area quite well. I had no idea the work that I recognized and knew was designed and made by Herbert Matter. With my liking of photography and Switzerland it was a great combination. His work is certainly still geared for the future, just amazing if you ask me.

Oddly, this was my first time out by myself since having Cammie. This is also my last week off on leave before I'm back to the normal working day and chaos. It will definitely be a journey but hopefully a vacation is around the corner for P and I. Can't wait..

A Visit From the Parents

2012-01-31T14:40:00.004-08:00

A lot has happened since the last post. I've had a birthday, became a Canadian Citizen and said hello and goodbye to both sets of parents. I survived 3 or so days of the flu without cold meds and am busy walking Cammie around the house.

Here are a few photos to top off the month. Next is the countdown until I'm back at work again. Trying to just enjoy every moment before I'm back again.

A beautiful morning to becoming a citizen

Taking the Oath

One giant grin on my birthday.

hiding in the basket

Cousins with matching new sweaters.

getting hit by a snow storm or two.

Keeping busy with Grandma and Grandpa

Taking some walking laps with G'ma

Just so squeezable and cute!

Ready to go swimming!


having fun in the pool.

Now I need to finish up the little loose ends and enjoy my last few days before work starts again.

New Happenings

2012-01-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

The year started off with my happiest hobby, photography. Except I wasn't the photographer but more like the subject of the photograph. But that's okay because we took our larger family photographs. I'm glad we did it on New Years Day because it's an easy date to remember.

And the year is already just flying by. I'm trying to enjoy every last bit of my maternity leave as well as get ready for the birthday extravaganza week. January 7th was a birthday party, my nieces bday is on the 10th, followed by my big day on the 12th, followed by my nephew on the 13th..

It's been harder to even get on the computer as Cammie is now a hold onto mom kind of walker or a pick me up kind of gal, followed by a I don't need to nap kind of attitude. It's all good practice for next month and day care!

Then we just wait until March which gives me a month to adjust to my new back to work schedule..

Here are a sampling of our portraits we took. It's our first one done as a family and we love them!

The cousins are so cute together!

Our family of 3!

Our cute crawler

All smiles, what she does best!

Next stop, MIL leaves and my parents arrive. I've gotta soak up all of this time I have off before back to work!

A busy Month

2011-12-21T11:20:00.002-08:00

It's been a fairly busy month for us already, so I thought I'd write about a few of the things going on. Cammie's grandmother from Quebec arrived. They had some great times together and will have many more as this is the first time that the entire family (on P's side) will be together. It will be fun for Cammie to finally have her two cousins here for Christmas so that she can learn and grow with them.

With her big cousin who loves to babysit.

The three cousins

On the 9th, I wrote my Canadian Citizenship test. Ended up receiving my response on the 19th that I will be taking the oath for Citizenship early next year, the day before my birthday. P will attend the ceremony with me and hopefully I'll have a photo to show for it.

On the 10th, we brought her to see the only stranger she is supposed to talk to. She cried. Oh well, we were hoping our anniversary would be a bit more thrilling than that.

On the 16th, Cammie turned 9 months old already. That means, I'm less than 2 months away from going back to work, boo! :-( Where does the time fly? She's busy crawling like she belongs in the army. We are still working on the normal crawling but in the mean time, she sure is getting some swimmer lats on her as a result of all of that pulling. She's also learned how to play chase and is starting to learn how fun it is to ride on her new car.

We finally replaced our not so kid friendly furniture with pieces we both really like. We aren't convinced it's much safer but at least it looks great in the house. P and I have been eating healthier, a lot healthier I should say. Enough that my mother in law complained that we were on a diet. We aren't, we've just switched our eating habits to include no processed carbs of any kind. It's made a huge difference already.

I'm getting this crawling thing

I just woke up for what???

Oh this nice looking guy made me cry!

Wishing everyone a happy winter solstice and happy Christmas holidays.

Our Anniversary

2011-12-13T11:00:00.001-08:00

On December 10th, we celebrated 6 years of marriage. It's hard to believe that I've been blogging longer than that! Even harder to believe that I've been in Canada some 7 plus years already! No we didn't take any interesting photos or do anything exciting that day. I really can't remember all that we did but we did have one visitor, Grandma from Quebec...

One thing I'm hoping to do is curb my addiction to these evil games I keep playing so that I have more time to enjoy what I love more, photography and blogging..

Since I haven't taken that many photos lately, I figured, I'd try to post a photo from our wedding..

We haven't changed all too much!

Next on the agenda, a family photo!

All Things Swiss

2011-12-01T10:17:00.001-08:00

With my love for all things Swiss, I was reminded at how much I love this feature on their Swiss Post site. They've got some great postcards which in my mind you can design for super cheap.

Check these postcards out from the Swiss Post.

I only have a ~~slight~~ huge itch to visit right now!

Citizenship Update

2011-11-29T08:58:00.001-08:00

So I finally received my letter to go take the citizenship test! Yippie. Timeline was April 20, 2010, to Nov 25, 2011. Roughly 17 months waiting.. The better news I'm pretty sure I don't have to renew my perm residence too as it was up to expire soon. More updates to come.

8 Months Already

2011-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

I can't believe our bundle of joy celebrates her 8th month already today. Time certainly has flown and before you know it, I'll be back at work full time again. Cammie keeps growing leaps and bounds every day.

In fact, yesterday she finally got the "dada" sound down. We think she even related it to daddy. She's finally taken off with her start of crawling skills. At first she was very reluctant to even try crawling as she wanted to just sit and play. But we've been focusing on playing on the ground and this time has help her.

In the past month she has learned how to finally go from a sit onto her tummy. She can turn in a 360 or flip from back to front. She can also pull herself up with guidance and love to stand up much more. Her successes come more with her agility and hand eye coordination which she probably gets from her mommy. She's always fascinated by how things work which definitely is something she gets from daddy.

We also love to look out the window and watch the world outside. Mommy was the same way when she was little. She even seems to do this when she's in her high chair. Cammie seems to know what she wants when she eats, which can be a little aggravating for us. She's eating a lot more but seems to choose her foods even before they land on her tray. At least she's eating a lot more and is showing more interest in eating unlike at her 6 month mark.

And lastly she's a talker. We've always known this as she was babbling away at 2.5 months. When she recognizes someone she loves to shout "Ha" in a very cute manner as well as babbling more than "Mamamama" since this past week.

She also know got to meet her cousins who moved to town within the last 2 weeks. We are lucky to have family around and so excited to be able to see them a lot more.

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.

I love sitting on mommy's chair with my tooth brush.

I'm very strong

Mom I'm crawling, it's not fun yet!

I love being puzzled by my tooth brush, which end is really up?

Playing away

Rocking in my tiny car seat that we just grew out of.

Eating. I'm still not so sure about this stuff!

But I know how to wave on command.

My newest Car.

Always in fashion.

Smiling for mommy

Ready to go out in the cold weather.

Daddy pushing me in my car.

Enjoying the rainy day outside with mommy.

Hugging my big cousin!

I've been bad about blogging but at least I do keep the photos coming. We will have a busy December and January before I'm back into the working mode.

7 months and counting

2011-10-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Cammie turned 7 months old. Boy does time fly! Each day is a day closer to going back to work which I'm not really looking forward to because I could totally take care of her and work from home again like I have done in the past.. We celebrated by having teething issues which seem to be ongoing and have no end in sight as her teeth are not even close to coming in yet.

Here are a few pics of her cuteness.

We still aren't crawling but we sure are comfortable on our tummy and sitting, just as long as it's not during sleeping time.

I'm still behind on our California posts. Hopefully I can catch up soon.

California in a nutshell

2011-10-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

We sure did pack in a lot in our 3 wks visiting California. I've got a lot of projects on my hands right now including of course paying attention to my oh so squeezable love. I had been meaning to get the software dear blogger Ginnie has been using for a few years because like her, I love taking too many photos and just can't decide on a few to post.

Here's the first part of our California Trip in a nutshell, mostly by photos.


The beautiful sunsets of Northern California seen from my parents back yard.

Cammie enjoying the summer weather in the bay area.

Some of our visitors at our huge bbq party. It was so much fun! I even got to meet fellow expat and blogger Debbie as well as seeing many of my old teammates from my swimming years. Now most of them have kids too.

Cammie, Grandma and mom off on some adventures. She just loves to go.

Having fun with Grandpa and Grandma.

Visiting Santana Row

Ah I just loved taking shots of Santana Row. It was so much fun to just window shop and feel like we were in a different world. This place has changed so much since about 15 years ago. It's a whole new place!

Starting our Journey down South with just Cammie, mommy and Grandma in the car.

**Since you guys are curious, the software is called PicNik and it's web based but loving it already.