When I first heard Arnold Schwarzenegger would be running a leg of the Olympic Torch Relay I thought it was some kind of a joke. However, upon further investigation I discovered that the claims were legitimate and I thought “This, I have to go and see!”

Arnold’s leg began at the statue of Harry Jerome and ended at Brockton Point Lighthouse where he handed off to two time Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe. Arnold was scheduled to run at 7am so Elora and I arrived with Josh at about 5:15am! It was a long, cold wait but worth it in the end. The Torchinator arrived on time with a full entourage and the crowd when nuts! I have never seen anything like it. I managed to be forceful and surged forward with passion to try and get a good shot. Amazing stuff! I think I might switch to the paparazzi from now on ;)

With Arnold was the Premier Gordon Campbell. I didn’t even notice him really until we got to the lighthouse. A morning I will never forget and by far the moment of the Olympics… and it hasn’t even begun!

Well, a dicky bird told me that the Olympic Torch was coming to town! I figured it might be a cool thing to check out, so, off I went to Lynn Valley Centre to join in with the fun. It wasn’t until I arrived there that I realized just what a big deal this whole Olympic thing actually is! I thought there might be a few folks come out to cheer on the flame but there were literally thousands of people lining the streets and even more in the Lynn Valley Centre parking lot. A huge stage had been erected and BC Premier Gordon Campbell was there to join in with the festivities! Surely this must be the biggest event ever to be staged in Lynn Valley?

I haven’t been looking forward to the Olympics. It seemed like a lot of fuss and even more headaches for the locals trying to go about their daily lives. Let’s just say though, the excitement is starting to creep in…

Last night we went down to West Vancouver for the 5th Annual Ambleside Family Carnival put on by the West Vancouver Police Department. Yes, even the police have fun! There was lots to do including police dog demonstrations, rides, carnival games and of course cotton candy :P

Here are a few pics we took while walking around…

This seemed to be the popular attraction...

Check out those poor people...

Well, it finally feels like Summer is here, or at least around the corner! Josh helped me pick up some bird snacks from Wild Birds Unlimited yesterday and when we put them out I figured we should hang up the humming bird feeder again. Within half an hour, the first Rufous humming bird appeared and he’s been back regularly all day today. I thought I’d take a few quick shots to mark the occasion, you can see them below.

Sometime next week I’m going to get a salmon berry branch and hang that up in the same spot to try and get a similar photo in a more natural setting. Watch out for that, coming soon, I hope!

Male Rufous humming bird at feeder

The Rufous humming birds have the longest migratory journey of all the North American humming birds. They venture down as far as Mexico for the Winter and arrive here in early March.

Update: April 21

Salmonberry branch idea didn’t seem to work. Humming birds keep going to the feeder. I’ll have to try taking it away for a few days and leaving nothing but the salmonberry plant there. Anyway, a female Rufous started coming today. It was a very bright day, not good for photography, but I managed to get a picture of her! Check out the colouration down her side, stunning…

Female Rufous Humming Bird

Beautiful weather lately, you might have noticed! We decided to take Josh to Stanley Park so he could finally fly his paint-your-own kite! As I’m sure you can imagine, the kite was designed more as a craft to do at home rather than a magnificent flying machine… yep, didn’t fly too well, although there were a couple of moments :)

I wanted to get a nice shot of Josh flying his kite so I told him, the bigger your smile, the higher it goes! Bless him, he smiled and smiled and smiled and finally caught some air :) A fun day and hard to believe there were about 2 inches of snow on the ground an hour later!

Josh turned 4 a couple of weeks ago and his hairstyle was starting to resemble that of Owen Wilson’s. We decided it was time for action and had already started to dream up a faux hawk, 2005 David Beckham kind of do. We took him to Zazou in Lynn Valley where we received the usual warm greeting, something Josh really needed as he was feeling a little apprehensive to say the least.

Anyway, Kelsey took Josh to his seat and performed her magic. The scowl never left Josh’s face the entire time we were there! Of course, we took a camera and while Kelsey snipped, we snapped! Here’s a few pics…