Christopher's Blog

Christmas time is here. I am so excited that we are going to spend the holidays with my family. I am flying down to Portland, Oregon tomorrow. Terri Lynn is in a wedding in Ontario and will meet up with us in a week. I havn't spent Christmas with my family since 2003.

We hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

A couple more pictures of Terri Lynn four months pregnant (actually more like 19 weeks pregnant).

19 weeks pregnant

ultrasound 19 weeks pregnant

Newfoundland, sometimes referred to as "The Rock," is a very unique place with some very interesting culture. Our road trip to Newfoundland started on Friday, August 8 in Oshawa, Ontario at about 3:30 p.m. We drove for about six hours which took us an hour past Quebec City. On Saturday we drove up to Halifax, Nova Scotia where Terri Lynn's sister Wendy and her husband Jeremy live. On the way there we stopped at the longest wooden covered bridge in the world and magnetic hill. At magnetic hill you can park your car, put it in neutral, and appear to coast up hill.

We spent a day in Halifax at the Busker Festival watching the performers do magic, martial arts, and tumbling. Then we went to a beach that looks like it belongs in Florida. In the early afternoon we drove out to catch our ferry North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basque, Newfoundland.

The ferry ride was about eight hours and overnight. We had bunks in a berthing. Terri Lynn and I woke up early to see the sunrise but didn't have much luck with that. It was too overcast. After disembarking from the ship we started our quest across Newfoundland to Cottrell's Cove on the north shore. It was a six hour drive so we stopped for breakfast at a local diner instead of the overly packed Tim Hortons just off the ferry.

The house were stayed at in Cottrell's Cove has been in the family for generations. I just learned today that electricity was installed on January 1, 1969. It is a cute little house about 30 yards from the ocean. The ocean in the coves are calmer than most lakes.

On our second day here we went fishing with a friend from the local SDA church. I caught a decent size cod within the first twenty minutes and three other smaller ones over the next couple hours. Mom caught a beautiful sculpin that she didn't think was so great. After fishing we came home and Jeremy cooked up the cod for lunch.

In the afternoon a few of us went up to a wild blueberry patch back up in some old logging roads. The blueberries weren't all ripe yet but we still managed to pick a large salad bowl full. We also picked enough crackle berries for Mark to make some delicious jam which we put on our toast for breakfast.

We spent Monday night and Tuesday in Twillingate, the iceberg capital of the world. We were about one month too late to see any icebergs, though. But we did see a good play about Joseph Smallwood's life. Joseph Smallwood is the man who walked across Newfoundland to create a union for the railroad workers then later became the first Premier of Newfoundland. We also went on some beautiful hikes around the area and saw humpback and minke whales.

The first thing we did after returning to Cottrell's Cove from Twillingate is jump into the icy waters of the bay. It was very refreshing! Dad says it was like a baptism When we surfaced we were excited and jubilant.

Friday was rainy so we stayed at home and spent quality time together.

Sabbath was a beautiful day. Since church didn't start until 3:00 p.m. we went on a walk to Yate's Point. At church dad did the Sabbath school lesson and Jeremy preached about breaking down religious walls and focusing on a relationship with Jesus. In the evening we went to Ray's house for potluck where we celebrated Doug's birthday and Ray played the accordion for us.

Today, Sunday, we were planning to take a trip to Exploit's Island but got rained out. Hopefully we'll go tomorrow. I guess there is supposed to be a lot of family history there.

It is nice to have the Veness' here. We are going to have a weekend full of waterskiing and relaxing at the cottage.

Yesterday I made a trip to Barrie to learn some vector and photography tricks from Terri Lynn's auntie Heather.

I also got four more pictures accepted on iStock. Things are still slow because I'm just starting, but I hear it pick up a lot over time. I think it's fun either way.

Below are the accepted pictures.

A teenage male and female enjoy an ice cream cone together.

A young man tries changing the channel of a television that is up in a tree.

A few young adults watch a television that is up in a tree.

A female running with fairly strong motion blur. The side of her face is in focus.

Congradulations to Mark for graduating.
Congradulations to me for turning 28 today.

A great birthday present is many comments on blogs and pictures,
or a Nikon D300 camera.