Another year has come and gone, and what a year 2015 has been. Unfortunately, the entries are slightly behind schedule.  A few other things have been more important than keeping you all informed about our adventures.   Here’s my half-hearted attempt at a 2015: Travel Retrospective.

At the very start of January we gained a nephew.  The arrival of little Wyatt was without a doubt the best thing to happen in 2015.  He was born on January 2nd, and the year started and quite possibly should have just ended right there with a high point.

In February, we were hoping to be able to travel but unable to make plans due to Fazh’s uncertain health.  Work was slower, so I was finally able to write some more, and just have to put on some finishing touches.  Really they’re all there in a row just waiting for final editing!

Mid-March,  we took a short trip to the tiny town of Lytton, BC.  The Thompson and Fraser River Canyons are always beautiful no matter what time of year.   The smell of sage brush and white pine will always remind me of summer time and white water adventures.

At the end of March, Fazh finally had life changing surgery.  I spent a bit of time in Vancouver while he was at St. Paul’s Hospital.  Thankfully his care staff were mostly smart and kind.  He was surround by visitors, friends and family from near and far which definitely made the lengthy stay in hospital more bearable.

For those of you in the know–which is worse, Hospital Food or Airplane Food?

EW GROSS!

By  April we were able to commit to travel.  We finally booked our trip to Turkey.  Fazh’s Danish friend Heinrich came to Canada.  He was a very nice man, and I’m grateful to have met him.

In May I made a couple of trips to Kelowna to take a colleague to her radiation appointments.  Traveling back and forth for days on end while undergoing treatment is not optimal, so giving her a little respite with transportation was the least I could do.

Edmonton was my escape in June.  Jessie and I had a gastronomic tour of the city and really should have practiced better restraint.   Later in the month, our friend Andrew visited us here for a couple of days, and Jon was able to do a bit of climbing.

At the start July we made a little jaunt to Kelowna to visit my Grandma.  I think she needs some extra TLC in July, so visiting her was a definite must.

After obscene amounts of gluttony in Edmonton, Jessie came for a visit here. We did a tour of the Okanagan, through to Penticton, Summerland and Peachland.  The Summerland Ornamental Gardens are done fairly well, and worth checking out if you’re in the area.  FYI: Nothing is quite so tasty as Okanagan grown peaches! Luckily fruit stands are plentiful in the valley, so we returned with some delicious bounty.

July was capped off with a few trips to the Lake, where the kids and dogs are as crazy a bunch as ever.  They’re little, and fully of energy, so they’re into catching bugs and minnows, jumping off the dock, and running around like a bunch of crazy toddler/preschool hooligans.

“Ben ağustosta Türkçe öğrendim.” In August I learned Turkish!  If you have never used Duolingo before and you’re keen on learning a new language for FREE, it is awesome. Be respectful of the citizens of your next destination; at least learn some basic phrases and greetings.  The tiny bit of goodwill goes a long way.

We spent a couple of weeks traveling through Turkey, and a few days in Greece.  What absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous people and fabulous trip!  This was also the first of our travels where we’ve been too ill to eat. However, we persevered and saw so many beautiful things.  My favorite new spot is definitely the town of Göreme.  More on that to come, I promise.

October is when things usually start getting really busy at work; this year was exceptionally difficult.  My director lost her father, and a week later she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

We did have a small bit of normalcy with our traditional trip to the Salmon Run at the end of the month with my niece and nephew.  And then…

In November time stopped.

My 3 year old nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia.  He was instantly airlifted to Vancouver, and has been there since.

December, typically the most “challenging” month for work continued right on being horrible for so many reasons.  There were two good days.   Two.

One where we visited Vancouver to see Ben.  We walked to Granville Island and fed pigeons and gigantic sea gulls.  (Note: Feeding the birds is against the rules, but who wouldn’t break one like that to make a child with a life threatening illness smile?!) Ben was himself for a small bit of the afternoon.  The other good day was when  we  celebrated Christmas on the 20th to accommodate his chemo schedule.

On the 27th,  I had to take Fazh to the hospital for what he thought was a stomach flu.  He had not eaten anything in 5 days.  Turns out his cancer is back, and horrid for the 3rd time now.  And now we wait to see if there is anything chemo can do to make him more comfortable.

As a side note, why must tumours always be compared to produce?  Why not sports equipment, or office supplies?  A tumour the size of a computer mouse would be much more appealing than a couple of grapefruits.

As fazh says, “At least it isn’t a pineapple.”

Here’s to 2016,
~j