Music to our ears

We had word from the hospital that the preliminary reading shows that all is still stable in Isabella's head. We will get the official results when we visit the clinic the week after next. For the time being we are extremely happy and can move forward for another three months.

Isabella also saw a new eye doctor prior to the MRI. He is collaborating with her neurologist and doing research into her type of tumor. He commented, as many have said before, she has excellent vision, you would not know she had a tumor touching her optic nerve. All good news.

Back to summer. The girls have been doing tennis camp this week. They are exhausted! And we are being entertained by a laughing pig we bought at Vancouver airport. It is hilarious, just when you are feeling run down after a long day, Matilde waves her hand and piggy starts chuckling and snorting. It is totally infectious and before long we are all laughing.

More news when we have it.

Lots of love,
Emma and Gregorio. xxx

Yee-Haw, the cowboys are home!

Ya better believe it! 

Cowgirls: Olivia, Ottavia, Mati and Bella

We have returned home from our Canadian adventure. We left Vancouver at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning, transited through Toronto and US immigration (in Canada?) at its best...we just made our connection to DC and arrived home to a 'sauna' last night. For the past four days we have hardly taken our fleeces off, it barely made 18 C during the day, so the 40 C plus humidity that greeted us on arrival was a little shocking!

We had a fantastic time. The Calgary Stampede lived up to all our expectations. From the moment we landed there was a sea of cowboy hats and boots wherever we went. We were quick to kit ourselves out in said gear and join in the festivities. The opening parade was great fun, lots of yee-haws and yahoos - a complete celebration of Canadian culture on horseback. The vibrant colours of the cowboy and cowgirl attire, the native Indians, the Mounted police (Mounties), local wildlife and much more. We were a little concerned at being in the front row as a cowboy rode down the street on a rather large bull. We witnessed a proposal of marriage from a fellow parade watcher close-by to one of the cheerleaders but of course, the highlight was seeing William and Kate at the beginning of the parade. It was quite fleeting but we did capture the moment on film! There was a definite nod of acknowledgement as Isabella and I waved our union jack bandanas like mad.

Yee-haw

oh yeah!

The stampede itself was an enormous playground of entertainment. We were swept into the excitement of the Rodeo and the chuckwagon races. Isabella was very excited at the prospect of winning some serious money but our lucky numbers did not come up. We joined the Stampede Square Dancers for a morning of 'swing your doll to the right, now you take mine and I'll take yours". Its quite exhausting but what a scream! The final evening concluded with a spectacular show akin to the Cirque de Soleil (it seems everywhere you go in Canada there are street performers in training for these types of shows) and fireworks.

Lake Morraine

Ready to fly

From Calgary, we left the plains and headed north into the Rockies. We spent the first five days in Banff. beautiful scenery and fresh air. We enjoyed some great hikes and saw lots of wildlife - black bears, elk, mule deer, mountain goat and big horn sheep. Try as we might, we did not see a moose. We saw lakes of every shade of blue and green that you can imagine, endless streams, waterfalls, beautiful wildflowers and alpine vistas. One of the best hikes was around Lake Louise, a picturesque milky green lake, and then up through the trees to the serene Lake Agnes. A pretty strenous hike and a mere 11 C outside but definitely worth it and we were rewarded with quite the best cup of tea at the teahouse at the top. We took a short helicopter ride over the snowcapped peaks. A smooth ride with a few whaooo moments from me up front, as I thought we were about to clip the mountain ridge and squeals of excitement from the girls behind "papa, look at all those sticks down there!" " They are tree trunks, Matilde!"

Our hotel for the stay in Banff had a wonderful hot pool overlooking the mountains. We would retreat here at the end of the day and relax enjoying the evening light. It didn't actually get dark till 11 pm. Isabella and Matilde are such water babies, we were even there on the last day in the rain and 15C outside. It would have been too much to coax Gregorio in that evening.

The hikers at Maligne Canyon

The drive north through the national parks to Jasper was fascinating. There is very little in the way of human life, just one petrol station I think and the road often closes in the winter. But the scenery leaves you speechless. I had only ever seen glaciers in the winter but now I understand what they are. The icefield parkway is full of glaciers, one more spectacular than the next. Each glacier is impressive and leave you feeling so small and insignificant on this earth.

Inside a glacier cave

We enjoyed three nights in Jasper in a very tranquil setting, in the lap of luxury. The girls are learning my fascination with hotels. They immediately walk in and check out the details and give it a vote. Overall they gave the hotel choices for this holiday a resounding 10! We had a lovely room overlooking a peaceful lake, with snowcapped mountains beyond. Our hikes here were less strenuous but the scenery equally magnificient. We hiked up to Edith Cavell glacier and even walked on it. In fact Gregorio and the girls even walked into a glacier cave. A French man close by looked at me and said "il sait qu'il est dangereux d'entrer" My reply, "mon mari est fou!" They survived and have the pictures to prove their exciting adventure. The glacial lake below complete with icebergs was captivating and we seemed to capture it from many angles in the warm sunlight. The girls enjoyed making rock sculptures and we even witnessed an avalanche way up high. It seemed like an impressive waterfall at first and then one realised that it had stopped.

Emerald Lake

We set off at sunrise on the Monday morning, as the mist was lifting in the valley, I think we encountered more animals than cars for the first hour as we drove along Trans Canadian Highway 1. We had several stops en-route and finally some nine hours later we decided to call it a day in Kamloops. It is hard to imagine how much space, how many trees, how many mountains and how much water there is in Canada but that's mainly what we saw for the whole drive. Once out of Alberta and into British Columbia we were mainly out of the National Parks so there was much more civilization and commercial advertising on the roads but still the sense of awe inspiring scenery continued.

Capilano suspension bridge

After a restful night on a nice ranch overlooking the river, where we fed the horses, we continued onto Vancouver. The drive was much less impressive. We had been advised that the Fraser Canyon was a scenic drive, maybe we were fed up with driving or we had been spoilt in Alberta but we couldn't wait to get to Vancouver. Several hours later we discovered that Vancouver is a sprawling mass of traffic and road construction. Welcome back to civilization! Prior to getting to our hotel we enjoyed several hours enjoyment at Capilano. Across the gorge they have created an extremely long suspension pedestrian bridge. Now, between you and me, I have a little phobia at the best of times about crossing bridges. I was convinced that Isabella would be a little scared and it would be a lesson in overcoming our fears. Wrong, she and Mati danced and skipped across the bridge, enjoying the swaying motion while I clung to the wire rope for dear life! By the second or third time I was used to it. On the other side there is an amazing tree top adventure linking these extremely tall and magnificent fir trees by a series of rope bridges. It was a lot of fun.

Vancouver felt like a strange mix of Sydney, San Francisco and England. The weather, forgive me, was decidedly an English summer. Many people were in shorts and t-shirts but after 11 years in Washington DC, it did not feel summer like to me. As we wandered through Stanley park and looked out at the sailing boats on a blustery day, I was transported back to Stokes Bay, looking out over the Solent towards the Isle of Wight. We spent a day in Victoria on Vancouver Island. And again I was in England - walking through the Victorian shopping alleys I was in Brighton; eating quite the best fish and chips on the quayside, I was in Cornwall and licking a 99, I was back in my childhood dreams! And then there was the moment I found daisies on the grass. Now I know most English people try desperately to rid daisies from their perfectly manicured lawn but my daughters didn't know what I meant by daisy chains, now they do! Maybe its the climate in DC but I haven't seen a daisy in years.

The Canadians have a more European approach to food and as always food was a major part of the Impavido holiday. Of course, we had some great croissants, pains au chocolat, delicious cheeses and sublime pate (note it is impossible to get decent pate in the US but the French charcuterie stall in the Granville Island market was mouthwatering) Perhaps the most pleasant surprise to me were the classic English favourites that I was able to introduce to the girls. Sausage rolls and cornish pasties became a regular feature of our picnics.

Vancouver also has the largest Chinatown this side of the Pacific. We spent a good morning wandering around the shops. Is there anything the chinese don't pickle or dry? The exotic aromas and sights were quite fascinating. We found a great restaurant, which the girls loved and we went back three times for various Chinese banquets. After the morning in the chinatown market I was a little less adventurous on our choice of dishes!

the nearest we could get to finding a moose

All in all a magnificent holiday and a great way to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Every day the girls sang to me and they told everyone it was my birthday! Sorry this has turned into a bit of an epic tale, well done for making it to the end.

Back to reality. Tomorrow Isabella has her latest MRI and eye tests. We will update you as soon as we have news.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer.

Lots of love,
Emma & Gregorio. xxx