nikita van dop

I've had several people ask me where are the pictures of Nikita?! As I was compiling this set of photos, I couldn't believe how much she has grown from 2 months to 10 months! Here is our cutie at 2 months (when we first brought her home)...
And then a month later (3 months old)...

Playing outside at 6 months old...

Finally, here she is at 7 months old (after playing with Yuuki!)...

Speaking of Yuuki, it's funny to compare Nikita and Yuuki in July 2005...

...to Nikita and Yuuki in December 2005...

Happy Valentine's Day

It is truly the greatest happiness to love and to be loved. Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Birthday to Louanne and Valerie!

bye bye baby...

I'm sad to say that after 5 years, I have sold my first and only motorcycle. It was a bittersweet decision - I was hardly riding it anymore with the dog, house, etc. - and we can definitely use the money for other things.

But my fellow riders will concur that there is nothing quite like the exhiliration of being on your bike on a warm, sunny day with nothing but open road in front of you. This weekend was the beginning of a short stretch of sunny weather here in Vancouver - the kind of weather that sends many riders to ICBC to insure their bikes for their first ride of the season. As I was riding my bike to drop it off at the buyer's house, I couldn't help but shed some tears at the thought that this was not only my last ride on this motorcycle, but it was my last ride for sometime to come...

driving LeWong way!

How do you expedite your home reno's? Try driving LeWong way! How do you think it sounded when Patrick had to call into work and say, "I can't come in today because someone drove into my house."?! Hehehe...

paris in the spring!

I know that alot of family/friends already know this because I talk about it non-stop, but Brian and I have FINALLY booked our honeymoon!  We'll be in Paris in the Spring, strolling along the Seine, basking in the warm sun in the south of France and, most importantly, we're going to Moto GP at Le Mans!  Woo!  Hoo!

So, right now, we have 2 return tickets from Vancouver to Paris in May and a pair of Moto GP tickets for Sunday's races.  That's it.  Hmmm...doesn't sound like a typical honeymoon...

ushering in a new era

Wow! It's February 9th, 2006 and Brian and I are finally going live with a blog. Took us long enough, eh?! I'll chalk this one up to finally deciding on a domain name. My brother, Jonathan, thinks 'Vandopoly' is...funny, to say the least. I think it's catchy!

The name came about when I was talking to a good friend, Robbin, about returning for the 2006 dragon boat season. I told her that I wasn't sure if I wanted to paddle because we have so many other commitments and, besides, we have to start the 'Vandopoly' soon. Then Kim, our Van Dop cousin, got a hold of it and since the 3 of us are on the same dragon boat team, we just started calling ourselves the Vandopoly.

So, in the truest sense, I guess Vandopoly refers to me, Brian and Kim. However, in this world of extensible languages, I think Vandopoly can be extended to all things Van Dop...