So, of course, we had visitors stay with us over the course of the Olympics. Allie, Jason and Owen came up to stay in my little condo, while Jason's parents came up from Texas to stay with my parents. Above you have Owen all decked out for a day out at a women's hockey game. But before they arrived, Murphy and I had a few days to ourselves, to prepare. Murphy also took some time to enjoy preliminary hockey games:

He also had to investigate some of the official Olympic merchandise that I'd bought:

 

HBC produced over 3 million of them, and they sold out nationwide. Oprah even featured them on her show. But Murphy wasn't content to just mess with clothing. He had to investigate our guests' bed too:

Our three poor guests were shoved into my tiny extra bedroom, which is so small the aerobed took up all the floor space! Murphy of course felt that he knew better than I did on how they'd like their bed made.

Here are a few more of the popular Olympic items. First is Muk Muk, one of the mascots. He is a marmot, which is actually one of our most threatened species here in BC (specifically, on Vancouver Island). I wish that the Olympic Committee had been as obsessed with Muk Muk as Murphy was, as it was a great opportunity to bring attention to their plight. I'd bought this toy for Owen, but the minute Murphy spotted him he claimed him as his own. I had to go out and buy Owen an additional one!

 

As you can imagine, Owen was showered with Olympic merchandise upon his arrival in Canada. But he'd had a long day of driving, then watching the US-Canada men's hockey preliminary hockey game, then settling in to my place, so he and Murphy crashed on the couch:

The next morning Murphy decided that stealing Muk Muk from Owen wasn't enough, so he took off with Owen's signature hat:

Until something out my window caught both their eyes (I just find this a funny picture - how they're both jumping on the bed then suddenly transfixed by an outside distraction):

Poor Owen, who tellingly asked "Auntie Meg, do you have an upstairs?", got a little bored being cooped up in my little condo. I caught him entertaining himself with my toilet paper roll:

All of the adults instantly said "Ok Owen, now that you've unrolled it, it's your job to roll it back up.". Owen wasn't pleased, but he did comply. Then followed it up with an impromptu drum concert, on the toilet seat:

Then it was time to get Owen dressed for our day out at The Olympics. Below you have Murphy inspecting all his Olympic gear:

All the mascots were really quite cute. Quatchi was supposed to be a Sasquatch:

This was the first day that we headed out to catch an event. My parents and I all put our names in for various events, just hoping that we'd get one or two events, to share with Allie, Jason Owen and Jason's parents. Well, we were very lucky and got all sorts of tickets! This day it was a women's hockey game, but we also attended speed skating, a men's hockey game (which totally by chance turned out to have Canada playing) and the figure skating gala.

Being a green Olympics, all spectators had to use public transit (there was no parking at any Olympic event). To get to the hockey game, which was at the University of British Columbia, we had to take two buses. Here's Owen enjoying the ride:

Because of all the security, we were asked to arrive well before the event was scheduled to begin. So we had plenty of time to grab a snack before the game started:

You'll notice that we are sitting on bleachers, not even real seats. The tickets were all distributed using an online lottery system. You simply put your request in for certain events, and chose a price level. You might have gotten everything you asked for, or nothing. But you had to be careful that you could afford EVERYTHING you requested, because if your name came up in the lottery, you had to pay for the tickets. So we purposely chose the cheap seats (hence the bleachers you see here).

But, since we got there so early, by the time the game started Owen was starting to lose interest:

On the way home we stopped at St Paul's to grab a dinner of sushi with Russ, then hopped back on the bus to head home. Owen was a little more energetic after having some dinner:

The next night, Owen was supposed to head out with Jason, my dad and Jason's Dad Larry for a men's hockey game. Then he got a case of the sniffles, and we found out that Canada was going to be playing. By this point we'd seen the frenzy that the Canadian crowds were becoming (not violent, very peacefully frenzied) and Allie just wasn't comfortable sending Owen out into that. So Owen and I stayed in with Murphy, while Allie enjoyed a night out with her husband.

Owen and I had a great day! After grabbing an afternoon nap Owen and I headed out to the local mall (the same one from the previous page) to catch some Olympic fever. We listened to a jazz band (Owen loves music), played in a children's centre set up with Olympic games and crafts, and even read a book at the library. The we headed back home through the rain to settle in, have some dinner, and watch the Olympics on tv. Murphy kept us company:

Here's a great shot of Owen and Muk Muk, though you can tell he's a little under the weather (note the Kleenex):

Then, Owen decided it was time for a concert. So he grabbed my metal coasters and a Kleenex box and started drumming while he sang, a Capella, Black Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" for Murphy and myself:

So Allie and Jason had a rousing evening out, and Owen, Murphy and I had a lovely evening in! Allie, Jason and Owen only stayed a few days, then headed home.

Later that week Jason's parents, Ann and Larry, came over with my parents, as us girls were heading out to the figure skating gala. Ann is a dedicated reader of Murphy's updates, and a devotee of Murphy in general, so I'll send out a "Hi Ann!" to her here, before telling you about our day out at figure skating. Murphy stayed at my place with my Dad and Larry, spending the evening catching various Olympic events on tv.

So, again here, you can see the fantastic seats we were assigned by the Olympic lottery system:

We were literally the last row of seats. The nice thing about that, though, was that we could stand up and stretch, or sit on the backs of the seats, if we felt like it.

I'll only post a few pictures here, even though I took dozens that night (this update is veering dangerously away from Murphy). The figure skating gala featured the top 5 placers in every event - men's, women's, pairs and dance, as well as some of the local figure skaters. First up is the intro to the evening, of course with an Olympic theme:

There were several Canadians featured, including Joannie Rochette, who won the bronze medal in women's, after losing her mother earlier that week:

Notice that for their exhibition program Scott is wearing a Canadian National Team hockey jersey.

Below you'll see the full line up of everyone we saw perform:

As we were leaving Ann noticed that the programs with the evening's line up were still posted on the walls, and quickly deduced that that would make a great souvenir. So she and my mother promptly pulled down one each:

And that was the final official Olympic event I attended! But the craziest of them all was last, as you'll see in part 3...

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: February Part 3
Here's the link to the previous update: February Part 1

Home | Latest news | From the beginning | Origins | What kind of dog is that? | Colours of cockers | Cocker links