Making Christmas Brighter for those Less Fortunate

On Sunday, October 1st, thousands of motorcyclists will ride in the 28th Annual Motorcycle Toy Run to raise much needed toys and funds for the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau.


This is an event that I am really proud to help organize because it helps so many children and families in BC. The Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau, who have been serving the less fortunate for 76 years, distribute the toys collected to several other Christmas Bureaus throughout the Lower Mainland to ensure that many underprivilidged families in BC will have a happier Christmas.


The ride leaves Coquitlam Centre at 10:00am and proceeds full parade style along Barnet Hwy to Barnet Hwy North to Hastings where it ends at the PNE grounds. This is a fun one for families to set up at the side of the road and watch as the parade of thousands of bikes with toys strapped on them goes by.




DON'T RIDE OR CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE TOY RUN?
You can still help out by sending your toy or monetary donation to the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau at 1370 Napier, Vancouver, BC, V6T 4B4 or contact Chris Bayliss at (604) 253-7191. The Christmas Bureau kindly requests no stuffed toys. There is always a great demand for sport and educational toys and gifts for teenagers.

TOY RUN VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
If you are able to donate a couple of hours of your time to help out at this wonderful fundraiser it would be much appreciated. There are various jobs available including selling raffle tickets, working barricades,etc. Please contact Chris Bayliss at the Christmas Bureau (604) 253-7191



VENDOR SPACE AVAILABLE
With somewhere around 10,000 people in attendance, this is a great venue to display your product and support a great cause! For info please call (604) 580-0111

Catching Up....

I have a ton of pictures from this summer that I haven't had the time to put up on the blog yet. Here are a few from our visit to Princeton, Coalmont & Tulameen at the end of July.

Here is the good old Coalmont Hotel that my Dad & Uncle own, which is for sale if anyone is interested...

We stopped in for some beers and a couple of games of pool and the new manager gave us a tour of the infamous 3rd floor, which is supposedly haunted. It has been closed off for years and I had never seen it before....and now I know why! It is in need of some serious TLC!!!


This picture is my absolute favorite!! We drove through Tulameen so I could show Darren where a friends cabin was and on the way back we saw a 6 pack of beer laying in the middle of the road.

So, of course, eagle-eye Darren stopped and got out to grab his big score of free beer! But when he went to grab it, it moved! So he ran back to the car and we looked over and there were 3 little boys giggling away in the grass holding a 6 pack of empties attached to a string. They said they were practicing for Tulameen Daze. We just about died laughing!! Then we gave the lucky little buggers 5 bucks to go get a treat for being so entertaining.

My Religion Is Kindness....

If only more people lived by these words....I wonder what this world could be like?

Today we went to see the Dalai Lama speak at GM Place. It was a really amazing experience. They also had a ceremony where he became an honorary Canadian citizen (only the 3rd person to ever receive this status). He was a little bit late coming on stage and Kevin Newman, the anchor man for Global National, was the poor guy left trying to stall and entertain the crowd while we waited until someone started singing "Oh Canada" and pretty soon the whole stadium was singing it. It was such a moving moment.

Free Passes to the Motorcycle Drags

If you would like to come and check out the CMDRA's season finale on September 16-17th at Mission Raceway let me know and I can get you a couple of free passes.

This is always the best race of the season, as the battles for the 2006 championships continue and the winners are decided here!

You can walk around the pits and see everything from Street bikes to Top Fuel Nitro Harley's up close and personal, as well as the racers and crews that make these incredible machines run. The Top Fuel bikes burn up the 1/4 mile in 6 seconds at over 200 mph! It's awesome!!!

For those of you who have never seen motorcycle drag racing, here is a really cool clip of some of our races last year.

Just cut and paste this link into your browser: http://videos.streetfire.net/search/drag%2Bbike/0/D322C946-A0FF-451E-B814-32B9087905FA.htm

Thanks to Larry Pfister, Northern Exposures, Phil Heitanin and Laura Millsip for the photos.

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!

Today has been a very exciting day for Darren and I!!! We got engaged this morning!!!

I was walking to work in the morning, running a couple of minutes late, and as I started walking through Tipperary Park on my way to the Skytrain I noticed a bunch of rose petals along the pathway. I was thinking how beautiful it was and that maybe there had been a wedding there the night before, until I noticed the chalk writing along the pathway that said....WILL......YOU......MARRY........ME.

I was like, wow, that is so sweet! I wonder who that's for? I was looking around the park for other people thinking to myself how cool it would be if it was for me and how I should call Darren to tell him how silly I am, but no one else was around.

My heart started to beat faster as the rose petals ended near the tree that Darren and I had sat under and talked for hours on our first date. It is a beautiful old tree that was 2 different trees that appeared to grow out of one trunk.

One had blossoms and the other had berries and we thought it was symbolic of us growing together and were very sad one day when one of the trees got sick and they had to cut part of it down.

As I neared the remaining tree and the rose petals ended I thought could this be for me??? No....that printing is too neat to be Darren's...haha. Then Darren came walking out from behind our tree, dressed in a suit with a bouquet of red roses.

I said yes before he had even had a chance to get down on his knee or pull out a ring...lol. It was so thoughtful and romantic and so unexpected. I was in complete shock. I must have muttered "oh my god" at least 60 times.

Then we went over and sat under our tree and celebrated with champagne and orange juice and called just about everyone that we know.



Here I am on the phone to my Dad after Darren proposed. He said that he has never heard me so happy before:)

Here are the gorgeous roses that were left that didn't get used for the pathway.



My beautiful new ring!!!

Darren & I on our way to celebrate at the Boathouse, where we were serenaded by our waiter and the entire restaurant. They sang "That's Amore" and it was so cool!

The whole day was absolutely surreal.