Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

(Christmas in Toronto 2009)

Merry Christmas,

2009 has been another year of adventure. We have traveled to places far away and have also continued to explore Ontario. We have both finished major projects at work and continue to find what we do challenging and rewarding. However, the biggest adventure of 2009 has to be the start of our transition into parenthood. In July we were very excited to find out that Courtney is expecting a baby! Since then we have been joyfully (and anxiously) been preparing for our new arrival who will join us in March 2010!

The year started with a trip home to Denver where we celebrated the New Year with our families and where I was able to hit the slopes (something I have been missing since our move to Toronto). Courtney then celebrated the New Year for a second time in China, complete with fireworks to ring in the Chinese New Year! This was a trip that Courtney was able to take with her brother Brandon and other than some wonderful "brother-sister time" the highlights of the trip include: walking the Great Wall, lots of Chinese tea, and eating dumplings from the street vendors. Not wanting to feel left out of the jetsetting (and in desperate need of some sun) we headed out of Toronto again in February, this time bound for Mazatlan Mexico. This was a trip for relaxing. We spent our days on the beach building sandcastles and our nights exploring the city and celebrating Carnival with the locals. One of the best parts of this trip was figuring out the local bus system and being able to put some of the Spanish that I have been learning, via podcast, to use.

We spent March trying to decide if we were going to take a trip to Peru. This is something that we have been talking about for a long time and finally we decided to bite the bullet and go for it. In retrospect we are very glad we did seeing that trying to make this trip in 2010 with a baby may have proven difficult. Although we held off in making the decision to go by the time we left in April we had our itinerary down to spreadsheet precision. By taking on most of the planing for this trip ourselves, we were able to save money and had a very different experience from the trip we took a few years ago to New Zealand. With only two weeks of vacation we made sure that we hit up the major spots including Machu Pichu, Lima, and the Nasca Lines. One of the best parts of the trip was our four day backpacking trip to Machu Pichu with Peru Treks. Apart form this guided hike we managed to steer ourselves to off the beaten path to out of the way ruins, interesting historic districts of Lima, and the skies above Nasca. The trip was a cultural learning experience; we had to trust in our own planing and hope that our reservations would be held and that the connections between destinations would be made. Looking back I feel lucky that it all fit together and I guess that sums up what an adventure is all about.

As Summer approached Courtney got off to a running start by hitting the streets of Mississauga and completing the Mississauga half-marathon. I on the other hand, hit the streets of Toronto with my bicycle and began my bike commute to and from work. I did this commute for 8 months and finally put the bike back into storage at the end of November. In July we put our paddles back in the water on a canoe trip down the White River with our friends Jonathan and Maureen. This trip was quite ambitious and it took us from White River Provincial Park to Lake Superior. We paddled, portaged, ate great meals (thanks to Jonathan), and enjoyed the beauty of Northwestern Ontario. We were blessed with perfect weather and a calm Lake Superior. All in all, the trip was both fun and exhausting; a true wilderness adventure.

At the end of the summer Courtney had the opportunity to explore the philosophy of Deleuze (the French post-structuralist she is using in her dissertation work) with other like minded academics in Cologne Germany. She spent the first part of her time in Germany at "Deleuze Camp" where she was able to learn more about and discuss the work of Deleuze. After the camp she gave a paper on Deleuze and Performance at the International Deleuze Studies Conference. Finally, Courtney is pleased that in 2009 she officially became a PhD Candidate in Drama at the University of Toronto. For those not familiar with the workings of academia this means that all requirements for her degree are completed except for her dissertation. She still has a lot of work to do, but candidacy is a big accomplishment.

In the fall we ventured back out to the Ontario Parks this time to Bruce Peninsula National Park. Even though we have not kept up with our hiking of the Bruce Trail the past couple of years, but we were happy to check out its beginning---or ending depending on way you travel. We were impressed by the crystal clear water and breathtaking cliffs of the park. We also had fun exploring Flower Pot Island and the shipwrecks in the harbour. It seems that every trip that we have taken lately involves getting on a boat or canoe.

As we look to the new year we know that changes are coming quickly. These changes will mean that our adventure planing will now have to factor in the extra variable of a child. We find this an exciting challenge for 2010 and we look forward to exploring and seeing the world anew through the eyes of a baby.

I hope that your year has also been rewarding. I would love to hear from you and learn about your 2009 adventures.

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season from RockCairn.com.

Aaron & Courtney (we are both on Facebook so you can check us out there as well)

China	China	Missisauga Marathon	Niagara Falls	South Carolina