Last week we had a lovely visit from Gigi and his new partner Julie. Even though it was our first time meeting Julie in person, it feels like we’ve known her for years. They were only in Vancouver for 4 days but we had a great time. We were almost hoping that someone would get COVID so they could extend their stay for 5 more days, but we dodged that bullet (more on that below).

Astrid was super excited to see both of them. She’s been eagerly anticipating this visit since their Christmas trip was postponed. They picked her up from school on Thursday and she was so excited to tell them everything and give them a tour of our house.

We spent a lot of their visit playing board games. We managed to squeeze in playthroughs of Zombie Kidz (where we unlocked the final envelope!), Sushi Go, Wingspan, and Ticket to Ride. Astrid did her best to explain the Zombie Kidz rules to them, but with all the extra powers we’ve unlocked Gigi and Julie were very confused.

We also cooked a lot of tasty vegan, sulphite-free meals. We’re used to dealing with dietary constraints, but sulphite-free was a new challenge for us. I thought we did a pretty good job, baking fresh focaccia and making pasta sauce from scratch.

On Friday, Gigi and Julie had a spa day at the fancy Miraj Hammam (our Christmas gift to them), and then we toured Granville Island in the afternoon and took the Aquabus back.

On Sunday, we checked out the Vancouver Aquarium, enjoying the jellyfish, blue frogs, seals, sea lions, octopus, and giant rays.

The whole time they were visiting we were pretty sure someone was going to get COVID. We know so many people who have been sick recently, including several neighbours and Astrid’s best friend who got COVID 4 days before Gigi and Julie arrived. For all we knew, we were incubating COVID as they were flying into Vancouver, or maybe they were bringing it to us. But we discussed it and decided that the risk was manageable given what we knew about Omicron and our vaccination statuses.

Over the past week all of us have felt off at some point – sore throats, sniffles, headaches, or tiredness. But on Saturday, Gigi woke up with an extremely sore throat and swollen glands. We left him at home to rest, drink ginger lemon tea, and look into flight rescheduling policies while Astrid went to ballet class and the rest of us walked around Trout Lake with Grandma.

By the evening Gigi was feeling better, and decided he didn’t need to delay his flight home. Either we dodged all the COVID germs (highly unlikely considering the prevalence right now and the number of people we were around), or the vaccines protected us from everything but mild symptoms. Impossible to know for sure but still a relief to know that no one got seriously sick.

By monday morning their short visit was over. We were sad to see them go and are looking forward to seeing them again this summer in Manitoba. Julie is awesome, she’s fun to be with, and it’s a giant relief to know that my dad isn’t alone anymore.

More photos from January, including their visit.