My dad, Brian,

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 Always up for an adventure, whether it was a camping or fishing trip, boating for the day or a day out with family or friends. He loved adventures and documented it well with thousands of photos. The photography bug has traveled through our family. My dad and I actually took a couple photography course’s together, a hobby we could both work on together during his retirement.

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As a family growing up, we were fortunate to travel and experience many places around the world together. We traveled to California to visit Disney Land and then took 3 days to drive home up along the west coast, visiting places like San Diego, San Francisco and Portland and Cannon Beach in Oregon. We even traveled to Mexico while in California. We had the opportunity to travel to Europe We traveled to Spain with our dance studio for 2 weeks for a 5-city tour, we even made a day visit to Morocco. Then from there traveled to Italy for a weeklong tour then stayed with family for our last week in Europe. 

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While my dad enjoyed the fun and excitement in California, and the culture and history of Europe, his heart was always with something much simpler, camping near the ocean with family and friends.  His happy place was on his boat with a fishing rod and some good company by his side. When we weren’t travelling countries, we spent summer’s camping and fishing in the oceans off of Vancouver Island. When he wasn’t fishing, he was always volunteering to tow us kids and along with other from the campground behind the boat on tubes, knee boards or water skis.

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Growing up, it was easy to see that my sister and I held a very special place in my dad’s heart. We had crazy dance schedules throughout our childhood. And while my mom was at the studio, helping it run smoothly, my dad would pick us up from school, along with at least 2 other kids that we danced with. He made sure we all got dinner, usually McDonalds as it was the fastest, then he would drop us off for our classes and wait until they were done just to drive us all back home again, if my mom had to close up the studio for the night. He dove us to our competitions all over the lower mainland and when he didn’t have to drive us, he made sure he was there to watch…or at least watch in spirit as he usually snored through half of the routines. But we were okay with that because he was still there.

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My dad was a people person. He enjoyed being around friends, sharing his dry sense of humour. I believe he truly enjoyed making people laugh, and that it fulfilled a place in his heart. For many years, my dad was a part of a dance group called the Chippen Dads. My dad, along with other dance dads, tore the stage up with their dance moves, that were actually pretty impressive, and with their classic dad humour entwined in their routine, it made the audience crack up and cheer incredibly loud every single time. My dad loved being on that stage, being a part of something that brought so much love and laughter to everyone, all of us kids cheered the loudest for the Chippen Dads, even more so when my dad volunteered to be the one to do a spilt jump – which he rocked by the way!

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When my dad’s life wasn’t revolving around his family, he was working hard to provide the life he wanted for all of us. In his later years, he worked hard to build his very successful company from the ground up with his wife Suzanne. He thoroughly loved chatting up his suppliers and customers. Some of those relationships even turned into friendships.

 

My dad has always been someone I’ve looked up to. He was a strong and stubborn force to be reckoned with.  He was a proud man of the life he built for himself and he thoroughly enjoyed that life. He loved his family fiercely and was one of our biggest supporters and advocates. He was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it. He was my soft spot in a hard place. He was one of my best friends. He was my dad, and I’m going to live the rest of my life for the two of us.