Jimmy – Page 3 – wee little lovelys

Parksville with friends

September 5, 2015

Every summer a bunch of our friends that I have known since University organize a group camping trip. This year at the end of the summer we all met at Parksville.

On the way to Parksville and on our way back home we had some time to visit the Chemainus & Ladysmith skate parks. No vacation is complete without a sk8 adventure.

We had such a great time visiting with friends and having some solo adventures as well. The only downside was Claire getting stung three times when running through playground and a hornet got caught in her jean jacket, Ouch!

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Alberta Part 3 – Medicine Hat & family!

August 27, 2015

After our fun time in Drumheller we caravanned to Medicine Hat and had four sunny days that we spent with family.

Our good friend Annalee drove from Northern Alberta to visit us while we were in Medicine Hat. Thank-you for making such an effort to see us! We had a wonderful visit with you…. ice cream, swimming, and a lovely lunch out.

I was able to visit with my Godparents- Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman, we had a family BBQ to celebrate my Mom’s birthday and we visited the Medicine Hat skate park and various tourist spots around the town.

Thank-you for the wonderful visit everyone! We will be back soon. xo

Annalee:

Cousin Sophie:

Cousins Sophie & Aubrey:

Back L to R: Deanna, Sarah, Mom (Tricia), Dad (Vern), Caithlin, Ethan, Michaela, Hayden

Front L to R: Rhys, Claire, Sophie & Aubrey

Little Reindeer:

World’s largest teepee:

Aunt Linda & Uncle Norman. The best Godparents ever:

Heading back to Calgary for one last night before flying home:

Victoria:

Alberta Part 1 – Travel to Calgary & cousins

August 24, 2015

When we returned from Africa late 2013 one of the first things on our list to do was get out to Alberta to visit with my family. We had not visited as family since 2010 so long overdue!

We flew Victoria > Vancouver > Calgary. My cousin Leah lives in Calgary with her family and they opened up their house to us for a night so we could get in a visit before we departed the next day to Drumheller.

Summer camping in Sooke

July 15, 2015

We have never camped as a family before and the kids were eager to give it a try so as a soft run we camped out on Wendy & Chris’ property in Sooke. Obviously the kids loved it and Jimmy & I survived the night so looks like we will try a real camping trip next summer 🙂

We had a big picnic, spent time at Sooke potholes and had loads of leisure time reading in the sunshine, and visiting the chickens. Jimmy even entered a local skateboard contest where he did really well and won some skate goods.

We always enjoy our time with Wendy, Chris and Senna and this was yet another fun get-together.

The stream down from Chris & Wendy’s little hobby farm:

Chris cooking some yummy ribs!

Claire & Rhys sleepy heads:

Rifflandia

September 25, 2014

It’s funny how unexpected plans end up coming to fruition sometimes. My good friend Doug invited me out to have a beer and discuss a construction ambition of his. He wanted to create a skateboard ramp combined with a 1980’s era boombox to be displayed/ridden at an upcoming music festival- Rifflandia.

What started as a ramp INSIDE a stereo (complete with a rideable plexiglass component) turned into a ramp in front of a ghetto-blaster facade -to “ease” construction and increase affordability.

As you can see, Doug’s impressive vision came to reality pretty quickly, including my own artistic detailing of one of his cassette tape creations.

After some long construction days (extended evenings after Dee’s work and my stay-at-home time), the ramp was done and it was time to demonstrate some skateboarding. A variety of loud music was our soundtrack as youthful glee surrounded us. A bonus to my efforts was my ability to sneak the kids in to check out the festival. Fortunately, the hosting locale was very close to home so we simply walked over. Claire had a blast expressing her inner-rocker as did Rhys, but he is super sensitive to loud noises so he did not want to stay too long.

Event wrapped, the Rifflandia organization was very pleased with the ramp being included so I feel we can expect a newer more improved skateboard element in next year’s production! Maybe next time the whole family can come along -but only if we have some ear muffs for Rhys though 😉

The Historic Kinsol Trestle

August 5, 2014

Sunday seems to be our go-to day of the week to do some fun adventures. The kids are enrolled in a sports class on Saturday mornings and after a busy work week we like to relax on Saturdays.

This past Sunday we drove to Shawnigan Lake to visit the historic Kinsol Trestle. It is a wooden railway trestle located north of Shawnigan Lake which is about a 45 minute drive from our house. A description on the parks website is:

“The Kinsol Trestle is one of eight trestles along the Cowichan Valley Trail route and by far the largest and most spectacular. The Kinsol Trestle is one of the tallest free-standing and most spectacular timber rail trestle structures in the world. At 614 feet in length and standing 145 feet above the salmon bearing Koksilah River, the Kinsol is an incredible structure and was worth preserving.”

We had to walk along a trail for 1.5km to get to the trestle from the parking area and it was amazing! The views were really pretty with a river down below. There were hiking trails that led to the river and we could see some people swimming in the river. The kids had a tonne of energy and we ran races the whole way to the start of the trestle. We had packed a lunch and snacks and sat at one of the available picnic tables and enjoyed the beautiful day. This was a great spot to take kids.

Goldstream Park

July 23, 2014

We like to adventure and spend a lot of time outdoors with the kids which is great because Victoria is home to some amazing parks. Goldstream is one of those parks. It is 477 hectares and home to small Garry oak meadows, arbutus, and Douglas fir trees – some more than 600 years old.

On a nice Sunday when we had no other plans we decided to get suited up and go hiking. We packed a lunch and drove to the park which is about 17km from town. It was a hot day so finding refuge in the old growth temperate rain forest was perfect! This park is a popular place for viewing the annual fall chum salmon spawning runs in Goldstream river. It is also popular because there are numerous trails for hiking including a rugged and steep one called Mt. Finlayson trail that goes to the top of Mt. Finlayson. We choose to hike to Niagara falls which was really more of a walk with some minor rock climbing which is a recent favorite past-time of Claire & Rhys’.

Niagara falls is 47.5m high and to reach it you have to walk through a dried up stream bed. In the winter months the stream bed is full of water and the waterfall has so much more water volume. It was still very pretty when we visited. We spent some time there climbing through a rock tunnel and skipping rocks into the water basin at the bottom of the falls. After we had our fill of the falls we walked along some paths towards the nature visitor centre. We found plenty of slugs and other critters along the way that we had to stop and watch things where we had a little picnic lunch amongst the grass reeds at the end of the Saanich Inlet.

It was a great day 🙂

Canada Day – July 1, 2014

July 18, 2014

Canada just turned 147 years old on July 1st. To celebrate we hosted a BBQ at our new home with some of the Miller clan.

The weather in Victoria has been very sunny and hot lately; record setting temperatures in fact. Thankfully we have adequate backyard shade as well as two inflatable pools, so we all kept cool enough to enjoy ourselves.

Our recently purchased Weber barbeque proved its worth and it was a fun gathering with good food, laughs and splashes 🙂