Vacation – wee little lovelys

Caithlin’s grade 12 graduation!

May 16, 2018

My niece Caithlin, who is also my godchild, graduated this June! They do things a little differently in Medicine Hat, AB … her graduation ceremony and prom was in May. Since my parents were still living with us in Victoria and my Dad was unable to travel, I flew to Medicine Hat to celebrate the wonderful lady that my niece is.

We are so proud of her. I spent some really wonderful quality time with Caithlin that I will treasure. Her group of friends were pretty amazing too. I love Caithlin’s personality and funky nature. I mean she wore red converse high tops to her graduation ceremony & prom. She is way cooler than me.

Congratulations Caithlin!

Airport good-bye:

Caithlin & her Mom- my sister Sarah:

pre-ceremony celebration at Caithlin’s home (top right= my nephew Ethan & Caithlin, bottom left= Caithlin & step-mom Amanda, bottom right= Caithlin & her grandparents):

Police Point park- my favorite park in Medicine Hat, AB:

Graduation:

Prom:

New Years 2018!

January 2, 2018

After the Christmas holidays we needed a little get-away. New Years seemed like a great time to celebrate with friends.

We headed up island to Parksville to celebrate with our friend Corry & Shannon and their families. It was a quick one night trip. To make the drive a bit more fun we took a ferry from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay to avoid the Malahat. We visited the Coombs old country market and visited the famous goats there. Lucky us we visited on the last day the market was open for the season! We ventured into Parksille and had a fun and rambunctious late night with the kids and our friends.

Christmas 2017- part 4 (post-Christmas)

December 28, 2017

Christmas break was so fun and busy this year. We went for our annual boxing day breakwater walk- it was so cold! We made it to Butchart Gardens for the annual Christmas light display. We went to a hockey game for our friends sons birthday party which was great but too loud for Nana & Papa 😉 Nana, Claire & I joined Auntie Debbie for a Nutcracker performance which was a good time.

Breakwater:

Butchart Gardens:

Royals Hockey Game:

Nutcracker:

Vancouver summer trip

July 30, 2016

Last summer we traveled to Vancouver for a mini vacation. We wanted to spend time checking out all the fun tourist things and to visit old friends. We stayed downtown for two nights so we could catch the sky-train and walk around the city. We visited the Aquarium, did some shopping, visited Science World and had a blast.

After our stay downtown we drove over to North Vancouver to stay with our good friends Faye & Niels. I have known Faye since my first year at University. She was my roommate in residence! The University placed us together randomly and have been friends since. We had a great two nights spending time with Faye and her family. We also visited with our friends and the kids surrogate grandmother, Evelyn, who was our neighbor in our old condo building when we lived in North Vancouver. We spent some time with her and her boyfriend Barney. They were so sweet and it was nice to catch up on all the condo gossip 😉 We also had some time to have a picnic with our South African friends Kim, Ryan and their two sons Kye and Fin. We spent a lot of time together when Claire & Rhys were babies as Kim and I worked together and had an overlap with our maternity leaves. We used to swap child minding which I miss so much! A bonus of staying with Faye & Niels is we tagged along to another friends big BBQ so we were able to see lots of old friends and they have the best backyard that Claire & Rhys made the most of.

We had a great trip and we are excited to make it an annual summer adventure.

….

Science World:

Aquarium:

Lions Gate Bridge to West & North Vancouver:

Faye & Niels home:Faye & Nield

Evelyn & Barney:

Kim & Ryan clan:Kim & Ryan

Lisa & Sean’s BBQ…best backyard for kids:

And of course….Jimmy found a pool to skate 😉

Sooke summer visit

July 16, 2016

Every summer we like to get out to Sooke and have an overnight camping adventure at Wendy & Chris’ home. This summer Claire & Rhys had their very first sleep over without us! Exciting times. We went out on a date night in Sooke and had dinner at the most amazing restaurant right near the ocean- Wild Mountain. After walking around the harbour we headed back to the house long after Claire & Rhys went to sleep. They did not know we were coming back that night and they did great. A success.

We also had a special time on Chris’ boat… we went crabbing! We found out Rhys gets seasick and Claire enjoys boating.

Good times!

Celebrating the end of school… in Tofino!

July 1, 2016

Every Canada Day there is a skateboard contest in Tofino. Jimmy has been meaning to attend it for years. We opted to combine his desire with a family vacation as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. Additionally, we were married in Ucluelet so this area of the island remains very special to us.

We stayed at Pacific Sands Beach Resort which was amazing and very family friendly. Being right on Cox Bay beach, the kids loved the easy-access to early beach walks and exploring. In fact, we visited several times during each day. We would spot new sea creatures, hike the adjoining trails, go slug hunting (where we would count the number of slugs along the way), and even venture into the chilly waters. It was so much fun! There was even a nature camp for 1.5 hours per day the kids could attend and nightly S’mores making.

One of our best trips ever. I think we will make it an annual event.

Mexico 2016!

February 23, 2016

In February we traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to catch some sunshine. We met my parents down there and had a blast. The kids had so much fun and it is always so nice to spend time with my parents. The main purpose for this trip was to have Claire & Rhys spend some quality time with their Nana & Papa who they don’t get to see very often. Mission accomplished 🙂

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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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