Vacation - Week 1

Good heavens it HAS been a long time since I posted. Time flies when you're having fun -> we had a GREAT visit with our friends L & J. We were sightseeing/house decorating machines.

Now we're on vacation and have limited connectivity but I know all 3 of you who read this want to know what is going on!!
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Here's a boring blog but one we (the family) decided to share with you:

Camping: How do I love thee let me count the ways. [For those of you who don’t know – 3 years ago (with 2 and 4 year old) we embarked on a 6-month tour of the southern United States. We lived in our trailer and loved it but for varying reasons haven’t had an opportunity to stay in it much since then. ]

We’ve just completed the first week of our two-week camping trip this summer and I’ve asked the family why we love camping in our trailer. Here are their answers:
1. It is your OWN bed every night.
2. It is your own fridge & freezer you keep stocked with your own food.
3. We mainly eat barbecued food outside in the fresh air and we ENJOY it because we’re not having to dash off to another event or meeting or play date or….
4. It is MUCH easier to clean than a house.
5. If we don’t like where we are staying – we just hook up and move.
6. We can bring our hockey net with us.
7. The kids are old enough to ride their bikes around the campground whereas I would NEVER let them ride on the street at our house.
8. Discovering new bike routes at each campground.
9. I sleep with my head 6” away from a window with fresh air.
10. We tend to stay at campgrounds with pools so the kids swim daily … with their dad while there mom gets ‘mom time’ to…
11. …sit at my computer and look out over the Strait of Georgia. And if we’re staying somewhere and I don’t like the view see # 5.
12. We get to go to all sorts of cool places -> like Tiger Lily Farms (http://www.tigerlilyfarm.ca/) where the kids spent over an hour chasing baby chicks around a room and then picking them up and trying to get ME to touch them.
13. I just like it.

Here are some pictures from our first week of holidays.
1. Tomas trying to get me to touch the baby chick he picked up.

2. Tomas taking some practice shots.

3. Tomas showing us his golfing prowess where he scored not one, not two, but THREE hole-in-ones. The other 3 of us combined had zip hole-in-ones.

4. Toria going for a ride.

5. Toria getting ready to get her dad with the water pistol.

Bye for now.

To laugh or to yell: that is the question

The kids are outside playing with the water hose when I tell them it is time to clean up and come in. I ask Toria to clean up the bubbles and Tomas to wind up the hose onto the hose reel thingy.

Tomas is standing at the hose reel holding onto the hose while Toria is still holding the nozzle end from spraying a bug in the swimming pool. (Do you see where this is going?)
Tomas starts pulling on the hose.
Toria starts pulling on the hose.
They look at me standing by the window watching them. Tomas yells "We're having a tug of war".
Tomas starts winning.
Toria grabs the nozzle and sprays the motherlode of water onto Tomas.

How can one admire her quick thinking and yet not yell because what she clearly did was wrong?

Heat Wave!

As some of you may know I usually try and spend at least part of the summer in good 'ol heat wave Saskatchewan. Well, NOT THIS YEAR. It was 34.9 in Victoria today!!! 34.9!

Life doesn't get much better! (Well, it might since it was cold and rainy in Saskatchewan today. NOTE TO MY PARENTS: All winter long I tried not to brag about the Vic. weather because I figured that in the summer you would be able to rule the weather vane (so to speak). ha ha ha ha ha - i was so wrong. It's still gorgeous here (+33 tomorrow). Regina: 17 and rainy. When are you coming to visit???
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Here's how the neighbourhood kids spent the afternoon:

A little water sprinkler to get a girl warmed up, err, cooled down....


Bring it on....!!


Splish Splash! [I have to let the world know that Tomas hates this hat. He thinks it is for babies (which he may have been when I bought it). However, I didn't want him to wear his cool, hip, fashionable baseball caps because I figured they'd get water logged and wrecked in the sprinklers. SO, Tomas being the fantastic kid that he is -> humoured me and wore this hat but he doesn't want anyone to think that he actually LIKES IT... because he doesn't].

Parksville with friends

Our good friends (R &M) from Edmonton were vacationing in Parksville and kindly invited us to visit. (Yippee. Any excuse for a vacation! Even better when it is with a great family.)
What a fantastic time we all had. Their children (J.& G.) are the same ages (and genders!) as our children and everyone plays so nicely. I highly recommend the French Creek House Resort (http://www.creekhouseresort.com/) if you're looking for a clean rustic place to stay. The individual cabins have furnishings that are dated but functional. There is an indoor pool, huge playing field, lots of toys and sports equipment, and, of course, the beach right there.

The Heartbreakers: Toria and her friend, G.,

Look out boys - here they come....

The girls had a fantastic time visiting and playing together. They made sure they were dressed head to toe in pink each day (except for the ocean incident... see picture below)

Toria already misses G. and is trying to negotiate the next visit.... (I'll clean up my room ONLY if we can go and visit G.)

The boys. "Look ma! No hands!"

Did anyone say 'Hot Wheels'?

Tomas and J. have a great time whenever they get together. They love playing cars together and just hanging out. I only hope that in NINE short years from now they KEEP THEIR HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL!

Tomas was very sad when J. left to go home - he thinks J. should move here so they can play cars all the time.

[And a WOW to our big strong husbands].

The Beach

"Anybody got a spare dollar? Sand dollar that is?"

Parksville has a world famous beach. During low-tide you can walk for miles. The kids weren't really dressed for it but we grabbed a few sand toys and played in the sand.

Tomas & J., spent an hour collecting sand dollars. They even found a jellyfish and brought it - in a sand bucket- to show their moms!

Nice Outfit:

The cute little girls got so wet and sandy at the beach that they had to change. Unfortunately neither mother had spare girl clothes. I mean, really, when do girls ever get dirty?

Fortunately, we were able to change them into their newly purchased matching shirts (bought at the (fantastic) Errington Farmers Market).

As for shorts.... err, we each had a spare set of their brother's shorts!

And this is why God made warm summer nights:
We reclined under the sun with more Edmonton escapees.

E. & D. (who escaped Ed. winters many years ago) are friends of R. & M. They were able to join us Saturday night for dinner and drinks. This is the way vacations were meant to be. Thanks for a great weekend!

P.S: You can learn more about Parksville by reading my article(s):

http://www.islandrvguide.com/RVTripOnVancouverIslandP1.html

http://www.islandrvguide.com/Kalyniuk-WeltaFamilyP2.html

Part 3 is available in paper format but not online yet.

I also recommend Tiger Lily Farms (http://www.tigerlilyfarm.ca/index.html) - it was great. You can feed the goats, MILK a goat, play with the baby chicks, ride a pony and even feed a cow!

I also need to add the Errington Farmers Market on Saturdays was fantastic; great food, beautiful jewelry, neat crafts and live music!

Oldie but Goodie News

SHARK TEETH:
Check out Tomas' shark teeth. He has 2 rows of teeth on the front bottom tooth. His permanent tooth grew in BEHIND his front tooth. How cool is that.

(UPDATE: The baby tooth has now fallen out).


TREE LOGGER:
We moved our eyesore wood pile from the backyard (thanks previous owners!) to beside the house. We discovered that most of the wood needed to be split so we rented a wood splitter. Todd split and my trusty wheelbarrow & I hauled.



HOCKEY DAY:
On Canada Day the kids were asked to draw a sidewalk picture of what being a Canadian meant to them. Tomas drew a picture of a hockey rink and Team Canada hockey jerseys. That's my guy!

Toria wanted to know what 'Canadian' meant. When we explained that there are many different countries and we live in Canada and are called Canadians. Our friend Marianne is from Norway and is Norwegian. She replied:"I am glad to be Canadian because it is easier to say then 'Norcawecanajon".

ARTIST AT WORK:

Toria was asked to help finish a mural about Canada. She spent almost an hour and was given 2 extra helpings of paint! We finally had to drag her away with the enticement of going to watch the magician.


AND AS IF CANADA DAY WASN'T EXCITING ENOUGH:

Look who learned how to ride a bike after we got home!
AND once that was mastered she can now get started all by herself.

That's my girl!