Our Island Trip

It has been a week since we returned from our trip to the Island and at long last I am able to share some pictures with you. 

The ferry ride was great, it was about the only sunny day that we had and had clear views.

As it was nice, that first night we went and explored the beach.

We took several trips to the local toy store and played with the bubbles out front.

Then as I have mentioned before, Paul and I took J Man to Tofino for an overnight trip. The weather was cloudy and cool which is expected there but it stopped raining enough for us to head to Long Beach.

This is the view from our hotel balcony, very nice indeed. I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing.

Before we went to Long Beach we first stopped in Ucluelet, saw a fishing boat and got wet by the rain.

The rest of our time on the Island was spent relaxing.

Except for some of us that thought running a few blocks from Grandma's house to the house we were staying was fun!

We also had lots of great family time and made great memories. We are glad that we now will live close so we can do this more often!

Oh, on a side note, these two pictures were taken by one of the kids, I don't remember which one, they were all taking turns. Pretty good I might add!

A Nap Plus Snakes Equals No Sleep

Last night was by far the most tiring night we have had in years in our house. It really all began with us going the Aquarium and watching a 4D movie in which there were some very harmless underwater snakes. The girls had talked so much about the snakes that I believe if they hadn't J Man would have watched the whole movie, including the snakes, and been fine. Then we hit the car for a longer ride home and J Man is sleeping instantly. To our defence, the movie was very 3 yr old friendly and we try REALLY hard not to have J Man nap in the car.

There were a few more factors though that contributed to our night. My mom was flying out at 6am this morning and Paul needed to drive her there at 4am, so there was action in the house around 2:30 onward as they got ready to leave. We all went to bed early for that reason and J Man was still wide awake even when us adults went to bed.

Ok, on to the night adventures.

2:30am. J Man wakes up in terror and runs into our room yelling about snakes in his bed.

Over the next two hours I tried many different tactics to solve the snake fearing boy problem.

First tactic. I was firm.
"Go Back To Bed Jude!" "No, there are NO snakes in your bed, go back to bed!" "Look, feel your bed, NO SNAKES!"

Tactic Two. I was compassionate.
"ok, hunny, you can climb in my bed to sleep" Doesn't this tactic usually work? Really, in my defence again, we haven't had to deal with stuff like this since Cici was 2, Beaner NEVER left her bed, she didn't even know she could. After about a half hour of getting kicked and poked I woke to a boy wide awake sitting up in MY bed pointing to snakes in MY bed! REALLY?? My bed was supposed to dispel any fear in this boy, now he was scared and seeing snakes in my bed too!

Tactic Three. Ignore him.
This worked for Cici, when she was two we would just ignore her and eventually she would see the futility in her actions and just head to bed to stay. After putting the boy who was scared of snakes back into HIS bed from mine he came out and stood by my bed and whispered to me. By this time, Paul had gone and it was all me. He whispered and whispered, I ignored and ignored, until I heard his whisper that he had to poop. AH!! So, up I get AGAIN and help him find the light and wait for 5 minutes as he does his thing.

Tactic Four. Get REALLY FIRM!
After helping him in the potty, I turned out the light, told my son (who was playing with a car in the hall in the dark) that I was going to bed! I laid down to the sound of birds starting to wake up outside my window and listened to him crawl around in the dark in the hall, then he started playing with his blind in his window. I am a responsible parent even when I am REALLY TIRED and decided that me sleeping and letting my 3 yr old loose in the house was a bad idea. So, I marched into his room, put him in bed and as firm as I could communicate without yelling and loosing all control told him to "STAY IN BED!!!!!" He said "alright mommy" and that was it.

Conclusions.

I have no idea what I am doing as a parent and this is just another example.

Wondering

Wondering where I have been? Well here is a sneak peak.



We have been traveling around the past 10 days on Vancouver Island visiting family. We are back now at my parents house which is our "almost home" for the next 10 days until we move into the place we will rent for the next year.

There is lots to say but perhaps tonight isn't the night, although, we added another poop story to the Truman archive tonight. This one involved the beach, our 3 yr old boy, a perfectly shaped log to perch on and a very quick thinking father who deserved a high five for his actions! The day... and undies... were saved. Night.

The Aquarium

I love Stanley Park. I love to walk around the beautiful forests, walk along the beaches, the spray park, the miniature train but one of my favourite places there is the Aquarium. We haven't been in years, but now that we live here again we have gotten a membership and can go anytime we want. The kids are at a great age now to enjoy it too.

As we were walking around there was quite a commotion at the sea lion exhibit. We headed over just as a huge sea lion was being wheeled in a cage right past us, we could have touched him if we wanted but knew better not to! He was calling to his buddies in the exhibit, they are really loud if you were wondering! We never did see him go back into the exhibit with his friends but were able to catch one of his friends looking for his arrival.

The kids loved all the hands on stuff...

... even the unexpected stuff!

The aquarium didn't come without it's danger though, Paul nearly got pooped on by this bird.

I nearly got hit by this one!

Don't know what these are but there were tons of them in a tank all moving up and down in and out of the sand, pretty funny.

The frogs were a huge hit with the girl's especially Cici, she is a frog lover.

We were sprayed by a Beluga Whale, went on a 4D adventure movie (where we also got sprayed!), saw lots of cool fish and animals and generally felt like this... 

... by the end of the day!

It doesn't get much better

It doesn't get much better than reading out loud to a furry friend in the sun.

Canada Day

I can't think of a better way to spend Canada Day then how we did yesterday. We first got together with some great friends of ours from where we just moved from. We had lunch together, went to the beach where the kids got way too dirty and wet and shared lots of laughs. I didn't realize how much I missed them till we saw them again yesterday, and I think I miss them more now. I love friendships that no matter where you meet up again you fall back into that same comfortable state.

Then we decided to do something that we had never done with the kids before, watch fireworks over the ocean. It was an amazing night to watch them. We got there before the sun went down and got to watch the sky and water turn a beautiful golden pink.

We waited and threw rocks into the water.

We searched the skies for birds and bats.

We had hot chocolate.

We even brought my parents!

Then the show began.

I must say that I have never photographed fireworks before. Before we left I frantically googled how to and got some advice on my ISO, shutter speed etc, but I determined without a tripod I might just have to wing it. So, this is what I captured. It is more abstract than I hoped but I still like the results. If any of you want some abstract art just let me know!