Witty's Lagoon

This morning we met Matthew, Stephanie and Oscar for breakfast at the My-Chosen Cafe before heading to Witty's Lagoon. I love this beach and used to spend my summers here as a kid running through the tidal pools and looking for miniture crabs.




Ella loved it today and despite the beautiful sunshine, kept saying "burrrr Mommy!". The ocean here doesn't fluctuate in temperature and all year it is freezing and hypothermic. Still fun to explore and jump the waves.

Downtown Victoria

Everytime I come home for a visit the weather is usually gorgeous... a nice treat for the west coast and all it's usual rain. I always have these romantic notions of living here, in the city, close to the water in a gorgeous old home. Ron could run through the park and we'd take evening walks on the water. It really makes me homesick. The reality is, it is so expensive to live, let alone buy a home, that we'd be hours out of the city in a not-so-nice house, both working long hours to maintain some sort of standard of living... all in a mostly rainy place. Not exactly how either of us picture life. It makes me grateful for Ron's job and the lifestyle living in the US affords us. Victoria would be an ideal retirement destination, a small place with everything we love nearby - the ocean, downtown, the park...
We spent the day wandering downtown and had lunch on the warf. When the weather is nice, it really is the most gorgeous city to be in.

West Shore

Yesterday would have been my Mom’s 57th birthday so we drove out to the memorial gardens to talk to Grandma. After a short visit, we drove around my old neighborhood and stopped at the beach to see the ducks. When I was growing up, we used to feed the ducks bread. Now, apparently, they are on a diet of whole grains and turn up their noses at anything else. Ella saw the ducks, swans and geese being fed grain by an elderly lady, who I’m not sure worked for parks or is just a very good citizen. Every year I come back, there is so much new development. The houses keep getting bigger and more extravagant, and land that was nothing but rock or forest has become some fabulous shopping.

Ella went over to play with Erin’s nephew, Zachary, for the evening while we went out for dinner with Suzanne and her sister. It was a great dinner, especially because we are all parents of young children. We might have scared Erin from ever having children after seeing how much we relish a simple dinner out with adult conversation. Seriously, it might as well been a vacation, dinner without wiping up spills or indulging a toddler so they don’t throw a temper tantrum – heaven… even if it was only a couple of hours!

Beacon Hill Park

Erin had the day off so yesterday we headed out to Beacon Hill Drive-In for the best ice cream in town and then walked over to Beacon Hill Park. The peacocks are in their mating season and the boys were all show for us. Ella was fascinated with them and they were shaking their tail feathers at all the ladies in the park. We went to the petting zoo and Ella pet all the goats. She really doesn’t fear anything or any creature. Auntie makes a great ride and is much nicer than Mommy and Daddy, who make her walk everywhere.

Last night we had dinner with some close family friends. It’s always nice to see them and really feels like home when we get a chance to visit. The view from their patio is breath-taking… but for us a little too cold to enjoy as the evening air off the water makes us the biggest wimps!

Friends

Oscar and Ella are two peas in a pod. It's so much fun to see them together....

We went with Matthew, Stephanie and Oscar to Coombs, a little touristy town outside Parksville for lunch before heading to Victoria. Coombs had a park with lots of animal statues that Ella climbed all over.
After a nice afternoon with Steph and Matt, we headed to Victoria to meet up with Erin. Her family had a picnic dinner at Beacon Hill Park with lots of family and friends... lots of babies! Everyone had little ones or were pregnant. Here's Ella with Auntie Sue (Erin's mom) and Mackenzie (Erin's neice). Too much fun!

Oh, Canada....

We arrived safe and sound in Vancouver yesterday, the first of July, Canada Day... very fitting. The overnight flight was a bit difficult as Ella took few minutes to adjust to being forced to stay seated. Once the flight took off she was alseep and slept the whole 5 hours to LA.


The 3 hour flight to Vancouver went okay, Ella was overtired, overstimulated and a bit cranky but managed to sleep most of the way.


The weather is gorgeous, warm and sunny with the nicest cool breeze. We're staying on the island and are spending our second night here in Parksville, camping with Stephanie, Matthew and Oscar. If you can really call it camping... an RV park in a loaded RV with a/c, stove, microwave, bathroom and TV. It's a very nice way to "camp".
I forget how beautiful it is here and the landscape is stunning. We headed to the river where we are camping and crossed to the other side to get to the sand. BURRRRRRRR!!! The water is freezing and the current almost had me toppled over. I did loose a flip flop to the current and as the locals pointed out it was just down there, near the shore, probably not too deep... did I mention the water is FREEZING. I did go in and get it to save face. Ron didn't even make it to his knees before deciding it really wasn't worth it...

Happy Birthday, Emmi

Today marked the last of three birthday parties in a week. June is a very popular month it seems. Emmi turned 4 and Ella has been so excited to go over to his house and play... I've been bribing her with sleeping and napping all week. Between the kids, chasing Emmi, games, bounce house, candy, cake and a pinata, Ella needed a few minutes to rest up before another round of crazy!
Here are some pictures from the day....

Zoo Birthday Party

This afternoon we headed to the zoo for a birthday party. One of Ella's many boys (why does everyone have boys??) turned 2 and had pizza, crafts, a tour, and birthday cake at the zoo. Ella had so much fun. There are lots of pictures of little Marshall and Ella, who would give him a hug every time we told her to wish him a happy birthday...

I'm also posting some video of the apes... they were loud and Ella loves to watch them over and over... hopefully Nolan, Oscar and Eli will enjoy it as well...

Downfall to Island Living

Hawaii, paradise right? Of course! But some things that make living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean a pain in the butt...

Sand: It's EVERYWHERE! It's in the car no matter how many times you vacuum it out, even when you haven't been to the beach in a while. And today, when I pulled out our luggage for our trip to Canada (in 11 days!!) there was sand in the bottom of the suitcases. What???

Necessities: Matson shipping company brings in most of the goods to the island (90% I think I heard on the news). They are in disagreement with the Hawaii dock workers and there may be a strike in the next couple of weeks. People are stocking up on supplies like water, rice, and toilet paper because a strike would mean nothing coming into the island.

Just a little island ranting... maybe we're in more need of a mainland vacation than we thought... island fever finally setting in???

Goodbye Crib

It's official, no more crib. It's been almost a week and Ella has adjusted to her new toddler bed with little effort. Now if only we could say the same about the potty training.

She goes to bed at her regular time but ends up playing for almost an hour. She doesn't come out of her room or turn on the light, she just plays quietly with her toys in her bed or her rocking chair. We go in about 30 minutes after laying her down to put up her toys and tuck her in again. She'll play a little more but when we go to bed and check on her for the night, she's still in her bed sound asleep, maybe a toy or two with her for good measure. Usually, one of her dolls is on the floor, on a pillow with a blanket - the only evidence that's she's even gotten out of bed.

She is up between 6-6:30 and sometimes turns on her light and plays in her room for a few minutes before coming in and turning on my light. I'm not sure if it's just that she's up that early or if Ron's morning routine wakes her. Either way, it's my only complaint - I have to adjust and that seems to be the only issue in the transition. Obviously, Ella got the early morning gene from Ron...

...OH! I forgot to KNOCK ON WOOD!!! Keep your fingers crossed for us...