We recently got back from what is becoming our yearly fall family vacation. This year we went all the way to the West Coast to see our old friends and visit the ocean with the kids. Below are about 1/18 of the photos I took on the trip - and yep, there are still a whole pile of them!! Again - I thank Blogger for finally making it easy to upload millions of photos all at once! ;)
First we stopped at Ryan's sister's place outside of Calgary to visit with her family and meet the kids' newest cousin, Amber:
We then continued on our way, stopping at a very scenic "rest stop" for a picnic lunch.
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| If you notice in these photos, Tegan has a really good shiner going. She hit another kid's head at school the day before we left. Makes for interesting pics!! |
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| On the road to Revelstoke - our next stop. |
We camped overnight right outside of Revelstoke, which proved to be VERY chilly camping. Not thinking clearly, having arrived much later than expected, and being that the evening was really fairly warm, we didn't dress up properly for our night in the mountains... and froze! Wow, did the temperature drop. We didn't make that mistake again!!
On our way out of Revelstoke, we stopped at an old growth cedar forest. Pretty amazing how giant these trees can grow!
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| Graye, standing beside one of the trees. |
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| Tegan also wanted to see some waterfalls, so we went for a walk over a suspension bridge to this viewpoint. Pretty amazing... and terrifying! That bridge freaked me right out. |
We made our way to our old home in Mission, BC, where the friends we had lived with 7 years ago were still living - and our old suite was open! So we moved back in for a couple of nights. Kind of strange to be back where we were 7 years ago, only now we've all multiplied - even the dogs!
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| Left to right: Neve (Milo's old buddy), Oliver (baby Mawhinney!) and Sweet Pea. She's a dreamboat, that one! Haha! |
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| Going for a walk around the lake where we used to walk Milo every day. |
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| Morgan, taking advantage of the free labour we brought with us. |
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| Helping load up the wood burning hottub... |
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| ...so that by evening it was just right! |
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While the visits are never long enough, we had to keep moving to see everything we wanted to see on this trip! Next up was the Vancouver Aquarium.
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| The jellyfish were always my favourite! |
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| They were cracking up in this bubble - and keeping all the other people walking by entertained as well! |
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| Touching the starfish and sea anemones. |
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| Tegan even gave it a try, after some coaxing. |
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| They are as big as a King penguin! |
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| First time at an ocean beach! This one's Kits beach, to be exact. |
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| I love this view of the city. |
The next morning we caught the ferry and headed over to Salt Spring Island.
As exciting as it is to be on a ferry on the ocean, 3+ hours is a little long...
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| "Ferry Calisthenics" - Ryan had them doing push ups... |
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| ...and sit ups to burn energy and pass the time. |
Eventually, we made it there though!
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| Lunch at Aunty Pestos - mussels, cheeses, meats and pasta. :D |
We found the campground we were staying at and chose this awesome site to camp in:
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| There are coffee bean burlap sacks on the fence surrounding the site. |
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| This was the shower, outdoors! Honestly, it was the very best campground shower I have ever been in. |
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| The campground also ran a nursery of sorts, with landscaping plants and mulch, etc. for sale. |
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| The leaves from the surrounding trees were HUGE! |
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| Playing "Cone Ball" - a game one of Ryan's buddies made up involving pinecones and sticks. The kids thought it was the best game ever! |
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| Graye got pretty good at it too! |
We went hunting for starfish and sea anemones and found a couple of big crabs hiding in the sand too!
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| Seriously, this kid is not afraid of picking up anything! |
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| The starfish posed a lot less of a threat - not that this concerned Graye, it was definitely my issue! |
We went on an island tour and found vineyards and cheese. Everything a person could ask for.
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| At Mistaken Identity vineyard. |
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| Feeding the Jersey cows. |
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| We bought their cheese! Yum. |
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| The deer on this island are completely unafraid of people. Tegan was the one that was scared! |
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| Another "Dangerous Adventure"! |
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| This was a petroglyph carved into a rock in the park. Also, not a real snake. Though I wouldn't put it past him. |
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| More cheese! And goat's milk ice cream. Sooooo good. |
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| Baby deer eating leaves beside the road. |
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| Love this photo! |
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| Looking at the sea anemones on these rocks. |
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| Graye had a collection of crab claws at the end of the trip. |
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| Ryan's favourite tree - the Arbutus tree. Its bark continually peels off! |
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| We drove to the "tippy top" of the mountain on the island and could see the whole island from up there! |
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| At the Saturday market - getting feathers put into her hair. Tegan has turned into an island girl! |
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| Last meal on the island before heading back into Vancouver. |
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| Waiting for the ferry - we found a beached jellyfish. Graye says I almost stung him with the tentacles when I tried to flip it over, haha! Not quite... |
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| Playing with a stretchy snake on the ferry ride back. |
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| We quickly checked out Granville Island before leaving to come home. |
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| One last stop back in Maligne Canyon by Jasper before we made it back to Saskatoon. |
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And that was the trip!! While it was an incredible amount of driving, and we missed seeing a lot of people we would have liked to have visited with, we had a great time and will hopefully be coming back again sometime sooner than another 6 years!! The kids are stellar travelers, couldn't ask for better.
