Victoria BC

We had the great opportunity to visit Victoria, British Columbia with my parents this August.  We started out in the morning leaving from home after breakfast to drive up to the ferry.  The drive is about 5 hours, and we were supposed to be at the ferry an hour before our 2:50 departure.  About two hours into the drive, Olivia got sick in the car.  This is becoming somewhat of a regular thing for her.  We think it may be the DVD player.  We stopped at a rest stop outside of Cle Elum and got her freshened up and wiped out the car best we could.  This break eliminated our cushion of time and made me pretty nervous for getting to the ferry on time, but we made it without further incident.

Cars all lined up, waiting for the Ferry - which ended up coming in late.  

The kids loved riding the ferry.

Our ride to Vancouver Island was very pretty.  The ferry travels through the San Juan Islands and is beautiful and scenic.  On the Canadian side, we got through customs and then drove into Victoria.  We were staying at the same hotel with my parents, but didn't really have any way of contacting them.  Our cell phones don't work internationally at all.  I kept thinking of how simple vacations must have been before cell phones. Because of the lack of instant communications, it must have been much more relaxed.  As luck would have it, we pulled up to the hotel valet right as my dad and mom were coming out of the hotel.  When I got out to hand off the keys, I heard dad calling my name.  We checked in and then went for a walk downtown to see the water front.  When we came home we had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant.  It was my first time to have Poutine fries. Man, I wish that I could have those every day. So yummy.

The next day we set of in the morning to go berry picking.  We were able to find some farms still open with blueberries.  It was late in the season and everything was ripe and delicious.

 The farm we went to was rather small.  It had perhaps an acre of berries, and then a small fenced plot for horses. I call this small, because here in Kennewick, the farms we visit have huge berry patches. Across the street from the farm, there was a pie and produce stand attached to another local farm.  We bought a strawberry pie, some focaccia bread and had a nice lunch outside on a picnic table at the entrance to their farm. For entertainment, they also had a few farm animals right next to the picnic area.  Our kids loved watching the pig, goat and pony. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel so that Levi could take an afternoon nap.  Dad stayed behind at the hotel with Levi;

 Mom and the rest of us went for a stroll through the city.  We found the weekend arts fair at Bastion Square.

 Mollie and my mom both found some fun jewelry. We capped off our city tour with a trip to the Soda Shoppe.  We got tons of fun treats and headed back to the hotel.

After recouping and regrouping, we went out to the Butterfly Garden.  It was amazing.  I have never seen so many butterflies.  They apparently import 400 larvae every week to keep it stocked.

We had a great time looking at probably 20 different varieties. The brochure had great pictures and information about each variety and the kids enjoyed hunting for each one. It was an indoor garden that was conditioned to be a humid tropical forest.  In addition to the butterflies, there were koi fish and turtles and some birds. We spent probably 1-2 hours meandering and enjoying ourselves.  Unlike some big outdoor gardens which we had considered going to, this was not a lot of walking. The kids loved it.

We came home and had dinner, chatted for a while and retired.

Sunday we started out with some play time at a local park.  We had enough time that morning to go out before checking out of the hotel.  We found a nice downtown park with a play structure and adjacent duck pond.

I got time to chat with my parents while the kids all explored a new playground. After we checked out,we had planned on attending a ward that was in the afternoon on the way to the ferry.  We had enough time to go to another playground for lunch and then to the ward. After church, and with With Wonderbars and all dressed chips in our trunk, we headed back up to the ferries.

The ferry ride at twilight was stunning.

Ours left around dinner time, and with the long ride and customs, we got back on the road in America around 9pm, with a 5 hour drive ahead of us. Mollie and I took turns and made it safely home, albeit very late. We really enjoyed Victoria, BC, and it was especially nice to be able to share it with GG and Grandpa.

Summer Tipi

I was randomly inspired by a photo on the cover of a magazine of a little girl sitting inside of a tiny tipi.  I thought it would be so fun for the kids to have a tipi of their own they could hang out in in the backyard, so I started searching for tutorials on making a tipi.  A canvas drop cloth seemed like the ideal material, and I found a great tutorial using one.  I got all the supplies together, cut the pieces and let the kids go wild with the paint.  I gave them a few ideas, but pretty much let them do whatever they wanted.

  It took me about a week to find the time to get it all sewn together, and then drill the stakes and tie them together to make the full tipi.  But once it was done, the kids LOVED it.  It happened to be rainy that day, so we set it up in the great room.  There's enough room for all the kids to be in there together, and they really like that they can tie the door shut.

Since then we've gotten plenty of use out of it on sunny days, and even took it with us on our trip to Bear Lake.