Family Rocks

Family day 2018 was partially spent out at French Beach today. It was a glorious blue sky day and the waves at the beach were pretty good. Sue, the kids, myself and my mom all explored the beach with the dogs. We launched sticks and wood for later rock targets, we looked for interesting rocks, and played on the logs. Great fun today. We even watched a sea lion frolicking just off shore.

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Worlds Recording

Last weekend we did a whirlwind trip to Vancouver to take the kids to Science World to see the Body Worlds exhibit. To do the trip on the cheap we took transit while there. Overall it’s cheaper and convenient, but still cost quite a bit. $50 each way for the ferry, parking costs for Victoria, then $27 for transit.

Science world was a blast and we had a pretty good time poking around, playing with things, and learning. The Body Worlds was fascinating, but Amy had a hard time with it and felt a bit queasy at times.

   
   
  

    
   
  
  
We caught a show outside titled Reduce, Reuse, Rescience. It was mainly showing new and interesting ways to reuse 2 litre pop bottles. There were rockets, mentos in Diet Coke, a cloud in a bottle, then the dry ice bomb. Funny thing was the dry ice bomb was taking forever to go off. The person running the show eventually decided it was a dud and as everyone was standing up to leave, it went BOOM! Pretty spectacular, but sadly I had stopped recording the movie I was working on.

Sunday we took the sky train to meet some friends for brunch. It was great to catch up with them while we were there. Thankfully they drove us to the ferry, which saved a bit of time.

Less than 30 hours on the mainland, but lots of fun.

Monster Bucks

Recently I learned that the monster trucks were coming back to Western Speedway. After checking with sue, we told the kids and made a family night of it. This was Elliot’s second trip there, and Amy’s first.

We watched a great night of racing that included lots of hit to pass racing, monster trucks, bomber cars, and the end of the night featured a demolition derby (I think this was Elliot’s favourite part). Throughout the night the rain threatened, and at one point we felt a few sprinkles, but it held off until the demo derby.

The kids both had a great time and did very well despite the late night. I really do love sharing activities like this with them. Maybe next time we will be organized enough to eat dinner before we go and save a few bucks.

My videos:


Island Troupe

In the summer while the kids were off of daycare, Elliot declared that his dog stuffie named Island was having a birthday. Sue asked him if he wanted to have a party, and offered to make cupcakes. Since it was warm out, we had the cupcake party outside.

The cupcakes that I iced. Not a professional by any means.

Elliot and the guest of honor.

Some of the other guests, Jingles and Ribbit.

Amy and her troupe of guests.

At one point a neighbour was out working in her garden and smiled at us. I offered up a cupcake but she declined.

Pumpkin Passes

Today we headed out to Galey Farms to go on a hay ride and pick our pumpkins. We met up with a friend of ours and her two children. The four kids had fun on the ride, but Amy was not interested in picking out a pumpkin.

After getting our pumpkins we went and got some hot chocolate and mini donuts. After ‘lunch’ we visited the petting farm area, played on the playground and watched the train go by.

The kids started to get tired so we headed to the car. Right as we got to the car, one of the owners of the farm was walking by and asked if we had a good time. Then he asked if we had ridden the train yet. After we said no, he asked if we wanted to. He then gave us some free passes for the train! The kids were all over that. The owner is really supportive of families and wanted to make sure we had a good time. We thanked him, then went and got in line.

The kids waited patiently for our turn and when the train came back we all climbed aboard. The ride was about 15 minutes, and the kids loved it. Now thoroughly worn out we got into the car and headed home. Lots of family fun!

Midway Donuts

Sunday we wanted to go see the midway for the Tea Party. Actually, Sox and I really wanted some mini donuts, and we thought it would be fun for the kids too.

Sprout went on his first fair ride ever, and he had so much fun that he went a second time. He also played one of the games were you pick a duck that is floating by, and it tells you how big of a prize you win. He won himself a medium prize ( he picked a pink tiger), and won his sister a small prize (he picked an orange whale).

After the fun at the midway we got some donuts and went to play on the beach for a bit. Good family fun.

Of course I had my camera there and couldn’t resist some midway action shots. Not many rides were going yet, and the sun was high and bright. I left my polarizer at home too. Grr.