Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day a week earlier with Josh this year because next weekend the kids will be at my parents house while Josh and I celebrate my birthday. We went hiking at Mt. Seymour on the Dog Mountain Trail. It's about a 2 hour return trip, but we took about 2.5 hours to hike it instead, along with a nice lunch break at the view point. The trail is harder with many roots, rocks and hills to climb over, but the trail ventures up and down at points so it's easier on the body than the Grouse Grind that goes straight up. At the top you are rewarded with a spectacular view of the city. After the hike we came back into town and had a nice break at home before heading out to dinner with my family at Phenom Penh. As if the chicken wings weren't good enough, we topped off the evening with a trip to La Casa Gelato. Good thing we went on that hike. As we pulled up, Ethan shouts, "Oh, I see it. I know here. I love here."

Happy Father's day, babe. You are an awesome father and husband. We love you so much.

Photo credit to this one goes to Ethan. Actually, I found a burst of about 27 copies on Josh's phone!

First Camping Trip of the Season

The weekend spots at Alice Lake are pretty hard to book, but in an effort to still get a trip in at the beginning of June, we did a quick Sunday night trip. We left town early on Sunday even though the camp sites don't open up until 2pm. We spent he day at the lake and the Brown-Johns even came up for the day. The weather was fantastic (30 degrees, but a nice wind kept us cool) and it felt great. By about 4:30 most of the weekend campers had gone home for the weekend and the campsite was nice  quiet. The one night stay turned out to be a great way to start the season because it allowed us to test out the van and restock it with basics. Hopefully the next time we go in mid-July the pack will be even easier!

On the Monday we spent another whole day at the lake. It was super quiet and we had fun going in and out of the lake, relaxing and watching the kids play in the sand. Looking forward to our other 3 trips planned later on this summer!

 

This is the pirate ship the kids built. They'd both sit on the rocks at the front. Maddy steers and looks out of pirates.

When she spots one, she calls out to Ethan and he throws the cannonballs (the other rocks beside him) over board. 

Priceless, since they'd only land with a thunk 2ft in front of him.  They kept this up for quite a while.  

 All that guiding and scouting might be paying off. Maddy made fire starters and we tested them out. 

Ethan insisted that he'd learned how to build the fire and he did.

 Seems they can build a fire all by themselves.

 Chippies and family game of 'Go Fish". Ethan is in heaven.

 You have to try this on your next camping trip. Fill a waffle cone with with strawberries, banana, choc chips and marshmellows. 

Wrap in foil and set over fire. Better than s'mores!

Scouts Camping Trip

Ethan's Beaver group had a camping trip at Alice Lake this year. The whole family is invited to attend but Maddy's choir concert was the same weekend, so the boys had some great bonding time. Ethan LOVED. EVERY. MINUTE. I feel like he came home a different boy. So grown, confident and sure of himself. It was so fun to hear him tell about all the different things he got to do. This year has been such a big one for Ethan and I attribute a lot of it to his experience in Beavers. I love that he has his own 'thing' to go to and that he enjoys it so much. The Scouts Canada organization is run purely by volunteers and they are definitely gunning for Josh to sign up. Yikes!

 

 

 So the first night back home from the camping trip, we found Ethan sleeping like this at night.

 I think someone had such a good time and missed it when he got back.

Mother's Day

I had the best Mother's Day this year. I had an awesome sleep in followed by breakfast in bed. We then spent the entire day being 'tourists' in Stanley Park. Drove around to all the different playgrounds, beaches and attractions the park had to offer. Spent the whole day there and end it all with a dinner at the Ramen Butcher. No cooking (or cleaning) the whole day long! Awesome.

Spring 2015

So I'm noticing a trend. I tend to have all these ideas for different blog posts throughout the season and life gets so busy that I don't get around to posting them. Then when a new season is just about upon us, I freak out because I haven't posted much for that last few months. When this freak out happens, I buckle down and post a ton all at once. I don't this changing much as life is getting much busier. I still want to keep this blog going because it really is for me, and I do love going back to read old posts. So here is stuff we've been up to this Spring. (In no particular order)

 Ethan's Beavers group had a sleepover at Science World. He had a blast with Josh.

 Almost the last week of Spring, but the weather feels like summer. We went strawberry picking with the DIDO group.

 Bye, bye train table. The kids opted for an open surface instead. Funny thing is they play with the tracks even more now.

 Maddy's Brownie group had a camp skills day. Here they are setting up a tent.

 Ethan joined a floor hockey/indoor soccer parks and rec session. He really enjoyed himself. So awesome to see him take part.

 I am now one of Maddy's Brownie leaders. Call me Green Owl. Here we are on a tour of the Canada Line Skytrain.

 For school this year, Maddy worked on a story called Tiger the Cat. We had it published.

 Bittersweet to watch Maddy's last choir concert. She's decided to try gymnastics next year.

To get her "Be a Chef" badge for Brownies, Maddy had to plan, prep and cook a full meal. I could definitely get used to this.