More Spring Break

Well here are a few pictures of us while out on the backroads around here.

The first set of pictures where the horses are behind a fence, are taken at a corral we stopped at. The kids petted the horses and their foals. They enjoyed it alot...the foals were really tame and loved to be scratched. The one tried to nibble on our clothes a few times.































It looks like there was a conversation happening here. =)

After seeing the tame horses we got back in and started driving. After a short drive we came across a bunch of wild horses. There is a pretty big herd of them here.


Can you see the horses up ahead?



We thought they were so pretty!



This guy was showing off his teeth to us. :)


This one had blue eyes! Beautiful but kinda creeepy. [:-S



It has been a really hard winter. The snow came early and stayed late...so almost all the horses are super skinny! :(



This one was too weak to fend off the coyotes.


And this coyote apparently became lunch for someone else. :P yuck!


I let the kids drive...again!

Back to School.

Today the kids went back to school. I hate sending them back. I miss them a ton! We've been so busy over spring break. we've been out just about every single day of the break, doing fun things together. It's been a blast. I will add some pictures of our time together...may even do it today...we'll see....but in the meantime.....here I am--kinda lonely and trying to make myself do the things that need to be done, rather than wanting to be out gallivanting with the kids still!


Me: missing my kids!! {:)) (my playmates! haaahaaa)

A day of Adventures! (updated today)

Today we decided we had to get out and find something fun to do, since we have a cousin here and wouldn't want to spend his whole visit sitting around home!




The kids decided that a hike up a local mountain would be fun, so we loaded up the dogs and off we went. We made a detour on the way up to the mountain. We stopped at Tim Horton's and got coffee for me and hot chocolates all round....everyone was pleased with this. :)

Here are some pictures from our short climb up the mountain...The white part that you see is a sign of our town's name...I think they stole the idea from Holly*wood.


























When we got back down to the van I decided to go for a drive up into the bush. The kids LOVED this idea.


Aren't they pretty?! A mule deer doe and her fawn from last year.(I think)


It was a bit of a drive first...there is a tiny town that we stopped in on the way. My nephew from Surrey thought it was quite funny how they had a post office/deli/ movie/grocery/liquor store all in one . I bought everyone an ice cream and we headed up the road into the bush. The sign said 18 km to where we wanted to go. I hadn't considered what the road would be like once we got to the end of those 18 kms! Silly me! :P

The roads were great at the bottom but as we got farther along, the roads got muddier and wetter and eventually snowy and a bit of ice to top it all off! :P

It really wasn't too bad or I would have turned around, but every once in awhile the kids would all scream...and say "slow dooown!" I told them that if I slowed down at that point we would only get stuck!!






Anyway..it was definitely an adventure! We did a bit of slipping and sliding but made it to the top. It ended up being a parking lot full of snow, ice and water...which I made sure I didn't stop in the middle of!


The kids all hollered as we bounced over the ruts in the ice and up onto the dirt at the edge of it all!

This was taken on the way back down the mountain. A massive wildfire went through here about 3 years ago and burnt a ton of bush and dozens of homes. You can see by the background that the fog/snow was starting to close in as we came back down.


Anyway, it was time to turn around and head straight back down the mountain, since we needed to go pick up Lindsay from a friend's house and head to Grandma's house for dinner...which we were late for! Oops...we were having too much fun and lost track of time!
We all had a great time......especially my nephew! I let him drive!! He's turning 16 this year which is legal driving age, so he's not too, too young. :)



Crazy you say....mmm yeah.. it's debatable. But I must say that he was very good..he didn't go too fast and was very mature and kept the vehicle in good control. I let him drive for about 15 minutes, then it was time for me to take over. It seems to be a bit of a tradition with me....the cousins like to go for drives with Auntie out in the bush!

Spring Break

Last Friday night we decided to go for a trip to Vancouver Island....taking off in less than 24 hours from the time of our decision.

And we're off!!

All the girls and I took off on Saturday morning. We went as far as my brother and sister in law's house in Surrey. It took us 7 hours because we made a few stops and it was really foggy in a couple areas and slippery and rainy too.
The roads were kinda snowy and really foggy...although the camera sees through the fog better than we do!

The roads weren't too bad...a bit of snow here and there but for the most part they were pretty clear. I don't really like driving at night especially when it's raining--so it was a fairly slow trip.

Looking at their holiday videos on the laptop.

We stayed in Surrey Saturday and Sunday nights and headed out on Monday morning. On Saturday night we all went bowling...all 11 of us! It was fun...but I really sucked at bowling so I let the kids bowl my last 5 or 6 turns.

On the way to the bowling alley.


My sis in law and our kids at the bowling lanes.



Silliness at the bowling alley. :)



My nephew at the lanes.

I took 2 nephews and a niece with us. We caught the ferry over to the Island...it's a 2 hour ride. We love the ferry and always enjoy the trip.

Out in the cold for a quick picture on the ferry.


We usually spend quite a bit of time outside on the ferry but this time we spent the majority of our time inside..just a few minutes outside to look around, take a few pictures and then back inside. It was pretty cold. My Mom met us at the ferry because I had one more child than seatbelts. Three kids jumped in with Nana. We stopped at Mc*Donalds (YUCK!) for lunch and then headed to Mom's--which is about an hours drive. What a beautiful drive it is..along the ocean. We pulled over at one point to see some sea lions. They had their big fat carcasses laid out on some log booms. We stopped for just a few minutes and then got back on our way. We stopped at my brother and sister in law's place too. They just finished building a new house and I hadn't seen it yet so stopped to say "hi" and see them. Their house is so beautiful! It's also huge! I'll post some photos...I didn't get very many but I'll post the few that I did take. I had my camera along but the kids and I shared it, so it wasn't always with me....and then sometimes I just forgot to take any pictures. :-S
Monday dawned bright and beautiful...it was so great to see the sun as we've had a very gray winter. We figured we'd better get out and enjoy the weather since the forecast was calling for rain for the rest of the week. Mom and I took the kids to the ocean. We walked out onto the tidal flats where the kids dug up oysters. They filled a couple of buckets. It was so windy and chilly that I went back and sat in the van for the last hour. It was lovely...I sat and did crosswords and soaked up the sun. The kids started coming back...laden with oysters....I was thinking...oh noooo....HOW am I going to cook oysters?? "Man this is going to be one STINKY mess!" Then much to my relief, someone noticed a sign saying that the shellfish was not safe to be eaten!! I was relieved, as they dumped the buckets back into the water! The trip is a blur as I sit here trying to remember what we did! It's terrible! The kids are reminding me....that on Tuesday they made gingerbread and sugar cookies. This is something of a tradition that the kids and Nana have. They make cookies and decorate them. They love it! :)
Wednesday Nana took the younger kids to the wave pool. My brother Dan was home early from work so after he dropped his daughter off to have a birthday tattoo done, him and the older kids and I headed out to a certain beach that is known for it's big waves. It was AMAZING! But unfortunately I didn't have a camera. I leant it to my niece to take to the tattoo shop with her. The waves were soo big..it would be a great beach for body surfing. It was really windy and chilly. We walked down the beach looking for shells and whatever else we could find that was of interest. Courtenay found a bunch of pretty oyster shells that she brought home. I think she wants to make an ocean theme for her bathroom downstairs.
Thursday Mom took Lindsay down to Victoria to the passport office. Lindsay has an athletic competition down in the US next month and needs to have her passport. They got into the office with about 30 minutes to spare! I was so happy that Mom offered to drive her down. It's about a 31/2 hour drive that I was not looking forward to making! They got it all taken care of and the passport should arrive here in about 2 weeks! yay!!
While they were gone the kids stayed at Mom and Dad's place and had a quiet day of playing on the Wii, reading, dressing up and just spending time together.
I'll continue this later...and add more pictures to finish off the trip.