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.
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