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!
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