Up There Down Here

VBS week has come and gone and I am exhausted. This year I was in charge of the games which brought back so many youth ministry memories. Conor was too old (Can you believe it?) for VBS this year so he was one of my helpers. The games were a success and the final night was family night with highlight games and inflatables. Some of the highlight games were spaghetti heads, human bowling, plasma car races and the dough sling.

Finding New Places

Dad finally had a day off and he said let's check out the beach that some church members had told us about. We were told that this beach that has lots of sea life, and they told us that it was better than Transfer Beach. Well, Transfer is one of our favorite spots, so we definitely had to check this place out. We weren't given directions. Note - must get directions! So off we went. We drove up and down this beautiful scenic route that leads to a ferry and saw lots of beach but could not find a park. We eventually stopped at a visitor information center and she told us about this Wildlife Park with a beach access. She also told us about another beach. The Wildlife Park had a lot of trails that we decided to save for another day (The beach was on our mind!!!!). This beach was very rocky and the tide had gone out, so we headed for the next place.

Wow! We are so glad that we decided to check it out. It was very windy and the water was very cold, but it was a beautiful site. Conor said that he was going in the water no matter what since we came this far (Not far - but we had been doing a lot of driving). This is the place we will go to when our house is unbearably hot. Such a nice breeze and only a handful of people were there. We so thought of G-daddy. He would have the whole beach to himself - just the way he likes it!

Soaking up the Sun

After Nanny and Great Nanny left, the kids were driving me crazy wanting to do something everyday (because that is what we did with Nanny). The weather was beautiful so we headed to our favorite spot Youbou. We had not been there yet this year because you need some really hot days to warm the water up. We were quite surprised at how wonderful the water was. The kids and their friends spent hours here and we will definitely head back up next week. The drive is approximately 30 minutes. You might laugh at that and think that that is such a short drive; however, we have water "spots" everywhere that are a lot closer (perks of being on an island). We went to Fuller Lake yesterday with Dad and had such a great time. Shane was teaching Mack how to dive off the pier. I did not get any pictures due to the fact that I was in the water as well. Maybe next time!

Buchart Gardens

What an amazing day we had today. I heard many good things about Buchart Gardens but it far met my expectation. We began our day taking a ferry ride over to Victoria and that view alone was amazing. Conor and I enjoyed watching the sea lions jump in and out of the water while we waited to board the ferry. I cannot even begin to describe the beauty of the flowers and gardens. Some of the spectatular gardens we walked through were an Italian garden, a Japanese garden, a Sunken garden, and a Rose garden. We did not stay until dark, but we were told that at night the entire park is lit up by beautiful colored lights shining on the plants, and they conclude the night with fireworks. We will definitely go back to experience the night show another time. We had a wonderful day and on our drive back Nanny got to see her snow capped mountains. What another spectacular site to end our day.

Nannies Arrive in July!

The much anticipated arrival of Nanny and Great Nana has finally come. Unfortunately the first three days had not been the best weather but finally today the sun has come out and it is here to stay for the rest of their visit. Today, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to our very favorite Transfer Beach and Maple Bay. Maple Bay is Nanny's favorite spot and she did not want to see it until the sun came out. We were greeted on the pier by a sea otter and later saw two deer by the side of a road. Tomorrow is our big day as we head on a ferry to Butchart Gardens. I will post lots of pictures of that at a later date.

So far this week we have had lots of grill outs, played lots of games, ate lots of ice cream and even had a stampin up party. The time spent together has been so great, and I know that the rest of the week will be even better.