Salt Spring Island

This past weekend, Kevin and I were able to 'get away' for a few days.  We had found a Groupon for a place on Salt Spring Island and so we snatched it up.  It was a place that neither of us had ever been to and it looked like a nice place to explore. We've been to Mayne Island  (another one of the Gulf Islands) a few times before and enjoyed it there.  Salt Spring is the biggest of the Gulf Islands.

 Esther and John and the girls graciously agreed to watch our children for the weekend, which we were extremely appreciative of.  We are blessed by their willingness to do that for us! - and our kids love it there!

We started on Friday night by taking the 10:30 p.m. ferry over to the island and arriving around midnight.  We enjoyed sleeping in the next morning and then we started exploring.  There is a huge market on Saturdays so after a late breakfast we headed there.  It was full of lots of produce, baking and other goods, all containg the word 'organic'.  Along with many other tables of jewllery, woodwork, crafts, clothing, etc., it was a fun place to poke around in for a while.

Kevin, of course, could not refrain from buying some second hand books.  Now, if he could only find the time to read them!  Maybe if the Canucks are eliminated after round 1 . . .  :(

After some time spent in the info center and looking at a few maps, we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the north half of the island, just stopping at different places and taking in the scenery.   It was a beautiful day and every place we stopped at was just gorgeous.

How nice would it be to have one of those places on the coast?  We can always dream, can't we?

After a day of walking around, we enjoyed a few bevereges by the marina, along with some local fish and chips. 

The next day we drove around the bottom half of the island, spending most of it in Rykel Provincial Park.  We felt like we were the only people around for miles!  It really was such a treat to just take some time and slow down!!

Finally, here are just a few cool shots that Kevin took of places around the island. 

Back again!

It has been a long time since I've done a blog post.  Our computer died around the end of February.  We knew it was kind of on it's last legs but thought it might last for a while yet.  Nope - it just died and would not even turn on.  At least it wasn't a virus so we knew that all of our info and pictures were safe - just locked away in a computer that wouldn't turn on!   So, after a few months of Kevin taking home his work laptop most nights for me to check e-mails, we now have a computer again.  Not having a computer during the day did make me realize a few things.  I did realize that I probably waste too much of my day doing mindless searching, blog-hopping, etc.  While those things are fun to do, I have to watch that I don't fall back into that again.  One of the pitfalls of being a stay-at-home mom!  However, I am quite happy to have a computer back again.  I can again find my recipes, do pictures, google facts that I just really need to know . . . and of course, do the odd blog post!

So, we've had a few things happen in the deWolde house hold that I'll try to do postings about - a 7th birthday, school theme days, Spring Break activities, and just life in general. I'll leave this post with a few pictures of my kiddies on some park adventures!

An all-day date

As much as I thoroughly and deeply love my children, it really is nice to get away from them for a day!!  Every year, Kevin's brother and sister-in-law and their 2 daughters offer (or agree after we ask them!) to have our kids for a sleepover and the entire following day.  So, how do we say 'no' to that!

 We began our morning with a delicious late morning breakfast from Denny's (after we had done some work on the floor downstairs but that will be another post!).   Delicious and relaxing!

 Then it was off to Vancouver.  The weather was absolutely spectacular so we just walked along English Bay and around Kits Beach.  Vancouver really is a beautiful city!

 At 3:00 we had tickets to Bard on the Beach.  We try to go to one of these plays every summer.  If you have never been to one, they are fantastic!

 This year we watched HenryVI. Times were pretty rough and dangerous at that time for anyone who was king.  The play was very well done!

 Finally it was out for a nice dinner and then back to pick up our sleeping children.  After a hot day with lots of swimming in the pool, they were tuckered right out!   Thanks John and Esther, Madison and Courtney for giving us a wonderful all-day date!

A Smithers hike

I've been in Smithers for the past few days for my niece, Michelle's wedding to Phill.  I came with Jocelyn (she still flies for free!) and just for the weekend.  Sid and Holly were here too and Sid suggested that if the weather cooperated, we should do a hike while we were here.  Friday morning turned out to be a beautiful day so off we went. Mom volunteered to watch the 3 kids for the day and  Jason and Andrea also joined us.The most popular hike around here is probably "the Onion" but that one probably would have taken us a little too long.  So, Sid did some research and came up with Astlais Mountain, a mountain beside the Onion and still part of the same mountain range.



Andrea, myself and Holly - looking for bears! We actually saw in insane amount of very fresh bear poop along the trail but we figured we were making enough noise with 5 of us to scare them all away!





This is where we were headed.



Sid and Holly

Me and Sid



Andrea and Jason on the summit!



A beautiful view through the trees on our way up.

A view overlooking the whole valley on our way down.

It turned out to be quite a difficult hike - pretty much just walking uphill for 2 1/2 hours to get to the top.  However, the views from the summit were incredible.  I was quite bummed that I fogot my camera.  Both of the cameras that we did take were having issues so I don't think these pictures even begin to do justice to the views.   It was a great day with great people!  I'll even do it again next year!

35 weeks and counting!

I don't usually post pictures of myself, but I had someone comment that they hadn't seen me pregnant so I thought I would make an exception! We are just over 35 weeks - meaning about 5 more to go! I'm still feeling pretty good, just starting to get a little heavy! We are getting things ready for our newest family member and can't wait to meet our little miracle in a few weeks!

Weekend getaway!

I spent this past weekend with my friend Monique out in Kelowna. We both decided that it had been too long since we had seen each other and it would be great to get away for a few days. So, she flew and I drove and we had an awesome weekend together - talking, laughing, shopping, eating, watching movies and just hanging out together! The weather was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed every minute of our little retreat away!

We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast called "An English Rose Garden" on the far south side of Kelowna. It was a great place, with an amazing yard and delicious breakfasts!

In the library

About 3x a week, I get out of the apartment for a little while and volunteer in the library at LCC. As Kevin mentioned in his post, they are in the process of entering all their textbooks into the library computer system. Previously, students had been signing them out the old pen/paper style. Having them all in the system will make it much easier to keep track of all the textbooks. It is a tedious job but there are usually 2 of us working at the same time so that is alright!

For 2 of those mornings, we found a student from LCC who was interested in babysitting for us. Her name is Victorija and the kids love her! She was eager to babysit some Canadian kids and so it worked well for us all! (We also had her babysit last Saturday night as Kevin received tickets to the Jazz festival downtown - we actually managed to get in a date!!)