Goldstream

 October 15th was my first weekend day off in almost 2 months. We took advantage of the oppertunity and headed down to Victoria. On the way, we stopped at Goldstream in hopes of seeing some salmon run. Unfortunately, the fish are late this year, so we will have to try again later.

As we were parking, we ran into an old friend. Donna  Veepkamp was my 'Big Sister' when I was growing up. She was also out enjoying the sunshine and walking her dogs with her husband and son. It was nice to see her.


 We took a few photos of the kids...

And of our new friend 'Flat Stanley'. He was sent to us by a young boy who is a son of one of Ryan's card collecting associates in the US. He had quite the adventure and saw some beautiful sights. 

 You may be having a sense of Deja-vu with these photos. For good reason! We have photographed the kids at this particular log over several years. This is this year-------->

 <------This is 2 years ago. You can just hear Ethan exclaiming "El-la!" over some minor annoyance.

 <-----This one is from three years ago. Ethan would be about 1 1/2 and Evelyn would be 3 1/2.

This one here ------->
is from 2 years ago, so they are 2 1/2 and 4 1/2.

Finally, below is from this year. Ethan is almost 5 and Evelyn is approaching 7. I don't think we'll be able to put Ethan inside the log next year!

 After Goldstream, we visited with Ryan's Dad and Maralee for a bit, then Ryan took his dad to a movie (as a birthday present for him). The kids and I visited with my mom during that time. Then, we met up again after the movie and headed to Ryan's grandparents house for a short visit. Then, home.

Rainbow Sweaters

We match! Maralee knitted this colourful (and cozy) sweater for me as a birthday present.

Kindergarten thanksgiving

I got my eyes on you!

Ethan's tablemates. Boston and ...?

Playing kinex with Ben

A birthday Visit

Dawne and Tyson bring out the cake.

Mmmmm.... Black Forest Cake from the light house bakery in Langford.

Story time with Auntie Dawne.

Ethan and Tyson in their Monkey Sweaters (made by Grandma)

The Cousins in their sweaters from Grandma.

Ethan hid in his stuffy bucket and fell asleep!

A new haircut

First Days of School

Evelyn started grade 1 last week. She will be in Mrs.Smoker's class this year and has almost entirely new classmates. There is just her and one other girl from her class from last year.

Ethan started kindergarten yesterday. He will be in Mrs.Symbaluk's class who is job sharing with Ms. McKay for the first while. He has already made a couple friends and has eased into being busy all day without much problem. (His sweater was made by his Grandma Maralee, he calls it his 'Monkey Bunkers' sweater after a stuffed money that he has with the same name.)

This photo is from his orientation morning.

River Lodge 2011

Pipers Lagoon Park

 We explored a new park this afternoon. It's actually just across the bay from Neck Point Park. We had seen the colourful shacks from that park and today we actually got to visit them!






Evelyn loved the view as much as I did.

We were at the park near the end of low tide and were able to walk across to the shacks on dry ground. It was heavily covered in oysters, so I think it may be a farm ground for an oyster company.

 By the time we got over the barnacle encrusted oyster field, and had poked around the shack for about 5 minutes, the dry ground was already starting to disappear. We ended up wading back through calf deep water! I was surprised how fast that tide turned!

 The park is comprised of a long narrow neck with beach on each side, and a sort of island at the end of the neck. It reminds me of Esquimalt Lagoon except it only has one access point. The land at the end of the long spit is very rocky and hilly. In many areas, the footpath disappears into a rocky hill and it is left to the walker to choose their path. Later on, the trail will resume. This island (sort of) is criss-crossed with multiple trails. I think a person could explore the island a different way for weeks. The trails were uneven, rocky and narrow. It made for a good adventure.

After walking around the point of the spit, we checked out a really sweet fort some kids had built in a small wooded area. They had even built a couple lofts in the trees! Evelyn and Ethan were eager to help build and play in the fort, but as they added sticks etc, it began to collapse in a couple places. I decided that climbing up to one of the lofts, or being inside the fort was not the safest idea and I made them leave. As you can imagine, they were not happy campers with that decision. 

 But, once cooler heads had once again returned, they understood my reasoning and got busy enjoying the beach. They found the log above with a maze of insect tracks.

They also decided to make the roots of a fallen tree into a pirate ship.

 That tree kept them occupied and engaged in imaginative play for about 20 minutes. It would have lasted longer, but I had to get home.

Ahoy!