Beautiful BC

For Easter/Spring Break this year, the boys and I flew out to Victoria for two weeks. Miles was able to join us for the middle week. Being that I flew both ways on my own, I eventually lost count of how many people told me I was crazy or asked, "are they ALL yours?!" We had a great trip and Miles and I were even able to get away up-island overnight for our tenth wedding anniversary. My sister and her family came over for the Easter weekend and the boys enjoyed playing with their cousins, having an egg hunt etc. We also did some family photos down at Mile '0' and we anxiously await the arrival of those! I was able to catch up with a couple friends & cousins for coffee, lunch, manicures or whatever worked! As always, there are always many more people you'd love to see but time just doesn't permit! Maybe next time (or you're always welcome to come visit me!) I've put the pictures in order from oldest to most recent, so scroll to the bottom if you wanna start at the beginning!

BEACON HILL PARK - PETTING FARM:

Kids, kids & more kids...

They love to climb... even on backs!

"Mom - the goat's eating my hoodie!"

Cole pestering the 'maternity ward'

Me & my boys :)

VICTORIA FIREHALL:

(thanks to Uncle Glenn for letting the boys play on a truck for a few minutes)

Ethan in his glory!!!

Liam & Jack

Grammie & the littlest fire chief

Ethan - check out his reflection in the mirror

MATTICK'S FARM:

Got to visit my high school friend, Coree - we had breakfast at Mattick's Farm (at Adrian's) - she was also 'home' visiting her family for spring break

TULISTA PARK:

Miles & I took the boys to a park, the day before he had to leave. A gorgeous day!!! We also ran into my friend Andrew & his kids, so was great to see them - had coffee with his beautiful wife the next night!

Cole swinging with the cherry blossoms

Jackson - 'walk the line'

Ethan - flying high

Liam in his element...

EASTER:

Easter baskets & eggs

Bunnies!!! (spin off of the barrell of monkeys)

Dad showing off his talent

my cousin Maren & my sister Sarah

Elise & Ethan

'Ring-Pop' bunny faces - these things were so sticky that they got to finish them in the bathtub

Todd & Jackson

Play-Doh chickies = hours of fun!

Auntie Sarah brought the kids all fire hats, leftover from Scotty's party

NURSING HOME:

(visiting Great Granny)

Liam & the fish at the home

Elise & Liam with Uncle Angus

Great Granny and the gang (with Angus' help for crowd control)

Ethan and Granny

Heading to family pictures.... (can you tell that it's bright out!? - I love Liam's 'Popeye' look!)

PARKSVILLE:

Lagoon Mini-golf (a tugboat named after me)

A guy that I mini golfed with... his score was better than mine!

Smoke salmon eggs benny - my new fave! I had it three times on my trip and it's sooo good! I have no desire to know how many calories were involved but it was definitey worth all the rice cakes & 0% Source yogurt that I hafta eat now :)

Me & my hubby - 10 years later

The view from our deck at Tigh Na Mara - I had forgotten about the arbutus trees

Parksville Beach - the four shells represent the boys :) Awwww....

FRIENDS, FUN & FEET:

Leticia, Me & Dayna - Dayna and I were planning to go for manicures & pedicures in honour of our birthdays which are a week apart in March and so we went & spent the afternoon, getting pampered by Leticia! It was great to visit once again - it's been awhile!

Feet - mine are the RED toes :)

long awaited MEXICO pictures...

On Tuesday, November 18th we got up at 4:15am and took a 5am shuttle to the airport. Our plane left at 7:05am and we were no sooner on the plane when I realized that Liam severely needed his pants changed! Argh! Very maddening but nothing I could do about it just then because we were getting ready for take-off! Once we were in the air, he told me 'Mommy I pooed" and it was oozing out the top... Cole had fallen asleep as we ascended so Miles had to take Liam to the itsy bitsy airplane bathroom & was sooo not impressed! As I cleaned up Liam's seat (yeppers!), Cole woke up, so I headed to the back to take over for my poor hubby. Thankfully I had packed an extra t-shirt for Liam and swimming trunks, so that's what he wore for the duration of the day! Quite the plane ride and a GREAT start to our day.... we had a 5 hour layover in the Dallas Ft. Worth airport. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 6:30pm and we were told that we were ahead of schedule but ended up being delayed because apparently "ONE ENGINE DIDN'T ACCELERATE ON TAKE-OFF"... um HELLO!!!??? But we made it.... to CABO SAN LUCAS :)

4:15am - Liam still sleeping while the others are up and VERY excited!!!

Excited??!! Just a bit :)

Day Five: Saturday, November 22 - Miles & Ethan went parasailing!!!

We took a water taxi over to the marina one day & the waves lulled Cole to sleep! This backpack must have been a novelty because we sure head a lot of heads turning as we walked the beach - someone even told Miles that he must be from Canada because Americans don't have this many children!... what about the McCaughey's, Jon & Kate, the Duggars, Octomom etc!?

Climbing the rocks at 'Lovers Beach' - we took a water taxi over here on our last full day, so that we could play on a calmer beach.

Taking a stroll on Lovers Beach - you can see the resort strip in the background

Our 'Sunset Cruise' on the Buccaneer Queen - a pirate ship!!!

Everyone got their picture taken when they got on the ship

Sailboats in the sunset

The Arch...

Jackson & Ethan

Cole playing with borrowed beach toys :)

Playing in the pool with daddy was definitely a highlight for the boys

Floating around... it's a rough life!

Ethan broke out in a rash which we first noticed in the Dallas airport... it got better so we thought it was maybe the hotel linens from the night before but by the next morning, after breakfast, it was getting worse again. The amazing Jill who did our timeshare presentation that morning offered to drive us (Ethan & I) to a clinic. Jill is from Ontario & we felt blessed that she was willing to do that - the doctor told us to avoid seafood, dairy, chocolate and something else for a few days... it was so bizarre and kept coming & going. I still thought it might be the bed sheets (detergent) because it seemed to get even worse at night, so I put a towel I brought from home over his pillow. By the end of the trip he was all cleared up and to this day, we have no idea what it was! He was so discouraged though because it was also him that came down with the chicken pox last summer on our holiday! Poor kid :(

First night - Ethan lost a tooth while we were at the Beach Party (every night the resort did a themed supper - this was supper on the beach, complete with pirates, games etc).

Our room was the second floor (Villa del Palmar) - we overlooked the pool and in the evenings, when the boys were in bed, we would sit out on the deck, listening to the music from the event of the night....

Our resort, Villa del Palmar - this whale waterslide was lotsa fun!

Day one - doing a quick view before heading off to our scheduled time share breakfast

Villa del Arco - the sister resort that we took a three minute trolley ride to. This is where we came for the timeshare breakfast AND... bought a time share! We were so determined NOT to get one but then fell in love with the idea & can't wait to go back! Gotta love the pirate ship in the middle of the pool... unfortunately it's the bar & not a play structure!

Villa del Arco - view of our timeshare... immediately to the bottom right is a murphy bed, past the tv on the right is an entrance into the bedroom, at the far end on the right is a bathroom and also a washer/dryer; the door on the left leads to another bedroom, for those who purchase a two bedroom suite (we have a one bedroom). We haven't gotten to stay here yet though...

We had a great trip and came away thinking that one week wasn't quite enough! It was great to just RELAX!!! Unknown to us, Miles younger brother and family booked their trip (also a timeshare promo thing courtesy of older brother) to overlap the last day of our trip. We were all quite surprised to find out that we were going to be in Mexico together for a day - we basically had an afternoon & evening together to hang out around the pool, the boys played with their cousins and in the evening we all went to the Fiesta :) We also met a great couple from Washington and hung out with them for a bit throughout the week. Coming home, my camera got left on the plane & by the time we realized it, that plane had already left for its next destination. It's was never located but thankfully 98% of my pictures were downloaded on to the laptop!

This fall.... Hawaii here we come!