A little bit of Spring Break

9.3 Go on 10 "adventures"
So, things Chez Lyons have been a bit crazy and scary and insane for a while and now things are changing on a daily basis…so why not post a few things even if they are a few weeks late…

J had two weeks of Spring Break and rather than stay at home and go a bit stir crazy, we decided to do a little cross-province visiting.

Early one morning, while it was still dark out (J thought that was exciting), we left our house and jumped on the ferry to go to Vancouver Island.



We had a bit of a wait at the ferry terminal, but both girls happily sat in their seats and read their books.



Once we got on board, we went straight to the kids’ play area and then for a walk on the decks…



It was a little bit windy…too windy really….



But it was a beautiful day.

Our first stop when we got off the ferry was Mama’s house.



C shared her snack of grapes and milk with Mama.



And Mama dressed Miss J up in her costume jewelry and crown and pushed her around on her princess chair aka her walker.

We left Mama’s house and headed down to Auntie J’s house on the water in Cowichan Bay. What an amazing place with an amazing view!



Getting up early with a baby isn’t so bad when there’s a view like this!



After breakfast we walked to “town” for coffee and the lovely lady at the coffee shop gave Miss J a piece of pie…what a special early morning snack!



We went back to Mama’s for an afternoon visit and some more princess time



And then we met Auntie J and Vinnie at the beach for a little scavenger hunt and walk.



Found them!



The two Js had a great time collecting together and Vinnie spent his afternoon telling the big dogs who is boss!



And maybe it overwhelmed C and bit because she rode in the Ergo and slept pretty much the whole time!



We left the Island and came home to say hi to Alex for less than 24 hours and then jumped on a plane to Kelowna. Both girls were very happy to find the snow gone so that they could swing to their hearts’ content!



We celebrated a birthday with a yummy cake and a special homemade birthday crown.



And J got a new bike! She loves it!



We had an awesome spring break! J was excited that we travelled by car, boat, plane and bike and even though she started the first week off by asking if she could go to school even thought it was the holidays, by the end she wanted to know if we could keep having adventures!

Jelly Invasion

9.1 Go on an 10 "adventures"

So, when you start kindergarten, on the first day you only go for an hour, just like all the other kids. But for the next five days, you go home at 11:30, not 3:00. Which meant I needed to come up with some interesting things for J to do in the afternoons. The first two days, she was exhausted, so we all stayed home and had naps and just relaxed.
Yesterday we decided we needed to get out of the house. J thought we should take Baby C on her first aquarium adventure. (Thank goodness for annual memberships!)



Baby C was quite interested in the big cylinder of jellies when you first go into the aquarium (the Jelly Invasion exhibit is on right now)



Of course, no visit is complete without some beluga viewing!



After all the jelly and beluga stimulation, Baby C conked out and J asked if we could get her favourite treat….



Ice cream of course!




J checked out this bubble…



And Baby C woke up while J was listening to the “Secret Lives of Sharks” talk…we were right next to the tank with clown fish and and blue tangs and a bunch of other stuff you’d find in Finding Nemo. Baby C thought it was the best exhibit she’d ever seen. She was so excited! It was great.

We can’t wait to go back (and take Daddy too).

This, that, and the other

Oh hello internets! I do believe I remember you…it’s nice to be back, but I didn’t miss you much…

Summer arrived and with it came beautiful warm weather and an apartment that felt more like a greenhouse than somewhere to live…so, we decided that we would spend our evenings outdoors and, whenever possible, we would leave town. And that’s what we did. It was wonderful and it gave us a chance to disconnect from the Internet and social media and all that stuff…

In no real order we:

Went to an 80th birthday bash

Went to another 80th birthday bash (adventure #2)

Did a lot of swinging

Reluctantly learned how to take a bottle

Flew on a few airplanes

Discovered the trees and the clouds

Ate our meals on the deck in Kelowna

Practiced swimming

Practiced swinging on the monkey bars at the playground by the school where J will go in September

Unexpectedly purchased a new vehicle (which J absolutely loves…in part because the paint sparkles!)

Ate lots of popsicles

Read lots of books (although some of us would have preferred to just eat them)

Spent a day in Steveston (adventure #1)

Packed up our life and had our apartment painted

Caught some beautiful sunsets

Built elaborate train tracks on the deck

Visited a tree growing in the lake

And spent a lot of time at the waterpark on Granville Island riding the waterslide.

Summer isn’t quite over yet, but the mornings are feeling crisp and the evenings are getting darker sooner. Back to school this year really is back to school for our family and it’s a pretty exciting time! Hope your summer has been just as fun as ours!

Weekend Escape - Victoria

19.8 Go on 10 "adventures"

Our world has been a bit crazy lately. And by a bit, I mean it's insane. So Alex and I decided that we'd take a few days off work and daycare and get out of Vancouver and have a little adventure and some rest. Well, we managed to have some adventures...and we did get a little rest too!

Early Thanksgiving Monday we drove out to the ferry terminal to start our little vacation. While we waited for our ferry to arrive so we could board, we did a little browsing in the terminal building.

J is a true Vancouver girl with her morning "coffee"

We checked out the awesome candied apples - Thanksgiving turkeys and spooky Hallowe'en creatures. J and Alex would have had them as their second breakfast...



We had a reservation and because there was very little traffic, we were one of the first cars on the ferry. We had an awesome view from the car deck!


We did go up to the passenger decks and took J outside to see the view.


We waved at the ferry going in the opposite direction - can you see J's Auntie K. on the ferry? We waved hard because she's there (maybe...she was in Victoria for the weekend, running in the marathon)


Once we docked in Swartz Bay, we decided we were hungry, so we made a stop in Sidney-by-the-Sea for a lunch of, what else, fish and chips. We also picked up a few postcards for J's penpal. Then it was off to Victoria and Beacon Hill Park. J slept most of the way and was quite excited when we got out of the car and we were at the petting zoo.

What's that???

Llama Llama no pyjamas

Hangin' out

Miniature Pigs

Petting the goats

"I'll brush you and make you beautiful" (and if she had hair accessories, I'm sure the goats would be wearing those too!!!)

After a long time at the petting zoo (and some very thorough hand washing) we decided that we should find the playground and burn off some energy. J had a great time at the playground, racing around like crazy. We went to our hotel, dropped our things off and went in search of some dinner. J was a trooper and walked 1.5 kilometres to dinner at a yummy Italian place called Fiamo.


We arrived early, before the dinner rush, and had a lovely meal. It was so good. J was thrilled with her spaghetti and meatballs and the waiter couldn't believe how good J was and that we'd brought our own entertainment for her while we were waiting for food (colouring stuff and little Robert Munsch books).


We loved the atmosphere and decoration in Fiamo almost as much as we loved our soup and pasta. Check out the bike on the wall...just a taste of the decor.


After we stuffed ourselves, we went in search of ice cream (fine, gelato) because J declared it wasn't a "real" adventure if we didn't eat ice cream. We ended up having gelato both evenings and J had ice cream at lunch the second day and she just couldn't believe her luck because she "already had ice cream the day before." It didn't take much to convince her that we could have some special treats when we were on vacation!


Alex loves gelato, so he had no argument with gelato on consecutive days. Alex ate gelato at least twice a day when we were in Rome for our honeymoon! Not sure how this compares....


The "Christmas" building...aka the Parliament building. Apparently any kind of light display automatically means Christmas lights...


The next day we left the camera at home, but we managed to take in an IMAX movie, J did every gallery of the Royal BC Museum (her favourites were the special map exhibit and the old street) and we went for a long walk. We picked out books at Munro's Books, because what trip to Victoria is complete without a visit to Munro's? We capped day number two off with dinner with my friend Andrea at Rebar. YUM! More good food and some excellent company.

It was a great little break for us - and yes, there was some rest...when you have a four year old who you make walk 4+ km a day, a daddy used to working the morning shift, and pregnant mommy, everyone is ready to fall into bed by 8:00!