august 2011

august 25

aaaaarghh... i'm in potty training hell. why did i think doing this for a third time would be a good idea?! montessori starts in 12 days so the pressure is on!

it's been a quiet couple of weeks with either aly or toby usually in victoria enjoying life on the farm. we did have a week overlap where we went to quuens park, the new biodiversity museum at the university of british columbia and then beautiful spanish banks with the ramanathan family. naturally we squeezed in a little geocaching. weirdly one of my favourite days of the summer was the day where i had to get the car serviced for a few hours and i took the three children with me. we ended up rabbit hunting [zoe's favourite animal] in the automall, taking the courtest shuttle to the mall, going to the library, geocaching, went to the town hall, another bus trip, lunch at our favourite cafe and then a little more rabbit spotting. all three children behaved beautifully and we just enjoyed each other's company.

august 8

telegraph harbour on thetis island was great - very family oriented with badminton, shuffleboard, swings, an ice cream shop and tether ball. today we made the longest sail of our trip [5 hours] to get back down to north pender island. we're staying at otter bay marina which has recently been bought by a new owner and has been newly renovated. it's a fantastic marina - a pool, tether ball [which we kept aly and toby away from after a ball to the face and various accusations of cheating at telegraph harbour!], and a great playground - much to zoe's delight. i think this is probably my favourite of all the marinas we've visited this year and second only to [the much more expensive] bedwell harbour on south pender island. we wandered down to the ferry terminal to watch the sun go down and passed three deer coming up one of the ferry lanes!

tomorrow we head back to reality but it's been a great trip with lots of family games and family walks despite the number of electronics we've dragged onto the boat!

otter bay marina

self portrait by zoe

toby in the otter bay marina pool

otter bay cache

august 6

it's been a busy few weeks. last week we sailed to genoa bay - a very quiet marina with a beach which had more crabs than i've ever seen in my life [much to the children's delight] and the most fantastic view of the milky way.

we left aly in victoria for the week and then this weekend, sascha has finally managed to get a couple of days off work so we are on a 5-day sail. we started at saltspring on friday, where aly made a group of friends while her and toby were catching fish in their net. we also got to see phosphorescence last night for the first time this year and first thing this morning aly set up a market stall to sell her cards. we are now at galiano island which none of us had ever been to before. with just 1,100 inhabitants it a very quiet island and the marina doesn't have a shower [gasp!]. while i'm typing this, zoe is attached to the ipad, while sascha is teaching the other 2 how to fish with a line. we're all surrounded by sun and sparkling water and all is good with the world.

sturdies bay ferry terminal, galiano

tomorrow, it's thetis island and then north pender island on monday. so far we've only seen eagles and seals. fingers crossed we might have a dolphin or whale sighting before the weekend is done.

seal!

we've also been squeezing in some time at a new park nearby, burnaby village museum/deer lake park, and hanging out at the adams family's new place.

grimston park/wading pool

deer lake

sprinkler trampolining at the adams family's new house

you wouldn't believe the number of photos i have of a disembodied toby!

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