september 2011
september 18

we've just waved kellie and mike off at the airport. hopefully they made their flight because we got a little distracted at the richmond nature house on the way there and ended up cutting things a little fine. at least there's no immigration clearance at this end because there is a very naughty michael williams in canada which means poor mike has to go to the 'special room' each time he arrives in canada until he proves that he's the good mike williams rather than the naughty one!
last weekend we went to victoria then drove up to nanaimo via whippletree junction and the mural town of chemainus. we took the little ferry across to newcastle island for the afternoon:

view from the malahat


standing next to colin's [sascha's dad's] mural in chemainus


whippletree junction

arriving at newcastle island



we also managed to fit in visits to iona beach, macdonald beach, new westminster quay, the vancouver maritime museum and blueberry picking.

playing on the tug boat at new westminster quay

blueberry picking

one of us got a little distracted along the way and started picking leaves instead!

vancouver maritime museum

vancouver
september 6
phew, first day at montessori went well by all accounts and each day since then. there's still some crying every morning and the odd change of clothes but she's loving all the activities and the calm, quiet, organized environment really suits her.

september 3
september seems to be here and school is just around the corner. how i'm going to miss my 10-3 schedule when i'm trying to drag everyone out of the house every morning. zoe starts montessori preschool on tuesday. she looks so small.
next week is an exciting week, besides the start of school, the first day of school is also toby's 10th birthday and then my sister and mike arrive for a visit on thursday. we're hoping to sail to one of the islands with them next weekend, as long as toby's looming hockey season allows.
sascha and i have been very very busy for 2 weeks catching up on 4 seasons worth of madmen. what a great show - definitely one you need to watch from the very beginning. unfortunately, we got to the end yesterday and now have to deal with withdrawal until the new season airs in march.
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