Wednesday Home schooling Group - Pt. Hardy

It was so good to be back together with all these wonderful families.  Our original idea for the morning didn't work out has planned and had to be rearranged.  Since we are a creative bunch we quickly ( standing in a parking lot) came up with another plan.  The Port Hardy Museum.

Then we headed to play at the water front and were blessed with a little sun !

National Forest Week

The kids and I joined up with several school groups for a very full day of playing in the woods.  We learned about being a forestry worker & a tree planter. We enjoyed a very informative hike with three extremely knowledgeable forestry workers.  Keisha & Liam delighted in sharing all their knowledge and quizing the men.  I think it's quite likely that Ana may have a go at being a tree planter in a few years.

Man we live in a beautiful place  !!

Summer Road Trip - Chilliwack

This year I planned our trip for later in the season.  I wanted to spend more time in my garden, the kids wanted to take swimming lessons at our outdoor pool and we wanted to go to the P.N.E .which is held the last two weeks of August.  We decided to stay at the same campground we stayed at last year, in fact we had the exact same site.  The weather was brilliant 24 to 30 degrees the whole time and better yet with the exception of a couple wasp there were no bugs !!!!

 ( we have a new tent......)

( This was our first time hauling the bikes along.....now the 3 out of 4 are riding.  Keisha's thinking that maybe she may want to try and give it another go, so maybe next year we may all be on two wheels.)

All in all we away for 23 days, 20 of them in Chilliwack.  We spent a great portion of that hanging with family.  A good 12 hours or more at the public library, several different trips to the lake & waterparks/pools, endless hour of playing, picked and jammed 7 icecream buckets worth of blackberries...1 lg sack of crabapples and 3 lbs of elderberries, saw 2 movies ( Cars 2 & the newest Transformers), visited some farms, toured about and did LOTS of reading and hanging low !!!

 ( Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve)

 ( Harvesting Elderberries...a first for us)

The ideas are already flowing for next year already.....it like kids and their birthdays....barely finish one and their already planning the next.....:))

Why do you travel like you do?

I always find it interesting how often I'm asked this question..... Well because all the people that are important to us don't live on the North Island !  It's not like we're jumping on a plane every other week...we wouldn't even if we could.  Road tripping is our mode of choice.

This years " Summer" road trip was to the mainland.  First on the agenda was the P.N.E !!!  The kids have been once before ...6 years ago. After much organizing, information gathering, height measuring and color of shirt choosing the day finally arrived.  We were joined by Aunty Marina & cousin Connor & his buddy Cameron, Aunty Joy, Uncle Jim & cousins Hailey & James and our friend Cory & his son Quinn.

We arrived at 11am ( when the gates opened) and I had to drag them to the van ( with HUGE smiles on their faces) well after 10pm.  I'm glad we went and happy it's off the " To do list" for the next few years.  We're hoping to have everything in place for a trek to the USA next summer.......