Vancouver Trip

Jared had this whole past week off. We had originally planned to go to Mexico for the week, but some last minute things got in the way of those plans. We were bummed, but decided to still take advantage of the time off and babysitter and go somewhere not-so-international for the last part of the week.

Jared and I went to Vancouver/Victoria for 5 days and left the kids with my parents in Sherwood Park. We did so many fun things and I'm so glad we decided to go on a whim. It was literally less than 24 hours between booking the vacation and boarding the plane.

We spent 3 days in Vancouver first. We walked everywhere - downtown, the coastline, Chinatown, and East Hastings Street - oh my gosh, that place is crazy. We also went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. That was pretty neat. A little scary when the wind blew. But neat.




We also drove out to Horseshoe Bay and rented a 15 foot, 60 hp boat for an afternoon. That was really fun. We cruised around on the ocean, between all the islands, looking for whales and sea lions. There were some really nice houses on the shoreline.



Then, we boarded the ferry and headed to Victoria for 2 days. There, we walked some more around downtown, seeing the sights. We also drove around Victoria and Jared was able to find (by memory) his old house that his family lived in when he was in Grade 4. That was pretty cool.


We drove out farther West, past Sooke, to French Beach Park. We were pretty much the only ones on this beach and the view was so pretty. The tide was starting to come in so we watched the waves for awhile. We explored there for hours - hiking up to see the view from the top, exploring rock caves, walking all along the beach, watching the sunset, (my mom said that last part sounds like a singles add in the classifieds - haha) - ya know, all the stuff you can't do with kids in tow.





The whole trip was so nice. We really appreciate my parents watching the kids for us. It was wonderful not having to haul around a diaper bag, come back to the hotel for naps, take turns doing things while one stays with Hayley, figuring out where to make bottles, stopping to take breaks, etc. Things sure go alot smoother when it's just adults.

That being said, I missed my kids! We were glad to get home and see them again, especially because Hayley had been sick. My family had a rough couple of days with her. She kept throwing up and when that stopped, it started out the other end. She hadn't eaten anything the whole time we were gone. My mom had to take her into the medi-center because she was getting dehydrated. She seems a bit better today and actually ate something last night for the first time. Poor girl.

She was even acting a little bit mad at me for leaving her. She wanted me to hold her, but wouldn't look me in the eye and kept turning her head away when I talked to her. Funny.

Carter, on the other hand, was sad when we came to get them. He was like, "No, don't come home yet!". He always says that when I come back. Having too much fun at grandma and grandpa's, I guess... I try not to take it personally.