30km Nite Hike with Scouts

Coming back from Victoria and we stopped at a thrift store .... Elliot walks up to me and shows me this little guy and says "you have no idea how much I need this in my life, can I have him?"  "Absolutely you can", I said.  Turns out he glows different colors, charges via USB, and ended up being the mascot for the troup in the darkness of the nite hike.  When approaching a new station, everyone would turn off their headlamps, Elliot would put "Sir Lord William" over his head and then they would all march towards the station, with just this glowy ghost ahead of them!  It was apparently quite epic ... which was obviously my thought when he showed me in the store.

Here we are saying goodbye ....

First time away from us to make a pretty big memory ....



Dylan met him at the ferry ... here they both look pretty impressed.....

Bus ride to UBC ....

Nite Hike begins!!!  So many stations to complete and they apparently ruled them all!!

Top time and top scores -- pretty competitive and motivated group !!





They finished around 3am and hung out at the McDonalds 2km down the road ... and though they had someone offer to drive them, and though they just finished walking almost 30km's, it was TRADITION to walk!!  So....at 3am...they walked .... ;-)

This was all pretty ok with me (though I missed him terribly and didn't really sleep that night), but it was all ok because this friend was beside him ... and I would trust her with everything ....

Ferry ride home .... I packed his ironman blanket that I made for him a few years ago (I sewed on a patch at the bottom of the blanket so it could be folded in to be made into a pillow - it was for one of our epic road trips ... he was on of the only ones with a cozy, so this pic made my mothers heart happy)

ALL DONE!!!! 

Showered, onesie on, crepes made .... all was well ....

Jim Gaffigan

Jim Gaffigan night on Friday .... we brought the kids and set them up in the hotel .... but first dinner at the mall!!!  We were right across the street from the mall ... so everyone got what they wanted.

Back at the hotel, Isaac got the Xbox set up because he is working on Kings Quest ... an epic journey of puzzles and riddles ... its a game Chris used to play as a kid too ....

 Apparently my feet didn't smell good ... so Elliot took it upon himself to clean me up .... I thought it was sweet until it turned out he was just wiping shampoo on my feet.

 Jim Gaffigan time!  We were so excited for this show because Jim and his Netflix specials got us through the most brutal January and February we have ever endured ..... so this evening held some special meaning for us .....

It was a good show, his material was funny and new ......

 Chris didn't love our hotel ... haha ... Worldmarks have spoiled him ... our room was really nice ... but as you can see below, this hallway we stumbled through was so gross ....

 We were surprised we didn't see a body ... lol .....see his face?  Says it all .....

 

SHAZAM!!!

Sent a quick text to Olivia as we were all heading out the door to head to the movies tonight to see if she was up to joining us - yup!  This girl is so fun because she is laughing all the time when she is with the boys ... as you can see here, its a struggle to even take a picture .....

Here they are trying ....

Isaac knows its going to be short lived ....



The movie was over SO late ... but we still headed over to Jenny's to wish her happy birthday .... such a sweet auntie!!!  So loved ....

24 hours with Carrie ...

Phone was tucked away for much of our visit ....we just logged time doing stuff.  For some reason I took these photos though of my sweet sister crawling under the bunk bed to plug in an electric blanket AND a heating pad because she knows her sister runs cold.  

Man we were laughing.  We laughed a lot and nobody makes me laugh like this girl.  

Started the day with a walk to the neighbourhood    coffee place .....



The day was full of a drive downtown where I had a great visit with Chris’s cousins wife Tasia .... carrie and I may join her and her friends for a hut to hut hike on the Sunshine Coast this summer!!  I really like her ... glad we worked out a visit.  And then Carrie and I drove home, groceries, naps, hottub, an amazing steak dinner that dad knocked out of the park!  Mom made yummy salad and mashed potatoes - so good!  After dinner it was back to the trailer park where we were waiting for them to take the window out of the trailer in order to get some couches out of their living room so we could take them back to carries!  They were feather couches!!!  So comfortable!  So we spent the rest of the night sprawling on them.  

Productive and lovely visit home ...... didn’t take enough pictures but logged the time and it was wonderful. 

24 hours with mom ...

Mom picked me up from the airport around 11 and we headed straight home and got onto our bikes!!!  It was such a beautiful day!!  

We did the 18km loop around wood lake .... this path is just outside their front yard!!

We stopped and shared a burger and sweet potato fries at the halfway mark .... 



Once home, we packed up and headed for Sparkling Hills .... SO swanky!!!

We enjoyed the saunas and the pools and then headed back up to the room to enjoy appies for dinner. 

Such a nice evening .... the lady knows how to pack a picnic !!

Friday morning ....



On the way back to town, mom took to me one of her favorite trails. And it was beautiful. Lots of cavernous tall rock walls.... the trail was between the two huge rock walls .... 

Thanks for the time spent mom .... xoxo

Bedtime with Chris ....

He reads it for the articles ...... ;-)

Isaac and his buddies ...

We had a couple extra boys for the afternoon/evening on Monday .... they devoured 2 large pizzas I brought home from Dominos (I like to get 2 for their lunches the next few days, but that didn't happen) ... Elliot walked in after a few minutes and both boxes were empty ..... after wrestling and running through the house, they decided it was hot out so they should go for a swim .... finding wetsuits was funny because they all match, they are all small womens suits and Isaiah kept popping out of his .... he says to Isaac "these are SO small!  Are you wearing shorts under it?" And Isaac says naw, I am not wearing shorts ... so Isaiah happily takes off his shorts and the suit fits him a bit better, but we still struggle to do the back up ..... so a little later, they are all heading out towards the water and I see Isaac whisper in his friends ear "I was just kidding, I am totally wearing shorts under here .... I would never go naked!" lol  Isaiah looks grief stricken!!  He doesn't want to be different than his buddies!!!  Man, we laughed!  Isaac totally has his grandfathers sense of humor.

 Out to complete the mission ....

 They all jumped in .... and then ran for the hot tub ... but Isaiah had to have a hottub in the wetsuit ... cause...well, you know .... he had no shorts on ....lol

 The three of them really enjoyed this Star Wars computer the boys got when they were like 4 when we were visiting the Inch's ... I thought it was funny to watch these 14 year olds trying to 'find the star'

Isaac rules at April Fools ....

I whispered in Isaacs ear this morning that its his favorite day!  And would he like to bring some plastic wrap to school.  He dozily looked confused for a minute and then snapped alert with "It's April 1st!!"

Well, the boy didn't disappoint;  Gift for the teacher:

 Gift for the students; 

Man, I laughed ....