Camping Airforce Beach Day 1!!!

Thursday morning the boys and I headed out bright and early so that I could get to the regional meeting in Nanaimo.  It was supposed to run from 9:30 to 11am ....so while I was at my meeting, I dropped the boys at the mall with my personal phone (they could facetime/text me on my work phone), and $20 for a snack and some spending money ... it wasn't the most ideal situation but they were pretty pumped for a chance to spend a couple hours in a mall without their mother.  They texted me around 9:45 with a text saying "well, we are still alive" .... real hilarious hey?  I got to them around noon, a little longer than I'd hoped to be, but there was a crisis at work that I had to wrap up before I left for the weekend.  So we all had something to eat, and finished it off with our favorite chocolate covered marshmallows before we hit the road for Courtenay!!

We got to our site around 2:30 .... it was a nice flat shady spot with a bit of a water view.  It was SO hot - like 30 degrees!  We set up our tent and our beds quickly and headed towards the water ....

Airforce Beach campground is mainly military, but they allow 'civilians' to use the facilities too.  Many plans flying overhead throughout our stay ... which is fun, except at 7am.

We are so spoiled being on a lake!  They explored for abit on the ocean, but we love our clean lake water!

Then the whole reason we came up this way to see Charlene and her girls!! We headed up to her house for dinner on Thursday night .... the kids just hit it off so great.  Even though they are girls!!


Charlene made a great dinner -- sweet and sour ginger chicken!

Charlene is a lovely woman ... here we snuck around to the front veranda for some private chat time while the kids played in the back.

It didn't last for too long as Elliot discovered their scooters and decided to use their driveway!!! 

Then the rest of the kids came out and played Blokus on the front yard ...

That evening we took their pups for a walk ... theses two crazy pugs (can't remember the actual breed), but before Fred passed away, he wanted this certain type of breed, so they went to the states and picked up TWO of them!!  They are such wild little dogs ... at one point, one of the kids left the front door open and these two (Pixie and Lola), came careening out the front door and literally flew through the air onto the front lawn ... huge smiles on their face ... it was hilarious chaos!! (Charlene didn't seem to think it was hilarious, but the rest of us sure did) - the pure joy at the freedom!!!

When we got home, we tidied up and Charlene made homemade blueberry icecream while the kids watched 'Escape to Witch Mountain' together.  She had this amazing bread on the counter, and I was like "can I eat that?"

She said 'I love that you asked, and yes of course!!'  And because she that kind of friend, she had a piece too....hot with butter and her homemade plum jam - heaven!!!


Lola and Pixie, waiting for treats....

Tenting in our back yard ....

Waiting for the heat to die down abit before we pack up the tent for a real camping trip. But I took an unplanned nap in the tent this aft after our swim.  Turned out Mia needed one too. 

Our favorite lake front spot ....

Such good company ...

We watch the boys together. 

Jon and Mel and wildside ...

They had trouble finding people to help in their kitchen this week (and next!), so I am happy to help where I can. 

Helping with dinner last night-

Wildside cooking means cooking with the wildlife. 

I love watching these two in action. Here this picture encapsulates everything!! Their daughter! The campers! Eachother!!

We made spaghetti and garlic bread and Caesor salad. 

Before bed,  Elliot helped me crack 5 dozen eggs for breakfast burritos the next morning!

He's a great little helper!

Mornings are the best ....

No matter how sad or weirdly bummed out I am in the evening, the mornings are always so good. Fresh start, new perspective..... Reset. 

This morning had my coffee with Mia ...

Elliot can't wait to get home...

He's been asking since yesterday to come home. His cabin leader Carson, is a kid who has grown up here at camp, so Elliot was pretty stoked to see that he was his leader this week. He says "we played together when we were kids!!", when he saw Carson was his leader.  So funny .... Elliot, you're STILL a kid. 

Carson spoiled him by bringing his stuff home with him before chapel (spoiled me I guess too since I normally help lug all their gear home)!!

Elliot and Carson Hilmer 

Aisha and I had early morning coffee down by the water this morning. Mia joined us. 

Isaac and Mia ....

Mia seems happy that Isaac is home. 

Elliot visits at free time...

It's the toughest time of day for this kid who lives at camp .... Free time is boring and drags out for him. However, he has been enjoying archery and improved his skills on the bmx track this week. 

He snuck home at free time and was telling me stories in the hammock ....

He also really wanted to show me how much he's improved at archery!! Archery was closed though and he was super bummed. So we asked Chris to open it up!

They took turns in the hammock with me .... Isaac snapped this shot and I need to remember these warm, favorite days!!!

Elliot's home tommorow!! Been nice not discussing screen .... But I miss his funny antics!! My sweet boy! 

We are wondering about this new little outbreak on his chest.  There are a few dots on his arms too .... Nurse thought just skin irritation. Could it be chicken pox? I got it in the summer heading into my grade 5 year .... Wouldn't that be interesting if that happened here?  Hopefully he gets chicken pox early and gets his immunity up for it! Not itchy or bothering him, but it's curious. 

Laura comes to visit ....

Just a quick refresh after a crazy few months and before they take an amazing road trip - their first one!!! They've never been to California!!  I am excited that they are able to get 'outta dodge' for a little while, to rest and clear their heads and have an adventure.  She arrived after dinner - we biked my favorite route at the forest research center and then swam across the lake. The swim was fun because isaacs crew at wildside were out and I had texted Jon to say that we were about to swim, so don't worry about us if you see heads in the water - so they yelled hello and goodnight to us - super fun (I miss my boy, so it was nice to hear him yell at me!)

(We could not get a good shot, these were the two better ones lol)....the bottom one she made me promise I wouldn't put out to the public!! But it's my favorite.  Ps: she did all this activity in a dress and flip flops .... I was impressed. 

The swim was good but too leisurely for me. I kept the slow pace so she could drink in all the beauty but 3/4 of the way back, I felt something bite my leg, so I tried to stay calm but looked at her and said "ok, we need to pick up this pace now"..... We were almost to the end when I got bitten again!! By now I am freaked but know that she would freak even more, so I didn't answer her when she asked, I just said we'd talk about it when we got to the dock. 

Lake cowichan and Mesachie lake are the only places this lamprey eel is found .... And I had only been bitten once before, years and years ago .... So to have 2 in one swim really freaked me out.

Here is a link  http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/fishfacts/lamprey.pdf

And here is a picture: 

So anyways, we finished our swim and went home for a hottub and a fire.  We stayed up until about midnight and on our way to bed we remembered that there was supposed to be a meteor shower, so we went out to lay on the dock for a little while to watch. Mia came with us and it turned out court was on the dock already so all of us, plus the cat, laid on the dock. It was fun. 

This morning we woke up and had a cup of coffee and went for a kayak ride.

And then we biked to the base of the mountain and ran halfway up as we were being swarmed by these strange bugs that were a cross between a wasp and hornet but bigger. So we were sick of fighting them so it was the first time in 15 years I actually turned around halfway up the mountain!!  The shot below is of us just having out-run the swarm!!

When we got back to property, we went swimming off of our dock. It was pretty sweet, but I don't think Mia has ever seen anyone swim. We have gone down to the dock before for coffee, but I have never gone into the water. She followed us along the shoreline as we swam across our little bay, meowing the whole time, wondering if we were OK!! 

Isaac and his friends at wild side were playing on the inflatables at 11, just before they had lunch and were finished camp for the week. It was pretty funny to watch all of the campers playing on the inflatables and my kid is sitting off on the log to the right, just watching. Can you spot the camp kid or what?

When he spotted me on the beach, he swam over. It was first time he had seen me all week....and actually thinking about it, it's the longest he and I have ever been apart....ever. 

A few hours later, I went to pick him up from the canoe beach and we headed home. I had to take a picture of him before chucking him into the shower  because he didn't really change all week and he was so filthy, but so happy. I barely had any laundry to do, which I thought was pretty funny.  

Love this kid!!

Camp days ....

These boys are having a great week!! I'm really starting to enjoy myself but I do miss them.  Elliot seems to be such an outgoing kid in the crowd. He's up dancing and doing morning exercises with Chris's program team in the mornings, he just seems to be happy although when we chat, especially the last few days, he admits he's ready to come home. 

Isaac seems to be having fun too. It's nice to hear from Jon and Mel at various times how chill and easy he is to have around. 

Today I took a shift at the boats when it was Elliots cabins turn.  

It's pretty sweet that our friends are directing.  They tube too because they're fun like that. 

Meanwhile, Isaac is inventing game changing products over at wildside!!

Wildside! Day 1

Mel and Jon have my boy this week and are showing him the time of his life at wildside!!! I've been waiting literally for YEARS, to send him to their camp.

Day 1 - Caving!!!!!

Mel and Jon have sent pictures of our boy through the day .... So good to see him having adventures with our good friends. 

With both kids at camp, when I got off work there was no reason to rush home so I changed into my running clothes and did 3k after work and some stairs. 

Isaac and Max at wildside. 

Getting Elliots 'mail from mom' ready for Tuesday's cabin mail. Lol. He said thank you for Monday's apple in the mail but marlas kid got a push pop! I looked him straight in the eye and in my most loving voice, confirmed to him that he will never get a push pop from me. So.... I wrote him his mail on the banana. Just as good if not better right??

With kids away, I clean their room. Before I recycled this, I took a picture. I thought it was cute. Angry rappelling cat?