BC Family Vacation

Since moving to Saskatchewan left Mom and Dad Woelk feeling the distance between us, we decided to head to their place for our holidays this year. Dean conveniently arranged to have a course in Saskatoon the week prior to his vacation, so we headed there for a few days first. As Jacob has proven to be an UNhappy camper, when riding in cars, he and I flew from Saskatoon to Abbotsford, while Dean and Katie enjoyed a couple days of driving and eating junk food.

Since Jacob has fully entered the world of walking, he is also practicing pulling things off of shelves and exploring any nook and cranny he can find. We spent the first couple days at mom and dad's "Jacob-proofing".

He looks innocent enough

but notice how ALL the CD's and knick-knacks are piled on TOP of the cabinet!

Once we got the stairs blocked off, he had to find another way up. Goodness knows what he will be doing in a year!

Oh yeah, he made it all the way to the third one.

The weather was nice and we headed off to the Greater Vancouver Zoo with Mom and Dad. We had a train ride, an up-close-and-personal visit with some raptors (very cool show, definitely a must-see) and a picnic.

This is a Mara - a kind of rabbit/rodent

Riding the train

Dad participating in the raptor show

Ah, family pictures!

With grandparents so conveniently located (you know, just down the hall), Dean and I took an opportunity to have a night out to celebrate our anniversary. Pat had tickets available for a Canucks game (against Edmonton, last pre-season game) and we snapped them up! It was a lot of fun and the first NHL game I had been to in several years.

Yeah to 5 years!

The next day we headed to the Island to see some friends. We had a wonderful dinner with Margaret and Gene. Jacob really liked climbing on their funky, artsy furniture!

Mike and Christina kindly offered us the use of their guesthouse while we were there. They have done a fabulous job turning an ordinary little studio into a warm, welcoming home-away-from-home. Katie was so happy to have some play time with her friend Stella, and Jacob and Georgia sort of played with each other. Georgia is just the happiest, smiliest little girl! It was great to see her growing up and crawling around. We had a wonderful beach day together!

With much excitement, we headed to Sooke one evening to see Rick and Mandi, meet baby Ruby and have a good play with Marley. Marley has an awesome new play structure in the yard but she and Katie had WAY more fun playing kitchen in Marley's room (unfortunately, all my pictures ended up very blurry). They are two peas in a pod when it comes to that. Poor Jacob wasn't allowed in but was happy to move magnets around in the real kitchen. Ruby is a sweet little thing and, I think, looks very much like her big sis.

So many changes in our old town! New homes will soon be built behind our old house, the hotel is finished (looks very nice, though out of place, and Mandi says the restaurant and spa are great), and the marina development is well on it's way. It will be interesting to visit again in a couple years.

On our last day on the Island, we went to the Butterfly Gardens with Christina and the girls. Always a nice place to visit. Katie quite enjoyed the turtles and just generally roaming around. Stella preferred picking flowers and roaming in other directions. It was fun.

Three babes

Weeeeeeee

We keep trying...

Fine hair + humidity = curly cutey

 After the gardens, we stopped at my office to pick up my laptop and chat with folks a bit and then bombed up to the ferry. Oops! a little too late. The kids and I hung out inside and played. I have to laugh because they look so quiet and well-behaved in this picture. Mostly, Katie was jumping off that ledge and Jacob was running back and forth down the hall, trying to dodge through doors at any opportunity.

After getting back to mom and dad's we took advantage of them for another Saturday night out and went out with Pat, Colin and De'Ann. It has been years since I was able to hang out with them, sans kids, and just enjoy each other's company. Might have to try that again some time.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend at Mom and Dad's. Katie so, so, SO enjoyed playing with Kyla and Brendan. And playing the newly dubbed 'tag-and-go-seek' with Uncle Pat (it starts as tag and next thing she's telling you to hide, then back to tag - you know, 3-year old style games!). She also took a header off the trampoline and spent an hour at emerg but all was well other than a scraped face and a goose-egg.

Our next stop was Carvel, AB to visit Carli and meet Jaxon, her new little boy. Another sweet little cutey, just like his big brother Bobby. Katie loves their place because there is so much space to run around outside and she can boss Bobby around in the play house!

Cleaning up the leaves

Awwwww (helping him up the hill)!

Too cute!

We met Dave and the kids at the mall for an afternoon. Andrea met us later for supper. At one point, Katie and Corinne were dancing on an empty stage. For a week after that, Katie talked about dancing with her or dancing by herself and Corinne and Peter would hold Jacob and Daddy would sing (Twinkle, twinkle)!

Corinne meditating at the fountain

Fireman Jacob - more likely to need rescuing than to do any

Dean, Peter and David

"Homeless" Peter and his crew

When we arrived home, after 4 weeks away, Jacob looked around like he had found Paradise! It was good to be back and we were greeted the next morning with a beautiful sunrise.