english bay escape

 my lovely parents were just over celebrating their 40th at our house (another post, and one that will take more time) and encouraged us to spend 3 days in vancouver for our 14th anniversary.

we found a beautiful little B&B just off stanley park and had a great time eating, walking, kayaking and biking.

after kayaking around stanley park our first night we walked around downtown, finally ending up at the craft beer house and having a delicious dinner.  we caught the last sea bus of the night from the science centre all the way to english bay.  a nice walk along the seawall and we were home for the night.

 kayaking again the next day we tried for fish tacos on the wharf, but the lineup was crazy.  so instead we pulled the kayak up on the sand outside the cactus club and had lunch there.  very urban.  very awesome.

 the celebration of light was fortuitously going one while we were there.  plenty of people showed up to see what brazil had to offer.

 and to listen to randy bachman.

 these fireworks displays put anything else i have ever seen to shame.  a full 30 minutes of amazing spectacle.

 our final day we rented cruiser bikes to tour stanley park.  we met our old friends lisa and joanna and didn't even take a picture!  this is kylie after they left.

 biking around the seawall on a cruiser with a picnic in my basket i felt very dutch.

the views were gorgeous!  this kind of biking is kylie's favourite.  we'll have to do more of it.

thanks vancouver for being so awesome, walkable, kayakable, bikeable and tasty.  thanks mom and dad for giving us some great time away.  3 days felt like a week!

Some highlights

We have been having a great summer.  Lots of playing out in our yard (which has a fence this year!!) and visitors and excursions.  Here are some picture highlights from the last few months

Zeke's Birthday:
Zeke had a great birthday day as well as birthday party.  Grandma was here and we painted some canvas pictures.  One for each of the boys room and we replicated the Zeke and Ty paintings done with Auntie Shareen two years ago.

 Zeke LOVES animals (as Ty loved cars at this age) and so for his cake we made a farm yard.

Party time:

Lion mask from Grandma and ukulele from mom and dad

Animals from Ty and Grandma.  His favourite!

The after party concert

Zeke's birthday wish was to play animals with puppy dog Mike.  It came true!

Reading birthday books from Dawn and Neil

Brad and Raquel come to visit:
Brad and Raquel and Maria came out for a weekend visit and we had a lovely time.  We went to White Rock for the day again.  The kids had a great time playing in the ocean!

 Ran into Auntie Helen and Uncle Gil on their 40th wedding anniversary.  :)

Levi's Birthday:

Levi's first birthday was a small affair (when compared to our firstborn) but was so much easier and much more laid back.  Cake was not a shape at all but a rather delicious chocolate bundt cake that all the adults enjoyed. I was very thankful I had made an "adult friendly" cake as the extend of Levi's eating involved licking it and then hucking it on the deck. 

 Celebrating with Big Levi

We went to Harrison for Levi's first birthday and he obliged and posed very cutely in the lake.  

 


Nanoose Bay:

The last week in May we took the ferry to the island and stayed at Nannoose Bay with thanks to Marc's parents and their time share.  It is such a great place here!  So kid friendly and fun.  I did not want to come home.  

We hopped on the ferry and went back to Vancouver to celebrate the wedding of our long time friend Steve and his new bride Jen.

Our friend Takeshi came from Japan for the nuptials

Boy playing in the sand at Rath Trevor. 

A camera comes out and Zeke's hands go in his mouth and his tongue comes out:

Camping:
We have other trips planned this summer so camping trips will be few and far between but what is a summer without a trip to our favourite spot!?!

Levi loves it too.  We had a visit from some twinsie friends (and their parents). Chillaxin at the site: 

Camping is great but camping with popsicles is even better!

 The third born, eating raspberries in the bush

Mommy time:

 

Ty's last day of pre-school was the end of June.  He loved school so much and was almost always excited to go.  The picture on the left is his last day of preschool 2015 and the picture on the right was his first day in 2013.  I was a sobbing mess at the preschool graduation (only during the slide show, I am a sucker for a good slide show song and the song chosen was a zinger.)  ;)  Happy for Ty for the next stage!