Our House in the Middle of Our Street

 Although this mini-vacation for our family was near 6 months ago, I'm catching up on my blogging over Christmas break, and hope to reach back into two years (wince) of vacations as I'd like to document them here, for my own purposes. I'm setting the publishing date to the day after we returned. It'll be our little secret.  The pictures aren't in any particular order.  a short and easy hike: Hidden Grove in Sechelt Day 1: After dropping off our dog at the kennel in Aldergrove, hopping on the ferry and finding our airbnb, we rode our bikes around Kinnikinnick park twice and then around the neighbourhood for the only off-road biking (the good stuff was too hard for 3 out of 4 of us). We hung out at Sechelt Pier before eating at PKLS Burgers.  Best unique milkshakes:  PKLS  Burgers. The long list is a bit daunting but every single one was absolutely worth the exorbitant cost.  view from the Soames Hill hike lookout, an easy hike with final steep incl...

 Finally, I'm sharing just a few photos and bits about our 2021 family vacation to Sooke, BC (only 18 months later!). Sooke is on Vancouver Island; near the southern most tip. It is about an hour's drive to Victoria, the biggest city on the island, and about an hour's north-westerern drive to Port Renfrew, which touches the tip of the Carmana Walbran Provincial Park .  We stayed at this wonderful little house (fawns! quail chicks! hummingbirds! in the morning) right outside and it had a great ocean view and was so tranquil on a bit of property. Because we found this listing last-minute and it was brand-new, they had offered it at a discount and we scored big. I think we paid roughly 100$/day. It's now quite a bit more, but if you have the budget, it's a beautiful house.  an orca skeleton at the Royal BC Museum Orcas: Our Shared Adventure exhibit was at the Royal BC Museum, and the first section was all about the science of the whales, and the second part was about...

This is nearly 6 months after the fact, but better late than never. I wanted to write about our Cumberland vacation in July because I wanted to share this wonderful little town (and larger Comox Valley) with anyone interested in an outdoor-focused, local(ish) vacation.  We travel light, and expect most of our activities to be somewhat free (hiking, biking, swimming) with our money mostly going to a nicer Airbnb rental and a few treats/meals out in the week. We mostly make all our food, and that helps keep our costs low. This was a really affordable trip for our family of 4, and frankly, the majority of our money went to our lodging and the ferry ride (oof), our splurge was surf + boogie board, wetsuit rentals.  We found so many of these great spots from friends who had been in the area, or had previously lived within a 20 mile radius. Always ask a local!  With our large Europe trip cancelled because of Covid, I wanted to go to the Island because it would feel like we "wen...

 Lukka loves getting inside trees, ever since he was little! This past weekend we got a rare dry November Saturday so we quickly chose a hiking trail we'd never done ( Admiralty Point) in a place we love (Belcarra Regional Park) for an easy trail that did not disappoint! This trail is rated as easy and starts off in a public parking area near picnic tables and a decent bathroom. The trail is marked well and rated well, though others who've reviewed it have said otherwise, so check before you go.    a rare 'just us' photo We hike at a quick pace, and I am often the slowest one. What I lack in swiftness I make up for in eagerness, since I am the one always dragging the family out on weekend hikes. The kids, however, must have had just enough time off from our last hike because they were practically running and jumping the entire trail, and I didn't hear nearly any complaint (until later) from my resident 'hater'.   beautiful view from Admi...

family shot in Salmon Arm, BC Our family lives in Ft. Langley, British Columbia. This small village is part of the lowermainland of BC, which encompasses many large cities, farmland, mountain towns, and Vancouver metro that total about 3 million people! We love living right on the Fraser river where The Fort started the province of British Columbia as a famous trading post.  My husband is from this area, and I'm from Nebraska, where our two children were born. We've lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost 4 years (we lived in Blaine, WA, while I finished my immigration work while my husband commuted across the border every day to work in Canada), and in BC for two.  Here in Langley, we have a fantastic homeschooling community, and my children Lukka, 9, and Ani, 7, spend many of their days riding bikes through town, going to the library, playing with Copper, our dog, or listening to loads of audiobooks. We hike on the weekends all over 'Beautiful BC', hit t...

  peek through the trees looking at Hayward Lake  A couple weekends ago, we planned a hike. We've got to be really intentional about getting it on the calendar. The work doesn't end there. There's lunches and water for four people, researching where to go and get directions, find car items for kids if we have quite a drive, and get out the door at a decent hour before most recreational parks get too busy.  Stefan found Hayward Lake and said that it would be a walk around a lake. That sounded alright, since we hadn't been hiking hiking in over a month, but thankfully we talked to a very nice and engaging Parks worker cleaning the bathroom who told us, 'oh no, this is for the dog-walkers, if you want a hike, go to the Reservoir trail'.    Ani near the water taking a quick break with a power ball in her mouth! I'm really glad we took her advice, though it took us two tries to find it, and we happened upon the BC Hydro Stave Falls visitor cen...

 a beautiful rainbow captured in the spray of the glacial runoff...see that tiny crazy person in orange?! Alright, so this ' hike ' is basically a nature path with stunning views (see below!) but it's still about 3 miles, and we took the kids, so we're going to stick with Hikes With Kids. :) We went on this hike the other day to get out of the house on a beautiful day even though it was afternoon, and we have a couple dogs staying with us for a few weeks while their owners are on holiday. Stefan and I knew that although the dogs are older, they'd still be able to do this hike well, the kids would be able to 'walk' them (they love walking them!) and we could get outside in the sunshine and exercise for awhile. You may remember this view from when we did it about 10 months ago, but what a huge difference a seasonal change brings! The glacial runoff is in full force right now in the early Spring, and late last summer, the same area was basically a tric...

Well, as if the title weren't clear, we were unable to complete this hike but we will conquer it at some point! Elk Mountain is quite a bit outside of Chiliwack in the boonies. You go past the city, past the last neighborhood, and a solid 10 miles through the mountain farms before getting to the lower edge of the trail. This view above was taken on our way down the dirt road just a short ways from the parking area to start the trail! What a view already, huh?! It was too gorgeous not to snap, and I'm glad I did because I didn't get any other photos....hopefully when we've ascended the mountain I'll have another one or two to add. This hike is definitely off the beaten path but that doesn't stop it from being popular. When we arrived in the afternoon at the trail head (our first mistake-not going in the morning!) there were at least 20 cars parked. The trail is 7km round trip (just under 5 miles) and is heavy on the ascent, so we knew it'd be har...

 a sunny view of the wraparound cove at Buntzen Lake Last weekend we went on a hike that we learned about from my kids' babysitter. She belongs to an active family and so I knew anything she recommended we could do as well. She said Buntzen Lake was a great hike, and she was right, I loved this hike!   almost halfway view This hike is a wraparound lake hike, and for at least half of it, you're very close to the water. There are times when the trail meanders into the forested area and you can't even see the large lake. There is a small suspension bridge, outhouses at the half-way mark (along with a rest area with benches and picnic tables), and the views were great. We went for a morning hike and were done by 2. I believe it took it 3 1/2 hours, plus a thirty minute stop for lunch at the half-way mark.   Lukka looking at the lake from early on  It's a 5 mile hike (8km) and we were all tired afterward. There is an overall ascent of 100 m but it took...

view from the top of Mount Thom A few weekends ago we knew the clouds would part (at least for a little while) on a Saturday morning and I practically ran the family out of the house to get a hike in. We haven't been hiking in the last few months due to rain, family obligations, or just general laziness, but this was a hike that promised to be both quick and yet challenging, and it lived up to that Mount Thom is in Chilliwack which was a 35 minute drive for us each way because there was very little traffic. The site notes say that it only climbs 375 m in elevation, which I was surprised by, because that hike was, with the exception of maybe 2-3 small slopes, a very vertical climb. Maybe I was just huffing and puffing because we hadn't been out for awhile. It was a busy trail even though we left very early in the morning, but when we were descending the mountain around 11AM, there were probably 70+ people going up, so going early was better! trying to find Cultu...

 The 30 ft. pool at Lynn Canyon The list that I've tried to come up with has been a little harder than in years past but as I let it sit and brew for a bit, I had plenty of fresh ideas. The yearly lists (you can see 15 in 2015 , my 29 before 30  birthday list here , and 28 before 29 here ) help me focus on small/big, personal/family/friend, and creative/mental goals I have in any given year. Sometimes they are silly and sometimes I get them done before even writing them down, as you'll see below. They are just things I want to try, things I want to do, or things I want to enjoy with others. Some are big Bucket/Lifetime goals (1 below!) but most are pretty small things that niggle the back of my mind and writing them down helps me attain them quicker than forgetting about it 3 times.  16 in 2016 1) get a dog! (this didn't happen for various reasons last year, this year we're still considering it) 2) make ' sweet treat ' hair clips for the gir...

Shannon Falls view  On Labor Day, Stefan and I had planned to take the kids up to Squamish. Originally we'd planned a day up there with friends, but with schedules, timing, and weather it hadn't worked out. I wanted to get up there before the rains came, and before our upcoming trip, and since we had 3 days off together, I knew we'd be able to spend 1 of those up in Squamish. Stefan looked up hikes, I packed enough food for a lunch and a decent snack, got the kids ready in exercise clothing, bathroom breaks, and something to do in the car, and we took off relatively early. The traffic was excellent (holiday) and we got to Squamish in an hour from our house, which is unreal. So far, so good. The walk up to  Shannon Falls  was...not a hike. Since I had no preparation for what we were doing, I was a little disappointed when there were a hundred tourists just looking at a waterfall that was relatively far away, but oh no...we had not even begun!  the top ...