Winter in BC

This post is from December 16th. I was taking photos for a Mom and her two daughters later in the afternoon, so I took the kids to one of the spots to check it out. Esquilmalt Lagoon had been closed because of the crazy storms we had earlier that week. There were logs that got pushed from the huge ocean waves all the way up on the road! It had all been cleared off when I went there, so that was good. I love how children find something to do every where they go. They find beauty and excitement. Wonder and discovery. They play with the puddles, and sand. That is part of the beauty and joy of being a child. It was a bit chilly out, but the sun was shining and it was so beautiful. Here are some photos straight out of camera:

I love how I can tell Julian is smiling even though his jacket is covering his mouth!

I am grateful that I grew up in this area and find a comfort in coming to the ocean here at this spot. It is familiar. It is nice to go to familiar places and feel the comfort of that. I remember feeding the ducks bread here many times growing up. We would come and have campfires as a family, and with friends all growing up. My Mom and Stepdad got married on this beach when I was 10 years old. My Stepdad got baptised in this ocean right after they got married. I have memories of building forts out of logs here. Building fires with rocks and burning my fingers really bad! Having YSA activities here. Filming my brother run down the road while blaring "eye of the Tiger" as he punches in the air, haha. Walking with my Mom and her friend and talking. Walking and talking with many friends down this beach. Sitting with my friend Josh Evoy and listening to him play guitar after High School. Sitting with Andrew and talking and kissing lol on this beach. And now, taking my kids to this beach and the many hours just sitting in the sand and watching them explore, or feeding the seagulls on the other side. It's neat to share this spot with my kids and depending on where we live, they might find some comfort here when they are my age too. Making little memories with my Jayna and Julian. Being a Mom is many things, so very many things. But one of my favourite parts of it is just being with my kids out and about, free, no time restraint, just being. Enjoying nature. This is sure a beautiful earth God created for us.

Family Island Adventure Part 2:

Since Andrew has some down time right after the loonnngg summers and September with Vivint, we love to be together and go on trips and vacations every Fall. A lot of times Andrew likes to go on his adventures solo, but this year we stayed together more, which I liked too. This year we stayed local to the Island and decided to explore and take the kids places we have never been all together. Even though I grew up in Victoria, there are so many places I have never seen on our island! Andrew is a huge lover of the Northern part of Vancouver Island, the small towns. He wanted to go up to Port McNeil, and Port Renfrew. So we packed the van again with everything we needed and set off! This time we only drove 2+ hrs to Qualicum Bay Resort and stopped there. Another LDS family, the Stussi's own the Resort and live there full-time. There are campsites and cabins, hotel like rooms, and people who live there all year in Motor Homes. They made a big park in the middle that even has a small little zipline! Which Jayna loves. It is right across the Street from the Ocean, very beautiful. Roland is Andrew's best friend, and him and his wife Julia work with Roland's parents managing the Resort. So we stopped in there and stayed the night with them and visited. Side note: I was privileged to take their photos last month, here is one of them:

Then we took off the next morning. Our first stop: SAYWARD. We drove in, and stopped at a park. Pulled out our stove and had soup and buns and ate on some rocks while the kids played at the park.

Another family with four kids came shortly after and Andrew started up a conversation (surprise, surprise lol) Turns out they are from Edmonton and wanted to move to Tassis! Which is a TINY place. They exchanged numbers, and this guy kept us updated. They actually ended up in Gold River, and just sold their house in Edmonton. I don't think tiny places are for me, but I can see the value in it and the life it would provide. Next we drove to WOSS. This is where Andrew's mom grew up a lot of her life. It is a small logging camp. We went to the Lake and explored around the forest first. Julian went with Andrew and fished off the shore, while Jayna and I searched for mushrooms! There were sooooo many different kinds, I have never seen so many before in my life. I was really into taking pictures of them all. Jayna loved it! Crazy to think that something that is a "fungus" can be so detailed and beautiful! Side note: Andrew was so into mushrooms for a while growing up, he knows almost all the kinds we see, and knows how to find the good ones. A good memory was when I was pregnant with Jayna and we went to Tofino... We went Chanterelle Mushroom picking in the forest and it was so fun and exciting when we found a patch of them. We picked a bunch and and got a restaurant in Tofino to cook them up and put them on our burgers! You can make 10,000 in a month picking mushrooms in the peak season if you are an avid picker!

Then she had to go poo, hahaha, I ran back to our car to get some toilet paper, so we didn't have to use leaves:) We then drove to the lake where there were cabins and parked and explored there. We used a vacant picnic table and set up our food and stove. Andrew bought some high end rice, beef and beans made for outdoors, and it was so good! We also picked a bunch of Chanterelle mushrooms, so we fried those up with butter, they were so yummy! Ou, that sounds gross, poo and food in the same paragraph! Sorry, that's life with kids! ha We explored the Lake and looked around the cabins...we may or may not have borrow a little aluminum boat and Andrew took us out using a shovel as an orr...

When it was almost dark out, we got back in our van and drove to Port McNeil, about 45 minutes away. My sister in Law Hilary who married Andrew's older brother grew up there, and it was nice to finally see the place I have heard about a lot. We decided to park and campout in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints parking lot. Felt safe there:) We woke up and packed up everything. The kids played in the field while we did that:

We went and got too many pastries at the local IGA ( all my doing ) along with cereal, and ate at the harbour in Port McNeil.

Port Renfrew was another 45 minutes north, but we decided to forgo it, and make our way back. We went back to Woss to drive around, and go explore some more. We stopped at the school and the park there for a bit. Then we went into the forest, and Jayna and I were excited to look for mushrooms there too!

Jayna loves Merry-go-rounds, I never liked spinning things, so I can't relate to Jayna on that one;) Julian is such a little explorer too. I really appreciate my children's love for nature and adventure. Their ability to go with the flow and their independence to see things for themselves, and fit into the situations we are in, in a laid back, and curious way. They definitely loved this Family adventure exploring the island.

We stopped at Eve River Provincial Park and drove down some logging roads.

Andrew drove up a path where they would be a grouse, and got out his gun. Sure enough, there was one standing on the path, and he shot it...he hit it, but it took off into the bush. After about 30 minutes, he came back to the car and said he couldn't find where the grouse went, but saw a bit of blood, so he knew he shot it. We went and helped him look, but after about 20 minutes of searching....no grouse. Poor little guy!! We went back to the picnic spot to eat lunch and let the kids stretch their legs. It was so beautiful and peaceful there.

Bum change before the rest of our drive home...

Somewhere along the way home, we stopped at a place called "Telegraph Cove". It was a very pretty spot, with some high end houses right off the cliff overlooking the ocean. Totally unique place to live, that's for sure.

Juju being his sweet little self on our ride home.

The end.