Family Island Adventure Part 1:

So, this past summer Andrew bought an ugly light blue Toyota Previa, 1990's something. He needed another vehicle for all his guys this past summer with Vivint. The van treated us well all summer. Well I should say him well, because I never drove it. But now, it's parked in our driveway and we ended up selling our White Cavalier. So now we have our Honda CRV, and our Previa. Sick:) I have come to love this van actually. And we have already started having family adventures in it. It has served us well this Fall. Andrew has been wanting to explore more of the island with me, so I said, " sure, let's go on an adventure. You decide where." So we packed up the van, the kids, some food, and took off. We drove up island to Kennedy Lake, about 4 hours. We explored a few places and then picked a spot on the Lake. It was close to getting dark when we got there. So we set up a fire and got the food out, and I set up the bed. Yes, we slept in our van! I borrowed a foamy from my Mom's and I made a little bed for Jay past our feet on a yoga mat. The kids loved the fire. Jayna loved poking a stick in the fire and we had to keep telling her to not jerk one way with it in her hand. She almost stuck me a few times! Geesh. We twirled a stick around really fast that had been in the fire so it looked like a glow stick in action. We ate hot dogs, chips, etc and s'mores. Well I pretty much was the only one who ate s'mores... Some pics on the drive there:

When we first arrived to Kennedy Lake:

Our Beach Fire:

So we were almost all done with the fire when I heard a creepy noise in the bush, so I grabbed the kids and ran to the van. Ok, there was probably nothing there, but I am afraid of the dark still, and didn't want to chance it. It's cougar country down there as Andrew calls it, so wasn't taking chances. Later I had to go back out and grab all the food though, and I couldn't run fast enough! So Julian was ready for bed, but dear Jayna was not. We ended up putting a movie on the laptop for a while for her, then lights out, ha. I didn't have the best sleep. I woke up soooo much. I had a few bad dreams about animals being outside our van, and one creepy one about a guy looking in. Julian moved a lot and other than waking up a ton, it was a decent sleep, and no one was cold. It was fun to wake up and eat in the van, get changed and start our day! We played on the beach for a while with another family that came, then we drove to Tofino. One of Andrew's favourite places on earth. I love it there too. We drove straight to the Wickaninnish Beach..... we were the only ones there! It was sooo gorgeous. I took sooo many pictures, but here are some of my faves:

The first thing you do when you get to the beach is take off your shoes and socks, right? Unless you have sandals on like me. Well Jayna had fun running around the sand in her socks. I think that would feel pretty cool on your feet actually. Oh, my free spirited child! And I found a heart shaped jellyfish, I thought that was cool.

My sweetheart:

I was in awe of how clear Julian's reflection was in the sand water, so cool!

Jayna was running in the waves holding her dead jellyfish, and biffed it headfirst!! ( bottom left ) She was soaked after that fall, but that didn't slow her down. She just got naked. hahaha

Jayna sat down in the sand and Juju went to join her. Little terd started throwing sand on her brother. He put up with it for a bit...

Then he had enough and got up and cried:( Cuddles with Daddy he got. I think the bottom left photo is so hilarious with Jayna still holding mud sand lerking behind her brother, Geesh that girl!

As we were walking back to Van, I captured some details of the beautiful beach and forest path:

We went to Cox Beach next to check out a Women's Surf Competition. (If Andrew hears the word "surf" we gotta go)

Julian managed to get naked too, and found his shadow, was pretty interested in it, so cute!

Then Daddy asked a group of guys if he could borrow their surf board to take Jayna surfing for the first time since the water was rather warm as far as the ocean goes...

Jayna loved going on the surf board by herself!! She had the look of joy on her face and was a bit scared. Daddy was so excited to push her into the waves. She did so good. And was very proud of herself. Little surfer in the making would be Daddy's dream come true;) We shall see. Good-bye Tofino, see you next time!

It was a fun few days, we stopped for the night at my Mother in Laws and spent some time with her. What a beautiful land we live in. I especially love our Island!