Parksville

There's nothing quite like a long weekend at beautiful Parksville, especially when the weather cooperates. The beaches are incredibly sandy and the shallow water lends itself to searching for crabs, clams, mussels and other little critters at low tide.


Hotshot Brooks won the bouncy ball race...


...against her less coordinated competitor!


Urgh! I was so conscious of keeping the score close, Justin ended up beating me at mini-golf due to a couple of late brilliant shots!!! Revenge will be mine!!!


The weather couldn't have been any better. We even saw three deer on the way to mini-golf!


The kids loved the s'mores and log cabin after a long day at the beach!


And the parents loved a glass of red wine after a long day at the beach!


The king of burning marshmallows!


Pouty Justin on the ferry ride home. I don't blame him, Parksville is a great place for a summer getaway!

Upper Canada Village

Boy, am I behind on my blogging. Haven't even got all the pictures from our Kingston trip posted. Here's a couple from our trip to Upper Canada Village, a recreation of a typical late 1800's Ontario town. Justin thought it was pretty boring, of course, and Brooklyn sneezed from the hay and animals the whole time, but otherwise it was fun. The funniest part was the trip to the doctor's house...if you could have seen the look on Justin's face as she explained what all the torture devicies...er, I mean surgical tools...were used for!!!

A couple of freaks from the canrival!

Justin pumps it up!

Justin pushing the hay wagin to earn his wages.

Museum Of Science And Technology

The best chocolate ice cream ever...according to Justin and his wealth of experience.


No, it's not the tin man, it's a Brooklynaut ready for launch!


Only in Canada would they have a snow mobile simulator at the Museum of Science and Technology.

Brooks drives an old CP engine.

Little people and big wheels!

I thought the coolest part of the museum was making bottle rockets out on the lawn, which the kids did, but apparently not. Their favourite part was a life size fibre network maze with slides and blinking lights that you could run through. Judie hogged a game machine while the kids played...lots of sad little kids running to their parents saying "aw, that lady is STILL playing the game."

Parliament Hill

You can't really go to the nation's capitol without visitng Parliament Hill can you? Brooklyn felt so patriotic she burst into a rendition of her own version of our national anthem which goes "Oh, Canada, give a little shake-shake" followed by shaking her butt. God only knows where she came up with that one!!! I blame Judie.


The kids thought all the limestone bannisters were for climbing...good thing they didn't have skateboards or we may have been arrested.


These two get along only slightly better than Harper and Layton.

Hey, Justin actually smiled, so I had to include this shot.

Brooks liked the Unicorn with the tongue sticking out. I'd be gagging too if I had to hold the flag of Royal France.

Canadian Museum Of Nature

The Canadian Museum of Nature underwent a massive renovation recently and the results are spectacular. Lots of hands-on activities to keep the kids busy, lots of cool dinosaur bones, fossilized dinosaur poo, whale poo and neat exhibits of real live bugs and frogs of all kinds. I liked the leaf and stick insects, but I've been itchy ever since we left.


Justin pretending he's a baby seal coming out of the ice. Where's that club-like-Olympic-torch when you need it?


Heat map of Justin's face. Hey! Even his boogers are hot.

Brooks pretends to be an Arctic Ocean researcher.

And Uncle Bruce can't help but take the wheel! Which kid had the most fun?

So Much For Not Playing With Guns

Brooks hangin' at Fort Henry...with my sunglasses. After having several pairs destroyed by the kids over the years, I only go for Zellers $12 replicas these days.


Take another step back...no, that's ok, you can cross the chain fence...yeah...ok...uh huh, just one more step back...


The best 5 minutes of our vacation.


I would have paid triple the admission if I knew I go to lock up the kids in the brig.


Holy crap, it looks like he's wearing a kilt!


This picture makes me glad I didn't have a sister (well, other than Bruce). All that excitement of pretending to be a British soldier shooting your rifle at Fort Henry stifled by a sister saying we look like Barbie and the Three Musketeers.

My son is pretty smart. I shouldn't have taught him how to light matches, though.

Well, Uncle Bruce, after introducing my innocent children to guns and violence and armies and war, you deserved to get a rifle rammed in the family jewels! OK, I can't lie, Brooks is actually ordering him to do one of those Irish Riverdance dances. I'd post the video of what followed but as much as I'd like to embarrass Bruce, he is my sister, after all. And, well, he's not a very good dancer either. He CAN carry a tune, I'll give him that, the man can sing. It's just too bad that all he knows is showtunes and Gilbert and Sullivan songs.

Climing At The Boiler Room

Aunt Ellen took us to the local indoor climbing wall in Kingston. Justin proved to be more of a bouldering guy...but Brooklyn was aggressive and fearless and climbed to the ceiling of the former cotton mill.

We also met Rob Chisnall, a local who has a Guiness Book of World Records title for the most two finger and also one finger pullups!!! Insane!!!

A Little Maui Story I Forgot To Tell...

One lazy day after beaches, waves, pools and waterslides, we decided to have pizza on the patio for dinner. The problem was that we only had 3 chairs...including one from the room we moved outside. So off I went to pick up the pizza, and by the time I got back, I could tell the kids had thought it through and concluded that I would be the one with no chair and I would have to stand. They laughed and giggled.

Anyway, it was dark by then and pretty quiet around the hotel. I served up the pizza and looked around. I ducked next door to a dark room and swiped one of the chairs from their patio, sat down and started eating my pizza.

Well, my goodness! You should have seen the looks on the kids' faces!!! Like I'd broken the law or something! They simply couldn't believe what I'd done and sat there speechless with their mouths hanging open! It was hilarious! They just kept staring at me with the oddest look, the two of them! And of course I said I'd put it back when I was done (Justin checked the next morning).

What a couple of nuts. Like they've never seen me do anything bad before!

Castles In The Sand

Some of the many sandcastles at Elua, Wailea and Big Beach!