Embracing Fall!

Once again, a whole lot of time has passed since my last post! We're well into fall and it's starting to feel like winter! Dreaming of Hawaii, but working on embracing the cold, dark days in the Northwest!!

 

We are enjoying living in the Comox Valley and settling into life there. We have a lovely rental place until spring and feel grateful for a warm, cozy place to call home. The kids are enjoying activities that we've been too transient to participate in until now! Gymnastics is the highlight of the week for all of them and we're enjoying a weekly swim with the homelearning group. We are meeting new people, making new friends, and enjoying time with old friends.

Our lovely home for 6 months.

 

 

 

A visit to the pumpkin patch. The kids loved carving pumpkins... first time for Bella and Thor!

 

 

 

Beautiful sunsets at the ocean nearby!

 

 

Fun with friends and fire at the ocean. Ocean potlucks with friends at the beach... anytime of year.... awesome!

 

 

At the Comox Harbour

 

 

We celebrated Zara's birthday with a weekend in Victoria. We love that city! We enjoyed some of the tourist sights, walking around the inner harbour, the museum, the Imax and our favorite restaurant of all time, Rebar!

 

The birthday girl with her favorite kind of cake!

 

 

Our time in Victoria was wonderful and the weather was equally so! Blue sky and sunshine both days! Bliss!

 

 

The Comox Valley is full of parks! I've never been in a place with so many parks and playgrounds and green spaces. It's amazing! We spent lots of time at the parks this fall, soaking up the sunshine and blue skies!

 

 

At this moment we are in Kelowna for a week. We came up to help out my mom after she had foot surgery. She can't weight bear on that foot for two weeks, so getting around is pretty challenging! I'm so glad we're here to make sure she gets good food and good care!

 

 

We're enjoying time with friends and family while in Kelowna. The kids had a fun afternoon last week dressing up with their cousins! Love the rainbow!

 

 

I've been busy sewing as I'm doing a craft show with my sister Leah next weekend. We'll spend a few days in Vancouver doing city things before the show, then head back to the Island.

 

 

Time to settle into winter. We're lighting the candles, putting up fairy lights, keeping the fire stoked, doing puzzles, and enjoying some down time! Life is good!



Settling back into BC!

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post! No, we haven't disappeared! We're just busy transitioning to life in BC again!

We came back to BC from Maui on April 10th feeling both sad and excited! Sad to leave behind all of our wonderful new friends and our Hawaiian life, but excited to see what the future holds for us! Since we've been back we've done 3 trips to Vancouver Island (8 hours each way!!) to check out possibilities there. We've decided it would be easier to just be there for awhile so we're in the midst of packing up my folks RV and will be heading back there next week to stay at a lovely campground in the Comox Valley for a month or more. It's been 2 years since we packed up the RV to do a 2 month trip through the Western USA, and we're all excited to spend some time camping again.

Since we've been back, we've also enjoyed catching up with family and friends. The kids have had so much fun with their cousins. There have been several birthdays in the family so big family gatherings and parties. John opened up the swimming pool and even through the water is only 66 degrees (F), the kids have enjoyed using it on some of the hot days we've had. John and I  have enjoyed reconnecting with some of our dear friends here, and we're all enjoying each day as the next chapter of our journey unfolds.

All the cousins at a double birthday party, the weekend after we got back. I have 3 siblings and we all have 3 kids!

Brave kids in the pool!

The beautiful dogwood tree in the front yard.

Some of my Hawaiian friends asked to see photos of where we are staying, so here you are! This is my parent's house. We moved here when I was 16.

Our last trip to the Island was just the kids and I. We spent a very fun evening down at the ocean with friends. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and water, and roasting marshmallows on the fire.

Fun times with sweet friends!!

 

We're all excited about being on Vancouver Island and I'll post more from there!



Beautiful Maui!

We have been enjoying all that this beautiful island has to offer.... beauty and natural wonders abound! Here is a little photo overview of this past week:

 

We spent an amazing morning at this beach at the very south end of Kihei. When we arrived, there was a big pod of spinner dolphins swimming very close to shore! We jumped on boogie boards and paddled out. They were jumping and spinning and really interacting with all the people on kayaks, paddle boards, and those swimming. They stayed around for at least 20 minutes. So fun!

 

Then we spent ages exploring these wonderful tide pools.  

A brittle star.

Lots of urchins, brittle stars, anemones, crabs, fish and other creatures!

We are blessed to have a lovely grassy park right behind our house. We spend hours there riding bikes, playing ball, flying kites, kicking a soccer ball. Such a great space!

I picked up this little t-ball stand, bat and ball at a garage sale. We've had so much fun with it! Unfortunately, the stand itself got hit so many times, it finally cracked and broke!

Bella and Zara had fun with foam rollers last week. They were thrilled with the magical transformation of straight hair into curly hair!

There's a paved path all the way around the park. Bella just started riding without training wheels about 2 weeks ago and is loving the freedom of it!

Taking a little break.

We live very close to the famous windsurfing and surfing beach called Ho'okipa. There are lots of sea turtles that swim in the surf there and many of them come up onto the beach to rest. It's such a privilege to see these large, majestic animals up close. 

This past weekend I spent some time in this gorgeous grove of rainbow eucalyptus. John had been for a hike that had ended up here. When he got home he highly recommended that I go for a drive to see them. So I went, ALONE!!, and just soaked up the energy of these beauties. When I got back he asked "Did you hug them?" I said "Yes! How did you know?" How could I help myself? 

 

We are enjoying every moment of life on Maui!

It's visitor season!!

We've had a lovely, busy past couple of months with visits from dear friends and family. Lots of beach time, exploring, whale watching and enjoying each others company! Busy, but wonderful!

 

Here are a few photos of our time together:

Whale watching out of Lahaina - it's peak season for the humpback whales that come here to mate and give birth each winter. It was whale soup out there!

Fun at the beach! 

The cousins had so much fun together.

Bella was very disappointed that she wouldn't be celebrating her birthday with her cousins this year, so we had an early birthday party!

After Jill left (she was here for 2 weeks), the kids and I and Mom and Dad did a fantastic, all day boat trip. First stop, snorkeling at Molokini (amazing!) then over to Lana'i where we encountered a big pod of spinner dolphins. What a treat! They were leaping and spinning and bow-riding.... Awesome!

 

Also saw some humpback whales that day. A fabulous trip... I'd highly recommend that one!

 

Grandma love.

Looking for shells at Ho'okipa beach.

 

Now everyone has gone back home and we're back to just our little family!