Who said fun days had to be sun days?

Alex had been wanting to jump in the puddles for weeks, but since he only has one pair of shoes the answer has been "no". I had been trying to find some rubber boots for him, but do you think that is easy in the middle of summer? I finally located a pair a few weeks ago, but it has barely rained since, so I put them away. Yesterday it rained, so I dragged them out, he didn't even know I had them. You should have seen his face. He thought it was the best fun out.

Life is good!

God bless the playground and all those who play on her.

Alex and Olivia

A rare picture of Alex and Olivia together. It is not that we haven't tried to get a picture of them together, it is just that Alex either runs away, refused to look or sticks his tounge out, and Olivia doesn't understand why she has to look at us when we are not even making eye contact with her. This was more of a fluke really!

View from Cypress Mountain

On the weekend we went for a drive to Cypress Mountain. Cypress Mountain has a number of ski fields and is home to the Black Mountain ski resort. Cypress Mountain is one of the few coastal mountains that can be driven all the way to the top. This is the view of Vancouver city from one of the stops on the way up. At this time of year there is no snow and practically all the facilities up there were shut on Cypress Mountain. In fact it was a pretty uninspiring summer jount! People appeared to be venturing up there for the view (as we were), mountain biking or hiking. Hiking would probably be the most dangerous option, the rubbish bins were all bear-proofed up there. We still haven't seen one. However, since someone literally got scalped by one last week, I am certain that I don't want to run into one anytime soon!

Lights Camera Action

Lights Camera Action! I have seen a few movie sets dotted around the place. Vancouver is a popular place to film apparently. On the BC tourism site there is even a list of all the films currently taking place or soon to commence a shoot. Haven't seen any major actors, but knowing me if I even did, I would likely run in the other direction. One I saw was for the movie "Like Mike 2", which was being shot in a basketball court beside the beach in downtown Vancouver. Since this movie is a kids basketball movie it has the essential cast of black extras supposedly intimidating the assumed crappy players and of course the equally stereotypical graffitti wall set along side the basketball court, because EVERY basketball court has a graffittied brick wall - yeah? (Funny they had to build one special). It wasn't particularly interesting, just alot of people sitting around and a group of guys trying to get the ball into the hoop - "take 56". There was another filming in a restaurant close to where Sarah was staying, not sure what it was for. And yesterday we had notice that we were not allowed to enter the parking lot next to the hotel, then as the day drew on a cast of thousands turned up and appeared to settle in for the long term. It was all go, with vehicles arriving all day and into the night. I took the dogs out around midnight and it was still full on. And yet Alex woke up at the unreasonable time of 5:30am, and it was all packed up and returned to normal, as if they were never there. But I see the car park is blocked off again now, so they must do their filming at night and clear off for the day. They are only shooting for three days. I have heard it is for a movie called "John Tucker must die", very classy I am sure. An electrician working for the production crew, even said it looked like a load of rubbish and he wouldn't be wasting his money to go see it. I had to laugh when I heard that, hows that for the vote of no confidence!!!

Granville Island

My friend Sarah was in Vancouver visiting her sister, who has been working in VAncouver for the last few months. It was great to see her and go exploring around the place together. One place we went was Granville Island, which is in the heart of Vancouver. It is accessible by car or a 2 minute ride by water taxi, which is how we arrived here. Granville Island has a great market on it and lots of little arts and crafts shops. There were some really lovely pieces in these shops, some with very nice prices too. There is also a kids market, which I only learnt about on our ride back in the water taxi. Oh, well, we will have go back and do that another day - oh damn! After that we went to Stanley Park and let Alex and Olivia loose in the playground.

Capillano Suspension Bridge

This the Capillano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. Sarah and I took the kids up there before going to Granville Island. The walk over the bridge is a challenge in itself, and with lots of people on it, it was a bit of a rough ride. Spare hands to hang on with, are a must!

In the tree tops

Over the other side of the suspension bridge is a discovery walk, where you can walk along suspended board walks high amongst the tree tops. These are some of the tallest cedar trees in BC. It was quite like a rain forest over there, since the trees provide much protection from the elements, and trap the created heat as well.

Totem Park

This is Totem Park, which is within the Capillano Suspension Bridge Park. There were many of these in this section of the park, these are just some. I noticed a huge piece of tree over in a shed to the side, which was half carved; the indigenous people still carve these and many become commissions for a variety of projects.

Alex Fraser Bridge

The Alex Fraser Bridge connects Richmond to North Delta and Surrey. It is a HUGE bridge and really quite something to drive over. Whenever Alex sees the bridge, he yells out "look there's the Alex Bridge", then asks "where's Olivia's bridge?".

Bear Creek Garden

Bear Creek Garden is part of the all encompassing Bear Creek Park, which has everything for the young and young at heart. Located in Surrey, it is a sanctuary in an otherwise pretty crappy part of Greater Vancouver. It has this lovely garden, walking trails, water playground, pool........playground and......

Bear Creek Train

....a minature train. I think Alex thought all his Christmasses had come at once. $2.50 for kids 2-12 years and $3.50 for adults, will buy you a nice 8 minute ride, which even goes through a tunnel wooooo.

Olivia plays peek-a-boo

Miss Olivia, on the other hand, had a grand old time in the playground.

Spot gets banned

Last week I went to the library to get some books for Alex and Olivia, and to see what facilities or groups there might be for kids. To report on the second part of our investigation - the answer is "none". The place was not kid friendly at all. Blackwood library should be given an award or something, it is a fantastic place for kids, and makes them want to get in there and look at the books and decide which ones they would like to take home. The kids section in Brighouse library in Richmond, was so boringly put together (obviously for practical reasons) that Alex and Olivia couldn't get out of there quick enough. Previously a suggested trip to the library was met with excitment and joy. This library did nothing to make kids interested in books, reading or libraries in general. I really hope this library is an exception to the rule and other BC libraries are much more customer focused. I just gave Neddy a carrot - he's my high horse.
Anyway......
We managed to find a Spot book, Aelx is a fan of the old Spot books (not so much the TV version). For those not in the know, Spot is a cartoon dog. This particular book was read several times on the first day, and was innocently titled "Night-Night Spot". It was basically about Spot going to bed and not being able to sleep.
Several nights later, Alex is impossible to get to bed. Despite going through the usual night ritual (tea, bath, teeth, two books, light off, sleep) Alex gets up and keeps running out of his room. As we carry him back to his bed he laughs and giggles thinking it is a great old joke. But I can tell you, it wasn't funny the first time, and became increasingly less funny as the night wore on.
Three nights in a row this happened, when it dawned on us, his antics strangely simulated that of our good friend Spot. In the book, Spot can't sleep, so he gets up and has a grand old time reeking havoc in his room, only to be accosted by is good old Mum "Sally", who barges in demanding to know what all the bloody noise is about, only to find Spot flaked out asleep on the floor - "Oh Spot!" we had previously chuckled.
Next morning we quizzed Alex, "last night when you kept getting out of bed, were you pretending to be like Spot?" "Yes", says Alex sheepishly. We spent a good part of the day, reinforcing that Spot was a "bad dog for getting out of bed - a very naughty boy". And ta daaaa, not a peep tonight!
That book has been put away now - and should carry a parental warning.

All at White Rock

All at White Rock - where is me? I am the photographer.

White Rock Pier

A long pier stretches out into the bay, there is a break water at the end, which provides protection to the small number of boats that are moored in the little marina. We watched one guy pull up a good size crab. An American woman shrieked to see that "crabs have mouths" - I think her companions were embarassed....

White Rock

White Rock is a small town close to the US/Canada border. It is a really lovely place to visit, with long stretch of grassed area along Marine Drive. There are many restaurants and funky little shops along this stretch. I think it would be over run with tourists in the summer months. A decent bit of beach too.

Beware of the big bright red lips!

I innocently bought a little packet of mixed lollies to share with the kids today - all the lollies are pretty much the same as that which we get in Australia - ALL that is....Except one DA DA DAaaaa!
Beware of the big bright red lips for they are not strawberry, no they are not raspberry or apple or any other likeable red thing. They are spicey cinnomon flavour and they are revolting. So heed this warning - do not be fooled - beware of the big bright red lips; they should be banned.

For the birds

Alex loved feeding the birds at the bird sanctuary, he had so many around him at one stage, and some bossy geese that were staring him in the eyes, which freaked him out a bit. This really was a great place to come and see some great scenery, take a walk and see some wildlife. I would really like to get a bird identification book, so I have a better idea of what I am looking at.

George C Reifel Migratory Brid Santuary

This was the park I took Alex and Olivia to. This park is a winter bird santuary, bu there were many birds still in the park at this time of year. May and June are the best months for seeing the baby birds, there were many varieties of duck, Canadian geese and Cranes, with babies. There is 2kms of walking paths, bird watching boxes and towers and ponds throughout the park. We will look forward to coming back here in the winter months when the birds make their way down from the arctic.

Westham Island

Took alex and Olivia to Westham Island today. There is a great park there that I wanted to check out, but Westham Island itself was pretty too. Part of Ladner and mostly farm land, Westham Island is flat and had a number of strawberry fields where you could pick your own strawberries, cows and pretty farm houses. There was even a winery there. You get to Westham Island via a bridge. There were a few "float homes" near the bridge. They are quite interesting things.

Olivia walks

Olivia has been threatening to do it for a couple of months now - she has been standing and cruising around the furniture for a while. But a month ago she took her first step. Since then she has taken one or two steps, but today she walked across the room, yay!

abandoned

I liked this picture and thought I would like to share it. Boat has seen better days though.

Belcarra Islands

This was the spectacular view we had on the way back to Port Moody. I believe this stretch of water, which is heading inland, is known as Indian Arm. There is an Indian Arm conservation park - I have seen pictures of certain spots of it (on clearer days) and it seems pretty stunning. It would be good to, oneday, have the opportunity to go for a hike around these parts. There are so many parks and trails you can take around Greater Vancouver.There was anotehr lovely drive we did on this particular day, and that was up to the Village of Anmore, which is also part of Port Moody. Deeper into the forest we went to arrive at Anmore. There is a camping ground there, and we did see one shop/convenience store and bit more of a built up area. I would imagine there would be quite a bit of snow in these parts during winter.

Belcarra

I was thinking there would be more of a town at Belcarra than there was. Belcarra is a village belonging to the municipality of Port Moody, it was about a 20 minute drive through some pretty spectacular forrest scenery and then opening up to views like these. While I saw no sign of an actual town, it was a very quite sleepy little place and with views like these, it was worth the drive.

Duck weather

Or should I say geese weather? There were quite a number of wild geese beside the water at Port Moody. There was also quaite a quantity of goslings, which must have been just about ready to lose their down, because they were enormous things. Minoru Park, in Richmond also has geese, but they hiss at you as quick as you can look at them, Alex calls them the "grumpy geese".

Kyaking Port Moody

It was freezing and pouring with rain, but that didn't stop people kyaking, from what we saw at Port Moody. There were numerous places to hire kyaks around Port Moody, so kyaking must be the thing to do here. Port Moody is pretty sheltered, so I would imagine that it is relatively calm most of the time. When the tide goes out, the bay becomes a relative mud flat.
Port Moody was a very pretty town to visit, it is at the base of Mount Seymour, which is surrounded by a fairly dense forest and large conservation park.

Steveston wharf and marina

There were so many boats in the marina, but as I said before, Steveston is an old fishing village, and fishing, as opposed to yachting or sailing, still has a visually significant presence here. Ashley and Alex had a walk along the board walk and many of the boaties were showing off thier catch, one crew had caught a shark, which sparked quite a bit of interest from passers-by. Lots of white swans cruising along this part of Fraser River too.

Steveston

We ventured down to Steveston prior to driving into East Vancouver to check out the place we will be staying before moving into our Ladner house.Steveston is an old fishing village and part of Richmond. It has a good vibe with lots of people window shopping and eating ice-cream on the sunny weekend. Lots of little shops, cafes and restaurants. We weren't there long enough, so we will have to go back and check it out properly.And the answer is yes! Of course we were one of those people eating an ice-cream!

Apartment living

Yesterday I nearly pulled my hair out! But I did come to one conclusion, apartment living is not for families, pets or the sanity of pet owners with kids!
I took off early for Ladner, their guide for summer activities was just released and I wanted to know what types of activities were on offer for kids, so I could plan. After that we went to Wellington Point Park, which has a boat launch and a jetty along the Fraser River, some big hills that ALex rolled down and lots of giant sea gulls. We had a bit of a walk around, let teh dogs explore and then went on our way. On the way back, we spotted another park, this one had some walking trails and a playground, so I thought it woudl be good for a look. The walk was great, it didn't lead anywhere particularly interesting, but you felt like you were walking in a deep dark rainforest. There were so many berry bushes; raspberry and blueberry and I even noticed real holly here and there. In the playground were Robin red-breast, whch was nice to see. It was a nice long walk. Then I took teh kids into town and we stopped at a bakery for some lunch. Alex wanted a sausage roll - his standard request in Australia. I don't know whaat was wrong with it, but he didn't like it. "I don't like this sausage", he said. I took his word for it and didn't bother to try it. By this time it was 2pm and the kids went straight to sleep as I began to drive back to Richmond. It was a nice morning and early afternoon. Once we were back at teh hotel, things turned to hell.
They became so bored, Alex kept turning the computer off at the crucial moment, pushing and shoving each other, both of them terrorising Angus, turnign over the whole small space. By 5pm I had had enough " that was it"! I made tea for Alex and sent him to bed. He didn't go to sleep for 2 hours, he wasn't tired, he was bored. There is not much room in here, there is no backyard to play in, which is why visiting the park is so important, and the dogs have no where to escape to. We CAN'T wait to get into our own place - 9 weeks to go.