The Rest of Vancouver

We had a great Sunday.  It was David and Mary’s stake conference, so we went to the church at 9am and watched a broadcast from Salt Lake.  It was over by 10:30.  That’s the earliest we’ve ever gotten out of church!  It was awesome to have the whole day to just hang out, eat, play games, go on a walk, chat, eat some more, and play more games:)  Here’s the group right after church (everyone but Mike & the Johnsons).

James was finally old enough to really participate in Grandpa’s lion hunts.  He LOVED it!  And we loved watching him!

“rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb”

And we had so much fun this weekend meeting our new little cousin, Nathan David Walton, born March 27 (same day as David’s birthday:).  What a cute little guy!

Monday we spent the day doing a little shopping and going out to lunch (and of course playing more games and eating more desserts:).  And then we flew home today.  What a great trip!  It’s always so fun to just hang out and spend time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house . . . . thanks for everything, David and Mary!!

Vancouver – Day 3

Lynn Canyon

Oh yeah!  These guys showed up last night!  They led us to believe they were still planning on taking a road trip to Nauvoo this weekend . . . . but they surprised us all by flying into Seattle, renting a car, and driving up to Dan’s parents’ house instead!  They were just there hanging out when we got home from the beach last night.  What a fun surprise!  So glad you guys came Chris and Amy!  (picture below taken from Amy’s blog:)

Stanley Park

Vancouver – Day 2

We spent the first half of the day at the Burnaby Village Museum, a reconstructed 1920s village.  Some of the buildings are actually original buildings, moved from other locations in the community and restored.  We especially liked walking through the 1912 B.C. Electric Railway Train.  We had amazingly good weather, and it was just fun to be outside and walk around.

Our favorite thing was the restored 1912 vintage carousel.  It was a beautiful carousel . . . . and it was FAST!  Seriously, that thing hauled.  I got dizzy just watching them go around so fast!

We got home in the afternoon, changed clothes, picked up Brian (who had been working), packed up a hotdog dinner, and took off for an evening at Centennial Beach!

As we were driving there, David and Mary kept telling us, “Now, this isn’t a beach like the ones they have in California . . . . this is a Pacific Northwest type of beach.”  Which, of course we knew, but I’m still not sure we were prepared for what we found . . . . the beach was so flat that when the tide is out the water is like half a mile away.  There were shallow tidal pools with warm water scattered all over that the kids could wade through. It was gorgeous there, and that’s Mt. Baker (in Washington) in the background.

The kids had so much fun wandering all around, wading through the warm water, and looking for crabs.

This little guy had no reservations, and just bounded through the water, literally squealing and laughing as he got soaked.

He also loved being Foster’s little shadow.  He’s finally old enough to play, and obviously thought Foster was just the coolest thing around.  So fun to see little cousin relationships starting to form. 

Great idea of Grandpa to bring lots of kites to fly!

Well, the tide came in while we were there, and the water came up fast!  The kids loved trying to run away from the approaching water and stay on dry ground.

Pretty soon there was just one little island left, and they all screamed as their dry ground vanished!