Thursday, March 21, 2013

Spring Break: Days 3 and 4

**Read Days 1 & 2 first  :) **

All right, so at 11:45pm on the 2nd night, Koen started puking.  All over the bedding.  No laundry.  It was brutal.  He stopped by 1am but Gary and I had to try to get the boys new bedding, clean up everything the best that we could, make sure Koen was okay etc.  Not fun. At all.  Koen did so well.  I was nervous because our next day was our whale watching trip and there was no way he would be able to go in it if he had the flu!!  However, by the morning, he seemed much better (although I was even MORE exhausted) and so we loaded everyone up with gravol 2 hours before we were going to go.  
Above, this nap made the #3 on my top three list of favourite things of our trip.  She napped.  For 1.5 hours.  Yes!!!  I even had to wake her up which is why I risked it taking a photo :)
We went on Jamie's Whaling Station Whale Watching Tour.  They had a special where the kids were free with each paying adult.  So, although expensive, it cost us `just' $200.00 for a 3 hour tour.   I know some people might be against whale watching but we grew up doing it in our own boat (a zodiac) and the boats need to stay 100 m away by law.   This made the top 3 of all of our lists :)  It was a GORGEOUS day.  Beautiful.  We saw Sea Lions, seals, grey whales (many, many, many!!!), and there was even one humpback whale but I didn't see that one.  
You can see in the above picture why we like to keep these two separated.  This was below the deck and I spent a lot of time there with Nya as she could crawl around and it was heated and there was a great view.
Below is just one shot of the grey whale but we saw a lot.  Koen loved all of the `smoke' (spouting).  It's zoomed in which is why it seems closer than 100m:)

We all felt great on the whale watching trip and although we probably won't do it again, I would recommend it AND this company.
The picture above was just taken at home but it is to remind the boys of their inside joke from their trip.  It's an egg.  The  last one was always the `Rock Egg' instead of the rotten egg.  They found an oval dark brown rock that looked like an egg.  If you were the last one to the van or up the stair or whatever else they came up with, you had to try to eat the rock egg and they found it hilarious.
That afternoon, we went to `Big Beach' to go geocaching.  The boys found the cache that we were unable to find 2 years ago.  This was on Gary's top 3 list.  I was unable to make it up the cliff with Nya in the Ergo so I missed out on Team Chapman's geocaching :(
Then, it was back to just hanging out at our place.  It is right on the water so you have great views of fishing boats going by which means a lot of seals too.  It's beautiful.   We made all of our own food and that went really well.  I packed more than enough, and ample fun snacks, so it was good.  Saves so much money :)
Then, on Tuesday morning, it was time to head home.  We checked out and then went to Wickaninnish Beach.  Kai had my iPhone for part of it:)  This was probably the only time Gary and I held hands the whole time. 
{Kai taking a picture of me!}





Due to the puking incident we had to do laundry and it's a good thing because the boys got soaked.  They could've played there for hours.  We got them changed as we were heading home to the ferry.
We stopped to do a hike that we've done before.  It's just 1km and it's called the `Shorepine trail'.  It's really cool as it goes through a bog.  
In Port Alberni, we stopped at the Quay for our lunch and then had donuts for dessert :)
Then it was off to the ferry and home.  Nya napped a total of 20 minutes.  Normal for her is 2-3 hours a day so I felt bad for her.
{We had one shot with the timer and this is what we got, not bad:)}
What a great trip. I love my family.  I love being outdoors with them.  They exhaust me like crazy.  Kai knows how to annoy us like crazy.  They can fight like crazy.  But the love is great.
And, there's nothing like coming home to your king size bed.  Love my bed.

Happy Spring Break!!

Love, Louise




4 comments:

  1. Whale watching is on my bucketlist! ALWAYS wanted to do that!

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  2. Enjoyed your travelogue!

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  3. so fun! how awesome to see that much sea life in one tour - very cool!
    so sorry that Koen got sick though :(

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  4. I would love to be a child at your house! Such wonderful, fun memories you create with your beautiful family:)

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