all smiles in the sunshine coast.

Simon's aunt and uncle live in Halfmoon Bay in the beautiful Sunshine Coast. They have invited us to visit them since we got married and I don't know why it took so long by seven and half years later, we finally got around to it. We figured with baby #2 due just 4 weeks away, we better seize the day and visit while it's still relatively easy to travel with just Natallie.

Us with Antie Cheryl

 

Natallie helps Uncle Danny water the flowers

 

Auntie Cheryl and Uncle Danny have a house in a beautiful location and a huge flower and vegetable garden. They also have quite an interesting set-up as they only live at home about 6 months of the year. During the fall and winter months, the are travelling around in their RV seeking sunshine usually in California. How cool is that to always have perpetual sunshine?

                                  

 

                                   

                           

so many pretty flowers!

Auntie Cheryl's & Uncle Danny's home for half the year

 It was the "Sechelt Rod Run" the weekend we were there. Apparently this is a really big deal. On Friday, we saw people sitting on lawn chairs on their front lawn as the parade of classic cars and hot rods drove down the main highway. The spectactors wave at the passing cars and the drivers all wave and honk back. We decided to join part of the action and pulled over and sat on Simon's truck tailgate. Apparently you can make anything fun for a toddler because Natallie loved waving and saying "hello" to every car that passed by.

Who knew Natallie would enjoy waving at cars so much?





Natallie got along with Auntie Cheryl & Uncle Danny right away. Probably because they also have a overly friendly dog named Spica and a big cat named Percy (seriously, the cat and Natallie weigh the same!) Natallie had lots of fun chasing them around and was so amused by the doggy door, I was surprised she didn't crawl through it herself!

 

The next day, we went to the car show with Auntie Cheryl & Uncle Danny. One thing we regret was forgetting to bring the stroller. It was long ways to walk and with me already carrying 25 pounds in front, the last thing I wanted was another 25 pound Natallie on my hip so Simon carried her almost the entire time. We occasionally put Natallie down to take photos of her in front of really cool cars but she kept wanting to touch them so our strategy was to get her to make silly faces so her hands would stay off the car. It worked and after a few pictures, as soon as we put Natallie down in front of  car, she would make a silly face and stick out her tongue before we even asked her to!



 

 

 

I don't know anything about cars but according to Simon, it was a really good car show. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. I can't write captions on any of these because I have no clue what kind of cars they are, if I wrote captions it would be something lame like "orange car with cool flames" or something like that.

There was a classic car that had a Popeye and Olive Ol' figurines next to it and Natallie made friends with them quite quickly.

 

 

After the car show and a quick nap, we took Natallie to Cooper's Green Park/Beach. I was anticipating that Natallie would love the water but apparently, it was just like when we took her to the beach in Seattle...for some reason, the ocean is a frightening thing and she wouldn't go in past her ankles. Part of me wanting to just throw her in the ocean and that she would just love it but I resisted and let her have fun with Simon just throwing rocks in the ocean. But one of these days, I really am just going to chuck her in the ocean!

Do you want to go swimming?? Noooooooo!

4 weeks left to go!

We had no problems with the ferry wait on the way to the Sunshine Coast but the way back was a different story on the way back. We arrived at the ferry terminal at an hour and half before the sailing and was told that it was already full and we'd have to wait for the next one which meant over 3 hours of waiting at the terminal. Luckily, Natallie was so, so, so good and was happy to play in the car for an hour and then eat over-priced hot dogs after. When we finally got on the ferry, Natallie was a cannon ball of energy running up and down the ferry and L-O-V-I-N-G the wind. It brings back memories of how much my sister and I loved the wind on the ferry. These pictures don't do justice to how squealing with excitement she was so you should watch this video clip too!

 

 

 It was a great weekend and it will definitely not be another seven and half years until we visit again!