Twas the night before Christmas hike

'Twas the night before Christmas, when our family set out

To ascend Mt Seymour, we followed the route

With poles, crampons, and whistles we climbed up the hill

With toques, mittens and down jackets to fight off the chill

We never stopped moving as we climbed higher

Singing carols as if we were 'round the campfire

The path was icy and the mountain was steep

We detoured off path and the snow was so deep

We saw ravens and birds and a hungry Whisky Jack

Perched on Nallie's hand and enjoyed a wee snack 

Close to the summit, the winds blew uncontrolled

Probably not the place you'd find a 7 or 9 year old 

But we were so close we could see the very top

The kids were ambitious and didn't want to stop

They climbed on all fours it was so steep 

We could see the very top of Mystery Peak

At the summit was a moment of great celebration

We had climbed up 1407 meters of elevation

We took pictures as the winds blew wild

Each parent holding one happy child 

Then we began the descent back down

We wanted to be quick, there was no one around 

Racing down with Daddy as our guide

Taking every opportunity to sit down and slide

The sun was setting as we hiked along

The kids still chirping their Christmas songs

We made it back to the truck and we drove out of sight

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night !

Pumpkin nostalgia.

Earlier in October, the kids were invited to a Covid friendly birthday playdate at the pumpkin patch. 

I think Covid and the months of limited social contact has made the kids appreciate a simple play date so much more. They were so excited to run around the pumpkin patch and willingly posing for pictures at every photo set-up. The fields were so mucky - like knee-deep slop - but they all had rain boots and didn't care. The boys found a pumpkin in the corn field and had a great game of muddy pumpkin soccer.

Between the pumpkin patch and the gorgeous Dalia fields, there was no shortage of picture perfect shots and I had the cutest models

And of course after you bring home the perfect pumpkin you have to carve it. The kids were so excited about the idea of pumpkin carving. 

Emphasis on the word idea. When it came to actually scooping up the inside of the pumpkin they realized it is rather unglamorous.

Cue the priceless expressions.

The actual pumpkins did turn out pretty great though.

And then came Halloween. Yee-haw. 

Covid Halloween meant lots of people had bowls outside of their house, handing out goody bags with tongs or the kid's favorite were the houses that had a candy chute. There was no shortage of sweets.

I love that the kids still get excited about going to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, and planning matching costumes. I wonder how many years we have left of this before they think they are too old for this. It didn't seem too long ago when they were at the pumpkin patch for the first time...

These pumpkins are growing up too fast. Still working on some way to freeze time so the years go by slower but until then, I better just  take it all in and enjoy it.

Letter to my 7 year old.

Dear Noey,  

You just turned 7, how did that happen so fast? We just went to Whistler for the weekend of your birthday and just did your 7 year old birthday interview video

Right now, your favorite things are Lego, Playmobil, and playing with stuffed animals with your big sister. You guys just made a sign that says "Fur Salon" and used scissors to trim the hair off your stuffed animals. Your stuffed monkey looks a bit hacked up right now, I think he'll be coming back to the Fur Salon to get a better fur cut. Unless you are building Lego or reading Geronimo Stilton books, you can't stop moving. You love soccer, biking, hiking, and skiing. You are super competitive and you hate losing. You have matured since your epic toddler tantrums but you still have big emotions. That's OK. That is the way God made you. You never feels things just neutrally, when you are happy, you are  ecstatic and cackling with laughter, when you are upset, you are full on gasping sobs and when you don't get your way, it is Defcon 1 of melodramatic devastation. But within minutes, you can recover from your sorrowful sobs and cracking ridiculous jokes that make no sense or are so lame, the whole family is howling with laughter. 

You are an extrovert and don't like being alone. Like ever.  You rather play dolls with your sister than be by yourself. You like having someone around you all the time, even if you are playing by yourself. You won't go to a different floor of the house if everyone else is on a different floor. You don't watch many movies because you are scared of a lot of things and you worry it might give you bad dreams. You ask a million questions a day and your go-to answer when we explain something is "Got it".....unless I am asking you to play piano, then you don't respond with "Got it" and usually melt into a puddle of whiny tears. Hopefully when you're older you will appreciate having musical ability and it is worth this wretched battle. 

You don't sleep in like your sister does. I am glad that after the two years of your existence, you decided to at least sleep through the night. You must of got the memo from me that I didn't wasn't going to make it much longer on 2-3 hour chunks of sleep every night. Thanks for that. I feel much more sane than when you were a toddler. Bedtime still consists of a 101 steps. After we tuck you into bed, it's quiet for about ten minutes and then come the string of other questions and requests ranging from, "I don't know what to do", "I think I have growing pains", "I don't know which stuffy to sleep with" (maybe because there are like bajillion in your bed) and "Can you get my bunny?" You went through this weird phase of needing your beloved stuffed bunny to be ice-cold at bedtime. You would put your bunny in the freezer in the morning and we would have to bring it to you at bedtime holding just the tag so our hands didn't make it too hot on the way upstairs. Seriously. The hoops we jump through just to get you to go to sleep my child.  But on the upside, my favourite part of the last few months during covid and having no schedules is that you can tell time on your Gro Clock and you come over after 7:00 am and we snuggle while your sister sleeps past 9:00 am.

You are sensitive and you care a lot about the people in your life. You give the most affectionate hugs. When you were younger, we would call them 'bowling ball' hugs because you would run to me from across the room and leap into my arms and wrap your legs around me. If I wasn't ready, it would be like a bowling ball clearing a strike and I would collapse from your mighty hugs. 

You would be happy living off just bread and butter. The only vegetables you will eat right now are steamed broccoli and I can hide spinach and zucchini into things without you protesting. Your sister likes salads but your idea of a salad is just eating a pile of croutons. You are also probably one of the rare kids that don't like french fries and you rather have apple slices with your chicken nuggets. You don't really like trying new foods and if we make you eat it, you request to have it with honey. That's why your nickname is Honey Badger. You were so proud of that nickname you put Honey Badger on your bike handle bars but the stickers wore off and now it just says "BAD"

You are strong. You love a good challenge. I love that about you, I pray that you continue to grow and challenge yourself. Keep telling yourself that you can do hard things. You will never know how far you can go until you try. I pray you always keep trying. I will always be your biggest fan. Happy birthday sweet pea.  Love you to the tide and back. 

XOXO Love Mom

Tour de Sidney.

 This weekend we were supposed to be doing the Tour de Victoria 2020 but it was cancelled among everything else we had signed up for before Covid. Simon's aunt and uncle in Sidney were gracious enough to still host us so we decided to go to the island anyway and do our own virtual cycling race. Here's the highlights of our Tour de Sidney

We left our truck and the ferry terminal, caught the 5pm ferry and biked onto the ferry with our packs.

We made the 6 km trek from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal to the Danielson's house before it was dark

The next day, we biked 16 km with the kids along Lochside Drive. The kids did amazing and we took breaks at Glass beach and Sannichton Bay Park

In the evening, Simon and I biked 25 km on our own. Unfortunately, when we passed Heritage Acres, I was so distracted by the abandoned train in the field that I did not see the pole in the middle of the bike path and crashed right into it. My bike stopped and I flew off. Maybe it was the adrenaline or that we don't get to bike just the two of us often, but I was able to ignore the road rash sting and we enjoyed the rest of the bike ride and the sunset.

The next day, I assessed my injuries and decided I wasn't hurting enough to skip my Sunday morning run . It was a beautiful 10 km run along the Sidney harbour while hubby and the kids slept in.

When we were not biking or running, we relaxed at the beach while the kids attempted to build homes for crabs out of shells and sand.

 After more beaching, we biked 7 km to check out the stores in downtown Sidney and got back to the ferry terminal. Amazing that we rolled in on our bikes at 2:48 and still got onto the 3:00 pm ferry. Perks of pedal powder and not having a vehicle! It was so nice to tour Sidney on a bike, definitely will be ditching the vehicle more often and coming to the island with just our bikes again. So impressed the kids enjoyed touring on our bikes as much as we did. They are already asking when our next bike trip is. We have been trying so hard since they were born for them to embrace the outdoorsy things we like, whatever we are doing...maybe it's working!!!