Houseguests!

In the last week of July, Mike's brother Dave, his wife Tara, and all the kiddies came out from Ottawa for a visit.  "All the kiddies" of course being our nephews, Owen (who turned 6 while they were here), Felix (age 4), and Emmett (age 2).

We took the kids so many places during their visit -the kids got up between 6 and 7 every morning, and it seemed like we were out of the house by 8:30 almost every day.  Mind you, that may have had something to do with our "don't let the kids annoy the downstairs neighbours" plan...  :)  The following pics are roughly in order of our adventures...

Owen meets a friendly moose at Whistler on Tuesday

Hiking in Stanley Park on Thursday

(Wednesday, they went to Science World, but Mike and I had to work)

Meeting turtles at the Aquarium

 

 Playing at 3rd Beach after the hike

We visited the Burnaby Heritage Museum on Friday - this is a restored streetcar that used to run through Vancouver and Burnaby

Checking out the Vintage Carousel pre-ride - the carousel turns 100 next year, and they're promising fun celebrations!

Friday was Owen's 6th birthday, so Tara and I made him a Swimming Pool Cake.  Interesting fact: 2-year olds think its more appropriate to play with blue Jello than to eat it.  Maybe Emmett was on to something!

bedtime stories!

On Saturday, the lowest tide was at mid-day, so we headed out to Spanish Banks to play in the beach flats...

mmm... squooshy mud! 

 As the tide comes back in, the water stays really warm - great for swimming, provided you don't mind a bathing suit full of sand! :)

 I had to work on Sunday, so Mike took everyone up to Cypress Mountain for some hiking.  Here's a family photo, taken at the lookout about halfway up the mountain.

 Once up top, they were able to do a little hiking

In the evening we put the boys to bed early so we could have a proper 'adults dinner'.  Here's Mike teaching the boys about space, in place of a bedtime story (we started out by colouring in pictures of spaceships [thanks Crayola.com!], but clearly my way wasn't fancy enough !)

On Monday morning we headed over to Granville Island - they have an amazing water park there, complete with water slides, sprayers, and a little stream that drains all the water away.

In the evening, we had a big barbecue at Kits Beach and invited my brother and parents, and a few local friends.  It was such a great week, and we enjoyed having everyone to stay - can't wait till you guys can come visit us again!