Escape from the Ordinary

This past weekend we went on a mini vacation. I have wanted to "get away" for a while now. Just a little escape from the ordinary. When you live on an island your options are limited as to where you can go. So we went down to Victoria. We have been a few times before but there was still a lot there that we wanted to do. Our first stop was to do a little bit of shopping. Courtenay has a poor excuse for a Mall, not that Victoria's is much better, but it has some stores that we don't. After that we headed to the hotel to check in and get our swimming gear. What is it about hotels that make kids hyper?? We then went to Saanich to the Commonwealth Place. The pool was pretty cool with pirate ships, water slide and wave pool. The kids had tons of fun but the germafobic side of me went into overdrive. I couldn't get out of that place fast enough! After dinner at Swiss Chalet we headed back to the hotel for what we hoped was going to be a good nights sleep. Highlight of the night was when Brecken fell off the bed in his sleep. The sound of him hitting the floor and wall was so loud, I thought for sure he would start screaming, but he slept through the whole thing. The next morning we asked him about it and he had no clue. Silly boy. Our first stop after checking out of the hotel was Beacon Hill Park. As soon as we started walking towards the pond the ducks came to meet us. So we took some time to feed them. (There were no signs that said Don't Feed the Ducks, I checked)

Even Brad and I got in on the duck feeding action.

It was a typical island winter day with rain, but it wasn't cold and didn't slow us down a bit. In fact, the kids were pretty excited to use their new umbrellas.

After Beacon Hill we went to the Royal BC Museum. We spent so much time in museums in Ottawa, it was good to be back in one.

When we got there the kids were given a little booklet to complete all about their visit. Tavie takes things like this very serious so she was having daddy explain it all to her before she entered. Brecken on the other hand threw his in the stroller and didn't look at it until we were about the leave for the day then copied off of Tavie. I hope this isn't going to be a reflection on how he will do his school work!

This life sized mammoth was a little too much for Huxley. It made loud noises that made Hux eager to leave this room. I on the other hand thought it was pretty awesome!

Tavie working hard on her booklet...Brecken goofing around with the buttons :)

There comes a time in every boys life when Daddy has to teach them to pan for gold. Hux is getting an early start.

I love First Nations art work. In fact I have some hanging in my house. These totem poles were pretty amazing, along with all the their art work.

After a great time in the museum and a few other stops we headed back home. Even when the weather isn't the greatest it is still a beautiful drive home over the Malahat.

It was so good to spend some time away just focusing on our family. We even learned a few things on this trip. 1. Ducks like to eat Banana bread with chocolate chips

2. Huxley hates elevators

3.we can pretty much get the kids to do anything when you bribe them with swimming

4. floating random bandaids in pools make me nauseous

5. Sometimes it's the things that don't cost a cent (ducks) that the kids liked best!