9.8.12 trip to Victoria–a little Mommy-Daddy time

Thanks to his gig with the Clipper, Dave scored us some much-needed and wanted time for two up in gorgeous B.C. Nana & Pepere took the girls and we took the early ferry up for a blue-skied sunny day of touring. AWESOME.
First, the butterfly museum where we couldn’t help but think of the girls (not sure why there aren’t butterfly shots…)

Then to the Buchardt Gardens – we’d just seen them in April, but it was a nearly completely different experience…dahlias!!

A break for High Tea at the Queen’s Victoria residence, The Empress where we had a deceptive amount of food! nearly ruined my appetite for dinner at JJ’s – though not really…

Amazing topiary near The Empress, Walking Dude with a ‘tude


Our room, with a view

Strange street signs, cool street art
What a fantastic way to celebrate 11 years.

First day of school, 2012

And the big day for our little preschooler and big kindergartner!




Maggie: Off to (opening) Rm 7 w/ Teacher Laura, (pre-school) Rm 5 with Teacher Jo and (extended care) Rm 4 with Teacher Marci
Zoe: Off to Jan’s (opening) room and Rm 3 w/ Mrs. Whitney (Claire and Cassandra!)

Pre-School, 2012

In September 2012, Zoe started kindergarten at Syre. She was only a kindergartener, but man, she seemed so ready to go to school with the big kids! Some pix of those early school-year days:
 
Last day of summer (?) jaunt to the zoo w/ mom & Maggie

Tearing away from her tot years…Maggie trying to keep up

Labor Day weekend 2012

I think this was Labor Day weekend, and I know it was during a trip south to the Grandparents’ in Vancouver. See "On the farm" for shots of the girls with the GPs. This is our near-annual jaunt to the Esther Shot Park in downtown Vancouver where Comic-Con just so happened to be happening. Oy, the colorful scenery. Oy the questions from the girls!

Burpy-guy game was there!

Bathing beauties

Football’s back…

And so, so am I.

After an 11 month hiatus, I am pushing myself back onto the bandwagon and pledging to get caught up on my photos.

So, every time there’s a game on (and I’m looking for another diversion), I’ll be here, digging into the archives and posting as many of the greats I can correlate to memory (or not).

From my notes (er, my last post), it looks like I left off somewhere last August, even though the post went up in October. So I’m going to start from there.

Here goes!

On the farm

This summer, Dave's grandparents decided that maybe now would be the time to think about downsizing. What with a 4 bedroom house, garage/shop/artist studio, pole building, greenhouse, shed, orchards and fields, they may be on the right tack.

It is a bittersweet transition, though - and one that may not even come to pass - so we decided we needed to get down "to the farm" to see it again just in case it sells. Labor day was a great opportunity - and the weather sure cooperated - so we headed on down.

Now, Dave and his brother spent many of their formative days down there, under grandpa's elbow, at grandma's table, so I'm really so glad that the girls have memories of this place they are old enough to hold on to. In addition to the tons of other shots I've posted over the years, here are a few more to round out the bunch:

Lead the way, Grandpa!

potatoes

seeing where food comes from

diggit

while managing to stay clean :)

checking the stock