The Water Park

We've been able to enjoy a great little water park not too far from our home lately this summer. It's a great place for little ones from age walking to about 6 years old. It's open from around 10am until about 6pm in the summer months.  Our little Cam has grown to love this place. She's so silly in what she does at the park. Here are a few snapshots from our recent visits.  What I love about it is that they can run around in a closed environment and go on the slide and a zip line.  The kids are in her age range so she doesn't get too trampled and it's free fun for kidlets who only can last so long outdoors.

Playing with her butterfly net.

Sticks are good play tools.

Saying Cheese

Taking a rest from playing

Watching others play

Fun on the slide

Up I go

Having fun!

So silly!

Look mom I'm getting my hair wet!



Needless to say we will be going back here again and again.

The Grandparents Visit

I didn't count how many months it's been since my parents last visit, but I do know it has been nearly a year.  Time sure flies by too fast.  Luckily with today's technology, we are able to video chat with the grandparents daily.  I definitely love that.

My parents finally came up to Canada to play and relax with their grand daughter. She's a little busy bee and loves to be active.  We did a lot in the 2 plus weeks that they shared with us.  Most days consisted of waking up by 6am, going out for a morning walk, coming back to play in a park, eating lunch or taking a nap for a few hours, going out again for another play at a park, dinner then going outside for a walk or a park play again..  Yup Cam is one active gal!

Here are a few pics from the visit.

Cam playing at her favorite park

Waiting to get into the car, confused face I think!

Checking out the kitchen of our rental house

We got to visit Parksville for a few days, enjoyed the low tides, sand dollars and the little things a small town has to offer.  It was relaxing without fast food, and without shopping.  And that's exactly what a vacation should be like.

Hair Day Shower

Image courtesy of Darren Robertson / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I needed to wash my hair today and was planning on taking a shower, but my little one had other plans for me. She immediately put on her rain boots and got out her bucket full of sand toys.  I was told I needed to take a bath mommy so that she could go in there with me and monitor the situation.  Well her exact words were so I could go too.  She secretly wanted to play with water!

I complied with her wishes this time, but boy does it take longer to wash your own long hair when trying to do it sitting down.  Now when I see all of those expats where there is no shower in their flat where they live in Europe, I will really feel for them too.  It's not easy washing your hair in a bath tub!

It was definitely so cute to see my little gal in the bathroom telling me to use her shovel and then she proceeded to tell me to keep on playing mommy and to use this toy or that toy.  She would go out every so often and get more toys for me to play with in the tub.  Of course I was more busy washing my hair and scrubbing to bother with the playing part, but it was a cute way to keep her busy while I tried to shower in a tub..

In the end it was a win win situation.  I got my hair washed, and she got time to play outside of the tub with water and her rain boots on.  I was impressed, no water mess and good listening skills. She is now 2.4 years old and going on 4 I think!

Working to Live or Living to Work

These days I seem to be a bit too drained to be posting and blogging. I know I miss posting about Cam's growth, my foods that I've been enjoying and the little travels we've been taking on Vancouver Island.   I'm a bit sad about that because I love the blogging community and friends along the way I've met through this.  It seems I've been working in order to pay the bills and not too much else.

Some ten plus years ago now I had quit my job so that I would work to live so that I could do what I wanted to enjoy life.  I was on my way to living to work and loved living in Switzerland.

The question I ask myself daily is "Why wait to do what you enjoy tomorrow, and are you really doing what you want to be doing now?  I definitely want to find a better balance so that I'm working to live, and taking time for vacation again.

I know I'd like to try and catch up a bit on blogging and doing small reports again so that is what I will start doing to getting back into doing what I enjoy.

So my question for you to ponder is What do you want to do today, so that you will have no regrets tomorrow?  What is it that makes you tick, that you enjoy?  For me, that's always traveling, photographing and being in Europe...  For travels I know I want to be traveling and seeing Vancouver Island. I think I'd like to also write a few books, soon.  It's so beautiful on Vancouver Island and there is so much to see and offer.  I know I'm lucky to live here, especially with great ocean views and a walkway only 3 blocks from our house.

A Parksville Vacation

On July 9 we headed out to Parksville to spend a few days soaking up the sun, playing at the beach and just relaxing.  That's exactly what we did.  Parksville is a tiny city located just above Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. It takes about a 2 hour drive from Victoria to get to this beach paradise.  What I love so much about the Parksville area is that the low tide is incredibly low.  You get to walk about for many meters and see sand dollars and other sea life, while playing in warmer waters.

We ended up going during the perfect time of the week before the famous sand castle festival started and where we still got to visit the Tuesday night market.  One great thing about Parksville is that there aren't many places to eat out, lots of camping sites to camp out at and a bunch of parks to have fun if you want to take a break from the beach.  It's basically a kids paradise for any kid under 12 (or adults for that matter).

I definitely love going up this way.  We don't visit enough and it's much cheaper than visiting Vancouver because we stay on the island and don't pay for a ferry ride.  This was our 3 time up here and certainly not our last visit.