Beach Babes

Parksville Sand+ Shiny Sun+Madeline Acting Cool+ Jenna Basking in the Briney Goodness= One Great Afternoon.

Creatures we've found!

Since being on the Island, we have encountered many different creatures: Anemone, Jellyfish, Sand dollars, fresh water Lobster (aka Crayfish), Crabby-crabs, SEAWEED (aka "lily-pads"), and things that live in Shells.
The first picture is from a tiny little tidal pool we found in Esquimalt. The pool was smaller than a kitchen sink, but had So much life! Hermit crabs smaller than my pinkie nail, fish, snails, anemone, seaweed and probably so much more we could not see with our eyes. Jenna and Madeline enjoyed poking and exploring. I encourage you to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can enjoy it at a closer view. In the middle of the anemone is crab exoskeleton (I don't know if the anemone was eating the crab, or if it left its shell, or if something else got to it...
The jelly fish and sand dollar were found on the beaches of Parksville. This beach holds a close second to Mexico (except for the heat factor). Incredibly BEAUTIFUL! We have always seen sand dollars after they have died, so to see live ones was fantastic. They were covered in coarse purple hair that was all directed to the center of the dollar- I guess to pull food inside- They were quite heavy to pick up (in relation to the dead, dry dollars). They still had the star design on the one side, but it was covered in this purple fur. Fascinating! It seemed also that the hole was the top of the dollar as most of them were situated that way. I always thought the pretty design was the top, needless to say, Stew and I were in awe of the HUNDREDS of Sand dollars that surrounded us. One little girl picked up about a dozen, held them up to her mother and said "hey mom, now I can buy a shell phone!"
The "lobster" was found in Little Qualicum River. Stew thought it was a lobster; I thought it was a crayfish= turns out we were both right. A crayfish IS a fresh water lobster. So, we caught it and cooked it up for dinner... no- just kidding. We just watched it for a while and went on our way.
The next picture is a tiny, tiny crab covered in sand. There were literally thousands of these little things crawling under foot no matter where you were. While in Mexico for our honeymoon, I thought these were the most horrid little things as they were everywhere- gross! But here, it didn't bother me at all. I guess I am become desensitized to gross little things... (I in NO way mean my children... just what they produce).
The next pictures were also taken in Parksville. We just loved the vibrancy of the colors- the almost flourecent green seaweed and the pearly-purple inside of the shell. The seaweed is the type of weed that Madeline called the "lilypad" ( read Stew's version of our holiday in Family Vacation part 1 and 2.).

Family Vacation Part 2

We spent two days in Parksville playing in the Ocean. Each year the city of Parksville hosts an international sand sculpting competition. The pieces are amazing works of art, sculpted entirely out of sand. The sculptures stay up for several weeks for the public to view.

All that play just tuckered Jenna out. I ended up carrying her around while she tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in. She may be little but she's growing and getting heavier each day.

The sand on the beach near parksville is smooth and fine. It feels so good on the feet. The best part of the whole expereince is that the beaches go on for miles and the water is very shallow, so the girls could play without us worrying that they were going too far in. We found lots of great little tide pools and areas strewn with small snails, clams, oysters, barnacles and even sand dollars. We all had a fabulous time exploring. We did discover that Madeline does not like seaweed. Once while walking in the water, a piece of kelp brushed up against her leg and she screamed, "The lilypad got me!" She wanted up nothing we could do would convince her that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Family Vacation Part 1

I had two weeks off between the end of summer semester and the beginning of the fall semester of school so we packed up the girls and drove north up Vancouver Island to do some camping. We spent four days and three nights at a provincial campground called Little Qualicum Falls, about 15 minutes from Parksville. The weather cooperated with us - we had almost no rain - and the location was ideal. We hiked around the falls, played in the ocean, went to Coombs and saw the general store with the goats on the roof, saw the infamous sandcastles at Parksville, and just enjoyed some time away.

It was our first attempt at camping with both girls, all four of us together in one tent. The following picture, perhaps, captures the spirit of the occasion

3 parts choas, 4 parts play, 1 part spontenaity mixed with 2 parts frustration, and sprinkled liberally with dirt and sand in every article of clothing.

Madeline and Jenna both had their fair share of new experiences - Madeline's first time "helping" Daddy do the dishes, Jenna's first sleeping bag, Jenna's first time in the ocean, Madeline's first S'mores. The trip was alot of fun, but a real challenge.

We bought new sleeping bags for both girls to sleep in. The novelty proved to be a bit of problem. Since both could climb out and move about the tent as they pleased, it made getting them to sleep a real challenge, and naptime was optimistic at best.

On the whole, the trip was good, but after three nights, Dawn and I were more than happy to return home to our own bed. More pics to follow.