2010 BC Holidays
On Wednesday July 28th we started on our annual drive to BC.  Leaving Calgary we started through the picturesque Rockies past Kananaskis Country and Canmore past Banff.

For the first night we stopped in Sicamouse at the Best Western and had a lovely time in the pool, hot tub and free breakfast the next morning with waffles etc.  While we were there we had ice cream at the Dutchman Dairy, fior tasty Ice Cream on a farm where the kids could pet the cows, see a camel and a donkey.

The next day we arrived in Vancouver at the Tswassen Ferry we bumped into Gail and Donna returning from their trip to the UK and Tenerife - they were only a few lanes away from us.

Eric drove much of the way, and was very excited about it!

Tigger is Jessies special friend in the back seat.

Jessica, Aunty Gail and Eric at the ferry

Our first stop was at Michelle and Dick's in Sidney where we had a lovely visit with our cousins

Jessie and Cousin Danielle

With my sister Michelle

Eric, Cousin Stephen and Uncle Dickie

Eric and cousin Stephen

Some of the Deerfolk that Dickie makes

More Deerfolk

Dickie's latest Grape Trelis

Michelle and Dickie's rambling garden

Dickie's outdoor Garden Beer Lounge

More relaxing garden

There are Veggie patches, Berrie Patches, rose bushes, there are many lovely areas to see

How many cousins does it take to put up a tent?

Some flowers in the garden

Cousin Bevin with Jessica and cousin Stephen

On Saturday we went to Parksville for the Show and Shine Car show that David likes to be in and there was a sandcastle competition, we had a lovely day at Rathtrevor beach with Uncle John and made our own sand castles

While David, John and Eric played golf, Jessie and I walked to Rathtrevor beach

Jessie did some handstands

Will need to get the final shots from Uncle John because the project was incomplete at this point.

Milk shakes and our favourite legendary burgers at the Whitespot in Parksville/Qualicum YUMMY!

The next day David headed back to Calgary on the 6:20am ferry and we headed to Sproat Lake

Our family has had this spot on Sproat Lake outside Port Alberni since the early 1960's when my grandparents purchased the property with a 2 bedroom cabin there.  My sister and I spent many childhood summers here with friends and family and I learned to swim and dive right off of this warf.  My uncle eventually built this house here and now we visit with my kids, so it has been a wonderful family vacation spot for generations.

Every August long weekend, my Uncle hosts a gathering of his university chums and cousins, now with their wives, and their grown up kids, again this has been a tradition now for a couple of generations, they come in tents, campers and some stay in the house.  When we arrived, some of them were still there and so we had a visit and a cold one on the dock.

Al took Don and then Eric out on the hobie cat

The kids had their first swim as soon as they got there

Getting the "diaper" on Eric for the hobie cat sail

Off they go!

Good wind so they go off across the lake

Uncle Al took us on some boat rides and the kids went skiing around the lake

Al took us to a neat pebble beach area with great views of the lake and mountains

Despite many large homes built along the water these days, there are still many natural untouched areas and small islands

Some of the guys jumped off of this rock into the lake below, it was quite high up

Al parked the boat on this little pebble beach

Al and the kids climbed up the rocks and took some pictures of the view

On the way back Al went very fast!

The kids wanted to go waterskiing

Jess went first

and went around the lake for a while

The next day after more skiing Jess also went out on the hobie cat

Our last day we returned to Sidney to say cheerio to Aunty Mich and Uncle Dickie and the cousins and then stopped our last night in Kamloops with our friends Toni and Troy and their girls Diara and Kayla.

Stopped at Cathedral Grove and admired the big trees

The kids cooled off in the pool while Toni and I enjoyed some wine and caught up on the past year, it was Troys birthday so Diara had made him cupcakes and cookies.

Pippa and Cooper entertained us, they were cute!

Great holiday but too short, can't wait till the next one!