.: Camping with the Cortes, BMX camp 1, Vancouver Day, and other stuff

We didn't actually spend Canada Day long weekend in Canada - we headed south to go camping in the beautiful Cascades again. We invited some friends to come too, the Cortes family that we met through Callum's classmate, Matias. We camped at Gold Basin Campsite, on the Stawagamish River, which allowed us to go on a few decent hikes and enjoy plenty of playing in the water. Our first day, we tackled the Big Four Ice Caves together - all the kids managed fine and were rewarded with snow at the end (though, no ice caves yet). A little hike to Bear Lake the next day and playing at the river, then the Cortes' left while we stayed another night.

Unfortunately, our cameras and phones managed to lose battery power so I didn't get any pics of the Lake Twenty-Two hike we did on our last day. The boys were real troopers, hiking over 9km with an elevation gain of 3300ft. For some reason, I underestimated how rigorous it would be, so the boys had a few moments where they just "couldn't go on", but the lake at the top was beautiful and worth the exertion.

When we got home, Callum and Max participated in a couple Day camps up in Cloverdale - Max at a Sports camp while Callum did another BMX camp with Matias.

It seems that we may have a yearly tradition of watching the Tour de White Rock bike race. We order pizza and eat it with Pop and lollypops on the sidewalk. Very healthy.

I took the kids to Vancouver this past Friday for another "Adventure", as we call them. First it was a stop at the Kerrisdale Play Palace, which is basically bouncy-castle center.

Then it was Granville Island for lunch and the Waterpark.

After the Waterpark, we biked to Kitsilano beach, where we met up with Jeff and our friends Julianne, Banyan and Georgia. Before heading home, we went to this AWESOME taco place, The Taqueria, on Cambie, then the boys completely conked asleep on the ride home.

I've been meaning to take some photos of our blooming garden. I'm quite happy at how the front is all filling in around the steps.

My empty vegetable beds aren't completely disappointing as Max planted a lonely pea plant from his Preschool - but look at how prolific the one plant is! Impressive, Max.

Watching my tomato plants grow is quite satisfying as well. Mmmm... can't wait.

Oh ya, and the carrots that Cindy transplanted from her garden turned out to be a lesson learned - you just can't transplant them. They turned into these mutant carrots!