[DOCUMENT] Road Trip Pages

Oh this poor little journal has been so neglected the past couple years! I always have the best intentions to keep it updated but day to day life always seems to get in the way. Apparently the same rule of thumb follows suit with my photo albums! Remember I said I was going to get caught up...well, ya, that never happened. I did make progress, however, on my 2015 album (yes I know...it's almost the end of 2017)!! I do have bits and pieces started of other years, but nothing completed to date. One day.

Some of my favourite memories are of our family road trips. We have made very good use of our little Glamper we purchased a few years ago and have combed our coast with it in tow. For our album, I have created a title page for each Road Trip and designed a layout for informational pages that document where we visited.

I have changed the layout slightly of how I document our text and have followed my favourite layouts from when I participated in Project Life in 2011. I love the simplicity of the font and simple layouts.

I have just about finished 2015 and am half way through 2016...whew! One day I would love to go back even further to when we became a family in 2007 with the birth of my beautiful boy...but that was before the iPhone, so I may be lacking with imagery but I'm sure I can pull something together.

I think it's time to make these albums and journal a priority again...they really are pretty special xox

[FAMILY + NATURE] Island Living

No we don't have malls, skate parks (although, that would be fun) movie theatres or even an indoor swimming pool, but we do have beaches, tide pools, meadows and trails. We made really great use of all those 'facilities' this weekend. First up, the Nature Dive.

Chloe and I had so much fun on Saturday, that we decided to go back to the dock with the boys to show them all the little starfish and gunnel fish we had found.

Next we headed down the road to the meadow and tried our hand at fishing off a little bridge that crosses a creek. It was filled with beautiful rainbow trout and crayfish - we caught five trout and a couple crayfish!

Last on the list was to have a bonfire at the beach to cook our bounty, but the weather had a different idea and instead we headed back with our friends to our place to BBQ, have the first fire of the season and listen to the thunderstorm. Island living bliss.

 

[FAMILY] Monster Party

Logan's EIGHTH (how did this happen) birthday party theme was a little out of my element this year - MONSTERS. I was finding it hard to switch gears from Chloe's beautiful Under The Sea soiree (pictures to come soon) to zombies, skeletons and gravestones. Once I started collecting bits and pieces, (and my Mom had already scooped up a ton of stuff after Hallowe'en...thanks Mom) it was really fun. We hosted this shin dig at Collins Hall - A beautiful little hall and church with a fenced in yard and small playground that was absolutely perfect and saved my house from a dozen hyper, crazy kids. Phew. And we totally scored with all the creepy decorations from a total stranger that offered up their very extensive Hallowe'en collection - gotta love Bowen for the absolute trusting kindness of strangers!

First up, the food. We had Monster Boogers (popcorn), Potato Chips (cartiledge), Ghouls (chocolate pudding and cookie crumb cups with body parts candy coming out of the dirt), Monster Blood (fruit punch), Monster Eyeballs (Oreo cookies with the top off and fuzzy peach candies with a raspberry wine gum in centre), Bag O' Bones (veggies and dip) and of course creepy zombie cupcakes.

The craft was MY FAVOURITE. And the best part...it was my own idea not Pinterest (unlike everything else). I spray painted a dozen terrecotta pots flat white so it would be easy to colour on, purchased beautiful and interesting tropical plants and a ton of fun googly eyes, monster mouth stickers, pom poms, etc. to decorate.

Once the pots were turned into MONSTER HEADS, we headed outside to the planting station and placed gravel in the bottom, followed by potting soil and then a lovely plant. They turned out AMAZING!! SO MUCH FUN!!

The party finale was a piniata filled with candy - I left this event for when the parents arrived so I would not be responsible for the hopped up candy filled children for longer than I had too!! I could not find a monster piniata, so settled for a Tiki Head - it's monstery right??

[FAMILY] Hazel

What do you get when you cross the majestic Maremma Sheepdog with a Golden Lab?? This sweet little girly - meet Hazel, our 8 week old pup.

Hazel and her siblings were born in Fruitvale, BC - a little town situated in the Kootenays near Nelson - on December 4th 2014. She made the long journey to Bowen Island last weekend with Geoff and Logan...what an adventure.

She loves snuggling Chloe at home and in the car.

She loves to 'help' me garden.

She loves hangin' with Logan and his pals and snuggling up on his lap after a long and busy day. She's just lovely. Now if only we could curb this puppy biting so Chloe can freely walk around the house without her ankles being chewed off...advice anyone...?!

[FAMILY] Abundance

I have been asked time and time again "don't you feel trapped living on an island?" or "how do you fill your days...isn't it boring?" or my favourite "what, no swimming pool or ice rink...what do you do with your kids - aren't you worried they're missing out??" Not to mention the shock when I say we only have one playground...what the...how are they not bored out of their skull?!? Because we have this...

SUNDAY JUNE 1st 2014

10:00 RUTH'S PLANT SALE Filled the trunk of our car with a dozen one gallon pots of beautiful plants all to the tune of $20.00 - Thanks Ruth!!

11:00 COHO RELEASE Met our friends at the hatchery and released buckets full of beautiful salmon into the creek. Learned about eagles, foraged for salmon berries and studied the lifecycle of these amazing creatures.

12:00 PARADISE GRILL + ICECREAM AT THE MARINA Stomachs were growling and the smell of carmelized onions was too much to resist. Oh it was so good!

12:45 DAVIES ORCHARD One of our favourite places to spend an afternoon. We never tire of the view, the weathered wood of the cabins, the beautiful statue and outdoor chess board plus the great old trees to climb. Keeps us very busy.

2:00 PLANTING + WEEDING Spent the rest of the afternoon digging in the garden, picking salmon berries and watching our crazy cat chase bugs (he cracks us up).

So now we're at 5:15...Geoff should be home soon. We have an abundance of eggs at the moment, so bacon and eggs for dinner (love breakfast for dinner), and then I'm sure a beach is calling us as we have a bag of marshmallows that would taste great roasted over a fire.

Boring - nope. Abundance - definitely.

[FAMILY] Ontario

My home away from home - Ontario. It's been five long years since my last visit; needless to say, I was very overdue. There were new family members to meet, babies and puppies to cuddle and most importantly, a very special girl needed to make her debut. No one had ever met my Chloe and it was breaking my heart. No more excuses, tickets were purchased, bags were packed and off we went for a whirlwind week of re-connecting with our loved ones. It was wonderful. If only we were all closer.

NEWCASTLE was our home base. My Aunt and Uncle have made this town their home for many years now, and for eight years, it was home to my family while my father was working in Toronto. Like many of these little farming towns, it's growing by leaps and bounds, but even with the new subdivisions poking up, it has managed to keep it's quaint, small town appeal.

SAINT JACOBS is one of my favourite places to explore when visiting my family in Kitchener. It's a mennonite community with an amazing Farmers Market, a beautiful city centre filled with high end clothing stores, antique shops, and so many artisans. We spent a lot of time exploring the historic Flour Mill, which is filled with galleries, artisans, a maple syrup museum, toy train exhibit and the original Home Hardware museum.

We were lucky enough to catch the amazing fibre arts and quilt exhibition. I wish we had had more time to look closely at these exquisite pieces, but we arrived at the tail end of the day.

The toy train and maple syrup exhibit was so much fun. I loved the handmade baskets and tool displays. The model railway was unbelievable; everywhere you looked, there was so much detail and activity happening. It was very fun to photograph!

We took a small break from visiting family, to do a bit of exploring on the backroads of Bowmanville. During our drive, we had rain, sun, thunder, more rain...and I thought the coast was bad for keeping you on your toes! We had a couple fun pitstops along the way.

TYRONE MILLS is a working mill that is over 160 years old! It's one of Canada's oldest operating water generated mills. Flour milling season runs from mid-September to the beginning of July. The majority of the flour produced is whole wheat, but during the summer, they will do custom jobs producing speciality flours like buckwheat.

ARCHIBALD ORCHARDS produces the yummiest sparkling fruit wines I think I've ever tasted. I spent a lot of time sampling...hiccup!

Like all my visits back east, it went by way too fast. I miss my family terribly, and wish it wasn't such a distance and expense. See you again soon everyone!! xoxoxo