Crescent Beach Stroll

A combination of more beautiful weather and a killer headache had me craving a walk by the ocean today. So after church and a quick lunch, we headed towards Crescent Beach. Because I really needed the WALK portion to happen (usually we end up parking and playing), I suggested we park near the 101 stairs and hoof it from there. So. Here are the 101 stairs.

And the train bridge followed by endless beach.

Nice to be amongst the trees.

This picture is not telling the whole truth here. Of course the beach was very crowded. But I squeezed this shot in between the people. Gorgeous, isn't it. No wonder we love it here.

The kids were trying to scrape the barnacles off the rocks.

Me and Andy got a kick out of all the shells left face up like this. Like giant mouths coming up for air or something.



Lizzie found a shell. So of course we had to bring it home.


One of my favorite houses.

And another. Love the porch.


Me and my boy.
And my other boy.

David kept talking about wanting to do a sand butterfly. For some reason I thought he meant sand angel, but I let him do it anyway.



After the walk, we went and moved the car and brought the beach toys closer. Then we set about digging.

Lizzie LOVED this doggie.

But really? It was very cold once you stopped moving. So we didn't last too long.

Derby Reach

There's nothing like sunshine in winter to make you want to act like it's summer. And since we had spent Friday wandering around in the sun in our sweatshirts, we thought we'd be fine having a little spring fire at the river on Saturday. David was at a birthday party, so the three of us packed up the car and headed to Derby Reach.

It was lovely. And the tugboats were out:

Yup, I said boatS.
And, as is usual when it is just us, I got to build the fire again. I built it really, really huge. But it was so windy, I was scared the flames (which were horizontal and WAY out of the little burner thingie) were going to set US on fire. So we let it die down. And then I roasted my boots. Here's the before picture (before I smelled my feet on fire).

And if you look closely you can see the scorch marks and how deformed my poor boot is. Good thing I wore the old ones which are totally skucked up anyway!

Did I mention it was windy?

It's kind of cold here again. In fact, the forecast for all this week is rain/snow showers. So the snowline has dropped again and makes for spectacular views!


But, ultimately the cold was our downfall. We had planned to send one of us to pick up David and come back with him. It was too cold so we packed up after only an hour and went in search of something warmer to do!

An Evening in Fort Langley

We decided to take the kids to pizza night at Wendell's Cafe and Bookstore. It was the perfect evening for heading down there.


And sitting outside. As long as they put the heaters on for us.

MNNN....
Then we grabbed hot drinks and went for a stroll.

Ahem.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

I love Pro D Days. I love 'em even better when the sun is shining and friends want to hang out with us. We went to Campbell Valley Park to feed the birds. Kandace showed us how to do it.

David was very good at standing still and waiting for the birds.

The birds just weren't coming to their hands. So we tried putting the seed on their heads. Success!





It is the coolest feeling having them perch on your fingers and eat. They stayed quite a while on my hands.

But some of the kids were antsy, so we moved on to snack time on the bridges.


A squirreel joined us for a while.




And then it was time to go. We finished off the seed.

Watched the ducks fight over it.

And headed home...

Playground Research

Today was a proD day from school. I asked for the day off 'work' so I could spend some quality time with my kids. We got up bright and early and headed to Brookswood park. David loved the spinny thing.

And actually, so did I!!

Next we had a juice break.

Then we headed to downtown Langley and tried out another park. We have a goal to hit up every single playground in Langley this year and rate them.

I really, really want one of these for my backyard. Part swing, part hammock.

And teeterytottery things are always a hit with our family.


I love my province.

Seriously.


This thing was fun too, even though I kept almost falling off. It was a giant, topsy turvy circle. Once two of us got on, it would spin. And at certain angles and speeds it was really hard not to fall off!



Then we went to Blacklock Elementary, one of my all time favorite playgrounds. I love wooden playgrounds. Especially if they're in scenic areas like this...


Lots of fun. Old school can be awesome.