We drove up 8 hours on July 2 to Wells and met up with everyone to have supper that night and stayed at the Hubs Motel. We went on the trip with Chris' co-workers Wendy and Jason and their kids Jasper and Amelie, his other co-worker Steve and his son Michael, another co-worker Dave and his wife Mary and their kids Kieran and Thea and Jason's brother, Gerad and his wife Katrina and their boys Evan and Ryan. July 3rd, Day 1, we enjoyed breakfast together and then headed to the park for our orientation at 9am. The trip started off with us packing up our canoes and portaging 2.5 km to our first lake. We had pretty small lakes to paddle this day and two of our longest portages but we got through it. The sun was shining and everyone was excited to be out on the lakes. We rafted up for lunch on our first lake and then finished off one more portage before heading to Indian Point Lake where our first site was. Our site was up on a little cliff, the boys enjoyed some fishing and the little girls had a rock throwing competition. The bugs started biting and Amelie's face started swelling, so I gave her the nickname Marshmallow face which stuck with her the whole trip. Day 2 had us finishing up Indian Point Lake and portaging to Isaac Lake, the biggest lake in the chain of lakes. We paddled to the upper corner of the lake and set up camp trying to avoid the mosquitoes. We played some beat the parents, the boys discovered the ax and started whittling lots of sticks. Day 3 we started off with partly cloudy skies but as we paddled down Isaac Lake the clouds built and we got lots of wind after we crossed the lake and approached our next site. This site was a really nice site with a great beach, too bad we didn't have much sun at this one. After getting tents set up, cooking/rain shelters were built and we huddled into tents and under the tarps when the rain hit. We were rewarded after with a full rainbow just across the lake from us. The cool weather didn't stop the kids from enjoying the beach and making many sandcastles. One of the mom's, Mary, who is a biology teacher spent about an hour with Gerad and Katrina's youngest Ryan draw anatomically correct bugs in the dirt at our site. This site also had a neat outhouse way up on top of a hill, it had a great view from up there. Day 4 we finished off Isaac Lake in the cloudy weather. We pulled out before the Chute which is a rapids section for more experienced paddlers. After setting up our site and checking out the Chute a couple of us decided to take our canoes down it. Chris went with Gerad and his boys while I went with Jason and his son Jasper. It was a lot of fun going down the rapids, no one flipped so that was a bonus. This was our first site with a cooking shelter so we enjoyed drying out and eating at tables that night. I brought the game Jungle Speed and got all the boys hooked on it for the rest of the trip. In between playing the game we went to watch one of the best sunsets of our trip on Isaac Lake. This night the sky started to clear and we started looking forward to warmer weather. Day 5 we portaged our stuff and the other boats to the end of the Chute and Roller coaster and then all of us portaged past the falls before entering McLeary Lake. Here we saw old Freddie Becker's cabin from 1935 and a bald eagle resting on a stump by the lake. The sun was shining this day as we headed down the currents of the Caribou River and enjoyed the views of the Caribou mountain range. Our site was on Lanezi Lake, across from the highest peak in the park, Mt. Ishpa. It was great that we had clear weather on this day to see all the amazing views. It was quite buggy here but if we walked across the creek from our site there was a cooking shelter so we spent most of our evening in there cooking and relaxing. Jason was quite out of it this night because he was allergic to all the cotton flying. Let's just say he might have taken a few too many antihistamines, it was entertaining for the rest of us at least. Day 6 we continued paddling Lanezi Lake in the sunshine but it started getting quite windy so we pulled out at a beach that some other paddlers were at. We spent our lunch there and waited for the the wind to calm down a bit before moving on. Wendy became an avatar woman here when she put on sunscreen that made her look purple. As we paddled down a channel it started raining for a bit as we saw our first moose sighting. We named them Bernice and Bruno, it was pretty neat to see. The rain only lasted about 5 minutes and then the sun came back. We paddled into Rum Lake, our own little lake for the night and set up our tents. A few of us went for a dip in the lake before supper and before seeing that there were leeches swimming around. The boys also got to practice paddling around by themselves a little by our beach. For a trip where you are trying to carry as little as possible it was quite funny when Wendy returned with the little girls from the outhouse and said that she had dropped a roll of toilet paper down the toilet. Good thing it wasn't ours because we only brought one. After supper we spotted Bernice and Bruno across our lake so Chris and I paddled across and got about 15 feet away while I snapped some photos of them eating, definitely a highlight. We enjoyed a campfire that night since there were piles of wood to choose from. As we went to sleep we heard some interesting animal noises, an owl and some other animal we couldn't quite figure out but it was definitely close to our tents. Day 7 we had some smaller lakes and portages to go through before a longer paddle to our site. In one of these tiny lakes we saw a bull moose, who we named Bruce the Moose and got up quite close to him for some photos. On our second portage of this day we were hit by our biggest downpour of the trip and had to take cover for a while at a campsite before moving on. The lakes this day were very shallow and at a few points some of us would run aground and have to get out and push our canoes. I think someone got a good photo of Chris and I looking like we were walking on water that day. A little over halfway to our site we pulled out at a cooking shelter and hunkered down for a few hours to dry out gear, have a snack and wait for the wind to settle down. The kids entertained themselves on the beach while us adults dried out and warmed up in the shelter. The wind got a little better as we headed to our site but it was still blowing quite a bit. Once we got to our site there was a Swiss family that had taken part of our site because they didn't know the rules that group sites were only for groups. It was a little disappointing to share but it all worked out. Since this was our last night, everyone cooked up the food they had left and had bites of everyone else's meals. Mary attempted to make vanilla pudding which ended up being vanilla soup but that didn't stop all the kids and some of the men from digging in. This night we went to sleep with the sounds of hundreds of mosquitoes swarming our tent. Day 8 we woke up bright and early, ate and packed up quickly then took a group photo before paddling down the Bowron River. After a few potty breaks in the bush and letting Jason and Wendy's boat attempt to pull ours and the other Shea's boat we made it back to our starting point by 11am, just as the wind and rain were starting up again. We got all our gear packed up, took another group photo and headed back into Wells. Although we didn't see any bears while we paddled, we did happen to see one in the ditch on the way back to Wells. After a little confusion as to where we could have a celebration lunch we found a place to eat before driving back home and saying goodbye to the rest of the crew that were staying one more night up there. It was an unforgettable trip, lots of memories and something we will definitely do again one day.
We had a day to unpack, do laundry and get groceries before Kevin, Alysha and Cole came to visit for a few days. They arrived Friday afternoon and we got reacquainted with Cole pretty quickly. It didn't take him too long to get attached to Molly and to singing and talking away with us. On Saturday we headed down to the States and picked up Chris' early 30th birthday present at the border, his new snowboard and bindings. Our first destination was the Seattle Zoo, we got there around lunch time so we ate and then started exploring. It was a really good zoo with lots to see, I think our favourites were the monkeys, brown bears and baby jaguars. Then we headed down to Pike's Place in Seattle and walked around there for a bit taking in the classic Seattle sights like throwing fish at the market and the gum wall. We enjoyed a delicious meal at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed to our hotel in Everett. Before eating our cheesecake that we got to go we went for a swim in our hotel pool although Cole preferred the hot tub. Then we filled up on cheesecake and relaxed for a bit before bed. I entertained Cole by looking at our upgraded jacuzzi tub in the room and answering all his questions about why it was so big. We also had a little dance party in the mirror just for fun. The next morning we had some breakfast, Cole and I snuggled in bed a bit and watched some cartoons and then we headed to the Outlet Malls. We all found some good deals, some of us more than others, so I'd say it was a successful shopping trip. On the way home and many times throughout the visit we were entertained by Cole's singing of the B-I-B-L-E. Pretty cute. We got home in time for supper and a walk around the school. We also watched Cole entertain himself with his "skateboard" and "hat" that he made out of these random toys we had in the basement. The next day we relaxed at home after having waffles for brunch and visiting with my mom. Then we headed to get some ice cream at Cone Head's and went to do some sliding at the Cultus Lake Water slides. Cole's favourite part was stepping on the water squirting out of the ground and I'd say our favourite part was the speed way racers. I had a good lead on the boys after two races but my strategy failed on our last two races. I tried going down a slide with Cole but he got water dumped on him right before and when we came down the slide he got a face full of water so he wasn't too much of a fan of that. The hot tub made it all better though. He did enjoy a really big slide that all 5 of us could slide down beside each other on though. I guess they'll just have to come back in a few years and see if he likes the slides then. We got home and had supper, went for a walk and came back home to watch the first episode of Canada's Amazing Race. It was a great visit with great weather and we look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks when we head out to the farm.
The day after Kevin, Alysha and Cole left we packed up our bags again and went on a two night hike with Chris' co-worker Jason and 13 of their outdoor ed kids to Manning Park. This was a hike they planned on doing as their year end hike but it still had snow at that time of year and there were thunderstorms in the forecast so they postponed it for summer. Our first day hiking there was some thunder in the distance but it never came over us. We enjoyed walking through the flowered meadows and looking at the panoramic views of the mountains all around us. Our first site was in an alpine area where we couldn't build fires so we hung out in a little dirt area and named it our living room. It was quite a relaxed time at the site, we played frisbee...trying to avoid trampling the wild flowers, relaxed at Chris and Jason's tent site, cooked up supper and went for a walk trying to find the sun for the sunset with no success. The bugs were quite bad at this site, good thing for bug spray. The next morning we didn't have to rush so we had a leisurely breakfast, got packed up and continued our hike. I liked this part of the hike the best. Tonnes of great views all around, flowers in the meadows, creeks running through the alpine. We stopped for lunch at a narrow ridge with a great view and the boys entertained themselves throwing rocks down into an avalanche area. Before heading down to the lake we took a group shot at the top of the ridge. We thought the lake our site was at was going to be full of bugs but when we got there we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. Once we got to the lake and set up our tents everyone went for a dip in the lake to cool off and get refreshed. Us adults found a perfect log with another log foot rest in the water to sit at and relax. Everyone's tents had a lakeside view, it was a great spot to camp. We eventually got to making supper and then went for a walk to the other side of the lake. One of the boys built a spear to catch fish with and actually caught one. So when we came back from our walk he was roasting it over the fire. That night we could have a fire so I got some games going with the group that we had a lot of fun with. The stars were amazing that night so Jason and I tried setting up some star shots. We didn't have much success because the camera got bumped so instead of a 30 minute shot that we left and came back to, it was only a 30 second shot. Next time I guess. Our last day we had to get up early and pack out quickly to get to the bus by 1:30. We had 20 km of downhill and by the end of it our legs were definitely feeling it. I wish I could go on more of these trips, it was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a great time.
The evening we got back from our hike we had our first baseball game for our end of the year tournament. We were feeling pretty tired and stiff but we pulled off a win. The next day we had 2 games bright and early. We lost the first by a few runs because of some bad hitting but won our second game by 1 run. On Sunday we were ranked 2nd in the A division so we got an afternoon game to play for the final. We won that game and then played the final later in the afternoon. We started off the final letting the other team get 8 runs on us. We slowly chipped away at their lead and were down by 3 with our last bats. We got two in and Chris was up to bat as our last batter with a runner on second base. He hit a nice ball in the outfield which him and this other guy could usually out run their fielder's throwing it in but the runner in front of Chris got out by about a foot at home. So we came very close to tying it up at the end but ended up losing by one run. It was a fun game and very intense to watch at the end. Next year we'll get them. After showering we all headed to a park and had a BBQ together and got our baseball "awards", mine being the defensive player of the year for my golden glove at first base and Chris got MVP because he's a hitting and catching machine.
Now we have finally hit a slower part of our summer. We have caught up on sleep, laundry and cleaning. Chris has started to rip apart part of our deck and will be cleaning out our hedge stumps from one end of our yard. We're wrapping up our home study in these next couple weeks for adoption so we have some reading to get done. After next week our social worker will write up our report and by the end of summer we will be put in the pool for moms to consider for their babies. We've had some exciting baby news too with Eric and Carmen having their twins yesterday, little Alyssa Mae and Luke David. Can't wait to go see them when they're adjusted to life as a family of 5. Now my other friend Jamie just has to pop out her twins and we'll have lots of babies around to snuggle for the time being.
1 comments:
Cultus Lake Water Slides...I was missing those this week. Sounds like you've had a busy summer.
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