my first report

having successfully completed every class in my swimming course, i got my end of term report at my last lesson. I've now graduated from the 'duck' class and next time i will be a 'sea turtle'. as these classes will be an hour long, i really hope mom finds somewhere with warmer water - but since mom won't actually have to get into the water next time, her motivation to find a new teacher isn't all that high.

anyway......christine said i was very brave in the water, and to keep practising blowing bubbles. mom made me a little short straw to practise with in the bath and after a few days i've really got the hang of it.

adventures with liz

despite less than perfect weather, we managed to get out and about a bit showing liz some of the sights of vancouver.

we braved the suspension bridge across lynn canyon:

spotted a raccoon:

took in the waterpark at granville island:
































planned a hike up mt seymour (but hadn't banked on there still being snow!):

took in cates park in north van instead:

ate nachos on the beach:
hiked in lighthouse park:

drove up to shannon falls in squamish via the construction on the sea to sky highway:














and made the obligatory visit to the aquarium of course.

liz also ended up doing for more babysitting than is good for a girl on vacation, both planned (so mom, dad and ollie could go to a wedding) and unplanned (lots of tense, stressful adult conversations about the house - the less said about that the better). for all those times, and so much more, we THANK YOU.

nanaimo for lunch

i suppose it could be considered a little extreme catching the ferry to Nanaimo for the sole purpose of having lunch - and we didn't even have a particular restaurant in mind - but our day trip was more about the journey than the destination.

unfortunately the weather forecast wasn't entirely accurate. we did see some sun while we were on the ferry, but it was raining both in horseshoe bay and nanaimo, so we went into the shopping mall rather than the park as we'd planned.

mom, dad and liz found a great little mexican restaurant on the water, and thoroughly enjoyed their meal despite the fact they were eating outside in the rain. i woke up in time to have a little taste, too.

we didn't see a spectacular sunset from the ferry, or any orca, but the mountains and islands were as impressive as ever and i DID get to drive a racing car

picnic in the park

we got a special invitation to the Wesbrook preschool end of year picnic this evening. i think the idea was for mom and dad to meet some of the other parents, and for me to play with the other kids. frankly i found the whole thing a bit overwhelming, even just playing soccer with a few of the boys and girls. the snacks were pretty good though, and they gave me a great T-shirt which i intend to wear day and night - at least for a few days.

another visitor

there's nothing better than getting up in the morning and rather than having mom and/or dad telling you 'it's too early, go back to bed and do some more sleeping' finding another person ready to start the day.
liz is visiting from england for a couple of weeks. 'the other guy' is going to be coming with us on our adventures, and generally hanging out. good, eh? we'll post some more photos later

swimming lessons

i've just been swimming (in a pool) for the third time ever, and felt the time had come to 'do it myself'. mom and the instructor gave me a couple of turtle-shape floats to hold and if i pushed them out to the side and made them swim away from each other, while i kicked my legs, i found that i could swim. it was a bit tiring after a while so i went back to climbing out and leaping in from the side. the rest of the class were singing songs in a circle, but i've never really been into that kind of thing.

Katrina comes swimming too, but she's usually late and i don't think she likes the cold water much. after we've been in the water for about 45 minutes we're both blue with cold and it's time to go and warm our toes in the jacuzzi.

i think tuesday mornings can be a bit stressful for mom as she has to organise swimming things and snacks for me, as well as pack a diaper bag for ollie with his breakfast and a change of clothes and some toys to play with at fumi's house - all whilst trying to keep ollie happy when really he just wants to have a nap - but we can't leave the house until fumi is back from dropping her boys at school, and ollie can't nap at home or i'd miss my swimming lesson. suffice to say there's a lot of shouting and crying going on ...... i think mom might have to take some stuff of her own too, but i'm a boy so i don't really notice that kind of thing.

at the aquarium

if we lived in bristol we'd join all the other mum's in town and have a season ticket to the zoo ....but here in vancouver we don't have a zoo to visit so on a rainy day when mom and/or dad can't think of anything else to do, we go to see the fish at the aquarium.

i usually manage to make mom giggle by announcing very loudly as soon as we get inside "i see a fish". it's not quite as daft as it sounds as we also get to see sharks and turtles, sea otters, belugas, dolphins, birds, jellyfish, starfish and "the big one" - a huge sea lion

ollie likes lying on the floor and watching the belugas, i like clambering over the 'rocks' that surround the various tanks and displays. mom likes watching the dolphins jumping and the sea otters holding hands. i think dad would rather be in starbucks having a coffee, although he has been known to admire the jellyfish.

here's some photos for you:

historymaker

despite the fact that historymaker was in Chilliwack this year, rather than Kamloops (about four hours less travel time) mom still didn't fancy taking me and ollie for the whole weekend. this may have had something to do with the fact that dad was camping with the youth group and the rain was torrential. we did go and visit for the day though.

the music was great and i did some good dancing, ollie was very cute bouncing along in his jolly jumper, dad seemed at least reasonably pleased to see us and mom even got to go to a yard sale. ollie and i were in the double stroller walking along the street in the pouring rain (it was nap time!!) and mom was telling the lady she was with how the one thing we were looking for right now was an affordable bike trailer. right across the street from the arena where historymaker was taking place there was a yard sale happening - kind of strange given the weather - and there sitting in the rain was 'our' bike trailer. dad did express some concern about how on earth we were going to get it home, but after mom had pointed out the youth group had eaten an awful lot of the snacks that were taking up space in the car on the way dad thought it would be okay. all we need now is for the weather to improve enough for us all to go on a bike ride, and ollie's head to grow enough to fit my first cycle helmet.

on the plus side we got to hear the desperation band and starfield, and meet lots of nice people. the youth group had a great time too, despite the rain. on the down side dad ended up sleeping in the car our tent leaked so much, and then the car died on the last day.