Uncle Al and Auntie Rachel's Visit

And once again it's the end of yet another crazy busy, but oh so much fun week.  I was thinking this week back to about the middle of May when we got back from our first Oregon trip.  I was flipping through my calendar thinking it was going to be such a nice. slow, enjoyable, lots of sunshine, not much busyness kind of summer.  The end of July/beginning of August was the next time something was scheduled.  Ha ha!!  We haven't stopped running yet.

This week was an awesome week, despite it being so busy.  We saw lots, did lots, and laughed lots.  Uncle Al had a conference in Vancouver over the weekend so he told Auntie Rachel she should come along and they would spend some time with family since they were here anyway.  They stayed at the hotel for the conference through Sunday night.  Plans changed about 30 times, but when it came down to it, here's how the week went.  Monday morning the boys and I drove up to Vancouver, picked them up and spent the day at two parks with them (our parks for the week).  Before leaving Canada, we dropped Uncle Al and Auntie Rachel off at Uncle Ralph and Aunt Margaret's house for the night. 

After visiting their incredibly high up and posh hotel, we went to Stanley Park for a couple hours.  At first we thought we might visit the Aquarium, but Monday being a Canadian holiday the line to get tickets was around the building and it would have taken us all day.  So then we thought we might ride the train that we saw on various signs.  However, the signs weren't very clear and we ended up walking quite a while and finally just kept turning "right" until we ended the spiral walk at the Indian Village where we discovered the train went around the village while little stories were acted out.  Brandon would have loved the train, but I don't think he would have cared much for the stories and at that point he was already thoroughly engrossed in the "excavater" toy at the playground so we decided to nix that and just let the kids play for awhile.

Uncle Al and Brandon are kindred spirits when it comes to sticks and rocks!  Only, Uncle ALWAYS takes it to a whole different level then Brandon does....yet....

Micah is "sharing" sand.

Auntie Rachel bounced Brandon like this too as a baby--they both thought it was the greatest time.

Excavater toy #1--the more difficult one to handle.

The infamous excavater toy.  He had a hard time figuring it out at first.

But Uncle Al became his partner.  It was rather counter-intuative since the bucket had a hole in it from so much use.

I told Uncle Al he should ask Brandon if he could have a turn to see what would happen, but he wouldn't do it since they were partners.  Auntie Rachel did go over and ask, though, and Brandon jumped right off and said, "Yup, and I will be your dump truck."  Not the response I was expecting but I was very proud of him for "sharing".

Somtimes Auntie Rachel and Uncle Al needed help climbing up or down throughout the day.

Two peas in a pod I tell you!  They both do it SOOOOOO well!

Lunch in the grass.

 After lunch we headed out to Lynn Canyon Park to walk across the suspension bridge.  Thanks to the GPS we ended up on the opposite side of where people usually go to walk across the bridge.  We asked several people where to find it--the security guard had no idea, the first biker we asked looked at us and said, "You're young and strong you can do the hike...it's quite a hike but it's definitely more beautiful from this side.", and the third set of people we asked looked at us like we were nuts and said we were on the wrong side and it was a big hike from where we were.  Crazy people that we are, we decided to go for it.  I was a little concerned with all the hype that Brandon wasn't going to be able to make it, but I just kept reminding myself of the sand doon he climbed in Oregon and Auntie Rachel kept saying they could carry him if needed, so we went.  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, actually quite enjoyable.

It was a lovely walk through the woods.

"Helping Auntie Rachel" (read-"Pulling Auntie Rachel") down from the log.

And then the stairs started...and more stairs and more stairs and more stairs...
I had Micah on my back and Auntie Rachel offered to take him--I just told her she could carry him back up...

 Before we got to the suspension bridge, we watched people swimming in the pool and diving off the rocks.  It looked like a lot of fun...another trip.

We have been told from various people through the years that the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge is ALWAYS empty--no one ever goes to that one and the Capilano bridge is ALWAYS full.  Did we accidentally go to the wrong one?

I thought sure Brandon would freak out once on the bridge but he surprised me and was excited that we had to go back across again.

Have you ever tried taking a clear and sharp picture from a crowded, swinging bridge with a wiggly one-year-old on your back?  Let's just say none of my pictures were real sharp...

Of course we have to climb another rock...it's there isn't it?

I took Auntie Rachel up on her offer and she carried Micah all the way back up!  :)

Brandon suckered Uncle Al into carrying him all the way back up too. 

Such a sweet moment to end the day.

We dropped off "the girl and the man" at Terpstra's and headed home having thoroughly enjoyed the day outside in the beautiful sunshine and looking forward to having more days with Uncle Al (the man) and Auntie Rachel (the girl).

Blessings on your Friday.