Fall Days

Owen loves to play with his friends Noah and Roman.  Here they are one afternoon creating a new geotrack layout....  They built most of this on their own, then asked for some help to bring all the loops together!

A great picture of Molly and "her dog" Bailey.   Bailey is so tolerant of her loving... :)

One morning our little spider friend created a huge web outside our front door.  He was there for almost a week catching bugs.

Thanksgiving in Canada falls on October 10th.  Our friends graciously invited us over to their annual family & friends gathering to celebrate with them.  We had a great time and the kids enjoying playing together as usual....here with a rousing game of hungry hippos! 

Party girl with the smile...

Reading about dinosaurs with the boys

We made a cheesecake for desert.... white chocolate rasberry.   Art with food.

We had a crisp Saturday morning in October and it had been raining all week, so we needed to get outside for some air and running around.  We decided to go over to Belcarra park, which is on the other side of Burrard Inlet.  They have a great playground and dock.   Belcarra park site

Molly and Allison on the bouning see saw.  She deliberately wanted to ride it with both of us... swapping places with brother...  

And her turn with daddy!

Owen on the disk swing and Molly helping to push.

The crew walking through the park down to the dock.  It was beautiful as the sun came over the hill.

On the pier with the kids.

This picture ended up overexposed, but the leaves were so bright it was almost glowing.

Lions and tigers and ummm...   OH MY!

So when the kids were running across the dew covered grass, their shoes and socks got wet.   Owen convinced Molly that she would look cool if she pulled up her pants and socks.  So this is what I discovered when I went to get her out of her carseat. At least she was laughing about it.....

The next weekend we had nice weather again so we search out a corn maze that we thought the kids would enjoy doing.  They had a petting zoo, tractor rides and a walking tour through the woods with cartoon character settings.  It was simple and fun and the kids enjoyed it.  They had some teepee's setup that the kids could walk around and in.  I thought this peak against the blue sky was pretty.

Allison and the kids ready to start in the corn maze. Molly was giving a little attitude as you can see.

She said she was scared, so she ended up riding on my shoulders.  Here we are in the middle of the maze.

Owen the pirate.... ARRRRGGHH  May Tee!

Molly was so excited to come across Cinderella.

I had to laugh out-loud in the petting zoo area.  Here Molly was bending over and saying "cockle doodle doo!"

After a haircut..  Love this smile and laugh.  It's the best description of Owen.

Salmon is a huge industry in BC and when they begin to run in the creeks, there are several local festivals celebrating the event.  Locally in Coquitlam, the Hyde Creek Watershed society organizes a Salmon Festival.  They have activities for the kids and many locations along the creek to watch the fish. I was really suprised that there were so many fish climbing up the small creek!

Here's Molly "fishing" for a small prize.

Owen spinning the wheel showing the lifecycle of the salmon.

BC Hydro usually has a green energy and recycling stand at all the local events.  Here they had a small experiment with a "potato battery".  Owen thought it was really cool.

 

Just a pretty picture of the leaves

Pumpkins & Cranberry Festival

October brought cooler air and days with quickly fanishing daylight.  Mid month we needed some pumpkins for carving and decided to head back to Krause Berry Farm to see what they had growing!  When we got there, I asked who was ready for fresh warm donuts and this was the response...  :)

Molly and her "pink" donut.

Owen was warming his hand over my coffee.

After our snack, we were off to pick a few last blueberries and find the perfect pumpkins....  Owen was so excited he was skipping.

Molly the ever diligent follower of big brother.

They had little wagons to carry the pumpkins out of the field.  Owen pulled Molly all the way out to the field by himself.

Owen searched out and found his perfect pumpkin.

Molly with her pick!

Playing with the camera...  Molly loved these little squashes and tried to convince us to get 1, 2 3, 4 7 , 10 of them dad!


After picking out our pumpkins we went over to the Fort Langley Cranberry Fest.  It's an annual festival with lots of stuff to do for everyone.  Market vendors and great food!   We picked up some fantastic balsamic reduction from a small company based out of whistler.  The local fire department had a pancake lunch line where they had cranberry sausage and as Owen proclaimed "delish" pancakes.  It's primary sponsor is Ocean Spray.  Here's the link to more info.  http://www.cranberryfest.ca/

In Fort Langley they have a historic train station from Canadian National rail that is open for walk-through's so you can see how things used to be.  They also have a restored train car where they have a model train setup.  Owen of course was in his glory.

Kids on the bridge looking over the river.

Shapes on the bridge.

They had a few huge pumpkins and squash varieties in the town square. 

Will Stroet was playing live on the stage.  The kids had seen him previously at a show at the library. He's a local musician that writes and performs songs for kids. They are really fun, upbeat and not hard to listen to over and over again. Molly's favorite song is "Jam".

Granville & Beach

There is a fantastic island in the middle of Vancouver called Granville Island.   We ventured out here in September on a nice Saturday morning.  It was pretty crowded, but a lot of fun and we would definitely recommend it as a place to check out if you are in the area.  It is home to many artisan shops, a theater and a public market.  It's thriving with people and culture and a great place to spend a morning, or the whole day!  Here's a link if you want to see what's there: http://www.granvilleisland.com/

The public market is really something to behold.  There is an awesome selection of fresh local produce, along with meats and a variety of international foods.

Grapes... blueberries... 

More yummy stuff.

And most importantly, donuts..... Owen & Molly spotted this place from across the room!

Just a cool building and a perfect cloudless sky that morning.

Being an island in the city with port access, there is a large marina on the island.  Lots of boat parts and distributors... Owen thought this old propeller was neat... but he wouldn't stand next to it.  I think he thought it might move or fall over.

We had lunch in the food court, which is huge and has an unbelievable variety.  I found a great stand serving up old school slavic food and it was fantastic.   Smoked sausage, sauerkraut & Pierogies. 

Molly goofing around after she finished her slice of pizza.

Can you hear Owen laugh?  :)

They have a large indoor play area with a climbing gym and ball pit where we let the kids play for a while, then we got some energy out on the playground outside.  Here's Owen in what I believe was an old dragline mining bucket.

Owen climbing on the gym.

It was an unusually warm weekend and we thought we would hit the beach one last time before it got too cold to enjoy.  Both of the kids fell asleep on the short ride from Granville over to Lorcarno beach, so we  found some parking and sat and watched the water for a while.  Unfortunately, some clouds rolled in while they were snoozing.  But this didn't hold us back!

Here's Molly on the beach.  I think this picture is funny with her and the blanket as a blast of color on the otherwise bland scene.

They have logs setup along the beach that are used to anchor beach volleyball nets.   When not used for that, then they become a perfect perch!

Owen spent a great deal of time at the water playing in the sand & digging holes.  I was experimenting with shutter speeds and finally captured a few great shots of him whipping sand into the water.

Well, Molly didn't think the sand tasted that good.

Gotta love this.  :)   

There's a lot of attitude behind these eyes.

I think she thought Owen was crazy... just standing there staring at him.  You have to wonder what's going through her mind sometimes.

View across the bay.

I was dipping her feet into the water to wash off the sand, but then it turned into a game.....  "Again daddy Again!" 

There were a few couples out on paddle boards...  Allison captured this nice silhouette.

All in all, we had a great last summer weekend....