didn't we just get back from a holiday?

Here I am, procrastinating the job of packing up for our trip to Prince Rupert tomorrow. It's astonishing to me how many times my boys can interrupt my task or train of thought when I'm trying to focus on something. I've set for myself the goal of documenting each holiday before the next one begins. My time is running out! Looking back in my archives, I see that I got way behind around this time last year as well. As two of my favourite people say, "That's life in the fast lane!"

We went over to Vancouver Island for the May long weekend. The main goal was to make the trip all the way to the northern tip of the island to visit Paul's Dad, Ivan. Except for the time in 2005 when we stopped by and he wasn't home, Paul had not been to his Dad's house in over 10 years. We have seen him several times, just have not been able to make it to his place. There are a few complicating factors that limit how often we see Ivan. (This is not the place to expand on that statement, so I'll just leave it at that.)

Paul, trying to take a peek into his Dad's shop in July 2005.
Clever Pops had done a good job of deterring intruders.
On Thursday we caught the 9:00 pm ferry from Vancouver, as we had to leave time for Max's "Welcome to Kindergarten" event from 6-7 pm on the same day. A short sleep at Oma's and then we were off on the road again. It's a beautiful drive up-Island. The screaming coming from Jaxon for most of the trip? Not so beautiful. He slept for very little of the 4 hour trip. I had a major kink in my back, neck and arm from reaching back to the seat behind Paul to try to pacify my angry baby.

After a chance encounter with Ivan (Opa), who thought we were coming the next day, we went and got our things settled in at The Old Skipper Bed & Breakfast. If you should ever find yourself in Coal Harbour and need a place to stay, we highly recommend it. Not only is it the best place to stay there, it's the only place to stay there. The hosts are a lovely couple who graciously accommodated for our rambunctious boys. The Skipper himself is from Norway, born on December 25th. (My dad's family is from Norw ay, and I travelled there in Jr. High, so we compared stories a little bit over breakfast in the morning.) He also extended his sympathy to Jaxon for their shared birthday.

Ivan is a collector. Machines, boats, cars, tractors, motors ... you name it. He's got it all. Very little is in working condition, but all of it has a place in his grand scheme! He has an old airplane hangar FULL of stuff, and the boys finally got to take the much anticipated tour, flashlights in hand. The man has a LOT of STUFF. After emerging from the shop, we went to the beach in Port Hardy, where the boys had the whole stretch almost to themselves. It was an overcast day and it was so relaxing to just mosey around on the beach and slosh in the puddles. It was coming up on dinner time. We had been forewarned not to eat any food from Opa's house, so we took him out to A&W for dinner. He protested, saying he had "some old hot dogs and old hamburgers at the back of the fridge we could heat up on one of those BBQ things". A&W was great.

After dinner we went back to the B&B to visit a little more. We had a nice little suite with chairs, coffee table, two double beds, and a little kitchen. Very nice for visiting. There were no other guests so the boys had a bit more freedom to get their wiggles out.

Saturday morning, Ivan joined us for breakfast and another visit with our hosts. Very friendly folks, they are. Then we packed up, said our goodbyes, made our way to Port McNeill for lunch, and then to see good friends, Andy & Jenny. They are so chill, and laid back - it's catchy. The grown-ups visited while the kiddos played (nicely, for the most part). We had some munchies and then burgers for dinner and then it was time to get going back to Oma's.

We re-arranged the seating arrangement in the van so that I could sit in the back beside Jaxon to hold his hand and whisper sweet-nothings to him before he could cry himself into a frenzy. It worked very well and the 3-hour trip from McNeill back to Qualicum Beach was silent as all 3 boys slept. When we got to Oma's house, Max poked his head up and proclaimed that the trip wasn't very long at all, "only ten minutes!".

We skipped church on Sunday morning and enjoyed a lazy start to the day. The boys played outside while Paul and his Mom did some yardwork. Jax and I stayed inside. We briefly met up with the Werdals at Parksville Beach, then ventured off on our own for some more intensive searching of the shoreline. When Max's preschool teacher heard that he was going to Parksville, she asked him to collect some sand and shells. Collect them, he did! Later on, Paul's friend Tim came over for a visit. Paul had promised the boys that he would build a tractor out of some big boxes Oma had, so Tim got to help with that. He's an incredibly talented craftsman (I mean, for real), and the cardboard tractor was a fine project to add to his portfolio. The men had a good long chat while the boys played and "helped". When that was done, there was plenty of cardboard left to make an airplane. It should be noted that it was my stroke of engineering brilliance that eventually made it take flight across the yard. They scoffed when I suggested they put a rock down inside the tip of the nose. Ahem. It worked.

If that wasn't enough excitement, Marty had a birthday party! His actual birthday was later that week, but Oma wouldn't be there so we celebrated early. Cake and a present, that's about it.

And now for the pictures. I took the lazy way again, as it saves so much time! (If you want to look at a photo longer, just move your mouse onto it and the slideshow will pause.)

And tomorrow (er, today) we're off for a week in Prince Rupert! We're all very excited as it's the first time we've all been back at the same time since we moved away two years ago. And yes, I did finish most of my packing before sitting down to finish this post! Jax is having a hard time settling, he's woken up about every hour and a half all night. I need to get myself in bed (ya think? It's almost 3am!) so I can bring him to sleep with us. He just sleeps so much better that way. It woks for everyone. For now.