Vancouver Trip

One of my favorite things about Seattle is having family only a few hours away! My mom's sister and her husband live in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, and her two daughters live in Vancouver. After my mom and little brother, Scott, left Seattle, they flew to Nanaimo for a week. Then, we all met up in Vancouver for the July 4th weekend.

 

Oh, and did I mention that my sister, Allie, flew to Seattle a few days before so she could join us for the road trip? She even generously offered to keep Claire company in the backseat the entire drive! We drove up to Vancouver on Thursday morning and arrived right around lunch time. After we checked into our hotel, Claire went down for a nap super easily. Shocker of all shockers. That evening, we all went out for dinner with my cousin, Sarah.
 

Going on a city vacation with a big group of people and trying to work around a toddler's needs was kind of a challenge. We ended up on our own for most of Friday. In the morning, we went to Spanish Banks beach for the view of the Vancouver skyline.

After walking along the beach for a while, we were looking for somewhere to eat lunch. Adam saw this sign and immediately pulled over.



 Umm, we really like pie! And the slice of raspberry chocolate cream pie we shared for dessert certainly didn't disappoint.



  Claire took a nap back at the hotel and when she woke up, we met Allie and Scott at the playground across the street and then had dinner together.



Being so close to a playground was pretty much amazing. They even had a little splash area!







 On Saturday morning, we walked along the trails at Stanley Park with Allie and Scott.



Look at that huge tree! We stumbled upon a pond called the "lost lagoon."





The inscription on this bench was so sweet! The big thing we wanted to do in Stanley Park was swim in the heated pool that overlooks the ocean.





Unfortunately, even though the pool was heated, it was really windy right by the water and just too cold. Claire had fun at first {there was a waterslide just her size} but after ten minutes we were done.

We all got changed and had lunch, but Claire fell asleep in the stroller before we made it back to the hotel. So, while she was snoozing, we did some shopping at Roots and had some Tim Bits at Tim Horton's, two things that no trip to Canada is complete without!

After more time on the playground, we met up with everyone for dinner with my other cousin, Jess.









My mom and aunt's good friend from high school, Kelly, also joined us for the weekend. So, my grandma is from a big family, and my mom {the oldest} has two uncles that are only like five years older than her. Well, at my mom and dad's wedding, Kelly met one of my mom's uncles. They hit it off, got married, and Kelly technically became my mom's aunt, ha!



Claire has come so far with stranger anxiety in the last several months! She was fascinated by both Jess and Sarah.



On Sunday, my mom and Scott flew to Houston for the next leg of their summer travels. We were worried about a really long wait to cross the border on Sunday and apparently Claire got the message, because she was up and ready to go at 5:30 am. We went to the 8:00 Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral and were back in Seattle by lunchtime.

We stopped at the outlets on the way back, which was actually Adam's idea. Another shocker. We each have a clothing budget of $50 a month {except for maternity clothes!} and we'd been saving it for a couple months for this. Adam got a few pairs of jeans at the Levi's store and I got a wallet to match my new purse at Kate Spade.

Claire has been doing really well with car sickness lately. We're thinking it was just teething all along, combined with a very weak stomach in general. So I guess that's a good thing? She just did throw up once on the drive, but it was only fifteen minutes into the trip. However, a road trip wouldn't be complete without at least one complete meltdown from her, so she spent the forty-five minute drive from the outlets to our apartment screaming uncontrollably. Oh, life with a toddler!