Part II

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finish our vacation blog! We have been pretty busy over here with gradual entry to day care and also gearing up to head back to work next week.

Erika was able to take some time off, so we decided to head to Coombs on Tuesday morning to check out the goats on the roof. We enjoyed donuts, yummy snacks and meandering through the market shops. Thankfully the goats were out grazing so we sat by the tree watching them and listening to some street music. Freya loved every minute of it!

After lunch we headed to Qualicum to do some window shopping and then headed to the beach in Parksville. I spent a good hour trying to get Freya to nap and was completely unsuccessful. She was too pumped to hang out with her Auntie Erika, watch the birdies fly around and listen to the music.

We ate at Realm that night for dinner, probably one of my favorite restaurants on the island, and meandered through the night market afterwards (more like shuffled along with the herd of hundreds of people).

On Wednesday Erika, Freya and I ventured north to Elk Falls and Strathcona Provincial Park. Although I hadn’t realized how much I missed them, it was so nice to be back in the mountains. The weather was a little dreary, which was a refreshing and welcome change. We went for a little hike to the Elk Falls and walked along the rocky beach in Strathcona Park. On our way home we stopped in Campbell River for some of the best sushi I’ve had in a very long time.

 

On Thursday morning we toured around downtown Courtenay, scoping out the cutest stores! We had some delicious donuts and got some lunch to go. Fully loaded, Freya and I were the very last to board the ferry (of course). We found a nice window seat and ate lunch on the floor, picnic style. Docking and taking a taxi to our AirBnB in North Vancouver was relatively straight forward, which I was very grateful for.  After playing on the swings in the backyard, Freya was happy to go to bed, and Momma had some much needed quiet time.

On Friday morning, Freya and I (somehow) conquered the Vancouver bus system and made our way to the Park Royal shopping Center in North Vancouver. There are really only a handful of stores that I typically shop at so we were able to get in and out within an hour. Later that afternoon we were finally reunited with Johnny. Freya was so excited to see her daddy. She showered him with kisses and was attached to him all night.

We went to the Londsale Quay for dinner and had a beautiful view of the Vancouver skyline.

On Saturday we were up bright and early, heading to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. Freya had so much fun watching the fish swim around, the dolphins doing flips and the jelly fish floating in their tanks. We finished the day off with a walk around the sea wall, visiting the beaches along the way.

We decided to slow things down a bit on Sunday and headed to Grandville Island in the morning. Thankfully, we were outta there when it started to get busy. I finally rented a Car2Go and picked up sushi and pizza for dinner (probably my fav dinner take-out combo!)

We headed home early on Sunday morning, and thankfully Freya slept for the first few hours of the drive. She is normally very happy in the car seat, however after 7 hours she was starting to get fussy (which is totally understandable I think). It’s a good thing that we were just entering the city limits when her screaming started… But nothing that a few minutes of Puffin Rock couldn’t calm.

 

The next few weeks (and months really) are going to get a little crazy over here, lots of exciting things happening!

Freya started half days at day care this week and is doing better than I expected! She loves watching the big kids run around, and is warming up to the day care providers quite well.

Freya cut one of her top teeth this week, with another on the way. Also, she is WALKING!! She started a few weeks ago with one or two steps here and there and will now walk across the room. Crawling is still her preferred mode of transportation, but she’s getting there.

Needless to say that her (& our) sleep hasn’t been the best lately, but we are getting by.