Down Came The Rain....

Its the last day of August, the last day of "summer" if you will.  We've had an amazingly sunny summer and ironically, the last day of August came and went as a rainy day. 
I woke up to find a heavily sleeping Kamille on Kevin's side of the bed and no noise coming from Karis' room.  It must have been the lull of the raindrops on the skylights that kept them sleeping longer than 7am and longer than me!  Kevin and I actually had a few minutes to have a chat over coffee.  Outside it continued to rain and I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon that's for sure.  So far the day was starting out really well despite it being our first official rainy day in weeks!

After a slow start by my girls we all eventually got rolling with breakfast, some cartoons and flopping around on the carpet.  This was an all too familiar scene of mornings living on the wet coast, it had just been a while since we'd seen this kind of day.  I began to wonder just what the heck did we do all winter long on rainy days?  My pitch on my facebook status for a playdate didn't result in any offers (if you don't include the offers I got from some of my Ontario friends).   What to do?  What to do?

Well, we managed to knock off some time making banana cupcakes for Karis' birthday (2 more sleeps!) and then we Skyped with Grandpa to wish him a happy birthday, and that rolled into some tunnel making between the couch and the ottoman.  Good times for a rainy day so far.

Lunch time came and we made the decision to embrace the rain and all it has to offer for new and exciting play outside. 

oh hello again bogs.  i still love you!

apparently, rocks and soil are more fun when they are wet

kamille collected rain from the tree branches and leaves

 

thank you to MEC for making it all easy and dry for us!

rainy days can be fun too!

Still Enjoying The Fun Things

So just as it seemed that the summer weather was starting to leave us, mother nature had come back in full effect and it was full sunshine smiles across the weather station board!  We couldn't be happier to hold on to more summer fun!  So this is what we got up to......

digging out old toys for Karis!

after dinner walks to the river with friends! (Thanks for taking these photos Dawn!)

and taking some of those rocks from the river home so that we could paint them with Kamille's boyfriend Gus.

These two have been in love since birth.  

And you know its going to be a fun day when Dawn gives me a wake up call, tells me what to wear and tells me to get over as soon as I can drop Kamille off at daycare, because.........

WE'RE GOIN' ROCK CLIMBING!  Wooo hoo!
Not having much experience at all, but totally up for the challenge, we had the BEST day.  Dawn's husband and friends totally made this experience amazing for us newbies!

Can you see what my hand is grabbing?  What about what my foot is standing on?  No?  That's probably because its the teeny tiniest ridges of rock ever!  This sport is tough!  

And my sporty girl and her boy Ben also got a chance to give it a go!  And they loved it just as much as we did!

I'll say it again, this sport is no joke.   Find the cracks or ridges and climb.  

Me, having an amazing Day!
Thank you so much Dawn, Mike, Ida, Patrick and Andrea!

We celebrated Ben's 1st Birthday too!

We've loved getting to know this boy and his mama over the past year!  

We had our very first "Trucker" camping trip.  Totally last minute and totally at a campsite 8 minutes from our home!  It was awesome!  Rory and Stacey had just purchased a 1965 Aristocrat LoLiner trailer and were keene to test her out!  Her name is Lola and yes, she and our Vern will be spending a lot of time together!  This was our last tent camping experience and pretty much fuelled Kevin's desire for a trailer! 

enjoying a bacon and egg breakfast!  so yummy!  

The best part about Trucker camping is that the kids had each other for entertainment!  This makes me that much closer to my ideal of having drink in one hand and a trashy magazine in the other! 

Together, our families sourced out a great spot to store our trailers and we met some new friends there too!

We also put a tick in a box on our list of things to do this summer by picnicking at a park that we had never been to.

sticky hands

The fun just doesn't seem to end!

Summer is not over yet and I still have some more boxes to tick on my list of summer fun.  There are plans for dinner at the Campfire Grill, bike rides around Stanley Park, more crafts with Kamille and some fun in Whistler.