Visits and Paddling

As I mentioned in the last post we had a visit from Mike's twin sister and his mom.

Nikki was here for a quick little trip (only a couple days) and then was off to visit some friends on the mainland and Lin was here for the week. We did manage to cram a fair amount into this short time though. Both Mike and I managed to get a bit of time off and Nikki and Lin both made it to one of Mike's ulti games and had some Brynn playtime.

In particular Brynn had them jumping for her balloon in our apartment for a good chunk of time. We picked her up a consolation helium balloon after she had to say good-bye to her old car.

They also had a chance to visit the playground at the ulti fields before Auntie Nikki had to head out.

Of course, we had to take Grandma to visit the goats... dad's favourite place in the whole world!

It's weird it seems like we haven't seen then in ages, but they were actually both here a year ago! Not bad for Australia and Toronto. :)

Now we just have to get Uncle Chris and Gpa Barnes out here hint hint.

I also mentioned in the last post a little paddling. We headed out to Thetis Lake last weekend (at least I think it was last weekend, time is a strange thing) and in classic us style went right past the packed main beach and to the shaded little dog-of-leash beach. I love this area. There's a tiny parking lot, so you have to wait a while for a spot, and it's ice and shaded and shallow, so it's good for kids and dogs. As long as the kids and dogs don't mind each other.

We stopped by MEC to pick Brynn up a new pfd since she is now too big for her baby one and plunked her in the kayak. She didn't love it by herself, but was happy sitting on mom's lap and paddling.

She only got me in the head twice. Or trying to sink dad.

So it was all good.

This is really the first time she has played in the open water around here. Thetis is nice and still where we were, so there was none of the wave stress that made her unhappy in Hawaii. By the end of the trip she was running around naked and wading up to her shoulders on her own.

She also had fun directing from shore when dad went out a bit deeper. "Upside down daddy! Upside down!"

I don't think Mike has had that much rolling practice in a long time. There's just something about having your super happy daughter encouraging you to get you to flip over, and over, and over.