UBC Gardens and Jericho Beach

  Weekends, when Dave is home with us, are glorious! I feel like we all are so much happier "when daddy comes home". We always get so much more done around here, because Dad is creative in other ways than Mom, and there is more encouragement from two of us than just one. Saturdays we usually start the day out by cleaning up the house a little and running errands, but we also try to get out of the house and go somewhere free or cheap.

  We headed to the University of British Columbia's Botanical Gardens this past weekend. It's an amazing park, with much of it inside a natural rain forest. They have different sections with many different plants from around the world. We explored mostly the Asian section and even got to take a walk up in the canopy of some tall cedar trees. It was so gorgeous, but nerve-racking walking across those suspended bridges.

 Dave began with Isaac riding on his shoulders, but before he got up too high, he realized it would be so much safer to let Isaac walk, because the bridges were so wobbly. The bridges were very well built and hung. It scared me to death to watch Isaac fall against the rope walls of the bridges, but he would only whimper a little in fright and then get back up and keep going. He loved it, but I think he was just as anxious as I was to get down, back on solid ground. I think we'll wait until he's a couple years older to try that with him again. The older kids loved it! Madelyn liked to get really wobbly and shake the bridges! Caleb liked to wait until everyone else crossed, so he could walk along without anyone else causing disturbances on his bridge (check out his funny strut on the catwalk in the video below)! Kylee was careful as could be and even got close to tears watching Isaac go along. She has always been so sensitive about his safety, ever since he was born....she's exactly like me!

                                       

  We headed to a great beach afterward and had a picnic. This was Jericho Beach, just south of the Vancouver harbor. Then the kids ran along the shoreline, wading in the surf and collecting shells and even a dead crab. We could see huge barges anchored out in the bay, waiting in line to go into harbor in Vancouver. We could see the west side of Vancouver and across the bay to some very nice neighborhoods. The beach homes around us along that beach must have been multi-million dollar beach front homes too! The clouds were low that day and were interspersed in the mountains around the harbor. It made for a beautiful setting. Although it was a rather chilly day, and we were glad we packed jackets, it was a gorgeous day to walk along the beach. We thoroughly enjoyed our day out!