This turned out to be a very eventful week. The weather was beautiful all week long! No rain!! That doesn't happen very often in Vancouver. We started off the week by going on a lunch date. Some friends of ours offered to watch the kids while we went out and it was a lot of fun. We went to an area of downtown called Granville Street. During the summer it is closed to car traffic. I thought it was funny that they even put down green "carpet" on the streets and chairs in the middle of the road. I guess it was supposed to make you feel like you are out in the country? Not quite.
The kids had fun dressing up and putting on a show for us. It's been a little while since all of them have done this at the same time, so it was fun to watch the show :)
I went out to eat with a couple of ladies to a "real" Chinese restaurant for some dimsum. I'm glad we just now found this place becaue the food was AMAZING! I could eat there once a week for sure. The menu was in characters so my friend ordered everything (the waiter brought me a picture menu...that was funny) Dimsum is basically appetizers. We ordered 8 dishes for the 3 of us. This was the dessert we ordered. The English translation they gave me was colorful pudding. I wouldn't call it pudding, but it was pretty good. It was not my favorite thing that I ate, but it was the most colorful :) I decided the kids would really like it.
Benjamin has been asking for weeks to go to a beach, so this week, we made it happen. The kids had a blast. The beach was a mixture of rough sand, pieces of wood (the main industry in Vancouver is logging) and these little bitty bugs. I don't think the kids ever noticed, but for some reason they like my feet. I prefer the shores of the southeastern US, but I still had fun watching the kids play.
Benjamin and Katherine would sit near the edge and wait for the little waves to surround them. I was amazed they liked it so much because the water was absolutely freezing. I usually like to walk just on the shores with my feet in the water, but not here. It felt like ice. Yet again, my kids (and the geese swimming by) loved it.
Katherine enjoying the sand. The kids also enjoyed catching seaweed. Who needs toys :)
Miss Regan enjoyng the beach as well.
This is a typical picture on any given day...waiting for the bus. This bus stop, however, had a bench to sit on (not all of them do). We were on our way up to Grouse Mountain, the tallest point in Vancouver. It's been on my "to do" list since we moved here, but the weather has not cooperated and I didn't want to go up if it wasn't a clear day.
Once we rode the bus up to the base of the mountain, we had the choice to hike to the top or ride. We chose to take the 5 minute ride up. The hike is called the Grouse Grind and I didn't think it sounded like fun with 4 little ones in tow.
Once we got to the top, we ate some lunch. We all got a lot of sun even with spf 60 on us. Benjamin was the only one that seemed to tan instead of burn (I told Jonathan we will see how much of the "tan" washed off in the bathtub...turns out...he was actually tan).
We enjoyed the lumberjack show at the top as well. It was fun to watch all the different things that they did. The kids enjoyed it so much, that when we were leaving (later that day) they ran over and sat on the steps to watch the last 20 minutes again.
Once we were at the top, you could also ride the chair lift (i.e., ski lift) to the very top. It takes another 12 minutes. You had to be 1 meter tall to ride, so Jonathan stayed with Lauren while the other kids and I rode up. Katherine was excited that they let her go. She was exactly 1 meter. It turned out that Jonathan tried hiking up the last little bit with Lauren in the stroller. They got about halfway, and still had an incredible view of the city below.
Everyone enjoyed the ride up. It was so quiet. It's amazing how quickly you get accustomed to the noise of city living. We could even hear birds chirping, and we saw a grizzly bear , too! (It was in a cage...don't worry)
We made it to the top! We celebrated by buying a popsicle :)
Similar to the Grand Canyon, pictures cannot do the view justice, but here you go. This is our city.
So, you have the city view on one side of you and the gorgeous mountains on all the other sides of you. I believe this has to be my favorite spot in the city!
This turned out to be a very eventful week. The weather was beautiful all week long! No rain!! That doesn't happen very often in Vancouver. We started off the week by going on a lunch date. Some friends of ours offered to watch the kids while we went out and it was a lot of fun. We went to an area of downtown called Granville Street. During the summer it is closed to car traffic. I thought it was funny that they even put down green "carpet" on the streets and chairs in the middle of the road. I guess it was supposed to make you feel like you are out in the country? Not quite.
The kids had fun dressing up and putting on a show for us. It's been a little while since all of them have done this at the same time, so it was fun to watch the show :)
I went out to eat with a couple of ladies to a "real" Chinese restaurant for some dimsum. I'm glad we just now found this place becaue the food was AMAZING! I could eat there once a week for sure. The menu was in characters so my friend ordered everything (the waiter brought me a picture menu...that was funny) Dimsum is basically appetizers. We ordered 8 dishes for the 3 of us. This was the dessert we ordered. The English translation they gave me was colorful pudding. I wouldn't call it pudding, but it was pretty good. It was not my favorite thing that I ate, but it was the most colorful :) I decided the kids would really like it.
Benjamin has been asking for weeks to go to a beach, so this week, we made it happen. The kids had a blast. The beach was a mixture of rough sand, pieces of wood (the main industry in Vancouver is logging) and these little bitty bugs. I don't think the kids ever noticed, but for some reason they like my feet. I prefer the shores of the southeastern US, but I still had fun watching the kids play.
Benjamin and Katherine would sit near the edge and wait for the little waves to surround them. I was amazed they liked it so much because the water was absolutely freezing. I usually like to walk just on the shores with my feet in the water, but not here. It felt like ice. Yet again, my kids (and the geese swimming by) loved it.
Katherine enjoying the sand. The kids also enjoyed catching seaweed. Who needs toys :)
Miss Regan enjoyng the beach as well.
This is a typical picture on any given day...waiting for the bus. This bus stop, however, had a bench to sit on (not all of them do). We were on our way up to Grouse Mountain, the tallest point in Vancouver. It's been on my "to do" list since we moved here, but the weather has not cooperated and I didn't want to go up if it wasn't a clear day.
Once we rode the bus up to the base of the mountain, we had the choice to hike to the top or ride. We chose to take the 5 minute ride up. The hike is called the Grouse Grind and I didn't think it sounded like fun with 4 little ones in tow.
Once we got to the top, we ate some lunch. We all got a lot of sun even with spf 60 on us. Benjamin was the only one that seemed to tan instead of burn (I told Jonathan we will see how much of the "tan" washed off in the bathtub...turns out...he was actually tan).
We enjoyed the lumberjack show at the top as well. It was fun to watch all the different things that they did. The kids enjoyed it so much, that when we were leaving (later that day) they ran over and sat on the steps to watch the last 20 minutes again.
Once we were at the top, you could also ride the chair lift (i.e., ski lift) to the very top. It takes another 12 minutes. You had to be 1 meter tall to ride, so Jonathan stayed with Lauren while the other kids and I rode up. Katherine was excited that they let her go. She was exactly 1 meter. It turned out that Jonathan tried hiking up the last little bit with Lauren in the stroller. They got about halfway, and still had an incredible view of the city below.
Everyone enjoyed the ride up. It was so quiet. It's amazing how quickly you get accustomed to the noise of city living. We could even hear birds chirping, and we saw a grizzly bear , too! (It was in a cage...don't worry)
We made it to the top! We celebrated by buying a popsicle :)
Similar to the Grand Canyon, pictures cannot do the view justice, but here you go. This is our city.
So, you have the city view on one side of you and the gorgeous mountains on all the other sides of you. I believe this has to be my favorite spot in the city!
