Temperance Street Times

A 7th wedding anniversary was celebrated on October 12th. Remember Then…

And See Now…Well actually this photo was taken back in late August…but you get the idea!  It was our first time back to Ucluelet since the wedding and while the town has boomed, the beaches are exactly as we left them…

And of course Halloween on the 31st. Uncle Matt helped with the trick or treating while Imbaw handed out candy. Thomas’ self made costume was a bit awkward at times, but the hit of his preschool class! Nathaniel, on the other hand steadfastly refused to wear his ‘bat ears’…But the weather was great, so no complaints!

And yes indeed – Uncle Matt did give his Friday lecture wearing his costume…And that will have to do until December…

As the name would suggest Qualicum Beach has good beaches! (click on the image for full size picture)

The three main ones are Rathtrevor, Parksville and Qualicum Beach and over the last couple months we have spent time at all of them.  What do we at the beach?  Well, being that this is the east side of the island – not too much surfing. But playing in the sand, flying kites and paddle boarding have all rated quite highly…the paddle boarding in particular has been popular with all ages!

And yes, yes, yes – we never leave home without applying our 60SPF sun screen and hats! Aside from the beach we have also indulged in developing a new hobby (like Michele really needs another one..Ha!) Golf!  There are no fewer than five 18 hole golf courses with 10 minutes of our house here.  The closest one is the Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club, where we took lessons in June and have been attempting to master 9 holes in the evenings throughout July.  Michele’s scores have ranged 75-86 for the 9, while Imbaw’s have been in the 65-72 range.  Turns out we both like it a lot…and the scenery from Memorial doesn’t hurt either!

Together we have also been hiking!  Englishman River Falls, Little Qualicum Falls, Cathedral Grove and Notch Hill are 4 separate but equally interesting trails we have conquered, all with 20 minutes driving of the house.  On our last hike at Qualicum Falls Nathaniel actually hiked the whole loop himself on foot…not bad for 19 months!

OK what else…a little local travel has also ensued…Victoria, where we saw Bucchart Gardens, the rocky coast, a bit of the night life and even the BC cancer agency.

Abbotsford where we visited with family, some of whom are best photographed from a distance…

And Finally, Comox where we saw Kris Valka with kids Ella, Sadie and Jack as well as celebrated a family birthday party (63rd) in style, with good scenery, good food and even a round of Bocce!

Ah, Supernatural British Columbia!!  Whatever that means… 🙂

On March 12th Thomas donned his first snowboard and took to the hills in New Hampshire…quite gleefully I might add! He rode the magic carpet with ease right from his very first time up and hit some pretty high speeds on the way down.  He pulled a couple 180’s, a full 360 roll and rode right over the front of some other dude’s snowboard…Not bad for a first time out!  CLick on teh Thumbs to see full size. Hard to catch the action in still photo’s – so Imbaw made a 3 minute movie that covers all the action. Follow the movie link and answer this question to get access ‘ Does Thomas like his cross country skiis or snowboard best?’

Although we didn’t get much snow in Saskatoon until Late January, when it did start falling it was beautiful and of course awesome for skiing on.  Thomas took  a liking to his cross country skis and we got out a couple times all together…However dad had his work cut out for him later in the day! Click on the Thumbs to see full size.

In Mid February we headed down to Boston.  Fortunately we had a big dump of snow shortly after our arrival and Lola and Thomas went to work…Later that week Phil offered up a free hockey lesson on Spy Pond out his new backdoor. Thomas fared marginally better than Nathaniel…

Well the highlights of January mostly included a couple Birthday parties.  Nathaniel turned 1 on January 1st and Thomas turned 3 on January 16th. Nathaniel developed a new found lust for cake and table dancing, while the cat took a liking to one of the gifts! Other than that we mostly just hunkered down and tried to stay warm! Click on the thumbnail to see the full size version.