My bathroom is done...almost.

So this is what my bathroom used to look like. It was hideous. It was not only ugly, we were starting to get concerned that there may be rotting behind the shower wall. Luckily there wasn't. We ripped everything out and everything is new except for the toilet. A new window, a new fan in the ceiling, new plumbing, new wiring, the door was moved over, etc. My husband worked so hard and despite a few pitfalls along the wall it is pretty much done. Marc is currently working on a small shelving unit to go between the shower wall and the hallway wall. Thank you for all your hard work Marc, I appreciate it immensely. And thank you Dad (Phil) for your hard work as well...on the hottest days of the summer. Here is our journey.

Part III

When we had packed up our campsite the day before (see earlier post) the kids were kind of sad because they didn't want to be home. We had to figure out what we could do. So after putting our heads together we decided to head down to Bellingham for a day and a half and do some back to school shopping and sight-seeing. Our shopping was extremely successful and so we had plenty of time for other things. We headed down to the Fairhaven district and walked along the boardwalk along the ocean. It was a beautiful day.
Then we decided to head home a different way. Last year Marc went to a conference at the Semiahmoo Resort so we thought we would check it out. What a gorgeous place. I told Marc that we have to make it a priority to go there by ourselves this next year for some peace and relaxation. I love the ocean and getting a room that is a couple hundred yards from the water is paradise to me. I can't wait to go back. Here are a few pics. There are some really interesting old things to look at.

Part II

We have this favourite campsite in Hope right on the river and we have gone quite a few times. We always get a site with direct access to the river and we love it. We were planning on spending 4 days but the weather didn't cooperate. The first day was wonderful but it started raining that morning (very early) and it didn't stop. Hard to tent when it's raining really hard and you've done everything you can to have fun. We packed up in the pouring rain and went home.
Here is Ben enjoying the river on our first day.
Can you believe the kids worked on school work while we were camping?
Take a look at my Ben. He had hurt the lower left part of his mouth when we went swimming in Richmond and then he either got bit on the lip or chomped down on it...so he had a fat lip. Then we noticed that his right cheek was terribly swollen and his glands were huge. Marc took him into the clinic in Hope and the nice Dr. told him it was probably just a virus and would go away. It did and he doesn't look like he got into a fight anymore.
This is the view from our tent. We spent a lot of day 2 here, hoping it would stop raining.
Me and my poor boy trying to stay dry.
Watching the rain fall off the tarps. By the time we left we almost had our own river flowing through our campsite. When we decided to leave I had checked the forecast and it was supposed to just keep raining for the next few days. That decided it for us. However, the next day we woke up at home and it was beautiful out. Frustration!!!! Now what do we do?

PART I of our vacation

Well it wasn't quite the vacation we had originally planned but it was time together and we did enjoy it. We started off going to Richmond for a couple of days. We stayed in the Riverport district which is basically off the beaten path and has a movie theatre, swimming center, arena, bowling alley, restaurants, play areas, and a hotel. It was quite neat to do everything without having to get in the car. The above picture is of Ben getting ready to go swimming. Both kids love the water.
This picture is of Watermania. It is a giant building with a huge olympic size pool, practice pools, two waterslides, a children's area, a wave pool and much more. We loved it and the waves certainly knocked us around. Ben smacked his face once and I used more muscles than I had in quite a while (felt it for the next couple of days). It was great fun and really inexpensive too.
Then we headed to the bowling alley for some cosmic bowling. Ben took it so seriously and both kids did quite well.
After dinner we headed to the ocean to witness a beautiful sunset. It was a great day.

The next day, after a yummy breakfast at Tim Hortons we headed to Stanley Park. We realized that other than going to the Aquarium once when Hannah was 3, we had never taken the kids there. We walked along the sea wall, went on the train wall, had some lunch and really enjoyed the day. Then it was off to home to get ready to go camping.