BT 4.0: Small Coffee

Howdy from Vancouver! Our weekend camping was amazing. We camped in the Okanagan Valley. We almost had to put a halt to the camping because it looked like rain. We marched into a Starbucks and took blatant advantage of the free wireless to get a good look at the radar. Convinced that we wouldn't end up soaked we forged on. The campground was in a valley on a huge lake. We made acquaintances with another family in the campground that provided Milo with hours of little boy fun (thank you to the little extrovert, Jason, who I kept calling Mason). Nary a grizzly in sight but they did have lovely signs up about all the rattlers which prompted a long discussion between Mark and me about which attack we would prefer. I say give me a rattle snake bite over a grizzly attack any day. Mark doesn't like the sneakiness of a snake attack. Feel free to weigh in... We experimented with some camping desserts. The kids were excited to get off the s'mores path and venture on to something a little wilder. The first one was a bust. We made bananas with marshmallows and chocolate chips. We under-wrapped the product and instead of sweet goodness we all determined that it tasted like we took a bite out of a piece of charred log. Gross. The kids were a little wary the next day when we threw some cherries, strawberries, chocolate chips and marshmallows together thrice wrapped in heavy duty foil. It turned out to be delicious but we practically had to force feed both of them to get them to try it. We also went on a vineyard tour. It was an hour long tour. I was bored by minute 13 and the kids were too. We all behaved very well despite the dry tour guide and very, very small samples of wine. The kids got a huge glass of sparkling apple juice in a wine glass. Mark and I were practically standing on our heads trying to make sure that their glasses didn't get hit the floor (though the loud shatter would have added some excitement to the tour). We headed back to the campsite after the wild tour. About 10 minutes into the drive Milo said, "Mommy, mommy, I just need to sleep". I turned around to look at him and he was gray. I didn't connect the dots fast enough and he threw up all over his beloved notebook, daddy's jacket and himself. Thank you, giant glass of sparkling apple juice (mixed with a good dose of the backseat in a warm car on a hot day). Today was our first day in Vancouver and we took the kiddos to a children's bookstore, ate cupcakes at a bakery at 10am and then went to the beach. We dropped Mark off at his conference and then we headed back for a nap and then a matinee of Cars 2. Milo LOVES movies. Seriously, I can't imagine a child loving movie theaters, movies, popcorn, previews, credits as much as him. We walked into the theater (which was considerably larger than our Wausau theater) and his eyes just popped out. Halfway through the movie he said, "Mom, dad hasn't seen this, right?" I told him no and that he could ask dad to go when we get back to Wausau (I assumed he was fishing for another trip to the theater) and he said, "No. I'm going to get a huge piece of paper and draw the whole movie for him so he knows all about it." What a kid! We can't forget little O's at the theater. Before the movie started she asked me if she could dance. ("I dance, Mama?") and I said no. Every 15 minutes during the movie she would ask if she could dance and I would tell her no. Towards the end of the movie she asked and I told her she could dance when the movie was over. No joke, that first credit rolled and she flew out of her chair and danced all the way up the aisle. Gotta love that personality!

We stopped at Emerald Lake on our way to the Okanagan Valley.

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park

Picnic at Emerald Lake

They were hauling downed trees out of the lake when we were eating. We couldn't have paid for better entertainment for the kids.

Milo drawing at Yoho National Park

The beginning of the banana disaester

Banana on the fire.

Smoked banana

Our campsite in Kekuli Bay Provincial Park

The kids winding down in the tent before bed

Odelia takes of her shoes a million times a day and then usually tries to walk on gravel or some other unpleasing turf and then screams out in pain and anger.

This is the marmot Holdhusens. At any given point I could only get 2 of the 4 of us in the shot but there was a marmot family of 4 living at our campground. We developed life stories for each of them. Daddy Marmot had a lazy boy and an inclination for staying out late. Marmot Milo like chicken nuggets from Marmot McDonalds.

Kelowna, BC: City Park

The castle-building obsession is 2nd only to the rock-throwing obsession

Odelia was waiting patiently to pounce on this castle. She likes to sit on them when they are finished. It makes Milo very angry.

Burying feet.

Man, 2-year-olds can be easy to entertain

Look at that face. You'd have thought I'd just bought her a pony. Nope, just buried her feet.

We were out of drinks for the kids so we bought them a sparkling lemonade at a fruit stand. Just a funny shot.

Canada doesn't seem to worry as much about litigation for playground injuries as we do. This was a zipline at a playground in Kelowna.

Yup, both of my kids have ziplined before me. Odelia squealed with delight. Milo...not so much.

Mission Hill Winery owned by some really rich man who likes wine. Snooooooooooze!

In the wine cave at Mission Hill

They really were champs about the tour. They didn't even know that they were getting a giant glass of apple juice at the end of the tour.

Keeping it light at the winery

Notice the bead of sweat on Mark's forehead. She desperately wanted to hold the glass by herself and loudly proclaimed her desires in a very quiet tasting room with 30 other people (who weren't 2).