Lessons Learned

I'm not quite late in posting my blog (but almost!). It's spring break here this week and the kids and I have just returned from a few days of R&R over on Vancouver Island. Parksville is a small community right on the ocean, and even though the weather was fairly miserable, all BC'ers know you can't let that stop you or you'd never leave the house! LOL

So we checked into our hotel and, since the tide was out, we went looking for sand dollars. I've lived in BC nearly all my life and I had no idea that sand dollars started out black! Those are the live ones, so you leave them alone, and seek out the white ones which are dead. We didn't find any that were white-white, but the ones we did find were white-ish, so we were assured it was okay to collect those ones.

As you can see, there was a lot of beach to cover with the tide out and we did our best until the wind finally drove us back inside in search of hot chocolate.


Then we went to Coombs because if you're ever on the Island, you must go to Coombs to see the goats. One of the markets there has a grass roof and goats live on it - they even have their own little "goat house" up there. Sadly, not a goat was to be had that day, but we did discover some amazing fudge! On we went to the Butterfly Museum which was truly amazing. We walked through a giant green house where dozens and dozens of butterflies, finches and hummingbirds dance and fly around your head.



Lesson learned: Butterflies only live about 2 weeks. My kids already knew that but I had no idea! (yes, once again I was wishing I'd paid more attention in school!)

In between the butterflies and our next adventure, we played mini-golf and rode the bumper boats, which I would not recommend unless it's warm out. However. . .

Lesson learned: Never trust your rotten kids when they say they won't squirt you. They will. And they'll do it often. And they'll laugh hysterically when you can't figure out how to steer AND shoot at the same time. 'Nuff said.

On we went to the parrot rescue centre. I can't remember the exact name, but they take in injured, neglected or abandoned birds and care for them. The place is enormous and as you can imagine, LOUD!! Everyone gets a free pair of earplugs at the door. :) My Middle Child was bound and determined he was not going to enjoy this until two things happened.

#1 - he saw this bird and was immediately awe-struck by it's beauty.

and #2 - he saw this bird and could not stop laughing to save his life.



Lesson learned: Just when you think you're too cool to enjoy something. . . .surprise!

And finally, we saw some turtles. Middle Child loves loves loves turtles, so this was the highlight of the week for him. I should mention here that Middle Child is also an 11-year old boy, so when the turtles started doing this, he was so over-the-top grossed out he could hardly stand himself.



Lesson learned: Even turtles need a little lovin' sometimes.