August 2021

 

Jane and I went on a whale watch for my birthday at the end of August. The pictures of course don't do it justice. The boat ride was beautiful. We saw orcas and humpbacks. And comedian/actor Caroline Rhea was on the boat with us.

One day we played at Lochside Elementary, which is very close to us and unfortunately did not have space for Jane.

Visiting the favorite park, Gyro. Jane is climbing on a red octopus.

Jane at home

Jane with her lightsaber.

Alice and I at a follow-up appointment after she broke her collarbone in July. All was deemed well. (My college roommate had this poster up in our dorm.)

Blackberries grow everywhere here, so we made a blackberry pie from neighborhood berries. And then we made another one.

Elk Lake, which has hiking trails, swimming, and a play structure.

We went to downtown Victoria one weekend.

Jane the Athlete

Yet another selfie at Gyro park. (But, now, a few months later, can someone tell me why I thought a short cut which requires regular maintenance was a good idea during a pandemic?)

Three shots from along Andy's bike ride in to work. This is a statue of a previous mayor of Victoria.

Jane and Andy found a place that has gluten-free ice cream sandwiches!

Otters? I think?

Jane by the BC seal, somewhere downtown.

Playing on a beach one day.

July 2021

 July 1st was the first day we were out of quarantine after arriving in Canada. It's also the day that Alice was lying on her side on the couch, fell off, and broke her collarbone. I took her to the ER the next day when she clearly was still in pain. Nothing to be done, just be gentle with her. She wore Jane's shirts for a while because they were easier to get over her head with minimal raising of her arm. All better now (December)!

Our new place! View from the living room window.

View from the patio

We went to the top of Mt. Tolmie for a good view!

Inside our place, there is an intercom/radio system. It even has labels that say it works with the TV, but none of it actually works anymore. Just a funky detail. 

Fireplace in the living room. As yet, unused.

Andy had to take the ferry to Vancouver to do some Customs busywork to release our items that came from Texas. Some views from the ride:

At a park, probably?

Our stuff came! It was so bizarre seeing all the stuff from Texas that we'd stored three years ago.

Andy started work!

Office

View from his window

Again, some park, probably. There are tons of them that look like this! Like, you can just go to the beach! All the time!

Alice!

Jane!

Andy's office (I assume)

One weekend, we visited a beach to scout it out for a field trip for Andy's class. It was gorgeous and fossils were plentiful. And we saw seals! They didn't cooperate for pictures, though.

The white, grainy-looking stripes are full of fossils.

Tide pool

For Jane's birthday, Andy took her sea kayaking.

They also saw seals!

Top of Mt. Tolmie

Tim Horton's Hockey Barbie.

I'm just going to say it, kids look so goofy with their half-grown teeth!

We currently have our tinsel dinosaur out and roaring in the holidays!

Among the Texas boxes, we found these Octonauts hats and collars made by our friends the Roddys!

Alice loves digging out in our front yard.

Arbutus Cove park. We had to walk down a pretty big staircase to the beach, but it was worth it.

Paper from packing. It was such a relief to get all that stuff recycled once it was unpacked. Andy figured out where he could drive it to drop it all off so we didn't have to wait two weeks for a pickup.

"Mom, I sneezed and my head came off."

Alice's favorite park, Gyro park.

Walking in to the fossil beach.

Plenty of blackberry bushes on the way in!

Jane got a funky haircut for her birthday. (This was the first pass. We took her to another place where they made it look better, in my opinion.)

There is an entirely gluten-free bakery in town! Chocolate birthday cake!

I don't speak French, but this was funny to me.

Gyro park for Jane's birthday.

Her friend Emily joined us for a play and some cupcakes!