Sechelt

I feel like I say this all the time when absent from writing but it's always true- I did not intend to be away for so long. If I was not writing today it would be three weeks since my last post.
Those weeks have been very busy- our church put on a community carnival and it took a lot of work.
My brother-in-law made this promo video for it- PCBC Community Carnival- which I intended to share before the carnival but better late than never I suppose.
After the carnival I had lots of little projects to work on and then my sister and I took our boys away.

My aunt lives in a tiny town called Sechelt

She's lived there as long as I can remember- I think she moved there just after her marriage more than 25 years ago- and some of my best memories from childhood are summers spent there going to the beach every day, going on walks and hikes, and playing dress up with my cousins.
It's one of those things I am particularly thankful for knowing that not many people have a place like that to go to.

Here is my son on a very familiar beach

So my sister and I finally brought our sons up to Sechelt. Our aunt has been on us almost all year to bring them up and we finally got around to going. At least, I finally summoned up the strength to attempt the drive.

One of the things I annoy my son with is gushing over places and things I remember as a child. I wasn't so gushy on this trip since I've taken him up there a few times before but I love bringing him to places I loved as a child. It is a great blessing to me to have places and things so familiar from years gone by to bring him to and let him enjoy. I guess that's why I'm not much of a traveller and why I've never had any desire to go too far from where I was raised.

There's a section on that beach in the picture above called 'The Big Rocks'- just a bunch of big rocks together that are fun to climb and there are pools of sea creatures and barncles. I haven't been able to bring Bo to that yet. We didn't get a chance this trip and he was too little to stand the walk on previous trips. It's something I can look forward to showing him- he will love it.

Besides the beach, there is the duck pond. I tried to take a panorama of it but it turned out as you see above. The local pet store sells duck food for you to bring to the pond and throw to the ducks. There weren't as many ducks as I've seen there in the past but my son was able to feed quite a few of them. On a previous visit they were coming right up to him and eating out of his hand.

Here is a picture of a picture of little me at the duck pond long ago. My aunt had a bunch of photos she was organizing and had them all out to show us.
Yet another thing I am grateful for- that my aunts took lots of photos of us while we grew. Many things I saw in those pictures I had completely forgotten and some of them reminded us of things we used to be.
More than a year ago, a few months after I had quit Facebook, my sister-in-law requested I create an Instagram account for my son so that she could see pictures of him every day. I did create it and I post on it mostly every day. Sometimes I miss a day when nothing is happening or I don't have time to post. I get pointed comments from people about how I always seem to be taking pictures of my son. Yes I do and it's not for me. I've lived long enough to understand it doesn't matter what people think you're doing and what they think about why you're doing it. In the end, God knows the truth and it only matters what he thinks.
Looking at my aunt's old pictures made me grateful to look back and remember what was. It also renewed my gratefulness that our relatives that live far away can keep up with my son's growth and know what is going on with him.

 We also went to a provincial park called Porpoise Bay. We hunted for crabs and Bo named one 'Ouchy' and another one 'Big' who became 'Big Rocky'. My nephew loves 'wa-wa' as he calls it and my sister has a time keeping her grip on him when it comes to big bodies of water.

Other than places around Sechelt there's my aunt's house where we were staying. Her homes always have lots of character and I love them. She always has a garden going and just loves flowers.

Her pathway is made up of little rocks and the boys played in it like it was a sand box.

We had lots of raspberries and tomatoes to eat but my aunt also has arugula growing everywhere. It was so potent and spicy I found myself plucking the leaves and eating them constantly. I wish I had grown arugula in my garden.

excuse my heel

The day we left was dumping rain but it was a good, safe trip home. The boys were exhausted but it was a good exhaustion.

Stormy seas

So that was why I wasn't writing.
I had a lot on my mind these few weeks and I will hopefully be able to sit down to write about it.