August Long Weekend

Phew!  After my marathon blogging this afternoon (I fudged a few dates so things are in order), I am finally caught up, with this last post.

We had a busy August long weekend this year.  We had planned to go to the beach on Saturday but when we woke up, it was overcast.  By the time the weather had cleared, we had moved on to Plan B - errands.  That night, Bradyn's friends Diana and Lola came over for Part 2 of their Twilight marathon and Diana slept over.  Diana stayed for most of the day Sunday and then Kevin and I decided to finally have our (month overdue) 16th anniversary date night dinner at The Boathouse.  We've left Bradyn alone twice so far, for very brief periods.  This was our first official 'throw dinner on the table for her and head out the door for a few hours' real date.  It took much longer than expected to get a table and I will admit I was getting a bit antsy.  I decided to check in with Bradyn by text:

Bradyn was so happy that we trusted her to stay home alone.  She even texted at 8:30 to ask what time she should go to bed.  When we got home at 9:45, Bradyn was all tucked into bed, lights out and listening to stories on her iPod.  What a good kid.

On Monday, we headed to the beach.  By the time we got to White Pine Beach at 12:20, it was closed (because it was full).  Same story at Buntzen Lake.  So, we headed to Belcarra.  It was so busy there that I dropped Kevin & Bradyn off with our stuff and then went back to park on the road - a 20 minute walk from the beach.  We had a nice little set-up with our chairs and umbrella (I forgot the blanket in the car).  After some exploring, then our picnic lunch, Bradyn and Kevin headed back to the beach area while I spent some much appreciated quiet time reading (and finishing) a book I had started a few months ago.

Enjoying her favourite Subway sub (genoa salami) for lunch.

I didn't get down to the beach before the tide came in but there were tons of starfish to see.

Beach babe.

Kevin went to check on Bradyn, who had wandered to the pier, and sent me this photo....

and this one.

After I finished my book, I headed down to see what they were up to.  A family beside where Bradyn had been sitting generously offered up a fishing pole for her to use.  She had so much fun.

There were some wildlife volunteers on the pier that were catching crabs and taking inventory of them.  Bradyn loves crabs.

Although we only ended up spending 3 hours there, we had a wonderful day enjoying the sunshine and chilling out.  A much needed fun day.  I'm definitely looking forward to more 'chilling out time' during our mini vacay in Osoyoos later this month.