The Great Return

I think this is the longest I have left it without writing since I started blogging in February. It's not for lack of content over the past week, that is for sure!!
We just got so busy and wrapped up in our adventures (stretching late into most evenings) that I just didn't have the energy (or the privacy quite frankly) to write.

We spent what felt like an eternity on Vancouver Island and beyond, visiting old friends and both of our families. The circumstances were so special though...I will try to document it with photos...although I'm missing some from the end of the trip (I hope to have more later).

We started in Courtenay with a reunion of my girlfriends and our families (20 adults and 11 kids I think?) bar-b-queing at my girlfriend Hayley's house 3 weeks post partum! Little E was very interested in the new arrival when Mackenzie had her - a completely different monster when it was my turn...wow, look out sibling.

We spent a couple of days waiting for Daddy C to arrive and then drove up to Port McNeill on the North End of Vancouver Island and took a small ferry over to Cormorant Island and Alert Bay. We spent a few days there with Daddy C's mom and stepdad and his stepbro and fiance at their beautiful houses. With a deck out over the ocean we couldn't get much closer to nature...whales, eagles, fishing boats. We explored the Island and landed some free salmon - it was a wild and charming town all at once, not at all what I expected.

When we arrived back in Courtenay, we spent the afternoon at Daddy C's sisters house picking blackberries. I think we had 3 separate blackberry crumbles over the holiday, and I wanted more. They are officially Little E's new fave. The doggies were a highlight though, snorting and chasing apples.

Unbelievably, I have no photos on this camera of the Denman Island portion of this trip!!! Despite the fact that long lost Auntie Char was home for a visit, 10 of us invaded my mom's house dressed to the nines for a Deities and God/Goddesses party at the Hall, went swimming every day at Chickadee lake, and more culture at the annual Blackberry fair. If any of my delightful Denman sidekicks have photos to share I will put them up posthaste. Otherwise, until next time my dears...and there will be a next time!!