Back on Track

It's been a couple of weeks of colds, flus, ear infections and bronchitis in the Eliasson household, but we're all back on the healthy train. It started with Anna and moved onto me, with Patrik managing to avoid it all together. He's been having to be Mr. mom and dad for the past week or so, and he's been amazing, but happily we're back to sharing the parenting duties.

Patrik managed to sneak away with Anna last weekend to Cates Park on the North shore. They had a great time and enjoyed a brief reprieve from the rain.



Today Anna helped me re-organize the living room, but we managed some play in between...

Thanksgiving Weekend

It's Monday night, and Patrik is upstairs putting Anna to bed after a weekend on Vancouver Island. We've all had such a great time, though we spent some of it apart. We headed over to Nanaimo on Friday night, and after a quick visit and breakfast on Saturday morning, Patrik and I left Anna in the loving hands of mormor and morfar and headed up island for an over-night trip.

First on the agenda was a little hike at Englishman River Falls. The water is low at this time of year, but the falls and the river were still beautiful, and there were plenty of 'fika' opportunities along the way.



Then we headed to Parksville where we had booked into Tigh-na-mara for the night. It's a beautiful old resort on the water. We spent the afternoon on a long beach walk - you can spend hours just walking the coastline - and then at the pool, hot tub and sauna. It was bliss! We followed all of that up with a delicious fire-side dinner. It's amazing what you can fit into the day when you're on your own!




In the morning the tide was way out and we took another walk along the coast before heading out to explore a little more of the island.


We were sooooo excited to see Anna when we got back to Nanaimo. We hear that she had a fantastic time, as did mormor and morfar, and we're thinking that we may have started a very nice tradition...

Squeezing out each drop of sunshine

And another gorgeous weekend - how can we be so lucky? There is a crispness to the air, but the sun warms the skin and inspires another day outside.


Today we hopped in the car and headed up to Mount Seymour for a hike.


Unlike our hike up the Grouse Grind a couple of weeks ago (where every single step is uphill, there are very few views through the dense forest, and the reward comes only at the end with views at the summit and the satisfaction of completing the hike), Mount Seymour is a pleasant hike start to finish.


You get up into the sub-alpine very quickly, letting you soak up the views practically all of the way up, and there are several mini-summits where you can stop for fika and water breaks.


We may have a few more sunny weekends ahead of us, but there won't be too many more where the trails aren't covered in snow, and it's great to get out while we can.