April to End of May

I know, I know.....and I really don't know where I've been. Just living life I guess.

Lots of walks and hanging out with the dudes. While the "big" boys are at school Holden and I walked up to the park near our house. They have a great outdoor exercise area....

He's putting a lot of effort into this one.

I think he enjoyed it!

Brothers discussing soccer strategy.

Jasper (L) was still waiting for his game to start.

See what I mean...The weeks just go by so fast and we just settle in to our normal way of life.

April 30-May 8: FINALLY!! We got to go somewhere. We left White Rock to head up to Nelson to hang out with Teagan and Rudy. We go about five hours to Osoyoos and stay overnight and then arrive in Nelson and Kokanee Creek Provincial Park on the second day. No sense rushing, is there?

This week with Teagan and Rudy always goes by way to fast. Of course, then it's hard to leave but we will be back soon!

Parked at Nk'mip RV Park in Osoyoos

We love the sites that back onto the new vines.

Teagan and her Dad

Kokanee Creek Provincial Park

May 9: WEDDING!! Our nephew Christopher was married today to his lovely bride, Cindy. Super fun event at Sun Yet Sen Gardens in Chinatown in Vancouver. Beautiful, historic garden for this event. 

Myself, sister Julie (mother of the groom)

and sister-in-law Carmen

Julie, Doug and moi!

May 15-19: More camping. Our usual "May" long weekend. Started out with rain, then some lovely sun. Of course we know that you can't control the weather so you just have to decide to have fun anyway!

It's bad when this is how I leave our place,

enroute to camping.

Josh & Kathy

Lots of Beglaw boys squeezed into our little trailer!

Beautiful Chilliwack Lake

It seems that no matter how cold this lake is, especially this early in the year, our boys don't seem to mind. We, on the other hand, get brain freeze!

Holden, August, Josh, Jasper & Doug

Back home and just hanging out for a week or so.....

Waiting on the chef.

Oh...here he is!!

May 25-27: My sister Julie and husband Martin and some of their kids were camping up at Golden Ears Provincial Park (about 1 hr from us) so we decided to join them. Yes, it rained. quite a bit....

Alouette Lake, Maple Ridge BC

Fire Ball shots to warm up!

I really do better on this little blog when I do it more often. I tend to tell you more about our life. I know I can't do a lot more pictures, that's for sure!

Phew. Back home in White Rock and the sun!

Post soccer game lunch at the pub.

Hope you are all well. This brings you up to the end of May. More to come.

Peace out friends!

Thought for the Day: Don't try to be perfect. Just try to be better than you were yesterday.

March 15 to Present

Took awhile, didn't it? I mean, how long does it actually take for a person to "get settled"?

So, ducks are still kicking around. There are MANY of them and we loved it. We are very happy to be home. Settling in to our "normal" routine. Best thing is being around family and friends again. Gee, we really missed everyone.

Doug and I have spoken many times about what we liked about this trip and what didn't work for us. So here goes:

- Fast transport there and back. Although neither of us really enjoys flying, it is nice to get there so quickly. It's the hurry up and wait part we don't like. Have I packed correctly, is the bag too heavy, etc, etc. I am a slightly nervous flyer. I feel every single bump and bit of turbulence while in the plane. "Is that normal? No one seems to be panicing (except me), flight personnel are smiling." Must be alright...

I also liked the fast transport back home. One day we woke up in Mexico and the same day we were sleeping in our own bed (surrounded by the ducks, of course). Loved that.

- Less planning once we are there. This one is for Doug as he is the R&D officer when we are driving. I do a slightly poorer job of navigating. All the planning and costs were mostly up front and decided upon long before we left. While it is expensive to fly and book accommodations, it is also very expensive to drive. Gas prices are no longer our friend (were they ever?), vehicle maintenance, out of country vehicle insurance, etc, etc. 

- Lots of time to enjoy the chosen area. We did enjoy the Melaque area. We really tried to get into a "home-type" of routine. I think we did okay at this, most days. Tried our best to support the local economy, stores, restaurants, vendors. I think we also did a very good job at this. We never forget that we are visitors to someone else's city or country. We treat our time there with the utmost of respect.

- Staying in one place. A big "other side of the coin". We did not like the staying in one place for so long. Yes, we talked a big smack about taking trips around Mexico once we were there and settled but we never did. Our other experience in visiting Mexico has been driving ourselves in our trusty vans. It just means when we grew tired of one place we could leave and go discover somewhere else. We also missed having our own "stuff", how our van was packed with what we needed. 

The biggest miss for us both, no wheels. There is quite the feeling of freedom in that for us. 

We always said that we felt it was important to try flying someday just so we could compare. We have tried it and now we know. Maybe as we get "older" we will try something again but never for 3 months. WAY too long......

There you have it. Since you read this far (take a bow) I can reward you with a few fun pictures.

Out on one of our local trails with the dudes.

Yes, it was slightly cooler than we got used to

but loved it anyway. Maybe it was the copany!

Home, just down the street fron us.

Lovely White Rock

April 3 to 6: We already have our first camping trip in the books! An Easter/Spring one. A short, 3 day excursion up to a local park. Not our usual provincial park but still a nice park, half hour from home.

Easter bunny pancake for the littlest dude!

Beautiful walking trails around

Brea island Regional Park

Some extra friends came for the day.

Enjoying the river in Fort Langley.

Our Kootenay dude also

had a bunny visit!

Well, now you are up to date. Not much to report but lots of camping coming up so stay tuned for that. We are heading up to the Kootenays at the end of the month to see Rudy and Teagan. We are really looking forward to that trip.

Thanks for tuning in everyone. 

Peace out friends!

Thought for the Day: It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet...Ernest Hemingway. 

March 11 to 14

That went by fast didn't it?

March 11 - We got ourselves all settled into the Royal Decameron. We were surprised to see that they had painted the whole thing beige. Last time we were here each of the buildings were different, glorious colours. Doug was quite disappointed as he especially loves the bright colours of Mexico. It was bought out by Wyndham Resorts. Wait til they get his review about the colour choice!

Nice room.

Lucked out with a huge balcony.

Not that we used it much.

Oh look. More drinks on the beach!

Pretty typical all-inclusive resort. They slap a bracelet on you and you are free to eat and drink to your hearts' content. We must admit, it was rather nice not to have to think about making dinner or where to go for dinner. I know, poor us! There are two buffets, which were nice, that served all three meals. Then there are a number of "specialty" restaurants. You do have to make dinner reservations at customer service for those but there is no extra cost.

There are five buildings (or bloques) and also five pools. One is an adult pool, one is a great family pool, that has easier entrance and shallow areas for little folk. There are three other regular pools with some activities in one of them. All in all, pretty swanky for us. 

March 12 - The day went on at a nice leisurely pace. Spotted one of the ceramic painting spots. Had to pick a little bull skull to match the one I have at home. Cost about $15 Cdn. You paint between the lines and they "fix it up" if necessary and then give it a nice spray coat of glaze.

Such concentration!

That turned out pretty good.

Was fun to do as well.

There are many iguanas on site They live a pretty

good life. They are huge, not afraid of people and

make themselves quite at home amongst the pool, the restaurant etc. They do ask people not to feed them but, alas, people still do. 

This hawk, Coco, is in charge of vermin control. His handler walks around with him all day. Puts him near shrubbery etc. Keeping mice, pesky birds at bay. We figure it's the best job at the resort. 

Beautiful bird.

Another hawk.

Axle and his lovely handler.

Squeezing in every last second...

"Mexicana night" at the both buffets.

Beautiful mariachi band

March 13 - Today we walked into Bucerias. It is about 30 minutes on the beach. A bit shorter if you go on the road. it was slightly disappointing to see how the town has changed. So many new condos going in, right across from the beach. These aren't likely to be condos for local folks. Just investors. Too bad but it is the price of progress.

Lots of nice murals

In 2009, my cousin and his partner ran a

restaurant at this spot. It was called Iguana's.

Yes "we" are still collecting hearts!

Another friend of ours

Last night in Mexico

March 14 - YIPPEE!! Heading back to Canada today. Flight leaves PV at 2:20 PM.

Killing time at the airport

If you enlarge this picture, you will

see the White Rock pier. HOME!!

Not sure if any of you remembers, last time (2023) we came home and our house had about 500 post-it notes, on absolutely EVERYTHING! It was so funny. 

This time it was DUCKS and hearts! And I mean 300 ducks. On everything. We still haven't found them all. I'm pretty sure we will be finding them for months to come. When you give your kids your keys...

In every drawer and cupboard you can think of.

We LOVE it! 

WELCOME HOME!!

I'll leave you there. I'll update as to our goings on after we get settled. We are super happy to be home. 

I will be doing a Mexico wrap up in the next week or so. That should be interesting!

Peace out friends!

Thought for the Day - A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant.