Long weekend in the Okanagan

We spent the BC Day long weekend in the Okanagan, visiting with family and having a lot of fun in the heat. But, before we got there, we decided to stop in Bridal Falls (between Chilliwack and Hope) to go to Dinotown. Who knows how many times we've passed by but never stopped. We thought it would be a fun thing for the boys to do for a few hours and would hopefully mean that they'd sleep most of the way to Summerland. The boys LOVED it! We stayed about 1.5 hours longer than we had planned to and still didn't get to do everything.

Dinotown used to be a Flintstones-themed amusement park (Bedrock City?) and there are still many of the old Flintstones things around the park. Neither James nor I had ever been here but we had both been to the Flintstones one up in the Okanagan. These brought back many old memories.

Next we saw the dinosaur show. It was not the best part of the park! It was pretty boring and the characters in the dinosaurs were less than enthusiastic. Of course, it was over 30 degrees and they were in big heavy costumes, so that might have had something to do with it! The boys had a great time dancing on stage before the show started.

There was a cool, inflatable sports thing that the boys loved. It had four sides to it where they could play football, soccer, basketball and baseball. They loved the baseball side. It was kind of like a tee but, instead of placing the ball on a tee, you placed it on the cone that blew air out of it. So the ball kind of floated in the air and was so easy for them to hit. What a brilliant idea!

We rode the train around the park. Adam loved the woowoo.

They had these neat bumper cars that were hand-operated. You had two wheels on either side that you could spin with your hands - kind of like pedalling a bike with your hands. It was too hard for the boys but they loved riding in them and crashing into each other.

Mini golf was next. They didn't quite get the concept of golf - Daniel played more like a hockey player and Adam was more like a baseball player!

It was so hot out that we finally found some relief in the water park. It still wasn't hot enough, though, for Adam to get wet! He was happy to watch from the sidelines with me, but Daniel loved getting Daddy soaked.

Then Daniel discovered the waterslide. That was the end of the day for the rest of us - Daniel did not want to leave! He had the best time on that slide - I think he was on it for at least an hour!

Adam was, of course, too short to go on the waterslide and he wouldn't have wanted to go on it if he could. He's not the daredevil that his brother is. So he and Daddy went off together for a while and visited some of the other attractions. Adam had a great time on the pedal cars.

He and Daddy even got to paddle around the little river that surrounded the park.

Finally, we had to leave or we wouldn't have made it to the Okanagan before dinner. We bribed Daniel out of the waterslide with the promise of a popsicle!

What a fun day! This will definitely become a tradition on our summer trips up to the Okanagan, at least for a few more years. The park is aimed at the younger crowd but I think it'll be fun for the boys (and their new sibling) for a few more years to come. And it was a welcome stop on the long car trip - they slept quite well the rest of the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.

Cushy camping

James has been dying to take the boys camping but we haven't really been brave enough to do real camping yet with two very active little boys. So we compromised and went down to White Rock to spend the night at Gramma and Grampa's trailer. All the fun of camping with just a few more luxuries - a fenced in campsite, a bathroom, and all the basics already provided by Gramma!

We drove down to White Rock after the boys woke up from their naps and got to the campsite around dinnertime. We fired up the barbecue right away and had hot dogs for dinner.

Then it was time to set up the tent! The boys had a great time helping Daddy. They actually did a good job and were really excited about it.

My kids really are goofballs. Hmmm...I wonder where they get that from???

After setting everything up, we wandered across the street to the beach. The tide was very far in but the boys had fun throwing rocks into the water and climbing over the rocks.

Then it was marshmallow time! Because of the hot, dry weather, campfires were banned. But we made do by roasting them over the burner on the barbecue. The boys were just as happy. Daniel loved his smores; Adam loved picking the chocolate chips off of his smores, eating them and then giving us the leftover graham cracker and smooshed-up marshmallow!

Then it was off to the tent. Adam was exhausted and was asleep within minutes. Daniel, however, tossed and turned for the longest time. He was a little scared and didn't like sleeping in a strange place, even if James was in there sleeping with him. So, at about 10:30, Daniel finally moved into the trailer to sleep with me. He still didn't fall asleep until after 11:00. But he still managed to be awake by about 6:30am!

We had our breakfast of Eggo waffles (the comforts of having a freezer and a toaster at your campsite!). The boys enjoyed their hot chocolate as well. It was Adam's first taste of it - do you think he enjoyed it?

We played a bit around the campsite and, of course, looked for bugs. Daniel was thrilled with the snail he found.

Then we headed down to the beach again. Gramma and Grampa's friends leant us their grandsons' skim board and Daniel played on that thing for over an hour! He started off a little tentatively, just sitting on it while James pulled him around. But, by the end, he was running full speed at it and jumping on, stomach first, to skim across the tide pools.

We had a fun little cushy camping trip. Hopefully we'll have a chance to do it again before baby #3 arrives. We camped down at the trailer the week before Adam was born. I wonder if I'll be up to doing it again this time?

Playland!

Today was Playland day! Every year, James' work does a social event for employees and their families at Playland. Can't go wrong - all day ride pass, game tickets, burgers and ice cream for only $10! The boys had so much fun. We got there after the boys woke up from their naps, so we arrived around 4:00. We headed to the rides right away. The first was the cars.

Next we headed to the motorcycles. Unfortunately, you have to be between 36 and 50 inches to ride it. So Adam couldn't ride alone and James and I couldn't go with him. Here's his sad little face while Daniel was on the motorcycles. We made sure to distract him for all other rides that Daniel could go on that he couldn't.

Next was the train ride. Adam loved the "woo woo," as he calls the train.

The helicopters were next.

The really big slide was a lot of fun. James went on most of the rides with the boys, since everything said that one should not go on rides if you are inflicted with such conditions as heart problems, back pain, pregnancy... :) This one, especially, James didn't think would be good for me. He had problems fitting at the top of the slide - he didn't think I'd be able to sit down comfortably up there!

And then we made it to the kiddie roller coaster. Daniel must have ridden that thing five times in a row. He loved it! Adam didn't know what to think the first time. By the second time, he was screaming and completely freaked out. You can see James covering his face in the third picture! Adam and I hung out and watched Daniel and Daddy continue to ride the coaster for the next few times. Finally, it was about 6:00 and we needed to get our dinner. Daniel was not too impressed to be leaving his favourite ride, though. Can you see the thrilled look on his face in every single picture?

We finally got away from the roller coaster and went over for a dinner of burgers, hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches. We timed it perfectly - soon after we sat down under the big tent and started to eat, it started to POUR rain. It was a huge downpour! We were definitely not prepared for rain since it was very hot and sunny when we left the house. But the boys didn't mind because they had ice cream!

Once the rain subsided a bit, we ran over to the midway to play some games. It was great, since James is on the social committee at work. He got a bunch of extra "game bucks" so we had $20 to spend on games. The boys cleaned up. They eat won three prizes (they each got a stuffed mouse, a stuffed turtle, Daniel got a stuffed lamb and Adam was thrilled with his pencil!). They really liked the horse racing game, which was kind of like playing pinball and getting the ball into the right hole made the horse move faster. I thought the names of their horses were quite appropriate!

Once the rain stopped, we headed back out to the rides again. A lot of rides were closed because it was too wet, but we managed to get on the merry-go-round.

James then decided to take Daniel on the Scrambler. That kid is a daredevil - he loved it! Adam didn't mind at all that he wasn't allowed on that ride.

After two times on the Scrambler, we looked up at the sky only to see that it had turned so dark and we were having an amazing lightning storm. I don't remember ever seeing a storm like that and it was really close to us. So we quickly packed ourselves up and hurried ourselves back to the van before that lightning got too close. It felt like it was right on top of us - it was a little scary!

(Not the greatest picture, but it gives you a good idea of what the sky looked like.)

Overall, it was a really fun day. James said it was his best day ever at Playland - it wasn't hot, he didn't have to wear sunscreen, there were no lineups because everyone went home because of the rain, we won lots of free stuff, we got a great deal on tickets and didn't have to spend a lot of money and we got to see a cool light show. And we had a great time. What more could you ask for?