We're back from a long lovely week away. Lots of pics below.
Thursday Si, Jenn, Stu (Erica's husband) and the boys went to the acquarium before I joined them for dinner. So great to see them all again. The boys are getting so big!
Jen's a natural
Sammy loved the exhibits
Twins
Sam was great with Riley. He in turn was fascinated with the big boys and watched them intently. He was wiggling with excitement every time they were around.
A few other randoms from last week.
Riles first lime. He has this expression with most new foods, but will always have a second try and seems to like it then. Pretty funny when I accidentally gave him hot sauce with a big of egg mixed in the other day - he had a few spoons before I tasted it myself!
Happy Baby!
Our new pack we got for the camping trip
son / sun
Alright dad, I'm ready!
Had a ton of tomatoes. Unfortunately few ripened. Was planning on making chutney / pickled tomatoes but ran out of time.
Riles helping me pack. He's wearing shorts on his head! There's an unintended hat theme going on in the pics below...
Rain hat.
6am Sunday at Grans before we caught the ferry!
Got some growing to do there boy...
Working on the ferry to the island. Rags was working on destroying a magazine.
Sunday was Erica's memorial. It was wonderful to meet her friends from high school and to hear so many happy stories of her. So sad at the same time. Tough on Stu to go through this again after a similar service in Australia. It happened to fall on the two month anniversary of her death. Their boys are too young and rambunctious to understand what is going on, and they lifted the spirits.
A pic of a board with pics of Erica. Her family had put a lot of effort into her memorial.
Sunday night at the hotel pool with the boys
I worked Monday and Tuesday calling on various customers up and down the island. Si and Ri came along for much of the drive and Rags was golden in the car. He "sang" and slobbered and slept on his giraffe. A highlight of my trip was a meeting with Viking air, who just started re-making the Beaver and Twin Otter aircraft, and I got a tour of the facility where it was all made, including the first new Twin Otter 400 with all the fancy displays. Felt so bad Si couldn't come (let alone Stu and my dad) - they would have loved it!
Riles eating outside Mineral World in victoria. We had wonderful weather.
And wednesday we were off! Up island to Port McNeill to stay with Erica's family. This is about 6 hours from Victoria, my first trip up this far. Lovely country. At the shore with Riles wednesday morning
Welcome to Port McNeill!
The boys playing
We were supposed to hike the Cape Scott trail with Stu and Jen (longtime friend of Ericas) to take her ashes to her favorite spot at the lighthouse. Unfortunately the road to this side of the island was washed out in four places in a big storm the week before and it wasn't fixed in time. Instead, we did a shorter 6k hike on Malcolm Island (off the north-east coast) to camp on the beach. This was good as
a. MEC backpack is fine with just Rags. Unfortunately we can only attach gear to the outside, which keeps the weight far off your back. This made it feel heavier than it was... 23km each way would have been a schlep.
b. Alex could come (he's can walk well but is still small enough its not crazy to carry on your shoulders).
On the ferry to Malcolm Island / Sointula
Island population = 800. The kids from here and another island catch the ferry every day to school - 30 mins / 1.5 hrs each way!
The whole family came over for lunch, then we left for our walk.
Riles with Kathy, Erica's mom.
Eating marshmallows
Sammy on a rope swing
The Morgan boys. Now the Morgan family. Erica was noticeably missing. Stu is a rock. I can't imagine how many times a day it hits him that she's not here.
The foggy morning resulted in a beautiful hike, especially as the sun came through. We ended up with perfect weather. Couldn't have been better in the summer. Thanks for organizing that, Erica!
Family. Rags hand is visible.
Sun coming through
Happy camper
Stu had a full pack, plus carried Alex on the tough bits (including a huge uphill!). Strong.
Riles loved the tent ... just the right height!
Morning. We had the most beautiful sunrise.
Alex helping to put out the fire
Stu and Rags
Tired baby on the hike home
Walked home along the beach
Boys
Here's trouble...
We took our time down island (so exciting to have a car over there), and explored a few trails. At Elk falls, there were tons of dead salmon after the run. There's a bear just behind us (on the other side of the lake, don't worry) having a field day
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