Tag Archives: outdoor fun

Sunday Morning at Granville Island

This weekend was GORGEOUS and today was no exception. Wanting to take full advantage of the weather, Gracen and I got ready and headed down to Granville Island just after breakfast.  Our morning was filled with all of the usual Granville Island treats…  Good coffee, delicious bread, quality time with the birds, playground fun, boat watching, and sunshine!  It doesn’t get much better than this…

IMG 8906‘Hello, birdies!’

IMG 8908Boat watching.

IMG 8912Chilling out waterfront.

IMG 8917‘Why don’t the birds want to play with me?’

IMG 8918‘Wheeeeee!’

IMG 8920Getting dirty.

IMG 8931Tunnel walking.

IMG 8938Checking things out.

IMG 8943Captain Gracen.

IMG 8953Cool girl.

Maplewood Farm Visit

Today Little G and I had the most wonderful visit to Maplewood Farm, a little piece of rural paradise tucked at the base of Mount Seymour in North Vancouver.  The sun was shining, the temperature was just right, and although it was a busy day due to Spring Break, we never felt crowded or rushed. Gracen had the freedom to roam and explore, but always stayed near.  We slowly made our from paddock to paddock, visiting the animals and taking in the nature along the way.  It was perfect.  Here’s a very small sampling of photos from the hundreds I managed to take during our 2 hour visit…

IMG 8574First stop – visiting this colourful feathery friend.

IMG 8580Visiting the turkeys.

IMG 8585An adorable miniature donkey.

IMG 8588Hanging out with the hens.

IMG 8593Roaming with the roosters.

IMG 8597Taking in the garden and its visitors.

IMG 8602One of Gracen’s favourites.

IMG 8601She wanted to come back to visit this beautiful peacock again and again.

IMG 8606A new friend.

IMG 8608These Belgian draft horses, Tom and Prince, were another favourite.  Gracen watched them very closely as they lowered their heads and exhaled deeply while letting their lips flap together and then mimicked this behaviour during the remainder of our visit.

IMG 8624Enamoured with the horses.  I think she would have stayed here all morning if I hadn’t convinced her to move on.

IMG 8614Taking a break and watching the ducks on the pond.

IMG 8617Exploring.

IMG 8620Collecting bits of nature, as usual.

IMG 8633Offering the ducks a twig.  For some reason, they weren’t all that enthused.  Weird.

IMG 8646Getting a sneak peak of the farm’s jersey cow.

IMG 8652Watching the sheep.

IMG 8662In the forest paddock.  So amazing that this is part of the city.

IMG 8665Grae thought this goat was pretty funny and giggled at him again and again while calling him “Papa”…  Not sure what that’s about other than we have a non-fiction book about goats that explains that male goats have beards and when we read it, I call them ‘papa goats’.  Maybe she was making the connection?

IMG 8674The highlight of the trip was being able to go into the goat visiting area and actually touch the goats.

IMG 8675Miss G was brave!

IMG 8684I showed her how to hold her hand out flat for the goats to smell first, and that’s exactly what she did.

IMG 8687This teeny tiny baby goat was experiencing his first day outside with the public and was a hit with all of the visitors.

IMG 8690Waving goodbye.

IMG 8703These little guys were just roaming around as we made our way over to the hand washing station.

IMG 8705Checking out Sofie and Judy III, the giant hereford cows.  Of course Gracen moo-ed at them as she tried to wedge her little wrist through the wire fence to pet their fur.

IMG 8715Visiting the rabbits.  Gracen stood up and signed ‘Rabbit sleeping’ after seeing this chubby bunny.

IMG 8718Stopping to see Gus the goose.

IMG 8726Inside the cement duck pond visiting area.

IMG 8728Getting a close up view of Lima, the jersey cow.

IMG 8735Lunch break!

IMG 8738We loved the goat visiting area so much that we had to go back to visit once more before leaving the farm.

IMG 8743Lucky for us, it was much less busy the second time around and Grae got to put it some quality time with her goat friends.

IMG 8749Saying goodbye for real this time.

IMG 8750After this visit, we may just have a little future farmer on our hands.

IMG 8757Last stop, the Maplewood Farm playground.

IMG 8759A perfect way to end a lovely morning outdoors!

Our trip ended with a very content little lady falling asleep in her car seat as we drove back into Vancouver.  When we arrived at home, I transferred her into her crib, where she lays now, still sleeping, over two hours later.  I’d say the fresh air, sunshine, and farm life tired her right out…  Yay for that.

Spring Sunshine

We spent our morning in the house, and by the time the afternoon rolled around, we were more than ready to get out and enjoy the sunshine.  We brought along some bubbles, some sidewalk chalk, and my camera and headed out into the front yard. Sometimes a little sunshine is just what you need.
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Shoping in the States

Today was Brad’s virtual Saturday, so we headed down to Bellingham for our monthly stock up and some fun. First, we hit up our two favourites, Trader Joe’s and Target for the essentials.  Gracen was a champ about spending a couple of hours roaming up and down store isles and enjoyed riding around inside the shopping carts.  Afterwards, she and Papa headed to the mall’s play area while I got in a full 45 minutes of clothes shopping by myself (a post-Grae first)!  It was already past nap time, so we snuck in a quick lunch at the Chipotle knock-off, The Habenero Factory, and hit the road to do a few errands while G snoozed in her seat.

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IMG 2861Gracen awoke from her nap to find that we were parked out front of this shop (hmmm…wonder whose stop this was…) and naturally, we had to get out of the car to investigate the big green guy.  She wasn’t so sure of him at first, but she quickly warmed up to him and ended up giving him 5s, kissing his knees, and rubbing his rock hard abs.  After all that, I’d say Miss G and The Hulk are good friends, wouldn’t you?

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Tired and done with shopping, we headed back towards home when we decided to make an impromptu stop in White Rock.  It was absolutely freezing by the ocean, but we layered up and headed towards the beach.  Lucky for us, a train was making its way down the tracks as we got to the boardwalk.  Grae watched closely as it nosily clunked on by, until it stopped.  I mean, completely stopped, creating a barrier between us and the beach.  We waited and watched until it finally started with a jolt, and continued along its path.

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Gracen loved ‘Grizlee’, the bear statue and kissed his fur (she’s all about kissing things she likes right now) and rode on his back.  We played on the grass, collected rocks, threw them in the ocean, and walked along the boardwalk until we were frozen solid and could no longer stand being out in the wind.

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Once we got home, our little helper helped empty all of the grocery bags, we ate dinner, and it was bath time and bedtime for G after a long day.

Beach Afternoon

After a lazy morning at home, I knew we’d both enjoy getting out for the afternoon.  So when Grae woke up from her nap and had had her quiet time, I asked her if she wanted to go to the beach.  As soon as I said “beach”, she started signing ‘Rock! Rock!’ (we always collect rocks at the beach), then ‘Birdie!’ (we watch the crows and seagulls), followed by ‘Drink! Drink!’ (we often cross the street to get hot drinks at Starbucks).  Smart little cookie.  I took that as a yes.  IMG 8079IMG 8081IMG 8084IMG 8094IMG 8097

 

St. Paddy’s Day

Today Grae and I had a busy day filled with all things green.  It started out with a happy little munchkin waking up extra early and extra hungry, so we got to it and prepared a green breakfast.IMG 7844

Finding something green to wear was a bit of a challenge as this little lady has very little green in her closet, but it was nothing a ridiculously big green bow couldn’t fix.  It was so adorable in fact, that we ended up having a little impromptu St. Patty’s Day photo shoot.

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The weather forecast called for a rainy, snowy morning, but by 9:30, neither had made an appearance so we packed up our things and headed down to Granville Island to get some fresh air and do some exploring.  We picked up our usual Granville Island treats (Terra Bread cheese flutes for G and a coffee for Mama) and headed to the playground where Gracen played in sand, slid on repeat, and made some friends.

IMG 7867IMG 7868IMG 7871IMG 7873Afterwards we headed back to the Public Market area and visited the birds, boats, and performers like usual.  IMG 7880IMG 7885IMG 7887IMG 7896Apparently Grae was pooped after a crisp morning outdoors because she was out like a light after just a minute in the car.

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After a great nap, I prepared lunch while Gracen begged for pieces of green onion below me.  I ended up giving her a whole green onion and the little monkey was pleased as punch, headed to the living room with it, and chowed down.  Luckily she saved enough room for our green lunch.IMG 7914IMG 7934
The afternoon turned out to be beautiful too, so we took advantage of it and headed outside to do some art.  Grae was beyond excited to use bingo dabbers (sadly, we didn’t have green, so we ended up with blue and rainbow coloured shamrocks, but oh well…) and dug the sidewalk chalk as usual.

IMG 7947IMG 7949By late afternoon, G had worked up an appetite, so we whipped up a quick green smoothie to hit the  spot.IMG 7997
Shortly after, it was time for our last green meal of the day.  Of course this little monkey carefully picked out and ate each pine nut and avocado chunk before eating anything else.IMG 8020IMG 8024

Gracen’s second St. Patrick’s Day… Whew!  How things have changed in a quick year.  Just take a look at my chubby-cheeked, spiky-haired little munchkin last year.

Car-less Craziness

Today Bradley took the vehicle to work, which left my little adventurer and I car-less for the first time ever.  Of course there were a couple of walks in between bouts of rain, the usual stories, and some favourite games, but not having wheels definitely sparked some silliness…  Just check these out:

IMG 7728In the backyard caw-ing at crows.

IMG 7735Buckling Quatchi for safety.

IMG 7747Attempting to walk in Mama’s shoes.

IMG 7760Bottoms up while smelling the flowers.

IMG 7762Hanging out in the dryer.

Hahaha!  Hopefully it’s business as usual tomorrow.

Rock Heaven

IMG 7381Gracen LOVES rocks.  It’s a new obsession of hers.  Everywhere we go, she stops to carefully select new rocks to add to her collection.  We take them in the house, wash them with warm soapy water, and add them to her yellow bowl that sits on our counter.  Crazy, I know.  Well imagine today when we pulled up to our usual scrapbook supply store and found this instead of a sidewalk.  Miss G was in rock heaven.  She sat there for several minutes, and inspected rock after rock in order to fulfill Mama’s ‘just one’ rule.  It took some time, but she finally picked out the perfect one and we carried on our way.  Silly little doodle.

The Bloedel Conservatory

This afternoon Gracen and I finally ventured out to a place we’ve been meaning to visit for a while – the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park.  Grae was in heaven before making it anywhere near the dome.  The surrounding area is home to sculptures, fountains, and endless room to run, which was more than enough for our easy-to-please little lady.  We took our time, explored a little, watched the fountains again and again, and eventually made our way to the doors.  Inside the conservatory is a little slice of the tropics.  Exotic plants and tropical flowers fill the dome from ground to ceiling and birds fly freely over head.  Mix that with the warmth, humidity, and sounds of running water and birds calling, and you feel like you’re on vacation in the rainforest.  Of course, Grae soaked up every second.  Birds, flowers, sunshine… This place was right up her alley.  We slowly wandered along the paths visiting birds and stopping to smell flowers along the way.  The absolute favourite of the day had to be a little cove inhabited by several small birds and one larger parrot.  There was a puddle of water in front and Gracen was absolutely fascinated by the fact that the birdies were having a bath.  She repeatedly signed ‘Bird. Bath!’ with big eyes and a look of disbelief on her face as we watched them and then requested that we go back to the bird bath several times later on.    Here are some photos of our afternoon:

IMG 7213A little unsure of the fountains.

IMG 7221Much braver when they weren’t at full power.

IMG 7224Taking in the view of downtown Vancouver and the mountains.

IMG 7312Ruby, the bird that greeted us in the cashier station.

IMG 7242Macaw watching.

IMG 7228Carmen and Maria, green-winged macaws.

IMG 7244Flower sniffing.

IMG 7245The pink orchids were G’s favourites.

IMG 7252Must. smell. each. and. every. flower.

IMG 7274Kiwi, the talking bird.  I think he fancied G quite a lot…  He kept saying, “Muwah!” and “I love you” whenever she got near.

IMG 7276Clyde, an Eastern rosella parrot.

IMG 7277Very into Clyde.

IMG 7284Watching the birdies bathe.  Completely captivated.

IMG 7287Bird talk.

IMG 7291Mmmmm… Flowers!

IMG 7288Grae told me that these leaves were “pretty pretty pretty”.

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IMG 7293Casey, a yellow-headed Amazon parrot.

IMG 7303Copying Casey’s calls (scarily well actually).

IMG 7315Outside after a great visit with her birdie friends.

IMG 7322Soaking up the sunshine.

IMG 7328Our visit was probably only an hour long (and that was walking through twice), but it was so much fun.  We’ll definitely be back again soon, and hopefully this time with a picnic to enjoy outside afterwards.