pie update

When the pie came out of the oven we put seven white birthday candles in it, but we didn't think that the bottoms of the candles would melt into the hot pie! By the time we sang "Happy Birthday" and Chris blew the candles out, there were seven gunky little pools of wax in the delicious farmers' market pie that Jeff and Yin brought! We picked the wax out with forks and finally gobbled big slices with ice cream.
And now, tonight we are going to Ken's house to watch a surf movie and eat CUPCAKES!!!
from the yummy west end of Vancouver,
Nathan and Juleta

The starfish

Today I found one purple starfish and Emma found another. The one that Emma found looked like a candle holder because all its legs were folded up. We were at Third Beach in Stanley Park. By the way, Brad, we know why Stanley Park is called Stanley Park. Because there was a person named Lord Stanley and he made Stanley Park. In 1889 he said that this park is for people of all skin colours, religions and customs to enjoy. We found out about it because there is a statue of him near the edge of Stanley Park, tanley Park, anley park, nley park, ley park, ey park, y park, park, ark, rk, k, ____...
Love Nathan

pie

Jeff and Yin and Awen are over for Chris' birthday dinner. They brought a delicious peach-blackberry pie that is warming up in the oven right now - yum! Gotta go and eat it! Happy Birthday Chris!

Juleta

just a few pictures from Victoria

1. Chris and Don at East Sooke Park, March 22

2. Emma with "Mander" at Westside Stables

3. Vara and Max at the beach, March 20

4. Emma, Nathan and Ava at East Sooke Park before the sun came out

Pictures from Alert Bay

1. Nathan, Emma, Chase and his girlfriend
2. The big 'eel' thing Emma found
3. Special Danish pancakes - ebisque
4. Nathan and Lisa at the post office
5. Juleta and Lisa, friends since 1972!

Great day at the beach

Yesterday we went to East Sooke Park with the Hagren-LeBlonde's. At first I didn't want to walk a kilometre to the beach, and it was raining. But after the kilometre to get down to the beach it was totally sunny, and then I thought it was worth it. And then Ava, me and Emma made up a game that we were seagull savers. We had a flag that we had to protect from the waves, because the waves were actually very big. But they were still the kind that you can stand in when they come up the shore. They crash way out where it is deep and then swish up on the beach. Later we had a picnic lunch on the beach. After lunch Ava, Emma and Ava's new friend that she met on the beach went over to the rocks. I was still playing in the waves. When I noticed that they were at the rocks I went over. And then we found tonnes of sea anenomes! We found them in tide pools. I put my finger in one and it closed up on it. Then, we went back on the beach and found a lot of jellyfish. They were about the size of medium sized marbles and perfectly see-through. They had red things in them, and Mom thought they were blood vessels. But I knew they were egg sacs. Some of them were dead and some of them were alive. The first bunch of them were alive. I got to see them swimming. And then the next batch was dead so I fed them to the anenomes. We stayed at the beach for four whole hours. End of blog...
Nate

Sighting from the Ferry

The sighting from the ferry was a sea otter and a HUGE seal, almost the size of a sea lion. We were docked at the Victoria side of the island, getting ready to sail to Tswassen. I was the one who saw them first, then Dad saw them. I thought the otter was a big bird at first. Then I noticed it's tail. It looked like a beaver tail at first but when the otter dove, the tail was sideways, not flat like a beaver's. The otter found an oyster and brought it up, but he dropped it and the seagulls tried to get it. I saw the shell floating down until it looked like it was on a rock. The otter rubbed its front paws over its head. When it dived it looked sleek.
I saw the seal just as the ferry started moving. It was one of those big, grey harbour seals. Probably it was a male. It was much bigger than the one we saw yesterday at East Sooke Park beach.
Now we are in our new apartment in downtown Vancouver. It is great here. We have bunk beds here. After my bath I am going to bed in the top bunk.
End of blog...
Emma

Our broken trail

While enjoying dinner with Vara and Don last week, we realized we have already damaged or broken a ridiculously high number of things while on our travels. Just to balance out the posts that trumpet our exciting and happy adventures, here is our guilty confession of all the things the Severson-Bakers have destroyed since leaving Calgary! (Hopefully this represents a clumsy beginning to our year, and we will have no shattered antiques or cracked mirrors to report for a while...)

A. At Tia's House - one plate

B. At the Raynold's house in Maple Ridge - the glass in one framed piece of art (which we had replaced, but when Abigale hung it on the wall it fell and shattered a second time!), one "Buddha board" magic paper thing ruined with vaseline, one corkscrew (the screw snapped right off), one pot (scorched when overcooking carrots)

C. At Vara and Don's House in Victoria - the handle on their toilet, Ava's doll bed (fixed by Don), and one wine glass (a fantastic smash, splattering red wine all over the kitchen)

And the surprising breakdown of who has broken the most things so far:
Nathan - 1
Juleta - 2
Emma - 2
Chris - 3!!!

I'll keep you posted on any new domestic disasters as we bash our way across the country.

Juleta

Vancouver Island

On our way to Cormorant Island where Alert Bay is, last Thursday, we saw 6 bald eagles and some seagulls fishing in the ocean. Emma saw one actually catch a fish in its claws!
We loved Alert Bay. It was strange to be able to walk across an island, beach to beach, in 20 minutes. We found a 43.5 foot long bull kelp! And then the next day we looked under rocks with Chase and found little and medium sized eels, lots of crabs, and even a few fish. Lisa showed us around her post office. Emma and Nathan got to use the letter canceling machine to put postmarks on postcards they wrote. It's called a letter canceler because the postmark cancels the stamps to make sure no one else can use them. Lisa also made us her mom's recipe for danish ball pancakes for breakfast. They are called eb-is-quiue (we don't know how to spell it!). You eat them with jam and sugar or cinnamon sugar. Yummy! Chase let us use his monster truck video game. We also watched some funny Veggie Tales movies. We met Chase's girlfriend, Skylar and she and Chase bought us lots of candy! Lisa gave us each a new webkinz. We also made shrinkydink art and lit sparklers in the rainy night. AND, there was a dog named Anna and and a cat named Angel (who loved Emma) that were nice to pet and brush.
We saw a ceremonial burial ground that had lots of totem poles. Emma and Mom and Chase and Skylar went after dark and saw the world's tallest totem pole.
Yes, Alert Bay was pretty great!

And now we are in Victoria. Today Nathan got to go to a puppet workshop with his friend Ava. He got to make a shadow puppet. The teachers were from Thailand. They showed how to do shadow puppets and they acted out the first nations story called "Raven".
We are visiting our old friends Vara and Don and Ava and Max. It is so wonderful to see them again. They moved away from Calgary in the summer. Max has changed so much! He is talking a lot!
Emma is going to a horse camp each day for four hours. Every day she gets to ride a different horse. She knows pretty much all their names. Today she rode on Thor. He was very tall and his trot was pretty rough. She is learning how to post while trotting. She is already getting pretty good at it!
Later this week we will visit downtown Victoria, the beach, and also go on a hike in the rainy rainforest.
Bye for now!
Juleta, Nathan and Emma
PS - the cherry trees are beginning to bloom here!

worth a thousand words...

Seide

Mount Baker - view from our yard here in Maple Ridge

The kids playing in the backyard - Fraser River in background

Going for one of many walks with Seide



Nathan with his pineapple hat (I can't figure out how to rotate the picture - erg)

Emma, Nathan and Abigale in the Raynolds' house in Maple Ridge.

My money

Two days ago one of my teeth fell out! Did you know this is the first natural, wiggly tooth to come out? The others had to get pulled out. So it was my third visit from the tooth fairy. For my first tooth I got 3 quarters (75 cents) because I was three years old. And it was a pretty small tooth. The next one, which was the one that I had to get a spacer on, I got $1.25. This one, I got $1.50!

I also earned money by doing a chore. The chore was folding laundry. I used that money, and the money I already had in my wallet to buy a dolphin stuffie. It is a pacific white-sided dolphin. We also saw a pacific white-sided dolphin show. Mom thought they would just jump half a metre up in the air. But they actually went 3 or 4 metres up! In one trick they jumped all the way onto the pavement that their trainers were squatting on. And they stayed there for 2 or 3 seconds. One thing good for us and the animals is that we can look at each other through windows. Or we can see them from above. Well, I guess you can do that in zoos too. Mommy gets sad about the animals in the zoos and the aquariums. Because of the cages they have to put them in. But I on the other hand, like it. Well, a little. I still am a little sad the same way mom is. I wish we could build buildings down into the sea and we could see them in their natural habitat, as well as things that the aquarium doesn't have. Some of the animals like the jelly fish don't even mind being in a tank because they actually can't mind or not mind, because they don't even have brains! They just bob around. And eat. And the aquarium staff feeds them. If they did have brains they would like the aquarium a little bit because there isn't any predators.

The last thing about my money is that I lost it for a little while. Anyway, I found it in the candles.

Anyway, back to the aquarium. I want to tell you about an octopus that we saw. It was so weird. It had perfectly round suction cups on its tentacles. We saw its eyes. And it was breathing. Or eating. It was big. It's body and head were 2 feet long and its tentacles were about 3 feet long. Grandpa told us that they are so smart that they can unlatch cages.
See you all later!
Nathan

Wet snow

Snow began falling two hours after our visitor, Aunty Kath, arrived last Wednesday. It kept snowing for two days. Then it turned into rain. It rained and rained. It stopped today; the sun came out. I think we are going to have good weather for the rest of our stay. Even though the weather has no schedule.
There has been whole garden-fulls of blooming snow drops. And crocuses. And lots of other little flowers. It will be fun to have two springs in one year. Because the crocuses will be just starting when we get back to Alberta in May.
On Friday we went on a walk on the dikes. I saw a vole two seconds before Seide did. Aunty Kath freaked. But I knew Seide couldn't get it. She tried though!
On Saturday we went to the Aquarium. We saw many neat things. But I think the dolphins were the best. We went into a show called 'Snakes in Cold Blood'. It wasn't bloody! And it wasn't scary. I went up and volunteered in the show. I got to pet the snake. Her name was One Spot. She was a ball python.
Emma