One afternoon (in Victoria, back in January), a bunch of us took off to Ogden Point Breakwater. It was so foggy! We couldn't see the lighthouse from land, or even at a halfway point. It's a fun walk with presumably lots of views when it's not foggy. But even with the thick fog, we saw sights and had a great time! We saw one (dead) jellyfish, 2 starfish and 3 fresh caught fish. Holly and Solomon are crazy about each other and held hands almost the entire time. It was great to be outdoors and I loved wearing my hunter rain boots!

On Friday, we celebrated Greta's third birthday. It was a regular day jazzed up. A special breakfast - crepes and OJ and some present opening in the morning. Greta loved opening the gifts and her reactions were awesome! "Another box!" she said many times as she kept removing the wrapping paper to reveal another box. Holly made painted wood beads and strung them into a necklace for Greta and as you can see below, Holly was very excited for Greta to open up the gift! Greta was very, very spoiled this year! Lots of fun new things to play with, lots of Sleeping Beauty. One of our gifts to her was a book and the girls were so confused when it was opened up and claimed we already have it. But no, we don't. We've just borrowed it from the library so many times because Greta loves it!

I printed off 28 photos of Greta from her last year of life and created a collage and taped them to the gifts. Growing up is bittersweet.

We wrapped up our day with cupcakes! We didn't do a birthday party this year, but we did have a fun family outing on Saturday. I really love this style of celebration. And I adore celebrating my daughters!

In January, our little family headed north to Victoria, BC to visit Conor's brother's family. Conor's parents, his siblings and all the cousins were there too! We were there to celebrate Noah's baptism and Dylan's mission call (Toronto!). It was a really short trip, so I only have a few posts to put up. The first is of our ferry ride. It was a fantastic break to be traveling, but not sitting in a car! It was a bit of a treat too! Below are some photos of the to and from ferry rides. More to come next weekish....

Yesterday, we went on a family walk/hike slightly north of Santa Cruz at Wilder Historic Ranch. The area is a wildlife preserve which in turn means we saw a lot of wildlife, mostly birds. The path was a loop and most of it was along the coast with beautiful cliffs. We saw a whole group of seals catching the last of the day's sunshine and some slipping into the ocean. We always talk about being outside more frequently and going on more walks/hikes, but our follow through isn't amazing. However, every time we have a success, I want more! We live in such a beautiful part of this earth.

This is another photo shoot I did before Christmas. It was a little hurried and the youngest had croup, but I think I still caught a few gems. Always a pleasure to take pictures of this family.