While our big girls were out doing big girls things with their cousin, Lola, Conor and I took the littles to the breakwater and Dallas beach. The boats and harbor planes were a big hit!

This was a sweet little outing. I took my daughters to afternoon tea with Allison and Quinn. It was definitely something out of the ordinary and fun to do before Holly and Greta outgrow this sort of activity. After our tea, we toured the gardens and then did a little bit of watercolor with Auntie Allison.

We spent a fun little evening boating with Conor's brother and his family. I was surprised at how warm the lake water was but I guess that's what happens when it doesn't freeze over in the winter! Holly and Greta were able to do some extra boating and then they also slept over with Lola. It was a cousin win!

The highlight of our trip to Victoria was our day in East Sooke. Conor and I rented wet suits and we went snorkeling with John and Hudson. There were moon jellyfish everywhere, in fact, Quinn was catching them and trapping them in a tide pool. Snorkeling showed me how out of this world the ocean is. It was so cool! We found crabs and big purple starfishes. It was really, really cool. Our older girls went snorkeling too - Holly used my wet suit and Greta borrowed one from Allison. Maeve loved playing on shore with her cousins and Enoch liked climbing and exploring. It was a super fun day and while we all were sunburned, we loved it!

Here's a link to a video my bro made of our adventures!

I really appreciate when cities invest in their park systems. We enjoyed our visit to Beacon Hill Park - it was so fun to see the goats. John and Hudson were the goat whisperers. And the babies were pretty cautious about the goats. Maeve was solidly on team Allison the whole trip and that really began at the park.

We finished our park visit at a playground where Ira was totally crushed in the splash pad by another kid and scraped up his face. Poor guy.