Lindeman Lake in the snow...With a 5 year old

We have our Rotary exchange student from Spain staying with us for a month and it was decided that today was a nice day to go for a little hike. As we were getting our shoes on Cohen decided that he wanted to come, not wanting to break the little dudes heart I decided to let him. I was a little hesitant to take Cohen because I knew the trail was steep in spots for a 5 year old and I figured there might be some snow close to the top.

It turns out there was snow from top to bottom and I must say that Cohen did amazing. Cohen hiked from top to bottom with his little stick and barely whined. I was so proud of the little for his accomplishment. Anyways, even gloating here are some pictures...

BC Parks: Shannon Falls Provincial Park

To all you trustworthy The Phamlee readers this is the first of three posts I will do today regarding our awesome trip to Squamish yesterday.

While the main purpose of the trip was to go to the BC Mine Museum at Brttannia Beach (more on  that in post 3 on the day) our first stop on the trip was at Shannon Falls Provincial Park. While I have been here number of times before I really wanted to go again to officially knock it of our BC Parks list as part of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die challenge. The other reason I wanted to go today was I have never seen it in the winter when it was starting to freeze over so this gave us the chance.

The weather was gross yesterday as it switched between heavy snow and heavy rain with some brutal wind mixed in for fun. Even with all that the kids were troopers, most of the time, it was a quick walk in the snow up to Shannon Falls and they kids enjoyed it. I tried to find a few geocaches but gave up pretty quick when I realized it would be too hard in the snow.While the falls were not completely frozen over it still made for a nice view.  Below are a few pictures of this little stop...

New Year Geocaching!

The kids wanted to go Geocaching again today so we scooted out to Cultus Lake Park as it is nice and close. All the caches we found were around the Maple Bay campground at the far end of the lake and we ended up snagging 5 for the day. Since everything is shut down for the winter it was pretty cool wondering around as all the trails were covered in leaves and there were lots of trees down across the trails. I was super stoked at how good the kids were as we wondered around for close to 2 hours and they whined very little. They must have had a good nights sleep because the have been chasing their Zhu Zhu Pets around the living room for the past hour and they are by no means taking it easy; hopefully that means they will go to bed good tonight.

Pictures of our adventure as well as the beginnings of my "Chilli-Con-Cupboard" below; I made a wicked ham and bean soup yesterday so thought I would give Chilli a whirl tonight...

Campbell River Trip December 2011

This past weekend we packed up Chelseys awesome mini van and set sail for Campbell River; I say Chelsey's awesome mini van because I always feel less of a man when I have to drive it! Anyways, we stopped at the mall in Nanaimo on the way up and as the kids and I were waiting for Chelsey to do her thing Santa came up and said hi to us; the kids were pretty happy about that then they said that was not the real Santa just one of his helpers. Sunday morning Nick and I spent some time trying to catch a Steelhead in the Quinsam River. It was a little early in the season but we thought we would try our luck anyways. We did not have much luck with the Steelhead but Nick did catch a nice little rainbow trout.

The Quinsam was a pretty nice river to fish and there were a butt load of eagles around and they were massive. It was pretty cool to see them everywhere but the bird crap was a little over whelming. The other bonus was that  the river flowed through Elk Falls Provincial Park so I can scratch another park off of our list for our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die Challenge. While I was fishing Chelsey and Kim took all the kids down to see the parade and hit up the park; Chelsey has some photo's of this on her phone so I will get her to send them to me so I can add them to the blog. Once we all got back together Chelsey, Steve (Chelseys Dad) the kids and I went down to the Campbell River Museum as Santa was there. Even when Santa is not there the Museum is still pretty cool as it has some good exhibits on the fishing industry and logging. Once finished there we went to the Maritime Museum as they had a craft sale going on there; once again I was more happy with the actual Museum and they had a boat there that we got to go on which made the kids happy.

All in all it was a great weekend with lots of great food and good company. Below are some of the pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Manning Park Snow Day

I have been pretty busy lately so have not spent as much time with the kids as I usually do. With that in mind I wanted to make sure we did something fun today and gave them the option of a couple things. The two choices were the Power Dam at Stave Falls out in Mission or playing in the snow at Manning Park. Proving once again that they are their fathers children they quickly said play in the snow.

Cohen had ice skating lessons at noon so we packed up some stuff and planned on heading out right after skating. The snow level was super low with things turning white before we reached the Hope Slide and after taking it easy we eventually made it to Manning Park. All the kids wanted to do was make snow angels and throw snowballs so we went up to Lighting Lake as it offered lots of space to screw around. After screwing around for a bit I pulled the kids along the trail for awhile but did not want to go too far in case they got cold.

After turning around and spending some time sledding down a little hill we packed up with the hopes of finding a hot chocolate. The restaurant was closed but we were able to find some chocolate milk in the lobby which was good enough. With the snow around we didn't both looking for any geocaches, maybe we will do that tomorrow. Pictures below as always...

Geocaching Chilliwack Lake

After Chelsey pulled a fast one and gave me the shaft today the kids and I decided to do some geocaching. When the weather stinks I like to find caches that are grouped together or close to the car so we don't get too wet. Todays location of choice was Chilliwack Lake as it offered some of both. Not much to describe on the day so I will let the pictures do the talking. But, in general we all had a good day and we found our 100th cache; yay us. 

There is also a couple of pictures of a fish I caught in the river last week. The picture kind of sucks as I knew I had to release it and I was by myself so I did not want to have the fish flopping on the rocks while I took a picture so I just kept it on the line and tried to snap one. 

I also have a video of Cohen ice skating that I have been meaning to upload to the blog but just have not found the time recently; will try and get it up soon. Enjoy the pictures...

Sunday Funday

My Mum has been in town for a few days and for the most part we have been pretty busy with the kids activities, soccer, skating, etc. With nothing going on today we decided to head out to Hope as my Mum has yet to see the Othello Tunnels and it also gave us a chance to do some more geocaching. On the drive out we were able to pick up two geocaches before reaching Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park which is home to the tunnels.

We walked through the tunnels and then on the way back Mum became a leaf monster and started scaring the twins. Personally I thought she look more like a moose, but what do I know; pictures are below so you can decide for yourself. After hitting up the tunnels we went and looked for a geocache at the Nicolum River Provincial Park which is now permanently closed. It is still on our list of provincial parks that we have to visit for #43 on our list of 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die so we made the trip even though it was closed.

There was one other geocache I wanted to find before we went home and it was along a forest service road just across the street from the Nicolum River Provincial Park. The GPS said it was only 1KM away but I forgot that was as the crow flied. We made it to the geocache which was closer to 5km up the road which was a little dodgy at parts; then I thought that it is almost a tradition to take Mum up dodgy roads when she visits and that made me feel better.

Kyah fell asleep on the way back down so Mum and I had a good laugh at her head bouncing around as we made our way back to civilization. We started filming her to share it with you, which I do below, but then she smacked her head and cried so that made me feel bad. Mum being Mum just started laughing even harder, can you believe it?!? I need to start bringing her a pillow when we go on these drives.

Enjoy the pictures and short video clip...

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Seven & The Drive Home

Yesterday was our last day camping at Lakeside Resort on Tuk El Nuit Lake so we thought it would be the most fun to spend the whole day at the lake. While it was cool in the morning the day turned out to be perfect with lots of sun and heat. The kids had an absolute blast playing in the sand and water all day. We made lots of castles and volcanoes and spent lots of time in the water. 

In the morning I went fishing again, without the camera, and caught my self a nice little trout. Although I did not get a picture there were enough people on the beach who heard my happy cheers to vouch for my success; Chelsey actually saw the fish when I held it up so you know this is not a fish story.

As a special treat for the kids, and me, we went to Tickleberries again for ice cream after dinner but this time we were smart enough to get the small sizes. The weirdest part about our trip was that I took four pairs of clean boxers, we were gone for 7 days, I did not do any laundry and I still came home with one pair of clean undies...Weird

Our drive home today was pretty uneventful other then the fact we scooped up some more geocaches and checked out the Hope Slide.We also picked up a cache at Bromley Rock Provincial Park so we can scratch another provincial park off our list. It was a pretty boring park unless you are into camping on the river shore; with the kids so small I think we will stick to the lakes. For lunch we stopped at the Manning Park resort area and the kids were stoked to see all the gophers running around taking nuts from people.

Enjoy the pictures and we are already looking forward to next year; who's coming with us?

Tuk El Nuit Lake - Day Six

One more day, two more sleeps and we have to go home; so sad. We have had lots of fun here and Lakeside    Resort is super family friendly; this kids are loving it here. 

Today the weather was off and on again so after our morning playing at the beach we went down to Osoyoos to grab some geocaches and check out another winery. We went to Haynes Point Provincial Park so we could knock another park off our list. According to British Columbia Magazine this is the hottest provincial park in BC, being in Osoyoos it would make sense. It is a pretty small park but we had fun wandering around looking for a geocache and playing by the water. 

After lunch we headed back towards home and grabbed a couple geocaches on the way back. We also stopped by Road 13 Winery as Chelsey is a big fan of their wine. The kids liked it there as it is built like a castle and there were two sausage dogs inside. 

Today was penny candy day and pie day at the "resort." Since we got back too late for the penny candies we went to the corner store and let the kids pick out a bunch of nickel candies. Luckily we were not too late for the home made pies and we were able to pick up a nice apple pie. We finished the day off with more fun at the beach and chicken burgers for dinner. Cohen is feeling much better but we are all getting bit by the skeeters now. 

No one came to steal our booze last night so no word on whether the alarm system worker; we will have to try again tonight! Forgot the memory card in the camera again so pictures are limited...

After Work Hike

Tonight I was fortunate enough to tag along for a hike with some peeps after work. The trail was within the boundry of Chilliwack Lake Provincial park and the chosen trail was the Goat Peak trail; although due to time there was no hope of reaching Goat Peak. The trail was a doozy and straight up most of the way, no better way to showcase my lack of cardio. To keep this post less boring I will just enter comments after the pictures. Enjoy...

BC Parks: Davis Lake Provincial Park - Geocaching

Wanting to knock another park of our list I decided we should go Geocaching today at Davis Lake Provincial Park which is just outside Mission. As has been the theme this spring the weather was horrible - cold and wet; are you supposed to see your breath a few days before summer? With the wet weather I knew it was going to be a challenge to keep everybody happy but for the most part things went well. Our first stop was by a creek, the name of which I forget, to find a cache, after looking around we realized we were on the wrong side of the creek and it was too big to cross; the plan was to try again on the way home. Before hitting the park we detoured to check out Cascade Falls, see pictures below, which was quite nice and a short hike up from the parking lot. There was a cache close to the falls we were hoping to find but did not have any luck, after some further research we found out the co-ordinates were off. Once back in the car, just a tad wet, we took off towards Davis Lake in hopes of finding some more caches.

After getting close to the lake we realized the road down was a 4x4 track. I put the ol' truck into 4x4 low and went on our way...Until Chelsey vetoed any further travel. After some discussion and me pulling the "Fathers Day" card we got out to walk down to the lake. Since we were already wet the walk did not last long as we started to get muddy; when it came voting time I lost 3-1. We decided to head back to the truck and hit up this lake on a not so muddy day. The bright side was we did find one cache on the way home so all was not lost! Enjoy the pictures...

Fishing & Geocaching at Hicks Lake

With Chelsey in Vancouver all weekend for a Dragon Boat regatta the kids and I had lots of time to do non "lady" stuff. With yesterday's weather being decent we decided to invite Nana & Papa Weaver to Hicks lake with us for a little fun. Hicks lake is located in Sasquatch Provincial Park just past Harrison and was our go to location last summer for many weekend days. A per usual I spent more time dickin' around with the tackle then actually fishing as I suck so bad. Obviously, I did not catch any fish but Papa Weaver did hook one that got away. We also snagged 4 geocaches on the day so our total is upto 30. Nana Weaver took all the pictures as Chelsey had our camera with her; I guess she thinks Kyah is photogenic because most of the pictures are of her...

BC Parks: Bridal Veil Falls

After visiting the Eagles and Dragons (see prior post) the kids and I trekked down the freeway a bit to Bridal Veil Falls . Even though we had been to Bridal Falls before we had to go again as I want to hit all the parks as part of our 50 Things Project. We could count Bridal Falls as number 48 on the list but that would be too easy so we are just using it to knock another park off the list for number 43. At the park we took in the sights and picked up another geocache. The video clip below is of both Bridal Falls and the Eagles and Dragons; I thought I had more footage but I seem to have "lost" it on the camcorder. Good thing I have pictures to make up for it.

BC Parks: Coquihalla Canyon - Othello Tunnels

Chelsey had to work today so after swimming I decided to take the kids out to the Othello Tunnels which are located within the Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park; now we can knock another park off our list! As well as seeing the tunnels we also wanted to do some Geocaching as Chelsey got us a Geocaching GPS off of Craigslist as an early Father's Day present; she didn't want us using her iPhone for Geocaching anymore as she was worried it would get wrecked. We were unable to find any Geocaches as it is hard to get an accurate signal within all those rocks and it is not the type of place i wanted to scramble around on rocks with the kids...It is a long way down. The tunnels were super cool to see and the kids had a great time until they got a little tired at the end. Enjoy the pictures...

BC Parks: Chilliwack Lake Park - Lindeman Lake

With the kids not coming back from the Island until this evening Chelsey and I decided to go out for a nice hike. We wanted to go to Greendrop Lake but we learned the snow was still pretty thick up there so we just went as far as Lindeman Lake. Both lakes are within the Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park boundry with the trail head about a 35 minute drive from our house. Although we only made it as far as Lindeman Lake it was still a super good hike as we had time to fish and do some geocaching. As per usual I did not catch any fish, probably too cold for them, but we did find two geocaches. Enjoy the pictures...

Free Parking at BC Parks

BC Premier, Christy Clark, has done what she promised and has made parking in BC parks free again. The Vancouver Sun article said it only generated $1 million in revenue;  I am sure that after fixing all the vandalized meters the net income was a lot lower. Vancouver Sun article here.

Geocaching at Cultus

I had an optional day of work today as the stock markets were closed due to Family Day back east and Presidents Day is the US; I took the option not to work. In the spirit of Family Day I took Cohen and Kyah to Cultus Lake Provincial Park for some treasure hunting (i.e. Geocaching). It was a little chilly and snowed off and on but we managed to find two caches! Here are a few pictures of the happy hunters...

BC Parks: Cypress Mountain Provincial Park

Chelsey had got me a gift certificate for two to go snowshoeing on Cypress. We finally cashed in last weekend and headed up for our guided tour. There were supposed to be other people in our group but no else showed up so Chelsey and I got a private tour. It is something we both had wanted to do for a while so we were stoked to go. The plan is to take the kids next time as I think they would enjoy it. We also scratched off another BC Park on our 50 Things to Do List. Enjoy the pictures...

Family Fun Day

Chelsey and I both had the day off today so we had a family fun day. I was allowed to pick the activity so it was decided we would go to Manning Park and find a Geocache. This served many purposes as we were also able to check another park of our list on our quest to do the 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die. I had taken the kids Geocaching this past weekend as there are a couple in our neighbourhood and they really liked it as we called it treasure hunting. Today we spent 3.5 hours and hiked just over 10km but did not find our treasure. I had veered us off course slightly and we had to double back which took up some time. We made it within 50 meters of our target but the kids were getting too tired that we were unable to bushwack a bit and find the treasure. We told the kids a Troll beat us to it and high tailed it back to the truck as it was starting to snow. Everybody, even Chelsey, had a good time in the outdoors and considering the distance travelled the kids did really well. Here are 30 pictures from our day and I hope you like them.

BC Parks: Cultus Lake Provincial Park

Last week the kids and I decided to go hike up Tea Pot Hill in Cultus Provincial Park. All in the kids made it going up for 45 minutes and then we had to head home; I found out the next day we were two minutes from the top.
I took a couple of shots as seen below: