What a weekend.

We love our long weekends. May, being a month-long party for us, is no exception. My parents were in town and so we all decided to head over to Mayne Island to visit my sister and her family. What a great idea! A nice, secluded island full of nature and wildlife and quiet living. An entire weekend of slow days, mother nature and catching up and calming down. Sounds pretty nice, no?

Well, it turns out a good portion of the GVRD also thought that sounded like a lovely way to spend a weekend.

So on Sunday morning (after shirking our church duties), we headed to the ferry, thinking to walk on, only to find out there was NO parking at all. Not in the long term lot, nor in the lot down the road (the big gravel lot that is never full. Yeah, it was packed).

Ok... so we drove on. It doesn't sound all the dramatic but it kinda was. We got some of the last tickets to even get on that boat (the next was at 6pm) and we dashed on board, safe and sound.

This is Piper's second ferry ride, and she wasn't a big fan of the wind, but enjoyed all the faces. She is always making friends everywhere she goes.

Then we finally got to Mayne and we really did spend a good portion of the weekend relaxing and soaking up all that was around us. My sister and hubby (plus 2 nieces) live on a great piece of land about 5 minutes away from the "village"/main drag of the island. My sister had just planted her garden, so we got a tour of that and all the girls got good and dirty (even our oldest niece in her pretty "poofy" dress that only ever came off for bedtime). But a little roughage never hurt anyone.

Here is #1 niece teaching Piper to read (as any almost-three-year-old, she already knows everything).
Our other niece and Piper are only 2 months apart and are always pretty close in size. In a stroller, they sure look like they could be twins. Not a fun idea.
We all went to visit the lighthouse. Such awesome weather. Yes, and an opportunity for a photo op. Even the dog got in. Piper dipped her toes in the ocean (with help from Daddy) and I don't even think anyone got hurt on those rocks (covered in barnacles).
Piper spent most of the weekend outside. Of course, we forgot her sun-hat, but her hood was up most of the time. But she did get a healthy amount of sun. She really seemed to love it outside, especially watching her cousins. Oh, and we even saw a seal!
Piper is so close to walking. We are right on the cusp of a big life change coming up. Even this weekend, she took more steps on her own. The kind when she is walking purely to get herself to where she wants to go, not to impress anyone or put on a show. I know once we get to the walking part there is no turning back, so I am enjoying these last moments of my little bum-scooter.
We camped that night, as a family. We thought it would be a good experiment to try tenting with a baby near a house that we could bail in, if the night went terribly bad. But it was acutally ok. Matt had built a little nest for Piper beside our bed, but she wiggles so much in the night she ended up way past our heads, with her face on the bare tent floor and wall. We promptly brought her into our big nest and we all did much better. Piper is still breast-feeding, so it is always easier to nurse in bed with a baby right there. All in all, a good experiment. I think she thought it was the funniest thing to wake up with Mom and Dad right there. She could stick her little fingers right up our noses. A lovely way to wake up.

As our ferry home left at around 8, we thought to get there early to be sure to get on. So we bathed all the girls in the tub and stuck them all in their respective jammies. They were all so stinkin' cute in the tub together. Yes, good fodder for the wedding slide-show.
You can see Piper's scar healing up nicely. The top is looking better all the time, as there is no more scab or anything. We've got a scar cream we're putting on, though I might need to get a new vitamin E, as the stuff I put on her gave her a rash. Dang. She is less sensitive about you touching it, too, which helps when we are trying to put stuff on there, but this summer she is going to be wearing UV shirts all summer (if not all year) long. The doctors said to keep her scar out of the sun as it will burn easier and stay dark. So if you see Piper with long sleeves under what should be a summer top, that is why... She will thank me when she's older.

Alas, our ferry home was 100% booked. We had to wait until THE very last minute and we were actually the second to last car on the boat... and then the last car off of the boat. What a journey. Yikes. We thought we'd spend another night over (which, really, would have been great fun! minus the lack of clean underwear), but we are glad the ferry could squeeze us in.

Thanks for the squeeze, Mrs. Queen of Nanaimo. We really appreciated it.

We got home at around 10pm and all crashed right away. Now, it is just unto uncovering the house from the mess of the weekend. I know my kitchen is somewhere hidden under all of that mess. And the laundry machine might be running for a while.

All worth it. What a weekend indeed.