Galpin.ca

Me with my awesome kids.

I’ve been quite active lately and this scenery is an amazing reward for getting up early or going out in the evening after the kids are in bed.

Leah is now 7! We held a small party for her at our apartment and walked all the kids over to the school at the end so the girls could play outside. It was a beautiful day with some great girls. Leah wanted a special cake that her teacher had brought in to the class so I got the recipe and made it.

I love this girl so much. She is kind, compassionate, thoughtful, full of ideas and smart.

We were waiting with friends for a bus in front of a hotel. Here are my kids imitating a friend pretending to be the statue of liberty, even though my kids have never seen or heard of the statue before. I’m thankful for their great friends and parents who let me take their kids on adventures with us.

In the past we have gone up to Oroville for the May long weekend which has been super fun. Now that we are in Vancouver, I was concerned about the long car ride as well as heavy traffic coming home on Monday. (Our kids rarely are in a vehicle so trips to my parents seem so long with lots of ‘are we there yet’ type questions.) Though I was disappointed, I shouldn’t have been. This weekend was full of fun times.

Leah had a pro d day on Friday. We met up with friends and hung out on the playground and at Second beach for a few hours before biking off to Science World to meet up with friends from White Rock. Joel generally does not like his picture taken these days. He has such a vivid imagination these days and was playing intensely, jumping on and off this fire truck, pulling off hoses and ladders to put out the fires before jumping back on and driving off in a rush. He also is now confident enough to include other kids who he just met in his imaginative play. Here he is avoiding the picture.

Leah’s top tooth finally fell out. It was barely hanging on for awhile now.

On Saturday, friends of ours watched our kids so we could hike the Grouse Grind. It was a lot of fun to hike and just have some time together on an adventure. We took car2go there which was super convenient. The hike was a lot steeper than I thought it would be with lots of stairs.

On Monday we went to Bowen Island with a friend of mine and her family. We had a lot of fun exploring, walking through the forest and treasuring the small town, quiet atmosphere. It was a beautiful day to take the ferry and walk about the island.

The start of school this year was delayed due to a teacher’s strike which left more time for adventures. Usually I would plan one day where we would be out all day and then a home day with a trip to a playground and an errand or two thrown in. We spent a lot of time at the aquarium.

We also had a lot of fun at Science World.

We would play at the Lego block parties at the library after school once school began.

We took our bikes on the skytrain and bus to go visit our friends in White Rock. I am now very comfortable on public transit. I don’t ride it a lot as most places we go are in easy walking distance. We bike to visit the aquarium and Science World and take transit or rent a car to visit our families.

One day we were exploring Stanley Park and we came upon these pay phones. I’m not sure how much longer these phones will be around so we stopped and took a picture.

Morgan has been working in Vancouver for a few years now which lead to talk from moving from our south Surrey home to closer to his work. One day last October after another long commute home, Morgan had had enough and the decision was made. We were going to move. We talked and discussed amid excitement and some anxiousness. I said we could move anywhere but downtown. Housing prices were really high everywhere that seemed decent to live.

After a few scouting trips, we had a date day where we biked around the seawall and saw a bit of the West End. I was sold. My criteria was that there was a park and a grocery store near by. Of course there were grocery stores all over in a place with such high density as well as an elementary school and some parks. Finding an apartment to rent was a bit of a challenge and eventually after many trips out to Vancouver, we selected one that met most of our criteria.

We spent months purging, cleaning, selling, purging again and packing so we could move to a drastically smaller space. I started reading minimalist blogs so I could start embracing a mindset conducive to what would be our new living space. We still need to purge more and we also switched out some furniture for lots of new Ikea furniture that would fit our space and needs much better.

I’m loving downtown. We always said we could move back if we didn’t like it and somewhat ironically now I say I never want to move. We sold our van and don’t feel any need to buy a vehicle. We walk and bike everywhere and have so many amenities so close to our house. The first few months were lonely but once I made a good friend who I connected with well, she introduced me to her friends which really expanded my social circle. When I was lonely, we would visit my family and my friend in White Rock often on the weekends. This was such a blessing having them so close by.

The kids loved Vancouver immediately as we were going on all sorts of exciting outings such as the aquarium and Science World. Our kids adjusted so well which was such a blessing. Leah has made many great friends at school quickly. Joel wasn’t so excited about starting preschool as he didn’t want to be away from me but he adjusted quickly and soon started enjoying preschool.