Halloween has come and gone, and yet, I still have not uploaded the photos. You'll have to settle for these ones instead. Hey, at least there are some pumpkins in them. :) The boys enjoyed drawing on them, and Jonah is old enough to actually draw something we can carve. He chose to draw this face, and 'BOO' in block letters. It looked great!

But let's move on, after all, Christmas is fast approaching. So, we better get our letters off to Santa! Jonah needed some help with his, and Benett had one done just to be fair.  There is no way his brother would let that slide!

We aren't quite ready for Christmas. And I was more than ready for a getaway - without the kids. It's been 3 years since I have been away from kids, with the exception of one night for our friend's wedding. But I don't count that. To say that I needed it, is an understatement. So we took off to Victoria for 4 days. We visited Butchart Gardens our first day - rain free - and spent most of our time just walking around downtown Victoria.





 We did see Craigdarroch Castle as recommended by others, but I didn't bring our good camera, so the interior photos did not turn out unfortunately. 
After spending one night in downtown Victoria, we set off north and spent two wonderful nights at a resort. Who wouldn't want to wake up and look out their window to this?

We also took in the local aquarium. At the entrance, we were told that the best advice they could give us was to "take our time". She wasn't kidding. Smallest aquarium ever, and the total cost worked out to about a dollar a minute. Rip off. Cool jellyfish display and touch pools though.


Just outside the so-called aquarium was this amazing park. Boy, I am sure the boys would have been seething with jealousy had they known that they could have had the chance to play on this gem of a playground.

Had to take a photo of this car for Jonah. It's orange. 'Nuff said.

Oh hey, look, a jellyfish in the marina behind our hotel. Looks like he's eaten!

Should have saved our money. We see a jellyfish in the marina bay, then come upon these two harbour seals at Fisherman's Wharf. They were so cute. This guy here definitely has a relationship with the dude that owns the fish counter next to him. They were waving at each other! Seal gets fed, Dude gets money. Sneaky, sneaky.


I loved that they have a 'paddle-thru'. Awesome.

Last day, the weather was less than nice. Yet, we decided to take a walk out on the pier. No, we didn't make it all the way, almost noone did.
We are home now. Mostly rested, and so glad we had the opportunity to go. Thanks to Grandma for taking care of the boys, much appreciated!