Farewell Tofino

After a rather rough night of consoling a sad Finley, we were up and at 'em nice and early! The littles woke one at a time and whispered in the early morning light. As each woke up, we sent them to the bathroom and then sat them in the van with breakfast while we stuffed sleeping bags and folded up the tent. The family across from us was shocked at how quickly and quietly we packed everything up! They asked Mike what we did with our kids to keep them so quiet. I was glad it went so smoothly. We were pulling out of camp by 7:00am, ready for a long, long drive.

We stopped at Long beach for one last family photo before taking off. We took our family pictures here in 2010 when we only had Camilla and thought it would be fun to have a comparison from then to now. I failed to take the fog into account and was kind of bummed that we could see the ocean as clearly as I had hoped. 

We waved our last good-bye's to the ocean and headed for the Ferry on the other side of the island. The road on the way back almost had two of us puking and we had to pull over a few times for some fresh air.

Our star traveler was pretty excited to get out of his seat when we finally reached the Ferry! We had an hour wait for the next ride and there was a good chance we would have to wait another four hours after that if we didn't make it on. 

We let the kids watch a movie for a bit while we waited and then stretched our legs with a bathroom break.

Fin didn't want to walk much with his sore knee, so he opted to sit inside with Daddy! I took the others exploring out on the deck as we left. 

The older two got cold and hung out with Daddy inside while Joe and I walked the deck. I enjoyed spending time with this freckle nosed boy so much! We took turns taking pictures of each other and laughing as the wind blew our hair. I asked him what his favorite part was and he responded, "All of it!"

I threw snacks into the backseat as we drove and drove. I reflected on all of the things we did and learned this vacation and couldn't help but feel blessed to have these awesome kids and an amazing hubby to share my life with. As with any vacation, it had it's trying moments, but the good far outweighs the bad. It was late in the afternoon before we stopped for lunch and everyone ate every last crumb of their meal.

We finally made it to our hotel around 7:00pm and the first thing we did was change into our swim suits and jump in the pool! We spent most of our evening canon-balling into the water and swimming lengths. I bathed all of the kids before bed and even after swimming there was still a handful of sand in the bottom of the bath water. Mr. Stannix and I took turns enjoying a nice, hot shower and felt good as new after! We tucked the littles into their beds and called it a night, exhausted from a day of traveling.

Early Morning Walk

Today was our last full day on the island and I wanted to soak up all of it's goodness before we left for home. Ollie was the first to wake this morning and we enjoyed a nice, long walk on the beach before the other kids woke up for the day. 

I am certain that if I had air and views like this back home, I would wake up at 5:00am for a walk every day! I enjoyed walking, breathing deeply, pondering and basking in all of the beauty. 

We took the kids into Ucluelet for lunch and then hit up the rainforest trails on the way back. It was such a neat experience for them!

The boardwalk was narrow, mossy, creeky and old. We were careful with every step and tried our best to avoid the weak boards along the way.

It was quite the adventure.

This boy refused any help up or down the steep steps. 

It was a lovely walk! 

Since it was our last day there we made sure to spend a good chunk of time down at the beach getting our fill of the ocean.

Camilla could swim in the ocean all day, and she did until she was too cold to swim any longer.

I got to follow Ollie around as he explored the warm tide pools.

Joe and Fin had a lot of fun with the little guy who was camping next to us. They dug a pretty epic hole in the sand and filled it with buckets of water. 

It was a great way to spend the afternoon! Everyone was sad to leave, but excited to go home.

Later that evening I snuck down to the beach for one last picture at sunset. I really am going to miss this place. 

We had a crazy fire and let the kids stay up late eating junk and drinking hot chocolate. The family next to us came and joined us for a while and we had fun getting to know them and chatting with them. Camilla made up an animal guessing game and everyone took turns thinking of an animal and giving hints to help others guess. Finley split his knee open when he fell on the gravel and we seriously debated stitches. He screamed while I cleaned it and put a bandaid on, and then fell asleep on a chair. When it was time, the littles went to bed without complaint and Mr. Stannix and I cleaned up camp with the light from the last of the fire.

The Pacific Rim

Today started early when Ollie woke and refused to go back to sleep. The two of us escaped the tent into the cool morning air leaving the other five huddled in their sleeping bags snoring. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, threw my hair up in a bun and wrapped my babe on my back and embraced the foggy morning. The mist wet my face as we walked down the steps to the beach. The air was moist and cold and I could see my breath as we made our way towards the ocean. 

The tide was out leaving lots of shallow pools behind. I rolled up my sweat pants and dipped my toes in the water as we walked. The coolness of the ocean was invigorating and wonderful. I examined the uncovered rocks for sea life while Ollie pointed and babbled at the water and birds. We met many early risers as we walked, most of them very friendly and polite. We would exchange hello's, comment on the weather and go on our way. Ollie ended up falling asleep tucked on my back so I headed back to camp to get ready for the day. I brushed my teeth, properly combed my hair and started breakfast. The children emerged from the tent sometime after 8:00am and stretched and shivered at the picnic table.

Since the morning was kind of wet and dreary, we decided to hike Radar Hill. We had seen it on the side of the road the day before and thought we'd check it out! We got out of the van, put on our walking shoes and got ready to go. The littles scrambled up a rock face and declared that they had made it to the top! As Mr. Stannix and I walked over to the trail head we read the sign and laughed out loud. The hike was a total of 100m and would not take the whole morning like we thought! 

So we walked up to the top to meet the kids and admired the rather foggy view. We laughed at ourselves all the way down and when we got into the car Camilla laughed, "Whew! That was a hard hike. Do you think we could go out for lunch today?"

We stilll had a lot of rainy time to kill, so we drove over to the aquarium in Ucluelet. I had heard a lot of good things about it from friends. The kids were so excited about the touch tanks and loved learning about the sea life!

These sea cucumbers were pretty epic, and gross. The kids LOVED them! 

They could have held these things all day long.

By the time we made it back, the drizzling had stopped the skies were starting to clear. 

The kids asked to head down to the beach to dig in the sand. It was still a little bit chilly, but this guy was thrilled to be free from his carseat and crawling around the beach!

The water was cold but these two couldn't resist going for a dip...

After a few hours we shook off the sand and went up for dinner.

Daddy cracked open one of his special rootbeers to enjoy after dinner.

Joe can hear a bottle of pop opening a mile a way. He quickly crawled down from his make-shift tree house and asked for a sip. These two melt my heart.

Our camp site had a lot of old fallen trees that made the perfect hangouts. I would often catch the boys trying to solve their rubiks cubes up there.

We all enjoyed cups of hot chocolate and then made our way to the beach.

The light was stunning...and bedtime begs for long walks along the beach to tire children buzzing from cups of hot chocolate. We've had a week of tenting to practice putting five children to sleep and I think we've got it down!

We made it all the way to the other end of our beach before turning around to head back home. The older two kept drawing pictures in the sand with sticks and then Joe would quickly run over and stomp them out. Eventually they worked out their differences and we were on our way again.

And when little legs were tired, Daddy hoisted them onto his shoulders for a ride.

The fresh air and sand beneath our toes was good for the soul. Ollie was asleep by the time we made it back to camp. Everyone brushed their teeth and tucked into bed without a fuss. 

I'm going to miss this place.