Vacation 2008

The past few weeks have been busy! After the canyon hike of my last posting, Jeff went to the field for a week, was back for a week, and then we headed west for a two week family road trip. The pictures are: Silas helping us plan a route while waiting for the ferry to Nanaimo, Jeff and Silas on the beach at sunset at the Bella Pacifica campground, and Silas and I on the same beach. We had a pretty good time getting out there, but it took us 3 full days. We took a few logging roads which were magnificent and provided wonderful camping spots. Essentially we took Hwy 3 across the bottom of the province. To make a long story short though, Silas is not a fan of hours and hours for days and days in the car seat and is not so fond of all the mountain passes.

On the ferry over to the island we ran into a friend who is now working for Tofino Air, and popped by his place a few days later when we were in town. Before heading out I had really wanted to take a 2-day surf lesson. It took us much longer to get out there, however, so I could only do a one afternoon lesson - oh boy that was enough! I know I'm not all that fit since carrying Silas, but I didn't really have a handle on just how sluggish I had become; surfing is a seriously full body sport!

By the end of the week we made our way over to Whistler where I had a work retreat the Sunday/Monday. We got to hang out with our friends Kelly and Erin who had just moved from Calgary to Squamish the week before. Jeff got to go downhilling and did some cross-country the next day. After Whistler we headed into Vancouver where I got my third annual Vancouver haircut, and spent the week visiting old friends (from highschool, undergrad and grad school!).

When we were finally back home, I gave Silas two days away from the dreaded car seat and then strapped him in mid-week to head up to Edmonton to visit my mum who was in town for a conference. I'm happy that Grandma Pfeiffer was able to show off her grandson to her friends; all three of us had a great time.

And last but not least, Silas is now 6 months old and we have moved him out of our room and into his own. I figured since his sleep was all disrupted from the travelling it would be a good time for new sleep arrangements in the house too - so far so good! We have also started solid foods; rice cereal, pears, and tomorrow I'm adding squash to the repetoire. He had his 6 month check up this Tuesday - 18 lbs 6 oz and 27.2 inches, still holding at the 75th percentile. He's just lovely.