End of March - Busy week with getting stuff done. March 26 - 31

Nothing too exciting happening here lol

Monday, sure is quiet here today without Amelia lol After a great nights sleep I'm ready for another couple of days with her. :)

We set off to Duncan this morning for our Bivalent Covid Shot (First Covid vaccine with the Omicron). this vaccine wasn't available to us before leaving to the USA last fall, so we've caught up now.

Tuesday we did a run into Nanaimo for some shopping at the mall that I  put off. Too windy here at the lake to sit outside, so a road trip in the sunshine is a great decision. Once we got back home we headed over to Pat and Darryl's for drinks at 5. Darryl wanted to "pick Ray's brain" about the costs of owning a motorhome vs other options. They're not sure that motorhome life is for them.

Wednesday, another gorgeous sunny morning. A second lawn company come by for a quote, as I've not been able to get ahold of my old gardener for the past 2 weeks ... Our lawn is in need for some serious help as it turned into mostly moss in many places over the winter.

Fabric Kleen come in to clean our carpets upstairs, stairs to the basement, area rugs in the livingroom, and master bedroom.  We took our bed frame apart to move the bed. He also did the bit of carpet we have in the motorhome. With all the dogs in our house for the past 5 years, it's time to get them done. I've used our carpet cleaner several times, but it's never a good as the professionals with the suction power to get out the deep dirt and hair. The rugs look brand new.

Down at the dock, Ray took down a couple of panels on the gazebo so he could take them to a sheet metal company in Duncan and have 2 more panels cut out and bent to replace the 2 damaged this winter. One of them completely disappeared and the other one is quite bent up. 

It was nice enough to sit down there for an hour, first time this year, no wind and quite warm at 14C (57F)

It appears we've come down with Amelia's cold. I tried to lay downstairs for an hour, but at the park next door, they are getting ready to pave the road to the lower parking lot. The whole house vibrated with the compactor ... no afternoon nap for me. I peaked over there after 5 pm when they'd quit for the day.

Thursday morning both of us not feeling the best, hopefully this passes quickly. Amelia's only felt bad for 2 days, so we should be feeling better this afternoon hopefully. Tonight we are going to the Chemainus Dinner Theatre with Darryl and Pat so we will wear our masks to keep the cold to ourselves. Unfortunate, but we bought the tickets some time ago and this is the last few days for this production called Naked Radio. Kristi and Jason went last weekend and said it was really funny.

Back home for 10:30 pm, past our bedtimes. lol

Friday woke up to grey skies and rain. The heat pump guy came by for a  service and replacement of the thermostat. The upstairs ductless systems haven't been serviced since installation 4.5 years ago so it's time. The main heatpump was serviced 2 years ago. Good thing as the capacitor is starting to fail and probably would have gone kapoot with the heat this summer. Problem diverted.

Amelia comes to stay - March 22 - 26

Pretty quiet here at the lake with the weather changing to rain for the past 2 days. Hard to believe it's the end of March and we're still getting snow!

There were actually, at one point on Friday night, 2 inches of snow before it started to melt again.

Kristi, Jason, Amelia and Zeus arrived about 4:45 on Friday night as it snowed. Glad they got here before it really came down.  I of course, was up to my elbows cooking a big prime rib dinner with yorkies. lol  Amelia playing with the old toys I put out.

Took a bit in the rain/snow to unload all of the baby stuff, toys etc. Kristi's friend Theo didn't arrive until after 7pm from Victoria in the worst of the snow storm.  We all ate early on "Amelia Time" at 5:30. Dinner turned out great. Love using my big barbecue. We kept the food ready for Theo as well. I was too busy to even take pictures lol

Snack time before bed.

We shared a great evening before everyone went to bed at 9:30.

Saturday morning Kristi, Jason and Theo headed out for their combined 40th birthday celebrations about 9:30 after breakfast. Theo made scones .... yummm.  Kristi turned 40 last December, Jason turns 40 next month and Theo also turned 40 sometime last year. Jason booked us for this weekend a month ago. They were off for an overnight in Chemainus for dinner and the play. 

We really looked forward to look after Amelia and Zeus. What a great day playing and walking outside between rain storms. 

Jason brought her kitchen down for her to play with.

Still having fun with the old toys we have.

Amelia started to feel "tough", so we turned on her Trash Turck to calm her down before nap time. 

Amelia seemed to be feeling under the weather and was coughing quite a bit and her nose started running. Her cousin Stella and Auntie Kat were visiting from Squamish earlier this week. Stella was sick, so I'm guessing Amelia is next and 3 days from now, we'll probably have her cold after being coughed and sneezed on. 

She slept pretty good overnight, but of course every time she had a coughing fit, I woke up hearing her on the baby monitor every 30 minutes to an hour. Went downstairs at 9:30 and 1:30 am to cover her back up and make sure she didn't throw up in bed with her coughing. Nana's very tired. Thankfully she woke up happy although still coughing. Morning snuggles are the best!

Getting Amelia used to our boat so she is good to go this summer.

She now chatters a mile a minute and for the most part, we understand what she is saying. Huge difference from Christmas.

Trash Truck Time on the TV

Helping with the laundry.

Here is a picture Jason sent me of them at the theatre.

Kristi, Jason and Theo

Sunday morning the rain stopped and the sun came out. Absolutely gorgeous on the lake.

She sure likes her bike in our house with all the open floor space. Those old Christmas beads are one of her favourite things to play with. :)

So much fun. Kristi and Jason arrived at 10:30 to pick her up, loaded up the truck and hooked on the utility trailer and were gone in a flash by 10:45! They wanted to get Amelia home for her nap at 12:30, so she doesn't get cranky as the truck ride is only 50 minutes and she naps for 90 minutes.

A great visit. We went out for lunch at Jake's at the Lake and then collapsed for the rest of the day. 

Unpacking and enjoying being home. March 16 - 21

Home Sweet Home, of course it doesn't look like this yet until June lol

Since getting home we've been busy unpacking the motorhome, and changing our mailing address with all government agencies. You might wonder why, as we are not moving anywhere. I went in to the Post Office to check our mailbox, as the mail forwarding to Jason and Kristi came off a few days earlier. Imagine my surprise when my key wouldn't work, so I went in to inquire.

When I put in our temporary mail forwarding to Jason and Kristi last September, the post office clerk incorrectly filled out our information on her screen. The clerk entered we were moving and needed our mail forwarded for a year instead of only a temporary forwarding for 6 months. She charged me $100 plus dollars for this service! With this error in their system, they gave our post box to someone else, so we cannot get it back. So now the only recourse is to get a new post office box number and change all of our government information, vehicle insurance, drivers license, banking, township etc. You can imagine the pain this is.  Ray spent over three hours yesterday online and on the phone. Today we went into Duncan and did the insurance papers and driver's licenses. We still have a few more to do. The only thing the Post Office could do is give us 3 months of redirecting our mail to our new post office box for free! 

After all of this, we at least had a good day enjoying the sunshine and warm temps at 10C (50F) which was nice and warm compared to snow last week. Hot tub was filled just waiting to heat up. :)

I watch the water level on my phone lol

We spent the next few days sorting through things and hauling more stuff out of the motorhome. It's amazing how much stuff we've squirreled away for the winter in there lol

We managed to enjoy sitting outside with our fire Saturday afternoon in the sunshine. First fire since last spring I think. Sure was nice to be outside in the relatively warm sunshine.

Two days before we got home, our neighbours took down a large tree between their house and ours. My plants will get a lot more sun, however it sure got rid of any privacy between us. We will have to get some kind of screening that allows light through. Ray wants to continue with the steam locomotive theme on the other side of our sundeck. The maple tree is still there, but the spruce tree infringing on their sundeck is gone. The maple will get it's leaves and be encouraged to grow into the open space.

Sunday, Ray put together Amelia's toddler bed so it's ready for her overnight here next weekend. She is growing up, so no more crib for her. She loves dinosaurs, so I found  dinosaur bedding for her and a rug to soften the floor if she falls out of bed which does happen occasionally.

Monday we headed out early to Nanaimo for our chance to finally spend time with the kids and Amelia. Amelia was sick with a bad cold and fever earlier last week. Then Kristi's girlfriend come for a 3 day visit planned months ago. So nice to finally get to see her in person. What a cutie, lots of hugs and she didn't play strange at all. She dragged us holding our hand all over their house showing us her new bed and toys etc. Melted our hearts.

She patted the couch and said "Nana sit" and then crawled up to cuddle with me.

Cuddles for Nana

Jason scheduled the concrete pour for the forms for their new sundeck today. Amelia enjoyed watching the pumper truck.

Kristi and Jason's yard is going to be completely redone. What a mess currently. Their yard is very unlevel with very little soil on top of the rock of Nanaimo. The landscaper will do specific levels for areas with gardens and play space. It should look fabulous once done, but this summer will be a right off to use it as the grass gets growing etc.

We took the kids out for dinner at the Driftwood Chinese Restaurant. They have a fabulous buffet and Amelia loves the food and watching their service robot.

She ate 2 platefuls plus desssert. :)

We headed home back to the lake from the restaurant. A lovely visit. The kids will be back to our house on Friday, leaving us with Amelia for Saturday overnight.

Tuesday our detailer came to detail the car, cleaning out all the desert sand inside etc. He also gave the MH a bath that from all the road dirt coming home in the rain. While Kevin did that, I spent half a day planning and reserving our week's road trip with the car in June to visit some friends in Quesnel.  Ray spent his time on our income tax, a necessary evil this time of year. The contract on Ray's phone is up thankfully, as he had a lot of trouble in the USA with it not connecting to different networks. He found it very frustrating. His new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra arrived, so he's also busy transferring stuff to his new phone. 

That's our first week at home .... not too exciting. As Ray isn't taking any fabulous pictures this week here is an older picture of our Cowichan River a few miles from us in the fall from a couple years ago.

Winter vacation over ... coming home to Lake Cowichan, March 13 - 15

Monday morning before leaving Fort Stevens, Ray went on the roof to clear off the cones and branches from yesterday's wind. He even found a branch an inch thick and 3 feet long. Yikes!

Jacks up and on the road by 9:15 am to Tacoma, where we would spend the night at Judy's and Milt's (Ray's sister) driveway. What a wet drive. Poured most of the way. 

New Young's Bay Bridge just going into Astoria. Yucky weather!

We decided to take Highway 30 from Astoria to the I-5. The first 10 miles were very slow and windy. I can only imagine it in the summer with all the traffic.

Lewis and Clark Bridge going into Longview, WA

Fortunately we were going north on the I-5. This traffic was backed up for 10 miles due to a tanker truck in the ditch upside down. Firetruck and police on scene and only letting 1 vehicle 5 seconds apart at a time in the outside lane to proceed slowly.

We arrived at about 12:27 pm .... 3 minutes before we estimated according to Judy!

Once we parked we had a quick yack with Judy while waiting for Milt to get home. One happy sister to see us after 3 years due to Covid.

Once Milt got home, we piled into his car and headed for the Fish Peddler on the waterfront. Great Halibut and Chips.

After lunch, back to their house with their beautiful view of Mount Olympus. The sunshine finally broke through.

Judy made a wonderful dinner of broccoli soup and salad after the big lunch we ate earlier. Delicious. Also a bread carmel pudding for dessert. Ray, my dessert guy, is very thankful. lol Apparently Milt is a dessert addict too, so is happy for us to attend. :)

After a wonderful evening, we headed to the coach at 9 pm and started the generator to get some heat on and charge the batteries for overnight. Tomorrow off to Port Angeles before getting on the ferry to Victoria on Wednesday morning. Looking forward to getting home.

Tuesday night it was a cold one. I should've hooked up our big buddy heater ... got up at 2  am and inside is only 47F Burrr. I started up the generator and ran the electric heaters and gas furnace for 15 minutes, then turned everything off. While waiting, I snuggled back in bed. lol I always worry if it gets too cold. Ray stiffens up and his back is toast the next day (Ray here thanks so much honey). Woke up at 5:30 and again it's 47F so I did the same thing and went back for another hours sleep. Fortunately in Judy's front yard we are right beside the main road which is noisy so no one hears us. lol

We noticed light on in the house, so we went in for coffee. Another great visit. By 9:30 we were on our way for the second to last  bit of our journey home, the Walmart in Port Angeles. Mostly sunny with some clouds, so it's a pretty good drive other than getting stopped for 15 minutes as they were cutting down trees on the 101 just after Port Townsend.

Going over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Hood Canal Floating Bridge

Snow up on those mountain tops.

Once we got to the Walmart, we unhooked the car and headed into town for lunch at a Sushi Place, delicious.

After lunch, we fueled up the car and then Ray took the MH a short way down the highway and fueled the coach. The last of the less expensive fuel until next year lol. All set up with the heater ready to go for tonight. Can't wait to get home tomorrow.

Up early at 5 am, anxious to get home. We left at 6:15 for the 10 minute drive to the ferry lineup. We were loaded on by 7:50. Uneventful journey, calm, flat waters and the sun's out. Bonus. Coming into Victoria.

The ferry crew made Ray back up inside the ferry to get off the boat. We were some of the last people to get off. Customs was no problem and we arrived home at 11:30 am. 

First up lunch at Jake's at the Lake and then the unpacking began!. So nice to be home.