When we are with friends our kids make us look good.  They are so well behaved and downright delightful.  This is wonderful as I would hate for them to be unruly when we are with other people but once in a while it would be nice to give them a glimpse of some of the challenges ...

Continue reading Our Kids Are Too Well Behaved in Public

Tuesday was our Father’s Day do-over and it went a lot better the second time around.

I got to choose our activity on Father’s Day and it was no surprise to anyone that I chose to take the family geocaching.   I had the whole day arranged and it would start after breakfast for a morning walk and geocache hiding spree.  After ...

Continue reading Father’s Day Take Two

As a young creative “Vancouver Islander” I learned many things going sailing with my family and this is by no means a complete story.  I could write an entire book on the subject.  In an effort not to bore you I’ll try to make it somewhat short.

I was two when my parents first started taking my brother and I ...

Continue reading Thoughts on Sailing as a Kid – Lisa’s Story

Lisa and I together are trying to create a slower paced world to raise our kids in.  We both place a lot of value in not cramming our day with a lot of activities and just let the day happen.  We have done a lot of travelling together and even then we would always go at ...

Continue reading Growing Up a Sailor – Martin’s Story

Lately we have been talking a lot about the terrible twos since this life phase has been front and center in our daily lives.  First I wrote – Terrible twos times two – where we introduced the struggles and then Lisa wrote – Staying Calm and Low Stress – Ya Right – which looks at the ...

Continue reading Terrible Twos Will Travel

We had one of the quintessential spring outings with the kids last week.  We went to visit a small farm that belongs to my cousin in Fanny Bay, BC.  They call themselves Snapdragon Dairy.  Here are a few links describing what they do.  One from Infocus Magazine and one from Eyes On BC.  We didn’t have ...

Continue reading Goat Farm with Kids

Camping our old way

I have spent many nights camping in my lifetime but I have never really been a camper. I have always used camping just as an inexpensive form of accommodation. I have camped my way across Canada, throughout the Western United States, and our 14 month honeymoon included almost a year’s worth of ...

Continue reading Learning to be a Camper

Packing for a trip with kids for a week away should not cause a logistical nightmare.  We dream for the day where we can just throw a few clothes into a pack and go.  With three kids in tow it feels like we pack half the house into the van.  Before we had kids we could ...

Continue reading Family Trips – Packing