Some Saturday Family Fun

Well at the beginning of the week I had decided to take the family out for a day of fun on the weekend. Patty told me that Ben had been complaining that we don't do anything fun and he was in a real pissy mood so I told Patty what I had planned but told her not to tell Ben. On Friday Ben asked me what day we were going and I knew right then I shouldn't have said anything to Patty. One thing I've found out in this family is they can't keep secrets or surprises. It shouldn't surprise me because we had a couple people in our family that were the same. You couldn't tell dad anything too soon because he would get so excited and either tell the secret or bug you till you told it or let him tell it. So I left a note on the white board telling Patty she was in trouble and to ask Ben why but got a phone call from Patty telling me Ben was in trouble for telling me he knew so she told him we were not going. I told her she couldn't punish Ben for something she had done so when I got home from work I told them fine I'd go by myself. I knew that wasn't going to happen.

So....

We got up in the morning, had breakfast and hit the road to Parksville. First stop was this mini putt place they had built just a couple summers ago. I was up there when they were working on it. Very nice course and there are two different 18 hole courses you can pick from to play on. We chose the easier one which wasn't to easy. Ben started out very well and had the lead but was in way too much of a hurry so slowly started getting worse as I slowly picked away and caught up. Patty was having a pretty average game only having one bad hole that I remember and a few twos and threes. The last couple holes I had a huge lead but while they got low scores I got nines. I won't give the final scores cause they weren't pretty but Patty and Ben tied for first beating me by four strokes(honest scores).











Next it was off to A&W for lunch where they served the milkshakes in large frosty mugs. mmmmmmm mmmmmmm Sorry no pictures of that but I'll tell you that wasn't too pretty to watch I'm sure.

Next we drove further up the coast till we came to another tourist attraction. There was a mini putt, arcade, and bumper boats. We opted for the bumper boats. We each got our own boats and drove around bumping each other and squirting each other with a spray nozzle on the front of the boat. It was a lot of fun and we all got pretty wet.







Next it was off to the beach but I decided to lock the camera in the car. It was looking pretty grey and was kinda cool so Ben and I didn't do too much swimming (me none at all) but we played catch with a Frisbee, football, and scoop ball while Patty walked around gathering shells. Ben and I also discovered some sand dollars which we collected and gave to Patty when we got out of the water. The three of us then walked around looking in the pools of water picking up baby crabs, checking out the different shells and just enjoying the time together. Before leaving we had a group hug and I promised Ben that in August when and if its hot I will take him back and we will go snorkeling together. You can tell he really enjoyed it today.

I got home in time to see the last half of the football game on TV but kinda wished we had missed it. One more week till Raider football!!!


OK I had to sneak in a couple butterfly/moth pictures. I found this guy at work on Thursday and he was flopping around on the ground. When I picked him up to take him to some bushes to help him I noticed how beautiful he was and how it looked like he had eyes on his back. After a while I checked on him and it looked like he was dying so when I left I put him in a plastic bag and brought him home. I left him in the car and forgot about him till just before work and thought for sure he's dead now. I opened the bag and he was still moving so I put him on a plant and tried to get him to fly away but no go. I had to get to work so I took 2 photos and put him back in the bag and in my closet upstairs. Again I forgot about him till I got home from Parksville but I opened up the bag and he was still alive. So I took him downstairs and took 2 more photos of him on the flowers I planted for Patty a while back and then after 3 minutes of fluttering around he flew off.