Vancouver BC Temple

Ever since I heard about a Temple being built in Vancouver BC I was excited and wanted to have our family go up for the open house. I love that the kids can go in the temple and see and feel the spirit of the temple. We got to go to the Tri-Cities Temple open house a few years ago, but the kids were too little to remember much about it. I also got to see the Portland Temple open house when I was a youth and it left a lasting impression on me. (Click here if you want to know more about temples) This is what we planned our mini vacation around -

The weather was beautiful for us!
And the temple is gorgeous!!!

Moroni

At first I didn't like this picture, we were goofing around, but then my sister told me, look at the picture, you can tell how much he loves you when he looks at you, after 17 1/2 years! That made me feel good that she noticed it and then I liked the picture. That's better! ;)

My sis Cindy and her daughter Aurora

The flowers were gorgeous too!

My mom & Thom

Cousins!

And Keagan being his usual silly self!

It was very nice we got there on the first day of the open house and didn't have to wait in any lines! We waited for Ray to get off work and drive up to Birch Bay, so we got a late start, but we made it!

My sister and the girls

What was very cool was that we went the first day it was open and the next weekend the youth in our ward got to go. They had to meet at the church at 5:30 a.m.! And they willingly did it. We had to give them notarized permission slips and copies of birth certificates to go, but it was well worth it!! I only heard good comments from our youth and I know they enjoyed going. Another great thing about Melissa having been there the week before - When the youth went there were a lot of people and they didn't have tour guides in every room like they did with us, so Melissa had heard what they were telling us the week before and she could share that with the others. Here are the Lacey 2ND ward youth a week later at the temple.

Vancouver Canada

After we were done seeing the Temple grounds and open house we went looking for the Olympic cauldron. Vancouver is such a beautiful city. The sun was getting ready to set so you can't see the mountains as well with the camera settings, but it was gorgeous! All of couldn't keep commenting on how beautiful it was.

We had directions to get to the cauldron... but still got lost. At least this time is was Grandpa Thom we were following and he was the one getting lost. We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. The man was so nice there, he came out and drew us a map and told us which way to go. He told us it was funny hearing our accents. That made us all laugh (later not in front of him..)

When we going to the cauldron we went through a bad section of town. It was really sad. I have never seen so many homeless people in my life. They were lined up 3 & 4 rows deep along block after block. It was very humbling! There were police every half block or so. A little scary, but I'm glad we got to see that so we know and can appreciate how much we have!

It was a little strange, we were driving along in the "homeless" section of town and then all of a sudden... we arrived in a nice part of downtown. I even asked the rest of the family, was there some invisible line that we don't know about, or is it just me? Weird, not even a kind of inbetween, just from scary homeless part of town to BAM nice part of city!

It was sooo cool to see the Olympic cauldron for the Vancouver Winter Olympics!

You can't see it because it is so dark, but across the water are some of the skiing venues for the Olympics. The blurry spot in the middle is a gas station.. a gas station in the middle of the water, with nothing around.

We love teasing Melissa about these 2 pictures. On the computer we go back and forth between them really fast so it makes look like shes going back and forth from these 2 faces.

Birch Bay, WA

For Spring Break we went up to Birch Bay WA, which is just a few miles from the Canadian border. We got to stay at really cool condos with Cindy & Aurora & my mom & thom. My mom has timeshares with Trendwest. We have gotten to stay with them few times and they are always a lot of fun! This was the view from the top floor by the elevator.

Of course the most important part.. it had a heated pool. It was pretty cool, 1/2 of it was inside, 1/2 outside. Still to cold for me to go in... but you know how kids and pools are.

Aurora having a great time!

This is our view from the deck, looking out the front.

Birch Bay really is beautiful!

Here is back view, we can kind of see the pool and look there is our van.

We got to stay 2 nights(Thursday/Friday) and go up to the Vancouver Temple open house and see where the Olympics were and see the Peace Arch Park. I will blog those later.

Easter

Coloring Easter eggs. Always a fun thing to do, nothing special with the eggs, but we always have fun coloring them together. This year we even did it before Easter eve, we made it a Family Home Evening night. The funny thing about this Easter egg activity was when I went to go use some of the eggs...

we accidentally colored the raw ones and some hard boiled ones not knowing which was which.... oops!

Our beautiful colored regular eggs. Not all hard boiled. I thought some of them felt weird.

crazy hat day

Every year the school has crazy hat day. This is one of my kids favorite spirit days. We collect fun hats. When we go to the beach we try to find silly hats. We have lots of hats to choose from. The hat Keagan is wearing is actually Melissa's hat.

Ward party Skateland

Almost every year our ward goes to skateland in the March or April. It is a great tradition. I remember being pregnant with Keagan and going (and not skating). It is great fun for everyone regardless if you skate or not. We pretty much have the skating rink to ourselves. Just use the bathroom before you go, I don't think they have updated it in the last 30 years! Ewww! Good thing we have such good company!!

One of the girls helping another with her skates.
One of the great things about this outing is that adults can take their little ones skating in the strollers. Sadly this is the last time I skated was when Keagan was in the stroller. I was never very steady on skates and I don't want to fall!

Ray & Damon Corrigan

Keagan finally getting so he skate a little with out falling! :)

I love this one of Greg Martin and "his" boys. He is in the YM presidency and the scout master. He has such a good repor with the YM!

Every year they have races, which are great fun to watch, this year they had the first Stroller races, I see a new tradition coming!

The start of the stroller races

More races, the adults

Of course I like these because my handsome husband is racing! :)

This picture didn't turn out too well, but it shows the YW huddled up together watching the races. I love our YW and how they love each other! (And Brooklyn who used to be in our ward!)

See, you don't have to skate to have a good time!

Ahhh.. the snack bar.

A lot of our youth hanging out and skating together.

My niece, Aurora came along

More of Keagan

If you don't skate you can dance!

Melissa and one of her best friends Brooklyn. They have known each other since they were born. They are only 1.5 months apart. Melissa is blessed to have so many good friends close to her age!

Celeste getting her skates fixed. One of the great things for little kids is that you can get your skate's wheels tightened so it is easier to skate and not fall.

Another great thing about this activity is that it has been a tradition for such a long time we get friends that have moved that come back for our skate party. What fun to see the Douglas family!

I love to see everyone helping each other too! Haley and Zane!