Solo at Rathtrevor

 

Solo trip.

It's very, very, very quiet here.

There are lots of other campers but it's definitely a different vibe than being here in summer.

Fei drove up with me and Cheese.  Eric followed us.  I was scared to park and worried about the one wall that is too heavy for me.  Once Cheese was set up we went for a nice walk and then they skedaddled on home.  I was in my jammies and settled by 6:30.  Haha.  

Towing Cheese was fine.  I do need Eric to find our extended side mirrors.  I picked my site and parked.  I think I could have managed on my own with time and leaping out a few times to reassure myself about placement but with Eric there telling me drivers and passenger it went really quickly.  I've only parked Cheese twice before.  Once here at Rathtrevor and Eric and I fought our way through that.  Once at home.  This time he remained calm ;)  There is no chance I'm ready to back into row parking or on any weird angles but a wide open easy site I can manage.  I think.  

I did a two hour walk this afternoon.  Alone.  That was sooo weird.  I got back to Cheese and it started raining a few minutes later so that worked out perfectly.  I said hello to people walking and realized I hadn't spoken in hours and hours.  Also so weird. I mean between Eric, kids and critters I am never really alone.

Eric and I had discussed briefly him coming out 2nd night for a sleep over.  He showed up after dinner and installed a cantilever mechanism on the one heavy wall.  He tried it out and then tried to leave. Ah.  What?!  He stayed about an hour for a wee visit and then he skedaddled again.  

The plan is for me to get the walls down on my own and tow Cheese home without Fei's moral support in the car.  I'm nervous but feeling a tad hopeful that if we keep plugging away at all the issues I'll eventually figure out how to do it all on my own.

This weekend I wanted to try out some changes for road trips.  We left Cheese hooked up to the car.  We didn't put the leveling feet down and I didn't plug in the fridge.  We want to get the setting up and down done quickly and quietly.  So far it's been good.  The trailer is sturdy enough without the leveling feet and the fridge is plenty cold with ice in it.  

Eric unhooked the pool filter and pump.  Mowed the lawn.  Pruned things.  Sussed out having our gates swing in instead of out so that he can put openers on them. He worked on Cherry, replacing the warrantied struts and putting in a wiring harness for electric brakes. So he had a busy day.  Last night he put a bunch of rv parts in the amazon cart.  I just ordered them all for him tonight.  Fixing problems on the Falcon, water keeps coming in from the slide while it's moving in and out. We need a new door lock for Cheese and updated propane regulators.

I started the movie Will and Harper on Netflix this afternoon.  Time for jammies, snacks and to finish the show.  

Today brought to you by the number 52.

 

Both boys had appointments in the city today.  We packed a lunch to enjoy inbetween them.

Kai saw the Endocrinologist.  His sugars are good, his liver enzymes are good, his cholesterol is still too high but not high enough to medicate.  He's growing.  5' 5" now.  Unfortunately his puberty growth has stopped and his testosterone has declined.  So he has stalled.  We get to ignore this until he's 14 and then will move to shots at home.  Luk saw the Neurologist who has followed him since he came home.  He's doing great.  We need to consider lightning the load of his backpack.  The boys iep meetings are Monday so we can discuss Luk leaving his books at school.  No one does homework here anyways.

My pony underneath.  Haha.

Another gorgeous day.

Watching him figure this out was fun.

More small joys.

We also stopped at a thrift store and bought the 3 things on my list.  A big bowl for Cheese, pasta serving spoon for the house and one last pair of red plaid pj pants for the family xmas photo this year.  So that was successful.  The joy part for me...I have a favorite dress that I bought in the states a few years ago.  It's looking worn and is too big.  I found the same dress in black and in a smaller size today!  

Lili walks around town on her lunch hours.  She has discovered the hospital auxiliary thrift store.  Yesterday she bought a Mackage winter coat for $15, online it started at $600 so that was quite the find.

We made a deal with Jia that if he made Fei getting her up and to school easy we would bring back the much coveted soup dumplings from Costco.  We had to go get the dumplings ;)

No hardship for Luk and I because we got our much coveted poutine while we were there.

I stopped and stared at this Disney Halloween thing for way too long.  Luk was confused.  Haha.  I need a lottery win and a warehouse to hold treasures.  I resisted but it was hard.

Mine and Misters Halloween costumes for this year arrived today.

We're so adorable.

We were in Cherry today.  The urge/habit to wave to the Wranglers is strong.  We're well trained.  We passed five Wranglers before we even left Duncan and joked about how many we'd have to resist waving at.  I said 30.  Eric said 40.  The boys ignored us but when we hit 22 they got involved.  Luk said 35 and Kai said 45.  Kai can't see them but he was loving the numbers being called out and was keeping track of the last number and keeping us on track.  We actually saw 52 Wranglers in the wild today.  So Kai won.  He was of course quite delighted.  Conversely we saw 3 Broncos, 4 Navigators and not a single Commander.  

On the way home we were discussing the Halloween cruise.  Eric is good to decorate and do the event again.  He kept all of the decorations for Oscar.  Then it occurred to me that I could bring Onyx too.  So that was an exciting thought to amuse me on the drive.  I want to dress her as the dragon she is.  I need to figure out building wings and a tail.  We both have some ideas.  We have 26 days to create.  This is the fun part of life.

Gasp.  Is this photo real or fake?  Does this actually exist?  If any of ya'll see this please LET ME KNOW.  Fei and I will be very grateful :)

Tiny Joys

 I get asked occasionally what do I do for myself for self care.  Well, not anything on a schedule.  Nothing big.  But lots of little things that add up.  We're all focusing on little moments these days.

Finding a picture on Facebook of Oscar advertising the Halloween cruise night.  

Eric finding a Halloween Boyds Bear.  We can't figure out his costume, I think maybe a black cat since it has a long tail.

Now that Izzy is gone, finding Eric doing a deep clean. 

Picking up Jia from work and getting myself a Happy Meal just so I could have a mini croc.

Small things.

Chemainus River Estuary

 

This is a local secret spot.  It was hard to find.  An old fellow in the Crofton coffee shop gave us directions.  We only saw a couple people there and one was a regular that told us to keep it secret ;)

On a two hour ramble we saw no garbage, not butts and no dog poop.  Wild.  I can see why everyone is so hush about keeping it pristine.

We'll definitely add this to our list of local nature walks.

Oh...and no kids wanted in on this adventure.