Oh hoppy day!

Saturday morning I woke up and decided that I didn't want to stay home all day and do projects, which was on the agenda. I said to Darren, "let's go to Vancouver". So we did. We grabbed some food and hopped in the van and drove to the ferries. It was Emma and Tate's first time off the Island ( except for Saltspring). We caught the 12:30 ferry over from Naniamo and got to the Vancouver Aquarium at about 3:45. It was a ton of fun. They have a big frog exhibit on right now along with all the regulars. Beluga whales ( my personal favorite), sharks, rays, turtles, dolphins and many, many other creatures. Next we rushed to Ikea to pick up some things for the house. Darren was also needing to pick up an engine for his machine while we were over there but since we were short on time he dropped Noelle, Tate and myself off at Ikea and took the other two with him to pick up the engine. Noelle was a huge help and even Tate was a pretty good little shopper, considering that it was now 7p.m. and we hadn't had dinner yet. I pushed the cart with Tate and the little things and Noelle pushed the furniture trolley. I wish I had taken a picture. She was so proud of herself being able to help like that. Darren got back to Ikea just as I was done and met me at the exit. We loaded up the van, tied the big things onto the roof racks and headed for the Ferry. We had to catch the 9 or else wait until 10:45, which is too late for me let alone me kids. It was 8:30 and we thought that we would have just enough time to get there, but as we drove the furniture boxes started to slide off the van. We had to pull over and tie them back down again. Bergen , who had been sitting in the back of the van all day rushing all over Vancouver, got sick on the way to the ferry. Sweet little guy got it all into the small bucket that we threw back to him as we raced on towards the ferry, only as fast as the boxes on the top of the van would let us. We made that ferry with 2 mins to spare. I still cannot believe how tight everything was and how it all worked out. It was a crazy fun day. I can't wait to do it again!