the Island ... part 1

back to our Vancouver-vacation-posting-series ...

June 28 ... Monday morning we rushed out of the house ... all dressed for the Rogers family photo shoot at this awesome old historic farmhouse property ... pictures from the shoot will be posted a little later this week ... but we got some good ones ... some of each family and the entire 18-person Rogers family ... so check back to see them!

After the photo shoot, Rhett & Yulia, Brandon and Tyler left to go back to Portland.  We had a fun long weekend with them & appreciated them coming up to see us!

We spent the afternoon playing with the girls ... and then we were off to Hannah's elementary school end-of-year program ... she just completed Kindergarten and she invited us to come with her to her program to watch her walk across stage ... and we were all to happy to be able to attend!  Living so far away, we have missed out on every birthday celebration & every holiday celebration of her & our other 6 nieces/nephews, (except for Christmas 2008) ... so her inviting us so excitedly to this pretty big event, we couldn't have thought of a better way to spend our evening!  (Sadly, I brought my camera, but left our memory stick at the house, so we had no picture evidence of this special evening ... just our memories!)



June 29 ... Tuesday ... we packed our vehicles & loaded up for a fun little 2-day excursion to "the Island" ... if you're a local, you know that "the Island" is none other than Vancouver Island ... which you can only reach by crossing the Pacific Ocean.  There are many towns & cities on Vancouver Island, including Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia ... which was our main destination for our 2-day trip!  (Ashley growing up in Vancouver, has been many times to Victoria & the Island, but Kendall & I have never been, so we were really excited about visiting!)

We drove onto & rode the BC Ferry to Nanaimo ... it was Kendall's 1st time on a Ferry ... it was Kendall's & my 1st time to Nanaimo ... it was a 2 hour ferry ride ... and we enjoyed it & kept busy by playing in the kids' play area, exploring the Ferry & checking out the views from the decks!

Kendall & Mommy onboard the BC Ferry to Nanaimo!

hanging out in the kids' play areas on
the Ferry ... we spent some time in there
with 6 kids to keep occupied!

outside in the front of the Ferry ... Hannah, Kendall, me
and Sadie ... it was very windy & chilly out on the decks!

view from the back of the Ferry

out on the deck

Kendall & Daddy out on the deck

Mommy & Kendall at the front of the Ferry

Sadie helping Kendall walk around on the front deck

lots of beauty in BC!

having a little snack before the Ferry rolls into Nanaimo

Nanaimo was our 1st stop on our trip ... to visit the camp grounds that Ashley spent 15 summers of summer camp as a camper or counselor.  For the past 10 years, I've heard tons of stories about the camp that he grew up attending, that his dad directed, that he was a camp counselor at, that he assisted directed at one summer ... and finally, I was getting to see it for myself!  And it was like he was getting to see a new version of it, too because lots of changes have taken place to the camp since he was a part of it.

We drove through Nanaimo to get to the camp ... Spruston Road Bible Camp ... and Ash & Brandon did a great job at remembering how to get there ... it had been more than 10 years since Ash had been back! We arrived at camp and were greeted by an old friend of their's ... John Ryan Rushe.  (He had driven over an hour just to come out to the camp to let us in & see us ... he is a very sweet guy!)  Ash was his counselor at camp ... and now he's married & has 2 kids ... and he is the camp director for junior camp (elementary school aged kids)!  When Ash introduced me to him, the first thing John Ryan said to me was "what a great guy you married" ... (which I totally already knew, but it's always sweet to hear it from others, too) ... that "Ash was my counselor at camp and that he changed my life" ... "had it not been for Ash & the man that he already was at that age, I know my life would have been very different."  Wow!  Hearing all of that from John Ryan was very touching to me ... although Ash says he really doesn't feel like he did anything, it is amazing to see what kind of positive impact you can make on someone ... just sowing a little seed & letting God do the rest!  And now John Ryan is impacting hundreds of other kids each summer ... that's exciting!

We all enjoyed exploring the camp ... hearing Ashley, Brandon, Mary & Amber tell old stories & what things had changed vs. what things were like when they were campers/counselors there ...

John Ryan with Ash

Kylie, Uncle B, Hannah & Ash ... standing near the
boys cabins area (in the background)

at one of the boys cabins ... Mary,
Amber, Kylie, Brandon & Ash

sweet girls ... these 2 girls LOVED helping our little girl walk!

at the new fire pit ... Sadie, Brandon, Kylie, Hannah & Mary

us at the new fire pit area

Amber, Gabe & Jude

Miss Sadie-cakes roasting us some
yummy imaginary marshmallows!

Daddy & Kendall ... with the newly improved &
expanded dinning hall (in the background)

the Sister Act ... Sadie & Hannah entertained us by
singing (with choreography) "It's a Good, Good Feeling"!

After checking out the camp, it was time to hit the "swim hole" ... now, I've been hearing stories from Ash over the past 10 years about this swim hole and "the big rock" that they'd jump off of ... and it was finally time for me to see all of this for myself! 

(Okay, so growing up in Texas, I went to summer church camps as well (actually, several different ones throughout my older elementary & junior high years) ... and all of those camps had swimming pools ... not anything like a swim hole ... plus, we had separate swimming (girls swimming time, then boys swimming time ... not "mixed swimming" ... ha!) ... so their swimming experience was a bit different from mine ... but after seeing the swim hole & actually getting to the swim hole, I can understand why!)

We drove out of the camp, down another dirt road for a little bit & parked our 3 vehicles ... and it started sprinkling a little ... we proceeded to get out all the strollers, kids, cameras, video cameras, sweatshirts & jackets ... and started to walk down to the swim hole.  As we continued to walk, it continued to rain ... in true Northwest fashion ... getting a bit more chilly & wet as we walked ... really, hiked along in the woods.  Ash ended up carrying Kendall in our baby bjorn, while I pushed our soaked stroller.   We finally arrived to the famous swim hole ... more than 30 minutes later ... all wet, but excited to see this place ... and watch Brandon go swimming, despite the rain, chilly temperature outside & freezing water!  And after some encouraging cheers from Hannah & Sadie ... in he went for a short swim.  We took some pictures, skipped rocks & played just a little (it was really wet & everyone was cold) ... and then we hiked back ... carrying strollers over parts of the hike.

Sadie, Ash & Kendall ... on our hike

Kendall ... a little wet but still a happy girl!

the big rock ... and it is really big ... it's 35 feet high!

skippin' rocks

Amber putting her feet in the freezing water!

Brandon in the freezing water

one wet family picture ...
Kylie slept through the entire adventure 

As soon as we got back to our vehicles, the rain stopped, the sun came out in full blazes & off came all of our clothing layers!  Ash was soooo disappointed (and we all were) ... and wanted us all to go back, but we just didn't have the time and the kids were "all done done" (as we say in the Rogers fam) ... so we loaded up & headed out to ... Victoria!  (Sorry, babe ... hopefully we can visit the swim hole again ... for longer ... when the weather is a bit nicer!)