Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our co

It has been a long 9 months since I have seen my parents. Our family is quite close and when they told us that they were coming to visit in 3 weeks I was impatient with excitement. Because of the length of time we were spending in Victoria we decided to pick up some casual labor. The extra cash is appreciated and hopefully we can have a place to park during the time not with family.

We got employment with a berry farmer for a short period of time. It sure does feel good to be working even if it is "grunt" work and cheap labor! I'm not even sure we were getting minimum wage...

Weeding in the strawberry and rhubarb patch

Paul and Leanne irrigation specialists!

Laying plastic for the upcoming crop

My parents flew out the first weekend in May for a few days.

We spent our time catching up over coffee, cramming in as many sights as possible as mom and dad have not been to Victoria before. We rode a double decker bus out to Sooke and toured the inner harbor and checked out the floating community. We sampled some delicious local smoked salmon.

Walking through Goldstream Provincial Park

They did such a good job hiking with us to this waterfall

The Legislature building

The tulips and daffodils were in full bloom at Buchart Gardens

Dad sampling an Irish whiskey flight at a well known Irish pub

Thanks mom and dad for taking the time to fly out and see us, for feeding us and being open to Paul and I dragging you all over Victoria!

We worked again for a full week. We packed in our dirty boots, our callused hands and tired backs and headed back to the airport to pick up Paul's sister Mary.

We have been so fortunate to have Mary visit us along the way. Mary used to live in Victoria for many years, so it was nice seeing the city through her eyes. She took us to some of her favorite places.

A different view of downtown Victoria

The arrival of Paul's parents overlapped Mary's visit. So the whole family got to spend a day together and celebrate Mother's Day with a delicious diner breakfast together.

Mary's visit was also pretty quick, but so appreciated. It's great to see Paul and Mary reconnect. Thank you Mary

Martin and Chris spent the remainder of the week with us. We toured the Empress hotel, saw nightly sunsets at the inner harbor, took in a double feature Imax and a film at the Vic theater.

Martin and Chris used to own a house in Sooke. We took a reminiscent stroll down memory lane in their old neighborhood

The pier at Sooke

Visiting Beacon Hill park and the petting zoo!

Thank you Mary, Martin and Chris for the warm welcome back into Canada, and for feeding us too!! Again we couldn't be more grateful for the family that could come and visit us in Victoria and can't wait to see the others that couldn't make it. After dropping off Paul's parents at the airport we headed back into Victoria for one more visit with some friends that just recently moved to Vic from Red Deer. It sure was nice to see more familiar faces and spend the night playing some board games and catching up! Thanks Braden and Kaylie for hosting us for the night!

Now we are off to the forest...sending love Paul, Leanne and Benny