Summer Vacation

We just returned from two weeks away on Vancouver Island, visiting family and friends. We spent most of that time with Huz's family in Port Alberni, and had a wonderful time. We had lots of good family chats, trips to the beach, visits to swimming holes, and LOTS of Nonna's delicious cooking. It occurs to me now, as I sit down to write this, that we don't have any pics with The Family on the camera, which is obviously a HUGE oversight, which we will rectify at least in part when we go back in a few weeks for our goodbye visit (wah!!!). Despite our lack of photographic evidence, we really treasured this time with our family - it has been so special to us to be close to everyone while we've lived here over the past eight years. It is definitely with heavy hearts that we move farther away, but we hope that our summer visit to the west coast will be an annual tradition, where we can reconnect with Huz's parents, siblings, and nephews and continue to create these precious memories.

We did manage to take a nice family photo, at the "Hole in the Wall" in Port Alberni.

Exploring with Zio

We also spent a night in Parksville, visiting and saying goodbye to my aunt and her family. These guys have been so incredibly wonderful to us over the past 8 years that we have lived on the west coast, and it has meant SO much to me to have family over here. My aunt and her family have taken us into their homes, shared their time, and celebrated many of our major milestones with us, and becoming closer to them has been one of the many gifts of our time out west. We will miss you immensely, but hope you will come and visit us in Philadelphia, and that we will continue to see you at The Big Family Hoedowns in Ontario.

Thank you for everything! We love you! xo

We also spent some time visiting and saying goodbye to dear friends of ours in Victoria. They have a gorgeous 2-month old baby girl, who we cuddled and nuzzled, and we caught up with our friends and their beautiful and accomplished elder daughter. Although we do not see you as often as we would like, you are wonderful, lifelong friends, and we hope to see you before too long, either back on the island or in Philly!

Lucky us: Four beautiful daughters!

We were so grateful to be able to spend this time with everyone on our vacation, and although so special and meaningful, this time was also bittersweet. We have begun to say our "goodbyes," which is very sad, but we also feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends, who we know will continue to be immeasurably important in our lives, no matter where we may live.