The Happy Harper's

The Happy Harper's

Friday 28 November 2014

~Home in time for Christmas~

We had to rush home to be in time for Becky's staff and family Christmas party at Butchart Gardens.   And....what a treat it was.   The shopping, hot chocolate, cookies, carousel ride, skating rink and wonderful meal were amazing and of course the lights and decorations were incredible!!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful way to begin this Christmas season.

Look at us all now in jeans, boots, scarves and jackets!!!  What a change from 3 days ago.

While we were walking around the wind was picking up and at around 8.30p the entire place went pitch black. All the power had gone out in the area, so everyone was left to find the main path back to the entrance in the dark. Too funny! The gardens had generators for the restaurant and for the main entrance, that came on immediately but that was the end of the evening for us!!
SO....back to our house we went ........in the dark...............to find candles, matches etc.....so we could see. What a funny way to end our fantastic holiday!!!!

~Heading Home~

We had spectacular driving days heading home - blue skies and beautiful views of Mt. Shasta!

This is Mt. Baker.
We had to get up early for our ferry ride across from Anacortes, WA to Sidney, BC.
We were all waiting for Scott to lock the trailer and come for a photo.....he never arrived!!   He went around the trailer and up to the deck thinking we were all there already :)

We always love our trip across to the island.   The views are incredible and as much as we LOVE travelling.......we are always happy to come back home to beautiful Victoria.

What an amazing trip we had!!!   SO many wonderful memories and good times together!!

~Our Final Week~


We had such a great last week.   We met some wonderful, new friends...........Rick, Jenn, Devin and Avery from Idaho.  We enjoyed visiting with them, playing pickleball, swimming, playing games and wii, going to church etc.... and getting to know them.
Our last desert sunset.
On one of the nights we all went to the movies.
The kids had fun "night" swimming.



We really enjoyed this new friendship and feel very blessed to have met you all! We hope we get to see you all again.....soon!  :)



Sunday 23 November 2014

~ Final Days~

We spent our final week of our holiday at "Indian Waters RV Resort" in Indio, CA.   This park has had millions of dollars of improvements and was so lovely.
Dad and Mum had a great cabin overlooking a lake with a fountain.  (it was almost like they were at home!)


The kids had a great time playing all the different games on the patio.   We also spent quite a bit of time playing pickle ball with other members of the park.   All so friendly!
Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings the park offers complimentary waffles and orange juice.  Such a nice treat!  This is the family lining up for them.  :)

A praying mantis on a bush at the pool.
Once again we had beautiful birds throughout the park.   There were road runners all over the place.
We had our final "hoorah" buffet  - yummy!

The days were SO warm and beautiful and we loved the wonderful, warm pool and hot tub.
This is one park we will definitely come back to.   What a great place to spend our last week.

~Wilderness Lakes~

We have just spent a lovely week at "Wilderness Lakes" Thousand Trails Park.   The campground is surrounded by lovely canals that are filled with beautiful ducks and birds.
Both our site and Dad and Mum's cabin overlooked one of the canals.


The park has a lovely, big pool with 2 hot tubs.
We had a great time one afternoon playing mini golf - girls vs boys.  (not saying who won!)
The birds were not only in the canals, but walking all over the park.   This one was checking Shae out!!

As always we spent many hours at the pool with lots of fun times!



Once again we enjoyed the Bingo day.   This was by far the largest turnout we have ever seen at a park - about 200 people!   And......they probably had the same amount of chocolate bars as well!!!
We were each given 4 cards and each time we won we had to hand in our cards.  This gave everybody a fair chance to win.    Between the 6 of us playing we won 19 chockies !!!

While we were staying at Morgan Hill at the beginning of our trip we met Vic and Cathy from Temecula, CA.   We had such a lovely time visiting with them that when we were down in their area we were anxious to see them again.  They graciously asked us over for dinner.  And.....what a dinner it was!!!   Thank you guys for such wonderful hospitality and a great evening!!
We are looking forward to seeing you again.....this time in Victoria where we can treat you!!  :)