Friday, May 27
We stayed at my dad's place for the remainder of Thursday night, and in the morning Cheryl brought the kids over on her way to an appointment with the twins.
David packed a raft of kids' summer toys from Pennsylvania, including a mega-container of bubble wands and solution, so we set about amusing the kids with that. Michael and Melissa immediately recalled the bubble shows we'd seen at Science World, and we even showed Uncle Dave how to "catch" bubbles by putting some solution on your hand. Good clean fun, as David says.
Click on the thumbnails image above or view the whole set here: The Bubble Factory
After Cheryl left, we took the kids to the mall next door, a source for plenty of amusement and a food court so there would be no trashing Gumpa's apartment. While we were there, I had the good fortune of spotting my friend Karen walking by with her dad. I only ever seem to see Karen once a year, during our birthdays in June which are close together, because of that psychological divide called the Fraser River*. I was glad to bump into her and introduce her to David.
And what trip to the mall with small children would be complete without fighting over mechanical rides like horses and kids cartoon characters? It's just not the same! If you've ever tried putting a kid on one, you'll know what it's like to try and pry them off again. Try pulling gum off the bottom of a chair sometime. Of course, I have photographic evidence.
We also took them to the pet shop for some animal terrorisation. (I kid, parents-of-aforementioned-children.) I shot a bit of video, too, of the shop iguana. Oh, the footage he'd get from his side of the glass if armed with a camera. I can just imagine.
On the way back, Michael and Melissa and Maddy all took turns getting Uncle Dave to put them on his shoulders. Being the good sport that he is, he indulged them, even though it was hot enough outside to fry eggs on the sidewalk, let alone cover one's neck with 50 lbs of child.
Cheryl arrived at Dad's with good reports about the twins' trip to see the doctor, and we played with them for a while before they headed out en masse again. We packed up some of my stuff into one of the suitcases David brought empty from Pennsylvania, and we Skytrained into Vancouver to unload our stuff before our evening in Richmond, the first of many transit trips we'd take over the weekend.
* Whenever someone lives across a bridge -- ANY bridge -- they might as well be in the next province. There are two bridges to the North Shore, three between the downtown peninsula to the rest of the city, two south of Vancouver to Richmond, then the Queensborough, Patullo, Skytrain, Alex Fraser, and Port Mann bridges further east. Mention any one of them, and they immediately conjure images of traffic, accidents, rubbernecking, and congestion. It's a part of life in the GVRD.
