Since Brian did not need to go to rehearsal until 2:30, we continued our tour by walking up to Craigdarroh Castle. Colin thought we were quite rude to interrupt his TV watching this morning, we are such bad parents! Nonetheless, Colin was excited to see a castle and liked to talk about the kingdom and looked for thrones.
We would call this a follie and not a castle but we are picky like that. It was completed in 1890 after the man who commissioned it had died. He did not sound like a super nice guy.
Checking out the taxidermy owl who was watching us.
The interiors were beautiful. Seems extra appropriate to admire Victorian interiors in Victoria.
I think Jane is picking her nose in the formal dinning room (should have saved that for the breakfast room). We got a funny photo of Colin picking his nose at Versailles here.
Colin thought is was a little spooky. It would be an excellent backdrop for a Scooby Doo Mystery. We did not find any suits of armor, that would have been the kicker for our 4 year old.
In the observation tower. Our kids got very excited about the donation box. It was thrilling.
Brian playing an old Steinway in the ballroom. There was a sign stating that people who actually play the piano are welcome to play tasteful things.
Brian has the whole day off tomorrow and if we have good weather we are going to head over to Butchart Gardens.
We are in a great apartment about a 5 minute walk from Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. Not only is there a great playground and beautiful flower gardens, there is a little petting zoo. It took the kids a little bit to warm up but they loved the goats! They were both very sweet and gentle. And we missed it today, but twice a day they have a goat stampede through the zoo. I am very excited to make it for the stampede another day.
This was our first goat friend, named Mario.
Glad this did not get poopy, although Jane would have been very amused to see a goat go poopy close up. She is very entertained by poopy. We had a thrilling discussion about how even animals go poopy while at the petting zoo.
Everything Jane was wearing is second hand, even down to her shoes and socks. I love to recycle and have had a lot of fun thrift store shopping for kids clothes, besides the great hand me downs from girl cousins.
We will most likely be back a few times to see our little goat friends.
Before we left Utah we were able to shoot some head shots for this lovely lady. She was very great to shoot and I was reminded how much I love head shots.
I posted some of my niece's bridal photos but never got to the wedding. It was a lovely (hot) day in St. George, Ut. Brian was in New York for a concert and even though I have shot many weddings without him, I am spoiled by him working as my photo assistant and lighting designer. I was a little sad to shoot without him but the light was great and we got some fun memories from the day.
The bride's brother is in Uganda on a two year mission so a photo would have to do. We missed Christian! He is doing great work in Africa.
I love the St. George Temple! So beautiful.
Maybe not the bride and groom's favorite photos, but I love these kind of out-takes.
It was about 112 degrees when we were taking these photos, don't they look great even in the heat? These photos are not even re-touched. Helps to photograph the young and beautiful.
There was a candy bar at the reception. Most of my photos of the candy have Colin in there somewhere.
Colin was very darling in his suit. Jane was darling too, guess I did not upload any photos of her.
My sisters. All four of my brothers were there too but we did not manage a photo. It is kind of a special occasion when we get together as a sibling set as we live in Seattle, Utah, Minnesota, Chicago, and Connecticut. It was a fun family day.
We made it to Victoria BC earlier this week (a bit behind on blogging, oh well.) We are here for Brian's role as the Prince in Rossini's Cinderella with the Pacific Opera of Victoria. Can't say we will mind spending a month here. We love England so much, we feel a little at home, especially with all our favorite British candy so easily available (although we know it is Canada and not the UK). And all our plugs work and no jet lag!
We have had two beautiful sunny mornings and have already found many playgrounds, Costco, and the dollar store. We are all set up.
After Brian's rehearsal yesterday, we met down in Chinatown. Colin is doing a little happy dance, Starbucks gave us some cookie samples and he could not contain his happiness over free cookies.
Jane loves her Daddy.
Join us for dinner in Victoria's Chinatown, here is the view from our table. 2 of the 4 things we ordered were amazing, the other two only so-so. We got some wanton soup that had all these extra greens and squid and chicken and mushrooms in a nice broth and I would go back just for that soup. The scallops were also great.
Colin was in a little mood.
I mainly love Jane's face looking at her big brother. She wants to do everything like him.
Brian's face of not having anything to do with this is also pretty great.
Nana got tutus for all the little granddaughters, and I found Jane some fairy wings. It has been very fun to see her fluttering around the garden.
Admiring herself in the window.
The dutiful little sister watching Colin's show. Here are some highlights from the performance:
Almost as good as George Michael Bluth.
Jane then prepared for battle.
And then the next day, with after lunch treat. There are more days than not at home when we have lunch in jammies and Jane still as our little butterfly. She says she is a snow princess.
We leave again this weekend and will miss home, but we get a couple weeks home in late October. We have never been home in October.
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