Wednesday 14 August 2013

Final Days Fun with Friends Part 3: Camping at Cultus Lake


I have a lot of playing catching up to do! I'm still getting through my last few blogs of our Vancouver fun...and then I can get started on our USA roadtrip! Bear with me...we get less than 1mb of internet speed in our new flat in Hamilton, in Vancouver we had 18mb!! It's taking some getting used to! 

So sometime back in June we went camping with our buddies from church.  We arrived into the campground at Cultus Lake pretty late on Friday night, with just enough time to cook up some amazing burgers on the BBQ and wash them down with some root beer! It was off to a good start! 


and then we had a s'mores campfire before bed...


and we made some amazingly tasty concoctions! This was a coconut marshmallow plus a square of white chocolate coconut lindt, plus a fresh raspberry!!


The next day we woke up early, ready to hit the waterpark! Sadly the bright sunny day that had been forecast didn't quite pan out, and we ended up with an overcast day which led to some chilly waits in the 'line-ups' as Canadians say...but that would be 'queues' to you and me! 


It didn't really matter though, because we still had tons of fun! This ride was very appropriately named!


It was probably one of the scariest water slides I've ever been on! 


this face is in agreement too! It's just the initial going over the top and the first drop down that's pretty terrifying! 


but then the swishing back and forth after the initial drop is pretty fun!


Little Kate was pretty brave about taking on some of the slides!



and Lila was loving the water too!



They are so cute, I couldn't help but snap away!


Definitely water babies at heart!


Our favourite ride had to be this big raft thing that 4 people could go down in at once, each time we went on it and sat in a different spot inside the raft you got a different experience! We laughed so much at the people who would get soaked in the face throughout while others escaped pretty dry at the end! 



It was a pretty impressive water park though...defo better than anything we have in England!



A few action shots of Byron making a splash!



This drop slide was probably the one I was most scared about going on! 


but after Byron and Brock went first, I felt I had no choice to join in! It pelted you down at such a force that it actually split my swimming shorts down the seam - how embarrassing!! 


She finally made it on, and this epic face says it all! 


We also loved this mini raft ride too! Our friends always managed to pick up the most speed on it! and make it even scarier! 


How cute does Kate look here! 


We got back to the campsite...


just in time to pick a few salmonberries!


and we BBQ'd up some amazing chicken kebabs!


We took the kids for a stroll to check out the lake...



Oh how I miss that lush green scenery! 


By got to work on his favourite pastime ever...skipping stones!


Kate and Lila didn't quite get the hang of it, but gave it their best try! 


We headed back to camp, and we were introduced us to the delights of 'Jiffy Pop' because she couldn't believe we'd never had it before! 


It's a special little pan of popcorn kernels made specifically for BBQ's! It was pretty exciting to watch it grow bigger and bigger until eventually they were cooked to perfection! 


We couldn't resist making more s'mores, this time with strawberries - everything's always over the top and delicious when we get together with our friends - just how we love it! 


A perfectly roasting marshmallow!


This took me several tries to get it right! Fun with sparklers! they were initially bought for the girls, but they were a bit scared of them so we had fun with them instead! 


On our last morning, we were cooked up an epic Canadian breakfast of what else but pancakes and bacon! Seriously pancakes when camping? These guys know how to camp in style! 


We were loving it! 



We checked out the little lakefront shore and chilled there for a while,


the boys played some frisbee...


and we played at the playpark a little! Kate loves having her photo taken, so I took advantage of having a willing model for once! 


Love those little purple trainers! 


Eventually it was time to head home but not without some epic Pizza Hut action where we ordered more pizzas than I've ever seen in my life! haha, and then we topped it all off with some Dairy Queen!


Apparently it was crazy that we hadn't tried blizzards yet so that had to changed! 


and after getting a s'mores blizzard I agreed! How had we gone without these for so long! 


Smiles and ice cream covered faces all round! 


Dairy Queen...and our camping weekend was a big hit! Now we just need to convince our friends to come visit us in Scotland to do it again sometime! Haha!