Sunday Stroll

   January can be a tricky month to maneuver- in the past we have kept ourselves busy with baby related things but this year there is no denying we have kids not babies! How is a family to get through this gloomy month of January- not just get through it but thrive through it! Saturdays are never a problem what with soccer, ballet and the Farmer's Market- but Sunday can be a sneaky day. What starts out as relaxing can often escalate into full scale anarchy by  late morning. So  yesterday when the cannonballs started flying off the back of the couch we did what any sensible family would do- we took to the forest of course!

      Before we had these Littles my Mr and I loved a good hike- mainly because it is free and we were broke-hiking was a great way for us to explore the hidden beautiful places of our new (to us then) city.
We are still eager to explore new places and so we decided to check out Pacific Spirit park- shockingly a place we had yet to set foot in.

     Vancouver may have been experiencing a deluge of rain but under the sweeping arms of the giant spruce trees we were fairly dry- stepping onto the path and into another world we ran and hid and played for hours. In a city where most of this climate has been erased it is easy here to see where the spirit of Vancouver comes from- imagine once upon a time this forest covered all of the city!

     Pacific Spirit park is a whopping 763 hectors in size and sits between our city and the University of B.C.- a dog walker's dream  with 54 kms of semi packed, easy to walk paths this is a great beginner trail for families with small kids- you could easily spend an entire day here. Even though one of us ended the hike with a shoulder ride on a pair of sturdy Daddy shoulders everyone agrees this is a good hike- mushrooms, birds, squirrels, rocks and sticks- we give it two enthusiastic thumbs up!

   The forest worked it's magic on our family- after an entire week being cooped up inside with the flu this was just what we needed to get centred. We have challenged ourselves to a hike a week- we are starting small with just the month of January- this give us a new project as a family- something to research and plan for in a month where there is nothing to plan for!