I’ve just come to the realization that my clan isn’t heading to Disneyland this Fall.  That was the plan, but it won’t happen this year.  Knowing this makes me so thankful for a magical vacation we had late this summer that was so fun and utilized a very local footprint.  We took the advice of many friends and tried Parksville this summer.  It was our first vacation with the entire clan since the girls arrived and it was wonderful.  And if you were to ask my boys, very Disneylandish.  My boys requested the hotel pool every waking hour of every day.  It was the highlight and best part of their trip.  There was also an incredible mini-golf and bumper boat kid’s paradise just down the road… it was awesome.  The boys were happily tucked away with all these fun activities and the girls loved the Parksville beach.  It was the most beautiful sight out our hotel window each morning.  The water went out for miles and left magical tidal pools behind.  Within these pools you would find hundreds of fish, sand dollars, hermit crabs, and rock crabs, by the handfuls.  Every tidal pool had something special to find and I think we found the perfect pet for our family - does a Sand dollar count as a pet?  If so - sign us up!  Very low maintenance which is what we need.

We stayed at a hotel called the The Beach Club.   I’ve been to some pretty nice countries and had beautiful accommodations, but these were the most impressive by far!  They have combined modern design with high functionality for families.  It was unbelievable how nice the rooms were.  A beautiful decorating touch that I really appreciated was instead of artwork, the hotel framed natural, ocean inspired photography of the Parksville beach.  There were pictures of sand dollars, seaweed, rippling of sand, simply amazing pictures that reflected the beautiful balance of the outside, back in from the amazing adventures we had on the beach.  Our room came complete with 2 soaker tubs; amazing beds with fluffy, soft bedding and the kids all begged us to stay extra days.  They were completely at ease there and must have been well exercised because they have never slept so well.

My family practiced a local footprint with our summer vacation this year, and it couldn’t have turned out better!  We barely used any gas to get to Parksville and once we exited the Nanaimo ferry, our drive was only 20 mins to reach the hotel.  Really, does it get any better?  It was such an easy vacation for Ray and I, I’m okay with the fact Disneyland is waiting another year.  We managed to have our Disneyland vacation and not stray too far from home.  Really, with Fall activities, Halloween, and the pumpkin patch waiting for us over the next few weeks - my family is living the Disneyland experience.  Come October 1st, our house will start resembling the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ and Disney magic will run with abundance.

The girls celebrating their wide open space to run together!

Yesterday’s Mommy Footprint article included tips for freezing different types of berries and veggies. As a ‘part II’ to the topic of berry freezing, I wanted to concentrate just on blueberries.  This berry is so incredible with the antioxidant levels and is available now to be picked at so many farms.  Some of the health benefits of blueberries are anti-aging, lowering cholesterol, strengthening immune resistance to the flu, and reducing the risk of cancer and heart disease.  So what better way to improve the health of your children than visiting a no spray or organic, local berry farm and pick enough berries to freeze for the whole year!  Here are some tips from a chef named ‘Chef Dez’ published in our local paper:

♥  It’s best to freeze blueberries individually, so you can retrieve them in a handful, rather than defrosting a mass of them.  To accomplish this, lay them all out on baking sheets, freeze them completely, then transfer to sealable freezer bags.

♥  Wash them prior to freezing, but make sure they are completely dry before transferring them from the baking sheets.  Wet berries will freeze to each other and the sides of the bag.

♥ Keep frozen blueberries for up to a year for best results.