Because Madeline has an older brother she wants to do whatever he does.  Madeline seems to want to be independent more so than Ryan did at her age.  I really think she looks up to her older brother. 

Ryan, of course, loves to go down the slides all by himself.  There are very few slides that Madeline won’t want to go down by herself if Ryan does.

This year we had a great chance to take a vacation on Hornby Island (3 ferries from Vancouver).  It is quite a remote island, small and with beautiful beaches.  This island isn’t really far but it is hard to get to because of all of the ferries.  We had a great vacation which started with a trip to Victoria to see the bug museum (click here to view). 

It was a lot of fun for both kids to be on the ferry.

It was a lot of fun on the ferry but we also had a good time waiting for the ferries to arrive

This video really needs some explaining.  Although this video is of Ryan doing some zip lining on our way to Hornby Island I am posting this on Madeline’s blog because we had such a good laugh at this video.  When I was showing this video to Madeline and Ryan they both burst out laughing when Madeline screams out “My Carrot!” when Ryan starts his sliding.  Ryan said “what is she saying” and Madeline and Ryan could not stop laughing.  It is very strange.

Madeline wants to be just like her big brother.  This year when we went blueberry picking Madeline fell asleep on the way.  We thought she would be left out and not get the chance to pick anything (or eat them!).  Madeline is a huge blueberry fan so we thought the farmer might have gotten off easy by having Madeline sleep through our picking.

Madeline eventually woke up and wanted to help us pick.  Here is a video of her picking blueberries – she is very cute (and incredibly slow at picking!!)

Madeline was very excited for Baba’s visit.  She loved dressing up and having someone around that could pay attention to her.  Madeline was very comfortable with Baba from the very start.