Birch Bay Part One: The Condo

At the end of July we headed up to Birch Bay for the annual Bean family reunion. We've stayed in the same condo for a few years now, and the girls really like it. It has one bedroom downstairs and a loft upstairs with two twin beds. Gwen thinks the loft is pretty cool.

Fiona slept in the downstairs bedroom by herself. She and Gwen aren't quite ready to share a room yet- they would keep each other awake.

The plan was for Gwen to have the loft and for Rick and me to have the hide-a-bed. That only lasted for one night because the hide-a-bed was really uncomfortable. For the rest of the week, Rick, Gwen and I slept in the loft on the two twin-sized beds shoved together. We always moved Gwen to the floor when we came to bed, but she would eventually climb in with us at some point. Usually she was crowding Rick, so I didn't mind so much.

It was also interesting trying to put her to bed in the evening. Gwen just couldn't resist peeking over the edge of the balcony from the loft every 5 minutes to see what we were doing. I can't say I blame her.

Here are a few pictures of us hanging around the condo...

Cousin Katie peeking over the balcony

Fiona waving at Katie in the loft

If the lighting was better, you would see that we had a view of the ocean from our balcony

Saying "hi" to Fiona from the loft

Since I'm thinking about our condo, there was something less than ideal about having a loft. First, the loft caused Gwen to fall asleep late a night. She was just too curious about what we were doing to go to sleep. Plus, no matter how quiet we were downstairs, she could still hear us. Since she was going to bed so late, she was sleeping in until 9 or 10 in the morning. Fiona, on the other hand, was waking up at 5 or 6 am. Each morning I would try to keep her in her room for as long as possible. I worried that if we went into the main area, it would wake Gwen up.

Eventually, I would run out of ways to entertain Fiona in her room in the mornings. We would then quietly slip out and go on a walk or a drive. Some of the mornings were really cold, so it wasn't always very pleasant!

On the last day at Birch Bay, Rick got up with Fiona and took her on a walk while Gwen and I slept. He even stopped at a cafe and brought us back a hot breakfast. What a sweetie!