8 Kids. One Van. 3,500 km. Catholic Family Adventure

Join our Catholic family of 10 on a faith-filled 3,500km road trip across Western Canada! With rosaries in hand, we packed one van with love, prayer, and snacks for a 14-day adventure from Saskatchewan’s prairies to Vancouver Island’s breathtaking coastlines. Share in the joy, chaos, and blessings as we explore Canmore, Banff, Yoho National Park, and more, all while growing closer to God. From praying the Rosary on the road to marveling at orcas on the ferry, beachcombing at Rathtrevor Beach, and hiking Hornby Island’s cliffs, this journey celebrates Catholic family life. Despite a sketchy motel and tummy troubles, our faith kept us strong. Subscribe for more Catholic family adventures and share your faithful travel stories below!

Transcript

So, what's it like to pack up a family of 10? We have rosaries in hand and drive 3,500 kilometers across Western Canada. 14 days, one van, countless snacks, fairy rides, beaches, forests, and memories that we'll never forget. From the prairies of Saskatchewan to the coastlines of Vancouver Island, we're sharing the laughter, the chaos, the beauty, and the blessings of our epic family road trip. So day number one, we take off and we are on our way to Canmore. Yes, Canmore, Alberta. So um we get to Canmore to my sister's place and she's so gracious. She has like a meal ready for us and everything is prepared and she's just brings us on a little hike into the mountains and you know when you get that first smell of like mountain air, it's just like wow, this is so heavenly and amazing. Um yeah, and Canmore is a beautiful place. If you're going to travel in Canada, that's one place that's a good stop. So, day two was from Canmore to Cam Loops, but we stopped in at BA because there's a special place there called Cow's Ice Cream. Janelle and I discovered Cow's Ice Swim on the east coast of Canada in Prince Edward Island when I was speaking for a conference out there. And the only place, it ends up being my favorite ice cream in all of Canada. And the only place in Western Canada, there's two spots, Whistler, BC and B, Alberta. So, this is the second time we've taken our family to Bamp. We went to Cow's Ice Cream. Um, Mooi Gooey is my favorite flavor if you want to know. And, uh, it was a great experience of just going in. BA is a a unique town in the Rockies. Yeah. And everybody loves this. Everyone loves going there. Like, it's exciting, but it's expensive. Just warning you. You know, the beautiful thing about uh the national parks here in Canada are that they're absolutely beautiful. They're well taken care of. the the even the outhouses are like, you know, they're outhouses, but they're not disgusting. They're taken care of. And so, um there's always exciting things to see along the highway and like fun little bridges that you notice that they've created for like the the wildlife to go over. And um and then they even give you like these really great maps where you can, you know, pull off onto the side and go on like a 2 km hike or a 1 km hike. And they're beautiful. Sometimes they'll even have these like great boardwalks. So, it's really easy for like a family with little kids, big kids, strollers, um to just do like a quick little break on the side of the road. So, we did one of those stops along the way at Yoho National Park, a place called Tataka Falls. And, uh we did some It's actually not that easy to get to. There's some switchbacks along a mountain to get up to the parking lot. Ended up being raining when we arrived, but that didn't stop most of us. I got a couple of the kids. We jumped out. We did the hike to the falls. Um it was a great experience even though we got soaked. Yeah. And I think absolutely terrifying going up there. The kids are like we're going to die because it literally you're like on the side of a cliff and there might be a guardrail if you're lucky. Um and uh Yeah. And at this one point like we had to back up to get to make the turn. Not the easiest thing to do with a 12 passenger van. Yeah. But we made it and we're we're still alive clear. So we ended Oh, we did also a boardwalk in Glacier National Park uh through some Douglas furs. Yeah, that was nice. I can't remember the name of that one. If you get a map, you can just find them. It was It was beautiful. Then we ended up in Cam Loops. Yeah. For the evening. Yes. Want to talk about Cam Loops? It was really bad. Okay. Well, Cam Loops is a beautiful place. If you're from there, it doesn't mean we don't love that place. We just ended up staying somewhere that was very scary. It was uh you can book this ahead of time. You know, it's a great deal. Right. It was a great deal for a reason. There were many tears shed and towels pulled out to sleep over and I'm like, "Don't put the baby anywhere. Don't put the baby on the bed." It was a rundown motel. I won't name the name, but the the guy who uh checked us in says, "Park in the front because the security cameras are in the front, not the back." So, it gives you an idea of what I accidentally booked, but we had nowhere else to stay. Um, you know what's bad? When the ice bucket is patched with the duct tape.

Her daughter's like, "I don't think they're supposed to use duct tape on that ice bucket." Anyhow, it was fine. And uh yeah, we made it to our destination the next day. We left early from Cam Loops to catch our ferry because um clearly Vancouver Island is an island and you have to take a ferry. And so we get to Horseshoe Bay is the name of the the um terminal. And uh that's like a really exciting thing to go on a ferry with all your kids. It's like this massive boat. And uh when we were on the ferry, we even got to see like some orca whales in the ocean. And yeah, Jacob was saying, "Dad, look out in the water. The water's being disturbed. I think there's something there." I'm like, "No, it's just waves. It's just waves." And all the kids look and all a sudden the fin goes up and goes down into the water. I guess it was a whale. Yeah. So, um, yeah, that was exciting. And it's usually about, I think, a 2-hour ride, like boat ride from Vancouver to Naimo. And yeah, then from Naimo, we we thought we would make it to in time for Costco to still be open, but it wasn't open cuz I was going to pick up some groceries, but um that's okay. There's lots of other grocery stores around. And then we drove to uh where we were staying, and that's at my aunt's place. So, um, this is one of the reasons why we were able to make this trip because I have an aunt who has this, um, you know, her home and then also this additional kind of facility connected to her home. Um, that was absolutely perfect for our family to stay in. There was four bedrooms and a small little kitchenet and bathrooms and it was kind of like our central place for us to stay and then we would do day trips from there. Yeah, it was just beautiful. and uh in the backyard you look out and you can see the ocean and it was just a magical place for us to say. So we're so grateful to Janelle's aunt and uncle who allowed us to to be there with them that whole time on the island. Mhm. And she was even so gracious to like make supper for us and I'd come back and my laundry would be folded. I was like, "Oh my goodness, this is like a real holiday, you know." Um, so we would just take care of our breakfast and lunch and we would go about and do our own thing during the day and then often we would uh congregate back at her place or my aunt and uncle's place and have supper with them. So, two places in the Parksville area on Vancouver Island that we really enjoyed. Number one, Wrath Trevor Beach and number two, Parksville along the water. Uh Wrath Trevor Beach was the first place that we took the kids and it's just amazing to see them experience the ocean because we don't have an ocean in Saskatchewan. So see them uh look for sand dollars and like clams and walk the beach and just beach coal basically. It's amazing how kids can be occupied when you just put them in nature and say go. Mhm. So that's a lot of what we did. Sometimes we just sit on the beach and let the kids play. What do you think? Yeah, it was really great. And we would just have the baby in like a carrier and he would sleep. It was awesome. Um, and then the other place was Parksville Park, which is also along the beach, and they have this incredible park for like kids, like little kids all the way to big kids. They have like a zipline. They have um a little spray park there. And it was just like we we spent hours at this park. And when you get tired of the play set, you can just go to the beach and they can play in the rocks, they can play in the sand. So, one of the things that catches our attention because we're from the prairies is that on the coast there's something called the tide. So, the water goes out and the water comes in. And so, it always makes the beach and the rocks always look different depending on what time of the day you go back to that place. And so it was neat to see the kids experience that to see the beach at low tide, see the beach at high tide and see what comes in um what treasures that they could find. And so even like other than that, that's kind of more relaxing. But we did a few um little hikes with our kids. And I would say probably the highlight of my time and and if you speak to the kids often they'll say going to Hornby Island. And Ken and I actually did this very uh hike when we were first married. We went out to Vancouver Island and we went to Hornby Island. You have to take two additional fairies to get there. And then we did the walk of it's called Hely Well Provincial Park and it's right along the coast and you get to see you know just like these kind of these cliffs and these little beaches and just so lovely. It's a 5.5 kilometer hike. And so Pascal uh started off running and he ran the first two kilometers and then I think I carried him for the rest. And of course Pat uh Louie who's our he was in a carrier. But the rest of the kids did so good. Uh that was the longest hike we did 5.5 km. And one way you know you go along the cliffs. As you come back uh you're sheltered by these big trees along the coast. And then we saw like these sea otterters in the distance and we stopped and were able to get a little close to them and the kids were really entertained that the sea otterters would poke their heads up out of the logs and go back down and run out to the water. Again, something that you don't see in Saskatchewan. We don't see sea otterters. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. And then we would even see some seals, I think, in the distance. And yeah, it was just really interesting cuz yeah, clearly we don't have that here. So then after this 5 uh.5 km hike, we ended up going to a place called Tribune Bay. also on Hornby Island and it was so lovely. It's like a beach and it's kind of in this like little cove and yeah, it was just spectacular. And the thing about Hornby Island, it's not easy to get to because you have to take multiple fairies to get there and then there wasn't a lot of people. So, we had this whole and and that was the case for a lot of what we did because we went in June. It's not a touristy season out on it's like the beginnings. Yeah. School's still in in Canada during this time. So this beautiful beach and basically it felt like you had it to yourself and that was kind of special. Mhm. Another beautiful place that we really enjoyed. Short little hike called Neck Point. Uh it just took us along the coast. Again, it's a point so you go up one way, you come back another. But the coastline was just stunning. And something that we did a lot of when we would go on our little day excursions is that we would pack a picnic. And so you get groceries from one of the grocery store and we'd pack sandwiches and get bananas and get fruit and we'd find a picnic spot in this case just a picnic table and just have a lunch along the coast which is also a cost savings because it's expensive to eat out with you have a family of 10. Yeah, that's true. Very true. Yeah. Yeah. So, it was nice cuz like one day we had like hard-boiled eggs and like you just we have a little cooler that you can plug in in the vehicle that will keep things cool. So, that that's helpful, too. Um, so yeah, we just pack our pack our meals. I love picnics. Fun. Especially like when there's water. Like there was this one spot that we went to. I don't know if we're going to talk about it. Yeah. What was it called? Roswell. Roswell something. Okay. So, there was like this one little spot that we had a picnic. It's called Roswell Creek. And um it was just so lovely. like quiet, but the creek was so gorgeous and it was safe and the kids could play in the water or throw rocks while we just sat there and watched and marveled. It was awesome. Mhm. So, another lovely place that we went to was Qualcomm Falls. And we had been there before and it's lovely cuz you can see these different falls. They have multiple there's the upper falls and there's the lower falls and then again they have a beautiful picnic area. Can you tell we just love Vancouver Island? Like it is so lovely. If you need a holiday vacationing spot, I would say go there. So, another place that we really enjoy, it's called Top Bridge, seven minutes from where we live in the Parksville area. Uh, a river goes through the area, and there's just different places where the kids can jump off rocks into the river or just play on a sand beach, but there's also beautiful hiking up and down the edges of the river. And there's this one that was kind of interesting. It's a a natural cave and we walked through it and you go through it a bit and come out on the other side and there's the water a little beach cave but it just catches you with this beautiful view and uh it's neat to walk through a cave with the kids you know again something that we typically don't do. So I have a really lovely sister-in-law. She's always like looking for great spots for like her family does a lot of uh you know trips and things like that and she recommended going to this uh research what was it called? Deep Bay Marine Field Station and it's part of the Naimo University and you can go there and then there's like um a person who will kind of give you a tour and teach you about all the things that they're doing at this research center and then they have these I don't know if they call them water tables with all these sea creatures and then you can like he can put them in your hand and you can hold these like sea cucumbers and sea stars and these little crabs and and he talks about you know how the sea cucumber has five sets of organs and they will vomit them out to protect themselves, you know. So, it was it was just really educational. I like that. As a homeschooling family, I'm like, "Okay, this is good. We like to learn about signs." Yeah. Another place that's a gorgeous stop is called Cathedral Grove, and it's a grove of Douglas furs, but these trees, some of them are 800 years old. And it's just amazing to walk through them and see how massive they are. Once again, like the trees in Saskatchewan are little sticks compared to these things. Massive trees. It's hard to imagine a tree being there for such a long time, 800 years. The beauty of God's creation just um so magnificent before you. Ken has this really funny footage. So, we're walking and there's like this big dead tree trunk along the side. And so our kids are walking on it and then all of a sudden our daughter Kathy or Catherine just falls right off and like tumbles right in front of us as Ken's recording. So anyhow, yeah, she was okay. She was okay. Yeah, we had a few of those on the trip and everyone was okay. So that was good. So one day was a gloomy day and we drove all the way to Duncan and we went to go see this um raptors presentation uh with these birds. We had been there one time before about 6 years ago. And first of all, so some people are think birds, a bird presentation. Like how exciting can birds be? That was very exciting. This was amazing. Raptors, specifically raptors. Raptors are birds that have beaks and claws. So they're kind of predators. And so what did we experience there? Well, so we stayed for two presentations and we got to see um a bald eagle. She had like this bald eagle that was like right in front of us and they fly like so close that you can feel the feathers like on your cheeks sometimes. It's It's a little bit terrifying. And that's not an exaggeration. Sometimes they do fly right by your face and you can feel like the owl right by your cheek. Yeah. I think my mo the most interesting bird that I got to see was the vulture. You know, those things are like intense. They will eat anything. Their stomachs are like stomachs of steel and they're ugly and Well, yeah, maybe a little bit, but compared to the beautiful bald eagle or the falcons or the owls, you know, it's all I guess it's all nice. So beautiful. God God made it. Yeah. Anyhow, okay. So So super interactive because the birds are right in front of you. The kids get to see the birds up close. Um and it's just an incredible experience. Yeah. But I'm I'm curious if people who go there might be like, we went, but we didn't find it as interesting. Yeah. I guess we like it. We like raptors. So there's this one place, it's called Goats on the Roof, or the town itself is called Kums. And it's a little marketplace that I've gone multiple times cuz I've been to the island a few times in my life. And so, uh, we like to go every time. It's a lot of fun. And they do actually have goats that are on the roof and there's grass there and you can see them kind of like eating away. But it's a real tourist place. So, if you're not really into tour like lots of people, it's kind of a little bit more congested. But, they have really cool things in their market and lots of different stores. And the kids find it interesting to see goats on a roof. Yeah. And then they also have like this one section has like really cool to toys that you wouldn't normally find at other places. So I I like to go look at that spot too. And there were so many other experiences that we did as a family that just made this trip so memorable.

Need some help? Oh, it looks like

it's like a crank. All right, Jess. Oh, I can't even get in the He put that dead fish on the bun's head. From beautiful. What island are we on? Uh, honey thing. Hornbe Island. Go.

No, you get some

warm.

So on the way home it was memorable but for sometimes other reasons. Yeah. I don't know. Some of our kids must have contracted some kind of tummy, you know, gastrointestinal thing because there was a number of throwing ups and bathroom breaks and sore tummies and explosions out of both ends that we had to deal with all the way home. Let's just say it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's that's basically what happened. All the way home. Uh but the thing is the kids, it didn't get them down. Like so you're cleaning up bodily fluids, you know, and stopping at outouses along the highway, emergency stops, but despite that, it really didn't change people's mood. No. No. And I'm grateful for our kids to push. And it was funny cuz it wasn't like they were acting sick. It was just like, "Oh, I have to go to the bathroom." Or, "Oh, I think I'm going to throw up." Or my favorite line, "Mom, I pooped my pants. Yes, that did actually happen. She's like, I thought it was a fart.

But it was great. Yeah. So, anyhow, I think our daughter, our oldest daughter counted, there was like 11 throw-ups on the drive home. And uh and then on the way we're we're almost home and we get to a place called Kindersley and our son Pascal throws up in his Paw Patrol uh sand pail which was I was happy about cuz it wasn't on the floor. And then we stop um to find something to eat cuz the kids needed to eat something but they weren't really into any fast food. So, we went to Walmart and uh I bring all the kids in so Ken can go fill up with Diesel and then all of a sudden he looks like he's going to throw up again and I'm like, "Oh no, I need something." So, I find that there was like this random box. It was like the Lord put it right there for me and this cardboard box with plastic wrapped around it. I love the plastic and gave it to him and he threw up right in the box. It was It was just like perfect. And I show up at Walmart. Jacob's pushing Pascal out in the shopping cart. He's holding the box with his puke in it. So, and we're literally like an hour away from home. So, then we get home. It's like almost 11:30 at night, I think. Yeah. And we walk into the house and we're like, "What's that smell?" There was something that smelled really bad. I'm like, "There's a dead mouse in here somewhere." So, we're like looking around, but we could tell it's kind of all in this one area. And I walked by our deep freeze which is in our boot room entrance and I for some reason saw the light wasn't on. The power light wasn't on and all our meats in there. And I opened it up and this big plume of stench just filled the entire place. It was like rotting meat that had been marinating in its own juice for the last two weeks. Absolutely disgusting. And it filled the entire house instantly. It's It was so putrid. I just closed it. Uh and that's how we came home.

Luckily, we have a door that kind of can seal off the boot room from the rest of the house. So, I think we aired out the house. But then the next day, we're like, we got to deal with this freezer. Anyways, that's another story. Hey, that's it, huh? That's it. Okay. Thanks for watching. Thanks for journeying with us, putting up with our stuff here. and we'll see you really soon.