Girlz weekend September 27-30,2012

We had the good fortune to spend a few days up at Spirit Ridge in Osoyoos, BC. Our dear friend Shannon was kind enough to share her accomidations with us. We were down two of our friends for different reason but hopefully they will join us another time. So that left six of us to travel together. We piled into two cars late Thursday evening after work and shuffling all the kids to their assigned places for the next few days. We immediately were laughing and enjoying each others company. A bite to eat at a local Japanese restaurant and we were on the road headed for a few days of relaxation. Our arrival to Spirit Ridge was close to midnight we settled in with a glass of wine and a bit of chit chat. Of coarse we were all able to sleep in but we all slowly rose earlier than expected. The sun was shining so it was decided that we would bask in the rays down by the pool. Coffee, muffins, fresh fruit and yogurt were on our breakfast menu and enjoyed by all. Our evening plans included dinner at Hester Creek we all had decadent and delicious meals paired with of coarse wonderful wine. Saturday's plans included, lunch at the restaurant on site and an afternoon wine tour with Kent from Desert Wine Tours. Fun was had by all.  When we returned Shannon had prepared a little fun for all of us. Insert more laughter! We ordered greek and ate in for the evening. And then Sunday arrived we enjoyed the sun on our patio and started to clean up for our journey home to our families. We are a very grateful group of friends and will have many more years of memories and laughter.
Thanks Ladies
More PICTURES http://www.flickr.com/photos/26782817@N02/sets/72157631672262986/

Pretzel Buns September 24,2012

With our recent trip to Germany, we have all become fans of Pretzels. Sam ate many pretzels and loved the experience. I have recently noticed a trend that more of the local bakeries are carrying a selection of pretzels and pretzel buns, so when I stumbled across this recipe I thought I should give it a try. Well I am pleased to report they turned out splendidly. I would watch the salt that I put on top as the rolls get placed in a bath of salt and baking soda, and alternatively I would make my rolls much smaller. They were delicious.

September so far 2012

So our September is more than half way through. Sam commenced Grade 2 and is fortunate enough to be in the same class as his buddies I don't know how that happened but will enjoy the ride. Darren took the first week of school off to enjoy Sam returning to school and it was good as his  help was more than needed(more on that in a bit). We have been blessed with truly fantastic weather which has given us time to continue to enjoy our yard and garden. The last few days around here have been filled with the start of fall clean up I picked the last of my sunflowers and my tomatoes are slow to ripen so I clipped some branches to help the process along. Darren was completing the project we had going to espalier our apple trees that we planted last fall. And I think he did a fine job will try and take picture soon. 

A FEW MORE PICTURES

August 2012

Our August was slightly more lazy but still filled with activity. We attended our nephews 8th birthday party at laser tag , rode the seawall in Vancouver and had really good greasy burgers from FAT BURGER , lost our first tooth , enjoyed a night at the outdoor movies with our friends , had our niece stay over had a water fight and went to the cultas lake waterpark , rode the watershed a few times to build Sam's confidence and skills and the love of my life celebrated his 40th Birthday. We were fortunate to join some friends at their home in Whistler for his actual birthday we had a fabulous weekend and look forward to seeing them all again soon!

July 2012

Our July was pretty steady with activities. We attended friends birthday parties, goofed around in the back yard ,went bike riding with friends, went canoeing, attended some day camps and managed to get away with some friends.
We went away to Seabrook in Washington, with our friends. A few years ago we managed to stumble on to the Olivia Beach homes in Oregon, which were fabulous. In light of our wonderful experience we wanted to get away again but maybe not as much driving time. And this Seabrook homes in Washington was a wonderful compromise same great house, terrific location and still a drive but not quite as long.
Our days were filled with walks on the beach, bike rides, swimming in the pool, riding on the beach both car and bikes, flying kites, digging in the sand and of coarse lots of food. We we part of four families that managed to go so like our prior trip we all opted to take turns cooking breakfast and dinners so everyone felt they had a vacation. We made pancakes, bacon in and fruit for breakfast, Jill did a fabulous pork cooked in root beer then served on fresh buns and coleslaw, Kim made tasty a wifesaver with sausage for breakfast and Jodi made flavourful fajitas. And there was food beyond all of those delectable meals.
Overall it was a very busy month.

ALL SEABROOK PICTURES 

For some reason I am not able to embed the link to the video so here my profile page if you would like to view the SEABROOK VIDEO 2012

Germany June2-23,2012

Well this post is very long overdue. At first I wanted to take time to process this great adventure we had been on, also to edit the 3000 pictures I had taken. I was a very long process.

Let me begin by sharing that we truly had the times of our lives. I want to send an immense thank you to my family that greeted us, hosted us and showed us an extremely wonderful time. So thank you Mario, Innes and Silke.

We left on June 2nd and took a flight to Frankfurt, where we were met by Mario & Innes and let me tell you we were very grateful as we were excited and exhausted(Sam was the only one who truly slept on the airplane). We spent the first four days with our family in Sachsenheim from their home we took day trips to Bietigheim, Porscheplatz ,Museum Sinsheim,Kloster Maulbronn and the ever awaited Lego Land. Where Sam said he had the best day EVER! We ate like kings Innes and Mario prepared the most delicious food from meats, cheeses even the butter was exquisite. We had fresh strawberry tarts, french wines, bbq meats. And well the most tender white asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Well the list could go on.

Another stop we made before leaving their care was Burg Hohenzollern , the view and small hike up to the castle was outstanding. And from there they left us. It was bittersweet, as I couldn't have imagined starting our Germany adventure without their kindness and generosity. Thank you!

After touring the castle we headed towards Fussen we had a slight hic-up as our  rental car did not want to cooperate so we drove back to Stuttgart to exchange the car then we were on the road headed to Hotel Seespitz . The view was indescribable, the water and mountains surrounding us the lush trees the rolling hills, a must. We were visiting the area to see the very touristy Neuschwanstein Castle  and the childhood of Mad King Ludwig castle Hohenschwangua Castle . Very busy but a must see.

Our adventure continued through the beautiful rolling hills towards Berchtesgaden where we stay at Hotel Bavaria .This was a gorgeous area and again our accomadations were true to what was advertised. The morning breakfast was outstanding, an array of choices. We attempted to visit the Eagles Nest but our view was imposed with lots of fog! But we were there. From this point we drove to Munich and found our next accommodations AM Kiaser Platz. We dropped off our vehicle as the next phase of our trip was planned using trains. We met Silke and her beau Sebastian(sp?) we had a lovely time walking around Munich and seeing the sights. They took us to a more traditional restaurant for our meal it was fabulous. The next day Silke came to our pension and we walked through the English Garden then off to BMW Welt. Then Darren experienced an outstanding dinner.The next morning we started our train journey that took us to Dresden. Silke was kind enough to come and see us off at the train station.

We were a little fatigued from our journey and what should have been a simple city train ride  to our next sleeping venue had us turned around. After a quick tour around we realised that is not the correct way. Laugh it off! When we did find our accomidations AM Zwinger  they were beautiful.
We took an evening stroll through the city and got our bearings for the next day. As there is a immense amount of history in the one area and we had limited time, we walked the many sights and visually took it all in. One of our stops was to the Frauenkirche  even though it has been restored and rebuilt the sight was truly breathtaking. We decided to take the stairs and walkway up to ascent of the dome. Well worth the time. We also did the tour at the VW Glass Factory .

The next morning we packed up again to continue to Berlin. As we progressed it seemed the cities were getting much busier. When we arrived at the train station I was in awe. I am grateful to have a man with a sense of direction and quick thinking. We found the next city train/underground to take and off we went to find the NH Hotel Mitte . We walked around that evening finding the historical sights such as the Berlin wall, Memorial to the Murder Jews of Europe and  Brandenburg Gate. So we knew our following day would be filled with information and fun. And it was, as we set out finding Fassbender and Rauch the well know Chocolate store. Whilst we were drowning in chocolate thoughts the rain started to fall and did it fall. So our next step was to hop on a tour bus the circled around the sights. When the rain finally let up we found check point charlie and Berlin TV tower  along with many other historical sights. The following morning we had a few hours before our adventure would continue to Paris, France.  So we walked around to discover more amazing sights and enjoyed the bustle of the city.

We had decided to take the evening sleeper train to Paris. All of us were excited and nervous to see what our sleeping accomidations would be like. Well they were fantastic. The only situation we had was our bags we ended just stacking them on the floor. We all slept rather well and the next thing we knew we were in France. We had a lovely breakfast and then our train ride was over.

After getting ourselves sorted it in Gare de lest  we voted to take a cab to the hotel. The Hotel Normandy was our residence to the two short evening we were there. We were fortunate enough to check in early which let us refresh ourselves and get right to the sight seeing at hand. Once ready to go we were a few steps away from the Louve but we decided to continue our exploration and seek out the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. The whole experience was more then I could have imagined.
We had a fantastic day and fell into our beds that evening we had big plans the next day. Well the next morning happened to be a Tuesday and guess what the Louve is closed on Tuesday. So our alternate plans became finding Notre Dame. From there we had the best time we actually just wandered the streets found fabulous bakeries, sweets and filled our tummies with fantastic food. That evening after dinner we walked back to see the Eiffel Tower lit up in all its glory.

The following morning we were suppose to take one train back to Frankfurt. As we anticipated our trains arrival we started to speak to a few other tourist waiting for the same train. Long story short the train came but it was not leaving CANCELLED! That sent us into a tail spin. Four train rides later and extremely exhausted we decided not to stay in Frankfurt for our last three remaining days. So we rented a car and headed for Nurnberger. We booked at the Hilton. Our last few days were spent exploring and relaxing, it was nice to be back in a smaller town feeling.

These words are just a small taste of what we experienced I am truly blessed and grateful to have do this trip with the man I love and share a piece of the world with the little boy that I adore. For me I see my adventures and my life through the lens so if you would like to take a peek a few of many photos that I took please head over to my flickr.

Dawood Visit YAY! May 8-10,2012

We had the pleasure of having our dear friends in town. They were coming for a family gathering but were kind enough to save a few days for us. We were beyond excited. It had been quite a while since our last get together so it was refreshing to see the kids just pick up like they had seen each other they day before and so did Shanna & I. There was laughter, playing, eating and maybe a bit of VINO. We spent our few days together just hanging out. The second day we headed down to White Rock Beach and the weather couldn't get any better. At first the kids started out in raincoats/wind breakers then many hours later we were wishing we packed shorts and tanks. What could have been shorter outing turned out to be a full day affair. It was fabulous. Darren was home for part of the visit and then he was wisked off to work.
Thank you for coming for the visit!

MORE PICTURES
AND EVEN MORE PICTURES