Friends & Comfort Food

This weekend was filled with friends and comfort food. 

Thursday I went for dinner with my mom and we shared Fish & Chips at Edith & Arthur's. Later on in the evening Elissa and I went on a date to Cactus Club to have some dessert & wine. We had a great visit catching up talking about everything under the sun. While we ate heavenly chocolate, our husbands were together at our house watching the Canucks win!

You guessed it! Two Chocolate Lava Cakes for dessert... Love <3

Friday David and I decided to have a date night, so he took me to Olive Garden for dinner. We indulged... too much. I didn't feel like eating ever again after that! Something about the service and food at the Olive Garden is special. All the servers have been wonderful and they seem to go above and beyond to keep the customer happy. {They also cook with excessive amounts of butter, so that helps!}
We ended our evening by watching the latest episode of Suits. We don't watch a lot of TV together, so it's fun to have one show we religiously follow. 

Zuppa Toscana with a fresh bread stick. All you can eat!

Saturday morning Jeff popped by for bacon & egg breakfast and then David and I continued with our day. Last week was Monica's birthday so Michelle & I took her out for a late-birthday lunch at Browns Social House in Panorama. Again, we overindulged in poutine, tacos, beef, cupcakes, and a couple beers for the birthday girl. It was a really nice visit, and while we were missing Janine, the three of us hadn't seen each other in a while so it was nice to catch up!

Dream Team missing Janine. The three of us are called "Short Hair Don't Care" as we all have eerily similar haircuts right now.

Cupcakes, homemade birthday card, and a bottle of champagne for the birthday girl!

Saturday night we had David's parents over to watch Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. Larry & Shelley are going to Universal Orlando in March and Shelley has never seen all the Harry Potter movies. We figured we'd assist them in completing the series before they go so she can get more out of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter experience!

Sunday morning we went to church. I ALMOST had a week where I wasn't involved in the service somehow, volunteering, but then we were asked to do greeting for Rachel & Kyle as they were away. It is a simple, not very time-consuming job and we were happy to do it, but it did prevent me from completely relaxing and enjoying the service to the fullest. 

Speaking of fullest, after church David and I went home and watched some Fuller House. It's cute... charming... nostalgic. It may not be the highest quality television out there, but I'll continue to watch. 

Sunday evening we went over to our friends Brent & Amy's house for wine & cheese. We've had such a wonderful time getting to know them over the past few months and are excited about where this friendship will take us!

What a weekend! So much delicious food & drink. Wonderful friendships. Enjoying our life where we're at right now.

Thankful Thursday - 34

Time for that old Thankful Thursday again! 

1. Days getting longer. I love this time of year. Every day has a sense of hope to it. My walk to work at 6:45 every morning is no longer in the dark dark. I still have a couple hours of daylight left when I get home from work at 3:30. And every day just keeps getting better! 

All you sleeper-inners, this is what 6:45 am looked like today!

Beautiful mornings like this make waking up so early not quite as terrible.

2. Decorating my office. Last week I decided my office needs a bit of an upgrade. I cleared off some space on the desk and would like to start adding more personal items to make it more comfortable for me. I picked up a new mug for my afternoon tea and printed off some pictures! Everyone always asks why I don't have any pictures of my family in my office, so now I do!

{I'm becoming a crazy dog lady aren't I?...Oh well!}

3. Being able to laugh at myself. Scott uploaded a picture of me onto "redditgetsdrawn". It's a site where you upload any picture, and then people can recreate it through whatever creative art form they wish. Scott sent me the two responses that came through yesterday. One of them is downright offensive, but I got a great laugh out of it!

The original photo

One interpretation. not too bad...

AND THEN THERE'S THIS!! Hahaha. I will forever be self-conscious about how other people see my nose. On the plus side, they made my hair look fabulous!

Until next week... That's all folks!

A Little Break - Cabin Life in Oroville, WA

Opa & Oma were kind enough to let David and I use the cabin this weekend.
I took a half day at work on Thursday and by noon we were on the road! We left early just in case the roads weren't good on the Hope-Princeton.

This is what the front of the cabin looks like from the lake. 

The cabin is located on Osoyoos Lake, but on the American side (in Oroville). The red marker below is where the cabin is located. We cross the border on the West side of the lake and drive all the way down and back up to the other side!

Not much went on this weekend for us. It was a lot of sitting around, relaxing, going for walks, playing with the dog, playing games, and eating/drinking. Instead of boring you with the details, we'll jump straight into the pictures!

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The roads were bare for our whole drive! Only a few flurries just west of Manning Park Resort. 

We had to make a quick pit-stop in Manning Park to let Sherlock play in the metre of snow! He hasn't seen more than a dusting, so we weren't sure how it would go. He thought it was pretty cool. Disliked his feet falling through constantly though. To encourage him I crawled up into the snow field too and foolishly fell through and ended up in the snow up to my mid-thigh. Pulling my legs out resulted in MUCH snow in the boots! 

What IS this stuff?! Must dig!

Such a majestic beast.

Patriotic Pose

Sherly & Mommy

There were some kids playing to our right and Sherlock kept watching them instead of looking at the camera. I just went with it to make it appear intentional.

Made a stop at the trusted Prince's!
{I know it's called Akins now, but it will always be Prince's to me!}

Welcome sight as we arrive at the cabin. 

We all got into the games this weekend. David and I played lots of Black Jack, but this was some Texas Hold 'Em.

Sherlock bluffs for me... All in!

Always have to pick up a bottle of the Bogle Petit Syrah at Prince's. $10.99 US? I'll take it!

"Mom...Can we go play outside NOW?!"

Lazy man's tug of war

This is the life. Watching the ducks out the window on our first morning.

"How about now? Is it time to go outside NOW?!"

"FINALLY!!!"

Taking a stroll to the pond

Sherlock's dreaming of chasing the ducks

He can't always be perfect you know!

Poser

The big house with the three large garages on the right bought this big plot of land and are building a tennis/basketball court on it! Looks like we will have new friends in the future! That's the base of a healthy friendship right? Using them for their assets? 

We worked a bit on our off-leash walking. Sherlock was pretty good. He didn't even take off towards the 4 deer we saw!

Snakes & Ladders! It had been a while. If you want a game that tests your patience... this is it!

We had such beautiful weather on Saturday

Couldn't have paid me $300 to get in that water, but we basically had to DRAG Sherlock out! Way too cold!

This is a view I could get used to. 

I spent a lot of time with the camera this weekend playing with the settings and trying to figure things out. Framing took a hit when there was so much focus on settings, but I think this is a pretty cool shot!

Saturday afternoon we took a walk to the other side of the lagoon to check out Uncle Rich's property and their little house they're building there.

The cabin from the other side of the lagoon

Rear of the little (adorable) house

This place is so great! Quite the upgrade from a camper!

Couldn't keep Sherlock out of the water on their side either...

The plants in Oroville are so different from at home. It's a much drier climate, so the plants are more desert-like. Lots of cacti, burrs and other prickly plants.

Neat backhoe behind our property. Couldn't resist this photo-op. Too bad the shadows are so harsh on his face!

I sacrificed my pants for that backhoe photo-op. Came out COVERED in burrs. 

A boy and his dog

Sherlock - always graceful...

Trying to take a selfie with a Canon 6D with a 24-105mm lens and such little hands is no easy feat! Rather awkward.

Using leftover steak for Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches! Yummm

First... a layer of caramelized onions and peppers

Next a layer of thinly sliced medium rare steak

A layer of grated cheddar cheese to top it off

Throw it in the oven for a few minutes and BAM! HEAVEN!

Reflections

Obligatory foot-photo

Nobody around so we walked along the beach down by the pond and stumbled across this sign.
{Dock Rules: No swimming after dark! No warm beer! No ugly women!}

Oh dear...

This is the house/villa the sign was posted in front of. Quite the place!

Waiting patiently for us to throw his stick. (aka a reed because there were no sticks fat enough to feel comfortable throwing)

Trying with all his might to get us to play with this stick! Sorry bud... Too dangerous

No trip to the cabin is complete without an epic game of Crazy Dice!!

We tried very hard to get a nice family photo out of this trip. We even had steak draped over the tripod to try get Sherlock's attention. This is the closest we could get... Close enough I guess!

Snapped a photo from the car window of the lake as we were leaving Osoyoos. Such a happy place. We're so blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy the cabin in our lives.