Food, Dogs and Smelly Things!

My life seems to revolve around food/drink and dogs. Every weekend I go to look at the events I've documented with photos and 99% of the time it ends up being pictures of what I ate/drank and the dogs I hung out with... 

I guess that is how I calculate how much fun I had? Haha seems so sad. 

Nevertheless, this is what I got up to this weekend!

Pho with Mom & Dad the night before they headed to Mexico for Opa & Oma's 50th Anniversary! {Did you know Pho is actually pronounced Pha or Fuh?}

Happy Sherly after I threw the ball for him for a bit Friday evening. We have a long grass patch right beside our house. Perfect for a game of fetch if we don't have time for a good walk!

We met up with David's parents for dinner at the Dublin Crossing Friday evening. We sat in the new section (where the old liquor store was). It had been a long time since we've gone there for dinner, and I was pleasantly surprised by the food and ambiance!

Saturday morning I decided Sherlock must be blowing his coat. There is a relentless amount of hair floating around our house. So disgusting! I figured it was time for grooming! This photo is after only 10(ish) minutes of brushing! SO MUCH HAIR!

We went to Tynehead for a walk with Ashley, Brian and little puppy Oakley! (He is so so cute). 

While we were walking, the bidding ended on Facebook for these giant paving stones! I got 21 2'X2' paving stones for $125!! What a steal! They're not even a year old too!
(I may or may not have been too focused on bidding and not focused enough on walking. I walked right into a tree in the bidding frenzy the last couple seconds... Ugh...)

This weekend already had a great start, and then Ashley had a Scentsy party hosted by her Aunt! There were 15 or so ladies from church who attended. I spent too much money, but I'm so excited! I LOVE smelly things, and this was Renee Heaven. 

As if the night could get any better.... This is Sawyer, Ashley's Aunt's 13 year old Golden Retriever. He and I became fast friends. 

Sunday evening we got a call from David's parents. Their deep freeze had died, and they quickly had to cook all the meat that had started defrosting! We went over there for a huge dinner of chicken, steak, salmon, prawns, rice pilaf and salad. 

The whole salmon was still on the BBQ at this point. Halfway through dinner I had to tell them, "Thank you for inviting us over to reap the benefits of your misfortune," or something to that effect. 

So my weekend is book-ended by food... could be worse right?! 

One of these days I'll write about something more interesting than what I ate on the weekend... I promise! Haha

Thankful Thursday - 41

This week I'm thankful for...

1. An early start to patio season. As mentioned in my previous post, we had an outdoor dinner on Karen and Darcy's patio last weekend! We also purchased a little propane firepit to have in our yard for the summer, and we're working on building a patio back there too! (Anyone have good leads on some 16"x16" paving stones? Anyone really good at building patios?)

Yum. I could talk about good wine too!

2. TINY puppies. Our next-door neighbour has two chihuahuas that she breeds (ethically or not, I'm not sure. Ignorance is bliss). They had two puppies 9 weeks ago, and I just saw them for the first time the other day. I'm not a chihuahua fan necessarily, but I love animals, so I was pretty excited. Sherlock too!

This is Lincoln. He's super sweet. His sister is much smaller. Maybe the size of... a larger coffee mug? Whatever... she's super adorable too, and tri-coloured.

Sherlock was so gentle and curious with the puppies. I love seeing his softer side. Usually he's just bonkers!

3. Snapchat Face-Swap. Why have I not been doing this forever? David and I were having a disagreement, and then I pulled out snapchat and started playing with the filters. A. the technology is amazing. B. I ended up crying I was laughing so hard. Here's a couple sneak peeks of our lovely moments. (I may or may not have David's permission to post... easier to ask for forgiveness than persmission right?)

HAHA!! Oh this is just so bad on so many levels... and so so confusing. 

Summer Nights

I can't believe we're only one month into Spring!
Who else is enjoying this incredible weather we've been having, but also horrified at what this could mean for the summer? I, for one, am getting concerned about my lack of A/C in my car... 

Anywho... this past weekend we spend some time soaking up the rays and enjoying our unseasonably warm Spring!

Friday evening David and I went for a Happy Hour date at Cactus Club. We managed to keep our bill around $40 which is quite the feat at Cactus! After dinner we came home and watched the Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1. 

Yummy Sunset Soda for Happy Hour!

Saturday we met up with Shel and the Oceantide Tollers for our second annual Oceantide Toller Walk! We had the matriarch, Ruby, three puppies from her first litter, and three from her second litter there. This along with some toller friends added up to 11 tollers all together! We went to Jerry Sulina Park in Maple Ridge. There is a little pond there, and then a long path along the dyke beside the Allouette River. Quite a beautiful spot for a walk!

If you've ever seen a Toller around the water, you know they are NOISY! We got out of the car and heard the Toller screams before we could even see the pond. Normally Sherlock is relatively quiet, but today I think he was the most persistent of the bunch.

Sherlock trying to show his half-siblings the ropes?

Isn't this beautiful? Vast marshes all around you, surrounded by the backdrop of the mountains.

Daisy at 14 Weeks (she was Molly from my previous puppy posts)

Duke at 14 Weeks (he was named Davis before)

Rebel at 14 weeks (he was Gibson from prior puppy posts)

Here is a group shot of everyone at the far end of our walk. It's hard to get that many dogs to sit still looking at the camera! (Obviously, since we were quite unsuccessful haha)

Sunday morning David and I took Sherlock to the green patch beside our place to chase the ball before it got really hot out. We figured we would tire him out a little before we went to church. 

I got a kick out of this chalk art on the walkway. "The Castle of Love". 

We have a cool tulip with a red stripe! Loving that! They're not doing so well with this heat though! Two of them have now exploded. Most likely due to Sherlock's incessant sniffing of them. 

In the evening we were invited to the inaugural patio BBQ dinner with my parents at Karen & Darcy's house! We were supposed to go to a birthday dessert for our brother-in-law Kyle, but dinner ran late and we couldn't make it...SORRY KYLE!

This is Penny, Karen and Darcy's 12 week old Labradoodle puppy. She is honestly the sweetest, most well-mannered puppy! Puts Sherlock to shame. 

Love that little face!

Incredible potato salad made by Darcy. Perfect "summer" side!

BBQ Chicken Thighs were the main feature of the meal!

We had such a lovely visit, and always enjoy hanging out with these folks. Even if they are "old". (Darcy, that's my third strike right?)

Cheers to many more perfect summer weekends to come! 

(P.S. David and I are working towards building a patio in our yard and getting a propane fire pit! Can't wait to sit at the fire with friends and a glass of wine!)

Thankful Thursday - 40

Life has been exceedingly hectic lately! I've hardly had the chance to think about blogging!
Nevertheless, Thursdays are my definite blog days!

This week I'm thankful for...

1. Our balconies & sunshine. Our past homes were all basement suites, and we never had an outdoor place to sit. Now, every chance I get, I'm out on one of our balconies or our patio space in the yard. {We haven't actually built the patio in the yard yet, but there's a spot for it}.

Last weekend David and I enjoyed our Pesto Pizza lunch with a glass of wine in the sunshine. 

2. A dog with personality. I'm sure everyone thinks their pet is the best and has the most personality, but I just get such a kick out of Sherlock and his goofy, happy-go-lucky demeanor. He makes me smile and laugh every single day, and he only drives me crazy some of the time!

We gave him the empty yogurt cup to lick out and he stuck it on his bottom jaw and just walked around like that for a while. What a character!

I often catch Sherlock sniffing my flowers. He actually ended up destroying the yellow one in this photo because he got his nose way too far into it and all the petals fell off!

Any time we leave the bathroom door open he runs and jumps into the tub. He will stand there for quite a while, hoping we turn the water on. The other day I closed the curtain on him and just left him there for a few minutes. Eventually he gave up and slunk out of the tub beneath the curtain. 

My very favorite snuggle monster! Seriously... how could this ever NOT many anyone feel better!

3. Indulging. I typically try to eat/cook relatively healthy food. Often focusing on including a protein, vegetable and sometimes a carb into our meals. Every so often, I forget about all of this and decide to indulge! When I don't do it frequently, it makes me feel less guilty and allows me to enjoy the tasty treats much more!. 

I went to Wendels in Fort Langley recently and enjoyed their Belgian Waffles with blueberries and smoked bacon. Wow. This was delicious! Normally I'm not much of a "sweets for breakfast" kind of girl, but this was worth every calorie. 

A healthy salad for dinner with Mom & Dad. We felt pretty great about ourselves until she whipped out a banana cream pie! Like I said before, I feel much less guilty eating a big slice of pie after having a salad for dinner!

What's not to like here? No caption needed!

What are you thankful for this week?!

A Whole New Bed...

David and I have been having less than wonderful sleeps the past couple months, and I've been waking up with back and neck pain every day. We figured maybe this had something to do with our bed! It was on the softer side, and definitely sloped towards the middle. 

We decided to go out last weekend to look at beds, and ended up coming home ordering a king size memory foam bed... um... that wasn't in the plan!

The new bed was delivered this weekend and we love it already! 

1. It's a king bed, meaning I have space to sprawl while I sleep!

2. It's memory foam, which means I don't feel David's twitching shaking the whole bed as he falls asleep. 

3. It is much more supportive than our old bed. My body isn't trying extra hard to keep my spine straight, so my muscles can relax.

4. I only woke up once last night! This is a big deal. I feel so much more rested today than I have in weeks!

The old Queen

Old bed has been re-located into our guest room! It actually looks like a respectable guest room now. As you can see out the window it has a nice view too. Overlooks the next complex down the hill and all the farmlands into Fleetwood!

This is our new baby! Such a beaut! We still need to get a frame for it, but that's okay. I don't mind being low to the ground for now. 

This duvet cover is from Homesense (our favorite store). I thought it was a nice compromise between masculine and feminine. I could still dress it up a little with some cute pillows :)

Sherlock seemed a little confused as to why we moved our bed into the other room. Being the easy going guy that he is, he went along with the flow...

David's Instagram post. It says, "Guest room comes optional with sleeping dog :)"

Thoroughly enjoyed his new vantage point over-looking the neighborhood!

It's not often you get the privilege of buying a new bed, but boy is it exciting!

That's all the excitement we have in our lives right now. Haha!

THROWBACK Thursday!

This week I decided to do something a LITTLE different.
Instead of doing a Thankful Thursday, I'll do a Throwback Thursday!

We were going through old photos the other day, and these jumped out at me. There are MANY more that I could post, and maybe one day will, but enjoy these pictures to start!
I tried to semi-organize them chronologically. Also, there is a special little treat for you at the end when you get there!

**Some of these photos I've shared before in an old post from last year**

The high-school sweethearts that started it all. They met and started dating in high-school, and then got married on December 20, 1986. 

Shortly after, Jeff (right) was born and just 17 months later Adam (left) joined the family as well!

I came along in December 1991!

My first birthday - cake smash!

Oh to be one again so I can eat my chocolate cakes shamelessly like this.

Taking some of my first steps down the hallway at our old house in Whalley.

Mom and I lounging on the most fashionable couch!

22 months after I was born, Scott came into the picture and I was no longer the youngest in the family! I'm bottle-feeding my doll while Mom feeds Scott.
{I think this doll came from Aunty Sonya(?)}

My 2nd birthday.

We were caught in a torrential downpour on our walk through the neighborhood.
Left to Right: Jeff, Renee, Dad, Scott, Adam

Scott and I strutting our stuff in the driveway. My outfit confuses me here. Sweater, no pants, blue socks, and Sunday shoes?

This table we're all kneeling on is still in the family today!

Birthday party fun in my loft bed. 

Left to Right: Jeff, Jordan, Stephanie, Ashley, me, Adam, Rachel

 

Fun at the cabin started young! Myself, Taylor and Scott in the hammock out front.

Dad helping me feed the ducks at the bird sanctuary

As promised! Here's the special treat for the end! Came across these puppy pictures of Jewel the other day. So so so cute!

Seriously... Could she be any more adorable?

She remained quite the looker as she grew up too!

Hope you enjoyed this little snippet of my childhood! I love seeing people's baby pictures, so I figured I'd share some of mine! Maybe next time I'll get some of David in there too :)