Family Fun

We went to a BBQ at my brother in laws place today. The adults ate homemade BBQ burgers (which were so good), but the kids preferred to roast wieners over the propane campfire...

But the highlight of the night was after dinner when we all roasted marshmallows over the campfire. We even had "maple flavoured" marshmallows, which I thought were going to be just awful. Turns out they were really good!

Holiday calm

Today, the Remembrance Day holiday was observed. It was nice to have a long weekend! The weather was fantastic - beautiful and sunny, although a little cold (in the single digits, but not yet freezing).
We spent the weekend watching episodes of the HBO series "Band of Brothers" and coverage of the Remembrance Day services in Vancouver. In between household chores, and dinners out. We spent Saturday evening with my family, and Sunday evening with his family.
I kind of felt it was like the calm before the storm -- the informal, relaxed dinner with family before all the hustle and bustle of the holidays sets in.

Bog Walk

I went for a walk in the Bog with family yesterday... what a beautiful day to get together!

Happy Anniversary

12 years ago today, I said yes. 11 years ago today, we walked down the aisle and said I do. Today, he bought me flowers.

We don't usually do anything special for our anniversary, except for our 10th when we went for a romantic weekend away. So, we had talked about going out for dinner, but decided to spend money on flowers instead, and cook dinner at home. We got them from the nursery that supplied our wedding, and as usual, they make the house smell so wonderful!

BBQ

Hubby's dad is in town, so we had a BBQ at our place today.

The best part of the whole day, was actually the worst part of the whole day. It rained! It hasn't rained for so long, and we really, really needed the rain. But, the fact that it rained during our BBQ wasn't exactly the best. Everyone had to sit around inside, instead of sitting around outside.

Pool Party

Today, my niece had a pool party at our place for her (belated) birthday party. Five teenage girls descended on the back yard, played their music, and chatted, laughed, sang, and splashed in the pool for about 2 hours.

The flamingo was happy for all the attention, and was even dubbed "Sir Patrick Squidley" by the group.

Canada Day BBQ

Today, we hosted a BBQ for our family to celebrate Canada Day, and to have an excuse for all of us to get together. The pool was a big hit. The burgers and hot dogs were great. The food (including potato salad, cucumber salad, veggies, and apple cake with caramel sauce for desert) was fantastic. But the real star of the show was the pink flamingo!

Goodbye

My great Uncle passed away this week. My Grandma's brother. I wasn't particularly close to him, but I do have a lot of good memories about him growing up.

He looked so much like my Great Grandfather! I'm going to miss him.

Boxing Day

Today we had hubby’s family over to exchange gifts. I made a new recipe – a breakfast strata with eggs, bacon, cheese and pork. And we ate and opened gifts from 11:00am on. Unfortunately, it started snowing pretty heavily just after everyone got here, so our festivities were cut short as most wanted to get down our hill while they still could!
After everyone left, I cleaned up the house, put a lot of our gifts away, and did all the dishes. About 4:00pm, I got a chance to sit and relax! The first time in 4 days that I’ve had a chance to just kick back. It was so nice!

Father's Day prep

We are having a bunch of family over for dinner tomorrow night as an early celebration of Father's Day (and my Mom's and Dad's Birthdays too). So, I took the day off to power clean the house. I spent most of the day cleaning, organizing, and putting things away!
One: I'm tired and sore!
Two: we have too much stuff!

Sad day with new stuff

We got our new phones that we ordered through our points. Today, I set them up, and plugged them in. In the process, it meant deleting all the saved numbers off of the old phones, so we could send them to the recycling place. As I was deleting numbers, I came across "Grandma" and "Grandma Cell".
:(
I hadn't thought about Grandma for a while, and it made me sad to delete her, knowing that I wouldn't need to add her into the new phones.

Visits

My Mom and Dad came to visit this weekend. Last night, they stayed over night, so they could go to a Christmas party at a nearby church. Today, we went for breakfast at my brother's, and then came home to make shortbread cookies. It was fun!

Lunch, again!

So, my brother, my sister, and I arranged to get together for lunch today. It's been forever since the three of us have been together without the kids or spouses. We went for Sushi (I was a little "dim sum'd out" so I welcomed the change). We were only together for about an hour, and it went way too fast! But, I am so glad we had the chance to get together.

Dinner

Hubby's Dad was in town this weekend, so we cooked up some salmon for dinner and had a whole bunch of us over for dinner last night. The 1908 cocktails were a big hit, and it was fun seeing everyone again, and meeting a few new faces. I had a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure everyone else also had a good time...

pics

My sister took a pic of me and hubby on the weekend. It turned out quite good actually. We don't have a lot of picture of us, so I'm glad she got a good one.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's new house -- our first Christmas there. It turned out great. The house is bigger than the old house, and much better laid out for entertaining. It was a great night! With one exception. My camera wasn't working so good, so a lot of the pictures I took turned out all blurry and dark.

Country visit

We went to my parents today. Hubby changed out their kitchen faucet. To be honest, the new one doesn't look much different than the old one...

But, it works a lot better.
Meanwhile, a trip to "country" bought us a full tank of gas about 5 cents a litre cheaper than "city" gas.

New TVs

My Mom and Dad recently bought themselves a new entertainment system... new TV, new Blu-ray player, new sound bar. My brother and I helped them pick it out. It was delivered yesterday, and they went from this...

to this...

It kind of makes me want to buy a new TV for our place. But, we have a fridge to buy, so that won't happen for a while.

brother's work

My brother is building a new shed from a kit. Here are some pics...

I think it looks great. But, it's making me want to build something, or create something, or just spruce up our backyard.

vacations and anniversaries

Finally! Most of the work has been done for budget season now. Our big meeting is Sept 10th, but for now, I finally get a day off! Although, I'm so tired from working so much lately, I don't know what to do with myself! I've done some cleaning so far, but I really don't have the energy to do much of anything. My brain is kind of fried, and I kind of just want to sit and watch movies all day.

Meanwhile, my parents are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary today. They didn't want a big party or anything, so tomorrow we are going out with them to help them buy a new big screen TV.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!