happy birthday

Yesterday was Derek's 26th birthday. I have posted about this before, but I just LOVE birthdays. I love to celebrate, I love to make people feel special and I love to feel special on my day. My husband, on the other hand, would rather fly under the radar and not get a bunch of recognition on his birthday (at least that's what he says, but I think he secretly loves it as we all do!). He told me repeatedly this year not to do anything and refused to let me make a big deal out of his birthday. This is not an easy feat for me as I want to spoil him rotten, but alas I adhered to his request. Since we have been together I have gone all out for Derek's birthdays (hot air balloon ride, surprise trip to the Oregon coast, best friends driving all the way to Vancouver from Oregon...) and this is the first year I laid low a little bit. Although I will add that I got him a stinkin awesome birthday gift that was a complete surprise to him and can be seen here, the coffee snobs will appreciate it (and know what it is). Thanks to Dave B for helping me find the right one! Derek did give in a little bit however and we are headed out to a pub this weekend with our close friends for a mini celebration and yummy beer :)

Happy 26th Birthday this week to Jeff, Deanna and Derek! Thanks for being born friends.

Mount Washington - March 16-18, 2007

Remember the free ski getaway we won from the radio? This past weekend we cashed it in and went skiing on Mount Washington. I can hardly begin to describe the great time we had. I think the fact that we didn’t have to pay for it made the trip that much more enjoyable. We caught the 3pm ferry from Horseshoe Bay on Friday and pulled into Nanaimo close to 2 hours later. We stopped at the grocery store after unloading from the ferry to stock up for the weekend and then off we went to find us a mountain. It was about an hours drive until we finally saw the turn off to Mt. Washington to our great relief. We feared we had been going the wrong way as we could not see any mountains and there was not a drop of snow anywhere to be found. Once we took the turn off it was about 20 more minutes of driving straight up hill. We finally saw snow and the beautiful mountain. We were very happy about our nice hotel room, which included a full kitchen, a fireplace, a separate bedroom and nice view. We bundled up and decided to go take a little walk around to see what the grounds held. The mountain was two steps out of the hotels front door and we were excited about the idea of skiing out of our hotel room the following day. The next morning we allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit before hitting the slopes, but then spent the majority of the day skiing. I wasn’t sure how I would do because I haven’t skied in quite a while. But after a few runs I got the hang of it again and enjoyed every second of it. Such a great, intense, freeing feeling you get coming down that mountain with the wind in your face and the huge mountain at your back. We had a blast and were surprisingly not too sore the next day. That evening we hit the pub for dinner where we had the favorite burger and beer. Derek ordered a green beer since it just so happened to be St Patrick’s Day. The next day we hung out on the mountain a little bit, ate a beaver tail, and said goodbye. We did a little shopping in Nanaimo and then caught the ferry home. All in all we had an amazing, much needed little holiday. Enjoy the pics!

Mount Washington - March 16-18, 2007

changes

Thing are changing, I can feel it in the air, I can feel it everywhere I go. We've been quite comfortable in Vancouver for the past 2 1/2 years but things must always come to an end and things must always change. Which isn't bad, just different. The first of our "group" of friends is moving away at the end of April, this is a tough reality but a good thing for them. They will leave Vancouver, after almost 3 years, with a Masters degree, a baby, and a great new job. Crazy how things change so much. A couple of my friends are pregnant, which is weird, because when we all moved here we were just newly weds and kids seemed so far away for each of our couple friends. Things change, people grow, time passes. Derek will finish his degree at the end of April. The cherry on the sundae that we have been building over the past years. What an accomplishment, what success! The next big adventure is calling our name. It's looking like we will take on and conquer yet another country, it's a dream really. Although surreal. Can't believe how much has changed.

Snow!

Sometimes you wake up on March 1st and it's snowing outside!! It sure is gorgeous outside. Still had to go to work today though, darn it.

View from our bedroom window