Just some update-ness

We have not had internet at home for over a week now and therefore I have not been able to post any pictures of what has been going on. So I have decided to give you a brief update anyway and maybe I will post some pics once we have our internet set up this weekend.

A couple weekends ago Derek and I drove to Portland and had an amazing time with family, shopping, seeing friends and going to Derek's step-brother's wedding. It was just a really nice time and felt refreshing to be back in Portland for a little trip.

Last weekend was our church Women's retreat up at Whistler. It was just Friday through Saturday but it was a really nice time. It was pretty low-key with lots of down time and hanging out. About 25 women from the church were able to go. I drove up with my friend Grace which was great because it had been a while since we had some one-on-one time. The retreat consisted of wine, food, hot tub, truth or dare, sleep, worship, small groups and making bookmarks. All in all, a wonderful getaway.

This coming weekend we are going to go to Taming of the Shrew at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival with our friends Ryan and Elizabeth. Very much looking forward to this as this has been on my "Vancouver to do" list since we moved here!

And we just found out that our friends Dave & Majell might be coming to visit us next week and I could not be more excited about this!!!!!!!

proud

Derek and I are proud to announce our new little babe! The Canon PowerShot SD 900. 10 Mega Pixels, 3x optical zoom, 2.5 inch screen! This was a gift from Derek's dad for completing his Master's degree and it is our new pride and joy. Derek has scoured the manual and learned about all the cool features and everything we can do with this little hand held camera. As you know, we are always pictures. In fact, we were out last week and someone asked my friend Shannon if she brought her camera with her, she pointed and me and said "yep!". Since we don't want to miss out or forget anything, the camera is a big part of our life. And this one is amazing and fits in the palm of your hand.

Derek went out for a photo shoot yesterday...so you can see his handy work and the amazing pics our new camera can take.

Shelley's Birthday!

This week we celebrated my good friend, Shelley's, birthday. I was thoroughly disappointed when Shelley told me a few weeks back that she didn't want to do anything for her birthday but just be mellow and not make a big deal of it. I personally love birthdays and everything about them so this statement from Shelley did not sit well with me. Knowing me all too well, Shelley's husband, Levi, contacted me right away to see what we were going to do for Shelley for her birthday without her knowing. Ah ha! We began to scheme and I asked Shelley if we could go out on a double date for her birthday so that she can have some sort of celebration and make her feel special. She agreed and thought this sounded just right for her. Little did she know that I also invited ALL of friends to come out to dinner as well and celebrate our friend and make her feel special. If I do say so myself, it was quite successful and she had NO idea. Besides a little redness in the face and hitting Levi in the arm when she saw us all, I would say that she was quite satisfied with her birthday party.

Amber and Shelley

drinking Bellini's!

Me and Shelley - silly friends

friends, friends and more friends...

And a goofy one of Derek and I, just for fun!

blockhead

Saturday night we went over to Tim & Jenn's house for dinner. After a fantastic bbq meal and hanging out for a while they wanted to show us this game that they absolutely love. It is called Blockhead and one of Tim's friends from Northern Ireland got them this for their wedding.

It's like reverse Jenga but much more fun!
It's quite intenseAnd it sure did a number on my nerves but I did come in second place thank you very much!Thanks Jenn & Tim!

Cinco De Mayo!

Saturday was CINCO DE MAYO!!! And what better way to celebrate than to have some friends over to drink Coronas and eat chips and salsa!?! So that is exactly what we did. It was a blast just hanging out with the pals...

We all had our own strategy of trying to get the lime immersed in the beer

No night is complete without a game of Catch Phrase

and of course a pic of girls drinking beer :)

*we miss you, Reimers

one step forward

Last weekend I threw an "end of degree" party for Derek. Because he was just shy of completing requirements in time for the Regent Grad and because we probably won't be here next year to participate in graduation, I thought this would be a fun and neccesary event. We had a lot of our family in from out of town and almost all our local friends joined us as we ate good food, spent time together, played a little trivia game and reminisced with a slideshow on what the past 3 years here have held for us. Though we still have some months until we actually leave Vancouver, it was a nice little step forward. Derek just has a couple things to finish up this summer but for the most part our time at Regent has almost come to an end. We have bitter sweet feelings about it all as we have had an amazing time in Vancouver and will always remember our time here but also so excited about whatever God has for us in the near future (i'll let you know once we know!). Enjoy the pics from the weekend with the fam as well as some from the party.

Derek's "end of degree" party/weekend (April 27-29)