sunset in everett

I took these pics a few days ago while in Washington for school....I stopped at a park near where my friends live and while i just missed the sunset, the sky was still pretty cool....and i love that there was a lone sailboat out for an evening ride 

elk mountain

pam and i took advantage of the amazing weather this long weekend and challenged ourselves with a hike up Elk Mountain. Whew did we get a workout.......but it was well worth it! the views were amazing, though i must apologize for the lack of clarity and the foggy valley below us.....welcome to the smog that settles in the Fraser Valley after many straight days of sunshine.

After dragging ourselves to the top of the mountain, we had lunch in the shade (the birds would come eat right out of your hand....see photo above), lounged around a bit and then gave our quads a good workout coming back down (thank you chad and theresa for letting us sit in your hot tub last night.....)

what a great day!! 

clearwater bay adventures

Well i just spent a great week at the lake with my family, though my dad had to go back to the city and work for part of the time. Here are a few pics of some things we did, places we went, etc etc

This is one of a few times my brother and I canoed mom around.......this time we decided to paddle around our island before the sunset....but mom and I had just poured our daily gin & tonic...so mom brought hers along for the ride......i myself could not paddle while sipping, so mine stayed in the fridge for later

Ah Kenora....home of the world famous Husky the Muskie, a giant fish on the waterfront as you drive into town.
this was a bit later on the canoe ride mentioned above.......we didn't quite make it all the way around the island by sunset, but it was all good....we even saw a deer
Here I am in front of the main cottage
Ah puzzles......lake entertainment on rainy days that turns into "can't sleep, gotta finish the puzzle"......my dad and I worked on this crazy puzzle off and on for about 2 days and finally finished it at 12:30am

ah the joys of the lake............!!!

the scenic side....part 1

I took many many pictures while I was at the cabin and had a lot of fun experimenting with sepia, b&w and macro modes while trying to capture things with somewhat of an artistic flair. I'd say some worked out pretty darn well!! I'll try to choose my favories otherwise i could post a TON of shots..lol


that's my bro looking at the sunset

i think i took sunset pictures every night, though some days the colors were better than others
out for a canoe ride in Beaver Bay...this is an old rope swing that someone put up years ago
Ok i realize there is not much color to be seen in these shots but i have discovered that i LOVE sepia....lol...anyway, look at the next blog where there's more color to be found

the scenic side...part 2

Ok, so basically it was too hard to choose only 5 favorites, so i am making a second posting of purty shots....hope you like them!

first of all i thought it was pretty impressive that i took this canoe shot all my myself in the middle of the lake........second of all, i think it looks cool

So we had this crazy storm that suddenly blew through the first night we were there, and then the sky went all colorful. This (and the next shot) is looking out from the guest cottage


So we went to Kenora and i had some fun taking pictures of the flowers on the waterfront

back in business

just letting y'all know that i'm back from my little trip to winnipeg/the cabin and will hopefully be posting a bunch of pics soon!

cabin sweet cabin

So tomorrow I'm heading off to Winnipeg for a little family time at the cabin so it might be over a week before i post again, just to give y'all a heads up.

Here's a pic of the cabin....that's my dad sitting on the deck.........the sun better be out while i'm there because i plan on doing some serious reading and tanning....



lol....this pic is from summer 1981......it's the 6 grandkids at the lake with gran and gramps....can you figure out which one I am?
Alrighty......enjoy your next week or so and i'll talk to you all later!

smallest church ever!!

So Pammer and I were camping at Beachwood for the long weekend again (remember i use the term 'camping' loosly as we were in the trailer, not a tent). We had a great time relaxing in the sun, playing cards and cooking things in the campfire.

Right outside Lynden you will find the smallest church ever! I think it used to be in Canada, but it was moved down to Washington for some reason. Anyway, it's cute and tiny and so here are some pictures of it. The pictures aren't in the order I would have liked, but I cannot seem to figure out how to post pictures in the order i want......anyone have any tips (besides posting every pic in a separate blog)

Even the mice have a tiny little door into the sanctuary!!




Just taking a few quite moment with the hymn book......there's actually a button on the wall that you can "press for inspirational music to start playing". Oh and look how tiny the pews are! I think there are only 4 in total.....maybe 6, i forget.

Here's the church! Look how cute and tiny!

symphony of fire

So a bunch of us went to see the fireworks in Vancouver the other night, part of Vancouver's annual Symphony of Fire where 4 countries compete for the best display. This display on Wed was put on by the Czech's. TONS of people head down to the beach to watch the fireworks, then when it's all over, we flood the streets like cattle trying to get back to our cars. I tried to take some pics, though without a tripod it was pretty tough....but hey they still look cool


Ok this first pic totally didn't turn out, but i still think it looks cool. The other 2 turned out better


yeah i think this last pic is my favorite, not bad for using my knees as a tripod..lol

oh dusky!

just a little tribute to one of my favorite cats......i've been spending time with Dusky this week as Ernie and Linda are on holidays and Dusky needs a friend.


see how cute he is?
see how nice he just poses for me? i think he likes having his picture taken...lol
here he comes, slinking across the floor all stealth like......
soft.....so soft........

trying something new

not sure if i like the change or not, but i changed up my myspace page the other day and figured i might as well try something new on this page too.

i'll give it a few days to sink in.....

just another day...

Just taking some time to help educate the children of the future.....ahh....reading to kids.....they will never know if I actually read the words that are on the page.....heck they just like the pretty pictures (and on a personal note, i love reading kids books, cuz i can pronounce all the words....lol)

even the kittens love the 'Bucks!!

This is my friend Carrie's cute litte innocent kitten....kitten and I were hanging out last time I was in the States for school.....

kitten looks so adorable in the basket with blankets.....




Here kitten is happy just licking the outside of my drink....but as you can see above.......when you least expect it and leave your drink unattended, kitten will go for the straw......

the best part about camping....

so pammer and i went camping for the canada day long weekend...though we were camping in a trailer so i hardly consider that camping, but nonetheless, it was a lot of fun!

It's been a while since i've been camping so i was pretty excited to get to the best part of the evening.......the s'mores............!!!!

what follows is a step by step guide on how i made the perfect camping snack!!

Begin with making a fire. I think we had the prettiest firewood in the whole campsite....lol!! Pammer's dad works for a window and door company, so we had boxes and boxes of left-over end pieces of door frames, etc...none of this "go cut down a tree and take it's branches" stuff...!!

Anyway, you make a fire and then i play a bit....it's important that i have a poker stick, so that i can poke and play with burning sticks, push them around in the fire pit, flip boards over, etc. Ok, i'm wierd. but it's fun. ANYHOO, you let the fire burn down to coals and then the fun begins!!!




Look at us, hard at work.....!!!

the ingredients....

now that the coals are ready and inviting, it's time to get the key ingredients ready. now, normally i wouldn't choose these cinnamon flavoured graham crackers, but it was all Target had to offer. Not too bad, but i do prefer the original. In any case, let us get this show on the road!


Allow me to point out the GYNORMOUS chocolate bar i have purchased....

And perhaps the most critical part.....the marshmallows.........toasting them to perfection is a true art.....Pammer and I came up with a great idea......begin toasting the 'mallow and then take the first toasted layer off and squish it in your s'more..leaving the middle (and not yet toasted) of the 'mallow still on your roasting stick. Put it back in the fire for round two, and then when it's done, place it on the OTHER side of the chocolate. Therefore, your s'more looks like this....graham cracker-marshmallow-chocolate-marshmallow-graham cracker......oh baby, it's the ultimate s'more!!

final stage

mmmmmmmmmmmmm............delish!!!!!!!

inflation rate is rising

ok so that title doesn't have anything to do with this blog, i just heard it on the news as i sit here and type, and since i couldn't think of a title, i went with it.

So i realize i haven't blogged in a very long time.......but i did warn you to not sit there and hold your breath for consistent blogging. And i really don't know what to blog about....hmmmm lets think......

Well I am sad that the NHL season is finally over. Also very sad that the Oilers couldn't pull through in game 7.......i really did think they had a good chance. Frick...stupid cup staying south...sigh, one day the cup shall return home....though i did manage to educate some of my American classmates on the wonder of NHL hockey over the weekend. And now i just have about 3 months to wait until the big boys hit the ice again....sweet.....i love how hockey consumes so many months of the year.

What else? I really want to go to the zoo this summer. A zoo commercial just came on tv and reminded me how much i want to visit the giraffs. but i also discovered the other day how stupidly expensive it is to go to the zoo. I remember when the zoo was free........oh those were the days, school field trips are where it's AT!!

Well i think i'll shut 'er down here for today. Maybe i should take some pictures or something and blog about them.........yes........that'll do...........

oregon!!!

I just went on a great little trip to the Oregon coast with my friend Pam and her parents, which was really great because when you go on a trip with parents, the kids spend very little money. Well, i spent money on shopping, because there is no tax in Oregon and we hit up a sweet outlet mall, so of course i had to buy stuff! Also included in this trip was lots of chillin' out maxin' and relaxin'. the beach was beautiful, though a wee bit cold and windy, but hey, it was still the beach.

here are some pics of the trip. i know the sunset picture is supposed to be at the end of any good presentation, but lucky you get to see it first. enjoy!!

i have reappeared again

hello hello, just wanted to drop in and let y'all know i'm still alive and kickin'. Life has been busy busy busy! I have recently moved and am getting settled in to my new place, which is really great and has a super view too....please see below!!

for Jeremy

i appreciate your comments and use them to improve my blog. An extreme oversight on my part has led to one of my fans being very upset with me, so now this post is dedicated all to him.

Jeremy came out for a wedding early in Feb and since he hardly knew anyone else that would be there, he took me along as his date. Hey, for a free meal, i will sit through a wedding. Turns out i knew a whole bunch of people at the wedding. Also turns out he still didn't....lol

Anyway, it was a fun few days while jer was here and i'm sending him a big shout out in wpg!

i'm so embarrassed

wow, has it really been that long since i posted? man i suck. there can be 2 possible explanations:
one- life has been SUPER busy
two- nothing blog-worthy has actually happened in the last many many weeks

well i little bit of both is true. but i just finished another class yesterday, and have a few days before my next one starts, so although i don't have anything interesting to say, i'm blogging dammit!!!

let us see....what can i talk about? ohhhhhh how about the Olympics? i must say that although i have been swamped by homework this last while, i have been watching the Olympics in all my study breaks. and i was quite happy to see Canada actually do pretty well! Seriously, we won way more medals than i was expecting, sorry Canada, but we have a record of choking under pressure. then again, i will not waste space ranting about how our men's hockey team sucks. instead i will talk about the wonders of curling. my friend Jackie has decided that i should marry Brad Gushue, the Canadian skip.....ok so i just looked up his profile on the olympic website, and just discovered that i'm OLDER than he is!!!!!!! what the heck! ok sorry Brad, no dice.

I would also like to give a shout out to our women's hockey team, who brought forth total domination....bravo. it was also a time to recollect, as I went to elementary school and a year or two of Jr. High with Jennifer Botterill, who plays for Canada. All those great memories of her beating us all at sports way back then came flooding back, that favortism the coaches showed, ahhh good times....Lan, if you're reading this, you can relate, eh!

anyway..........i think i'll wrap this one up.........take it easy....peace out