This was actually the "relaxed" weekend

This was the weekend of friends and feasting! Heh...it was quite the busy weekend despite being our "off" weekend in our new scheme of "Let's get out of the house and DO something for pity's sake"!

The weekend got off to a bit of a rough start as we had to take poor Cailean to the vet for the 2nd time in one week. He was getting really sick and had stopped eating for 2 days. He wound up spending the night there giving Sienna full reign of the house. She wasn't complaining too much.

Friday night our friend and new Chi-SMO hire Joel and his wife Nicole took Brian, Jim and I out to dinner to celebrate the new job. We chose a unique Seattle dining experience a la Pasta Freska. As always, Mike cooked up a fantastic meal and made us feel like old friends.

Saturday morning found me in a very bake-y mood and inspired by my delightful new cookbook - Stars Desserts.

I made Lemon Bars for dessert that evening, got started on the cinnamon rolls for Buffy Sunday and whipped up a batch of crack dip. I had a blast! I can't believe I actually made everything from scratch and it all turned out great!

Saturday afternoon we rescued Cailean from the vet and he was a much happier kitty after getting some meds into his system. From there we stopped at my mentor's house for her housewarming party. We met some cool folks, learned some tips for boat buying, and I discovered I might want to look into a career in test!

That evening found us over at Jim and Sharon's place for a fun round of Taboo, Spite & Malice and Mille Borne. We saw some familiar faces there and met a couple of new people as well. All in all, it was a fun night and the place is looking great!

Sunday I put the finishing touches on the cinnamon rolls and Kristi and Rob came over for a Buffy/Angel-thon. We pounded thru 7 episodes and finished season 5 of Buffy! Only 3 eps of Angel season 2 to go. No spoilers!!!!!!

Finally, tonight marked the inauguration of the BBQ!! Brian and Rob hauled the grill upstairs and we busted some patties out and B got grillin'! It was delish!! :)

There's more than ice hockey in Canada!

In keeping with our new resolution to get out of the house and "do something," this past weekend's excursion took us up north to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Brian and I dug up our passports, packed our bags (very tightly) and crammed ourselves in to the Audi. We set off around 9am Friday morning and started our 4-6 hour drive to the condo we rented with our friends, Nik and Kristi (who would be joining us later that evening). Wow - what a breathtaking drive up there! Most of the ride is up Hwy 99/Hwy 1 which winds up along the coast of Horseshoe Bay and the mountains. I could barely stop gaping ot the window. We were also treated to a glorious waterfall - Shannon Falls. Apparently this is one of the tallest waterfalls in North America. We actually got there around 2pm and that included a few stops and some lunch. Getting thru the border was a breeze!! I was pretty ready for a nap by the time we got there, so you could only imagine my displeasure when we discovered there were STILL PEOPLE IN THE CONDO WE WERE RENTING!!! To top it all off, the condo owners were in MEXICO on vacation!!!! Fortunately, we were able to get things straightened out (turns out the squatters were friends of the owner and there was some miscommunication) and we were settled in by 6pm. That gave us the chance to tour around town a little bit and pick up some groceries for dinner.

Nik and Kristi took the "scenic" route (accidentatlly toured Vancouver a couple extra times) and arrived around 10pm. We got to talking and an impromptu swing dance lesson broke out! N&K are taking lessons, so Brian and I helped them pick up a few advance moves - they learned the various throws that I learned in a class I took years ago. Man did that tire us out!!

Saturday morning the boys took off skiing while we girls wandered into town and got ourselves a couple of absolutley divine massages. I don't think I've ever been so relaxed after a massage! Definitely has me thinking of signing up for Massage Envy. Anywho, we met up with the boys later on and had a lovely dinner out at Milestone's. And of course, our evening would not be complete without game night!! We taught N&K how to play Mille Borne. I tell ya, once we started playing for real, they had us convinced they were sharks! Those were a couple of close games!!!

Our final day there, Nik and Brian took off for some snowboarding while Kristi and I were perfectly content hanging out at the condo, reading, knitting and chatting about whatever came to mind. How I love going on vacation!!

Luckily, the ride back home wasn't as bad as had feared it would be and we even got to make a stop at the duty free shop. Border crossing only took us about 20 min and we were back stateside in no time at all! This certainly was an incredible weekend - made all the more fun vacationing with great friends!!

Here's the link to our pics. Enjoy!!

PS - the view from our condo on Friday evening.

My Poor Sick Kitty :(

My poor baby isn't feeling well. I had to take him to the vet today cuz he's been awfully barfy lately. I was worried to death that he was going to require surgery or x-rays. Luckily, the vet thinks that maybe he's allergic to some protein coupled with an inflamed digestive tract.

So we've come home with a new brand of specialty food to try out on him. I'm really hoping it'll help him feel better. Poor guy hasn't had much to eat these last couple of days.

Weeked Excursion - the first of many!

Brian and I drove up to Mount Vernon, WA to go horseback riding at the Cultus Mountain Ranch. We've decided that we are going to plan activities for 3 out of 4 weekends each month. These things don't have to be anything spectacular - just something to get us out of the house at least one weekend day or night.

Our butts and backs sure are hurting today!! We took a 2 hour ride with the horses. We got to go thru a forest, cross a river and walk around a beautiful lake and vacant Boy Scout camp. My horse's name was Wild Fire and Brian's was named Tilly. Turns out that the ranch owners also breed and sell Rottweilers and these adorable kitties called Pixie Bobs. I was in kitten heaven.

This first excursion turned out to have a bonus trip as we also stopped by the Tulip Festival ! The Tulip Festival happens every April in Mt. Vernon and we were planning on stopping there on our way up to Whistler next weekend. Since we were already so close and the weather was especially nice, we decided to make our way over and check out the breathtaking tulip and daffodil fields. WOW! I've never seen such vibrant colors or that many flowers at once! You know the corn fields in IL? Imagine those same fields being nothing but tulips or daffodils in full bloom. Seas of yellow, red, orange, pink and purple! Our photos simply don't do them justice.

Looking forward to Whistler next weekend!!