Skating & Christmas

So I had wanted to go to Grousse mountain this weekend and check out the sleigh ride and the skating rink.

We got there and the tickets were $45 a ticket for the ride up! So we said nuts to that and Mike had the great idea to see if we could skate at Robson Square because they reopened the skating rink there for the olympics.

We got there and they were just clearing the ice with a mini zamboni.


It's pretty cool down there (figuratively and literally). They have lights reflecting Christmas shapes like snowflakes and candy canes over the ice and Christmas music playing.

They have rentals and if you don't need to rent, it's free! Take that Grousse Mountain!

Mike and I discovered that we are both now pretty terrible skaters from years of no practice. We're used to roller blades and I've sort of forgotten how to stop properly. We need some of those plastic walker things they have for the kids. It was pretty crowded but fun. We're starting to get into the Christmas spirit now. Last weekend Mike and I checked out the light show on the Canada Place sails like I mentioned in my last post. It was pretty cool and I'll post the photos for that soon. We haven't managed to get to Van Dussen gardens celebration of light yet due to the rain, but might get to squeeze it in on Tuesday night. Also the other day Mike went out and got us the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation dvd which I really enjoyed watching.
I've finished all my shopping and wrapping and I even made some cookies and finished decorating. I'm looking forward to the break and I'm going to get to see Emily too. She's going to come visit us in Calgary.

Last night we went to a really fun Christmas party too. Here we are in front of their tree.

It was a really gorgeous tree with some really beautiful decorations.

Today they finally delivered our olympic tickets so we're excited that that is coming up soon too.

They required a signature and identity check so if we didn't manage to be home when they delivered them, we'd have to go pick them up personally later so we were lucky.

This is probaby my last post before Christmas so Merry Christmas Everyone! I'll be sure to call home over the holidays. Love Andrea and Mike

Holiday Readiness

As I write this, it is snowing quite heavily here in Vancouver. The first snow we've gotten so far. I'm waiting for enough to be on the ground to take Tala and Unos to the park. They love playing in the snow. It gives them this crazy energy and the skip around like puppies.

We're preparing for the holidays and Christmas is getting close! I've bought all the presents and already sent many of them out. On Friday my company Christmas party was held in a nice restaurant in Gastown. I can't believe how many people we have now! The place was full and it was much larger than the venue for last year.

Last night we went out to UFC event with some friends. We discovered this great restaurant that hosts it. They have fantastic food, nothing like the regular pub fare that most places that host it serve.


The pictures I am posting are of the St. Paul's Hospital lights. They cover the hospital in lights and the stars are sponsored by donations. It is really gorgeous.

Mike and I have a few things planned to get into the holiday spirit. Tonight we are going to get some dinner and check out the light show at Canada Place. If you go to Stanley park to view it, it is apparently quite amazing:
http://www.canadaplace.ca/christmas/Sail_Light_Show.php


We're also planning on going to see the lights at the Vandusen Botanical Garden next week.

http://vancouver.ca/PARKS/parks/vandusen/website/events/fol.htm


It is apparently quite good and we've never been to see it over the years. We are just trying to find a good clear night to go with a few friends. After this snow today it is supposed to rain until next weekend :( so maybe next Sunday. Next weekend on the Saturday we plan to go to

Grousse mountain. They are having a bunch of activities including a skating rink and sleigh rides. We also might bring our snowshoes and do a little relaxed snowshoeing.

So that is what we're doing to get into the spirit. I also am thinking I should maybe do a little baking today. I'm off to hunt around now to see if I have baking goods. :) Hopefully I have some sugar, flour and butter and I can make shortbread.

Love to everyone! Ho, ho, ho!
P.S. A little naughty holiday joke for your pleasure: What is the difference between Santa Claus and Tiger Woods? Give up? Santa stops at three ho's :)

November

The month of November didn't start out too well.

Mike and I were both quite sick, first Mike and then myself. The week I was sick Mike was at a bachelor party for a friend of ours in Montreal. I was home with the doggies. We both think that we must have had H1N1 given our symptoms. We both received tamiflu when we were seen at the clinic as well. That is definitely the sickest I've been in years! I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

In the middle of the month, we went to a friend's wedding. It was held at the Point Grey Yaught Club in Vancouver and there was a very nice view of the ocean and the marina from the room. The food and drinks were very nice as well.















We also went to a friend's birthday party. They had this homemade cake that was pretty amazing with 6 layers and yummy food to eat. There were quite a few people there from the East Coast who all knew each other so it was nice to chat with them. NB, NS and Nfld were all covered.
Also this month, Kim came to visit us with Daxton. I went to meet her a the Canada Line when they arrived at the airport.

I'd taken a few days off to hang out with her while she was here with him.

He is a very sweet little baby and this was the first time Mike got to meet him. However, it really opened my eyes to what you can do when you have a small baby like that.

You can only leave him for about an hour at the most and they will cry for you and can't be comforted by anyone else. We didn't have his car seat and typical Vancouver weather it rained almost every day so we had to cozy up inside for most of Kim's trip so I felt kind of bad that it wasn't very exciting for her. She seemed fine with it though and it was very nice to see them both. We did manage to take them out for lunch/dinner a few times and we took the ferry across to Granville Island and we watched some movies.

Kim was also hesitant to take him into public too much because of H1N1. He is too young to have the shot and people are prone to try and touch small babies.
Kim looks amazing for just having a baby (only 2 months ago). I can't just can't get over how tiny she is. I hope I'm as lucky as her when I have kids. She is doing great and is a really good Mom. I always thought she would be.

It has been raining like crazy here! It gets me a little down because it is dark when I get up, dark when I leave work and bleak and dreary most of the day. But it has been very mild so that is nice. I've been preparing for Christmas. I'm nearly done all my shopping and now I need to start boxing things up and getting them in the mail. My birthday is coming up on Wednesday. To be honest, I am not looking forward to this one. 29! uch, I still fell like I'm 24. Mike and I went out for a nice dinner yesterday evening and I think that will be it. Mom and Dad sent me a very nice package. Thank you! I am going to be good and save it for Wednesday. I also got some nice cards, so thanks everyone for those too. For my birthday, Mike got me a kindle. It is an electronic book that is made by Amazon. You can download pretty much any book and read it. I absolutely love it! I am a big reader, I read every night and this will save a few trees and eventually save us a few dollars as the books are cheaper.

To finish, I'd like to send out birthday wishes to Grampie and Emily. Happy Birthday! Hope you have a lovely day. I'm lucky enough to share a birthday Grampie.

Halloween

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year.

Tina was still here for the weekend. At work I dressed up. Quite a few people do.

I am the old hag at the front. People seemed to like my costume, they didn't know who I was.

It really scared Mike! I actually won a bottle of wine for the costume. I had a purse with knitting needles and mints in it and I kept asking people in this awful screechy voice if they wanted a mint "little boy or little girl". I also had a pretty disturbing walk going on.

Here I am back to normal. After work I went to the Costco. I wanted to buy us fireworks for Halloween. Fireworks are huge in Vancouver for Halloween. Everyone sets them off and there are tons of little shops selling them.

I heard that Costco was selling them, so I went over. they had a booth set up and there were all these big boxes. I had had a beer at the work Halloween celebration. (they provided the beer) so the biggest box looked good to me. I approached the booth and said I wanted to buy the big box and the lady asked me if I had a permit.
I contemplated fibbing, then sadly said "no". "Don't worry, we'll get you one right here!" They took my name and address and then created one online with a laptop while I paid at the cash. After paying, an attendant came over with the fireworks and the permit. He told me that they'd filled out the test for me and that I'd done great on it. ha ha!
Now the box was much larger than I thought. They had only displayed the cover of it in the booth. It weighted about 30-40 pounds.
I had to get Mike to come pick me up.


It was very short notice, but I managed to round up a few people to come over. Next year I plan on having a party and inviting people ahead of time. This was a very last minute idea.

We opened the box and we gathered supplies. Flashlights, headlamps, protective goggles, lighters and a bucket of water.

The guys planted the fireworks and set them off. Callling to eachother in different parts of the park to set them off simutaneously.
















The fireworks were surprisingly good quality and it lasted quite a while. Next year we plan on buying a few of those boxes. It was a fantastic time. We went inside and had a few more drinks.
The next day Tina left to go home. I had a great time with her. It was nice to have another girl around for a while. I watched some scary movies the next day and ate some Halloween candy that was leftover, yum! Scary movies are not as scary during the day :)
Thanks Mom and Dad for the Halloween package! You guys are a bit silly :)

U2

This week Mike's sister Tina was in town for the U2 concert with the Black-eyed Peas as an opening band. Here they are in the pic to the to the left.

She had great tickets in the "red zone" which is a cordoned off standing room section on the floor.

I went with her on the floor and we sold my ticket to one of our friends. The day of the concert, Mike became very ill. He was sick to his stomach from when he woke up until about 2:00. We even thought that he wouldn't make the concert so we started to think of people who might want his ticket. He recovered though possibly he had food poisoning, but he's much better now.
The concert was at BC Place, which is the football stadium. That is a huge venue.

The stage took up almost half of the field. There were these massive almost spider legs coming down from the ceiling.

The stage represented the symbol on their "no line on the horizon" album and gave an amazing light show.





Between the Black-eyed Peas and U2, they truned on the lights so we got a chance to take some pictures and get some refreshments.

U2 got going and below is a pic of how the display piece of their stage was working.

There was also a kind of bridge that rotated around the stage and the band members walked around it as they played. Here is Bono below making the rounds.

It was a fantastic concert. We had a great time and I'd taken the next day off so I got to sleep in after being out late.

Tina and I had a great time this week. Next post will be what we got into at Halloween! It was explosive. :)

Pearl Jam

Last weekend we went to the Pearl Jam concert on Friday night.

Chris came over for some drinks and we got pumped up for the concert.

We listened to some of the tunes off the new album.





The concert was fantastic. Eddie was totally on his game and the crowd was fantastic and very happy with the performance.

Pearl Jam is a band who has never been about frills.

They didn't have the big screens at GM place or tons of cool effects, but they played one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

They have always been one of my must see bands of all time and finaly I've seen them.

They had sooo much energy and did 4 encores. I've seen a few good concerts at this point, but I have to say this was the best one yet.

U2 will have some serious points to gain for the October concert.

Birthdays and Anniversaries Oh My

This weekend I want to give a shout out to my Nanny. It is her 80th birthday. Happy Birthday Nanny! You're the best. I hope I'm half as awesome as you are when I'm 80! Hope you enjoy this post and wish I was there to celebrate this milestone with you!

So couple of weeks ago on the 14th it was our second anniversary. 2 years! I can't believe it's 2 years it feels...so....much...longer than that??

Just kidding we're having a great time! So for our anniversary I arranged for us to get a couple's massage at Spa Utopia in the Pan Pacific Hotel downtown near the cruise ships. I had a gift certificate too so we decided to splurge. It is a beautiful spa.

We took the Canada Line to the waterfront stop. It was super fast, I could not believe it. Two stops and we were there. Love the Canada Line.

We went in and they show you to the change rooms. They give you towels, a bathrobe, sandals and a locker. There are all kinds of of awesome things like cucumber or lemon flavoured water, beauty products, etc. We got changed and then came out to the lounge where they serve anti-ox tea and nuts and fruit like apricots, grapes and figs. They came and got us and we had a relaxing, fantastic Swedish massage. Afterwards we had some more healthy snacks and took our time getting cleaned up. We then went outside and it was a gorgeous day.

We walked around down by Canada Place and took a look at the new convention centre. It is new for the olympics. It is massive and the seawall goes all around it.

We watched the float planes take off and then we took a seat at this grill down by waterfront.

We had some yummy mussels, pizza and some fresh Granville Island beers.

We walked all around and came across this new outside art.

It is a circle of red metal statues of men squating. It looks really odd from a distance as they look very real.

For dinner we went out to our favourite Indian restuarant. We hadn't been there for a while, yum!

I got Mike some new sneakers especially for doing the grind. They are super light and have gripping soles especially for sports like that.


Mike got me beautiful Tiffany earrings and a necklace

They match last year's bracelette which is my favourite piece of jewelry. I'm so spoiled! Last year was supposed to be paper and this year coton, but I'm not complaining for sure.

We walked back to the Canada Line station. It is one of the coolest stations. It's in the historic Waterfront station which is a really beautiful place. Gorgeous old historic building.




The next weekend was Mike's birthday. I got him some new roller blades that he really likes. His old ones were starting to fall apart and he uses them nearly every day with the dogs.

I also got him an icecream cake which he must have on his birthday to make it complete. :)

I wanted to have a birthday party for him, but he was not having it. Instead we went to a UFC event with our neighbour-friends. We had a fantastic time and discovered a new restaurant that is a great place for the events in the future. They came over and we dusted off rockband and had an fun time into the wee hours.

Tomorrow we're actually going to a Pearl Jam concert and really looking forward to it. They are one of my all time favourite bands and on my "have-to-see-in-this-life" list. Here I come Eddie!

Edmonton

Last weekend I finally went and visited Emily, Heather, Kim and George in Edmonton.

Kim had her baby on Aug 30, so I was very excited that I would get to see my tiny nephew (Daxton Michael) too!

I arrived in the evening around 10:00 through the worst turbulence I'd ever experienced yet.

Could barely keep my wine in it's glass and in my mouth ;) George and Em picked me up from the airport. I was very grateful for that as the airport is a very expensive cab ride to their place unlike the Canada Line. I rode the Canada Line after my practice run perfectly to the airport for this trip except for the fact that I'd left my cell phone at home charging in Mike's charger. The train was 3 minutes away when I realised my mistake, but I needed that phone. I don't know Emily's number, Heather's number, Kim's number or Mike's number off by heart, so I started to run home from the station. On my way up the stairs I met my fantastic, amazing, considerate husband running down the stairs to give me my phone. He had run the whole way to give it to me. I love you Mike! I ran down just in time to catch the train.
When I arrived Emily and George picked me up and it was 32 degrees in Edmonton! It had been hot in Edmonton before I came but there was a little rain storm and then it cooled down.

That first night I just had some drinks and snacks with Emily and Goerge.

The next day we got some provisions and then we went out to dinner with Heather at this nice little place called The Blue Plate.

It was very tasty and somewhere that I think Mike would enjoy if he were to visit. Everything was fresh and local, very yummy.
The next day Emily and I met Heather and headed to Whyte Ave. We browsed in some cool shops but then Heather had to go off to work so I said goodbye. I did a little shopping and we browsed the market picking up some fresh things for dinner.
We then went to a little pub and had a beer on the patio in the sun. I did get some really nice weather when I came.

Emily and I then headed back to Emily's place on the LRT and got ready to go hang out with Kim.


Emily came over with me and we ordered some pizza, Kim made a salad and we picked up some fixins at the grocery store for dinner.

My little nephew is sooo cute! He's so tiny and just an adorable little baby.

I'm very proud of Kim too. She's doing a fantastic job as a new mum. Just as I thought she would.





She was always the most marternal of my friends. Babysitting she always looked like she was the mom rather than an awkward teen unsure what to do with little babies.

However I'm sure it's not as easy as she makes it look and I'm sure she's really tired too, it looks like a tough job.

Emily went home and Kim and I stayed up quite late talking and getting my fill of my new baby nephew and just watching random tv shows.

If you can't tell from the photos, he has blond hair and blue eyes and is only 6 pounds 15 ozs.






The next day Emily and George picked me up and we went to a Mexican place for lunch.

We played scrabble on their balcony, had some beers and then had dinner.

George made extremely hot jerk chicken for dinner.

It was too hot for my blood so I stuck to salad and veggies. I tried, but I always order mild. I'm a bit of a baby with hot food.



Their neighbours came over and we hung out with them for a bit. They are very nice people from St. Johns NFLD.

On my last day we all had breakfast, and I got packed up. Emily and George drove me over to Kim's

They were the best hosts. They are great cooks and very nice about carting my but around from one end of Edmonton to the other.


George also had to withstand a bit more girl talk than is healthy for the average man to hear ;) Thanks very much guys for your hospitality. Can't wait to return the favour!

Emily and George dropped me off at Kim's and we said our goodbyes. Kim still has her two cats so George had to steer clear!

Kim and I took the baby to the mall and picked up some things at a department store, then we went to Boston Pizza and had a nice lunch before she dropped me at the airport. I had a short uneventful flight and I finished watching my the movie "The Proposal". I then took the Canada Line home and Mike was waiting for me at the station with my lovely two dogs. (what a sweetie) We took them home and went out for dinner and I told him all about my trip.

The Canada Line

Yesterday we rode the brand new Canada Line for the first time!

I wanted to do a test run to the airport cause I'm planning on taking it there next weekend when I go to see Emily, Heather, Kim and my brand new nephew!

That's right! Kim went into to labor last night and I might be an aunt right now, but don't know for sure yet. I'm very excited!

The station is only 4 min walk from the condo on Davie and Drake.

We went down and everything is so new and clean

Here is Mike paying at one of the terminals. $2.50 compared to $35.00 in a cab to the YVR?!?!?!?! Can't beat it.

Here it is, it's completely computer controlled and extremely sophisticated.

There are little benches at the station and a digital clock that tells you how far away the next trains are.

I love it! Such a big city thing to have a sub-way and it's so fast it's unbelievable, I couldn't believe how quickly we got from station to station.

Over all with the walk to the station and the worst-case-scenario wait, it's the same amount of time as a cab to the airport, but potentially quite a bit less.
When you get nearer the airport and at the airport stop, there are terminals to check in at the airport!

How cool is that? I myself check in the day before online to avoid the lines, but this is awesome.

When you get out of the station, you arrive right at domestic departures and right next to the security doors to the departure gates. Fantastic!

On all the cars there are attendants who can answer all your questions about the stops, arrival times, etc.

On the way back we saw our attendant open the control panel to make and adjustment and he even honked the horn a couple of times for the kids up in the front. Pretty cool.



So after we walked around a bit at the airport, we took the train back and had some lunch outside as it was a beautiful day.

We came home, got ready and then walked to a pub with our neighbor-friends to watch a UFC fight.

It was a really good fight and I think I'm getting a bit into UFC. It is really entertaining and a lot of the people in our building and neighbor buildings are into it so great way to make friends.

While I was there, Kim texted me and told me here water broke. I spoke with her briefly, but haven't found out what happened yet! I'm so excited to see my little nephew. I'm really extra happy she's had him right before my trip! Perfect timing Kim, way to go, ha!

Today is another gorgeous day. Mike has gone on a bike trip to Whistler with some of the people from last night. He didn't have insurance on his bike, but they told him that the insurance place that is 5 min from our house is open on Sunday's and he can purchase insurance for a day! So convenient, that's awesome. I opted not to go. That bike is not comfortable long-distance for the passenger. I'm going to go to yoga, get outside and enjoy the sun and maybe do some shopping.

Very good weekend! woohoo!

Summer Fun

Recently they had the yearly fireworks competition here.

We saw almost all of the shows, but by now, I know better not to try and take pictures, they never turn out.

One of the nights we went to a friend's house who was also celebrating her birthday.

Check out the sunset over the Burrard Street Bridge!


We've been doing what we call "staycations". Just checking out what there is to do around town during the summer.

It's been a beautiful summer. We tried out a new restaurant on the seawall. Dad this was Fiddlehead Joe's and is now a Pirate themed pub with lots of rum drinks and seafood. Joe must have retired and headed back to NB?

We've also been doing lots of walks picnics and I've really enjoyed the outdoor pool at Second Beach this year and have a pretty decent tan.

One of the things we did was go and see the pride parade for the fist time in our 3 years here.

It was certainly something to see. Very colorful and lots of music. A really great time for all ages lol.

The parade is actually really long. The longest parade I've ever seen and it was a hot day.

I was burning up, I don't know how the drag queens in their heels and makeup managed to do all that walking, but I guess they were suffering for their cause ;)

After the parade there was a whole market set up with some free stuff and a food fair.

Yum, yum, the first thing on my mind was juice and a Popsicle. It was hot!



















Other than the parade we've been going on some long walks and bike rides and doing little picnics outside. We've been taking the dogs to the park and Mike had been doing the grind regularly and hitting the gym too.

I'm really looking forward to going to seem Emily, Heather and Kim in Edmonton too for the Labour Day long weekend.

I'm planning on riding the Canada Line which has opened and goes directly to the airport. I'm going to try and do a trial run before the day I leave. I hear that the stations on the way to the airport have check-on kiosks right in them, very convenient!