Baaaa, Buble, Butts

Do you ever have weekends that you wish you could just bottle up and keep for a while?

This last weekend was one of those. It probably tops the charts with top weekends because there was so much crammed into it and it was a lot of fun!


First off, here are a couple shots I quickly took with my new lens! I LOVE it! It's huge though! It's 150-500 mm and has an incredible zoom!


The weekend started on Thursday night when some friends and I went to see Cirque de Soleil, Kooza, which is in Vancouver right now. INCREDIBLE! The control over their bodies and things they can do with their bodies are absolutely mind-blowing! And the way the whole show is put together is always great! My favorite was when I got peed on by the dog. I was in the 2nd row, and the dog leaned over and peed and got me soaked (it was water obviously... I hope)


Then we went out to a tapas restaurant to continue the celebration of Adri's birthday. Food wasn't incredible, but the company was fantastic and we had a great time.


After dinner we went to 'Death by Chocolate' for dessert! All in all a fantastic evening!



Friday afternoon i picked Lindie up from the airport, we went for lunch, and then drove to the ferry terminal to pick up our friend Cynthia who is from Winnipeg.


That night, we went to a sheep roast that Dave and Adri helped host. They roasted the sheep South African style and it was FANTASTIC! So tasty!!


It was a great night too. There was a live band, great food, good company and some great sokkie (South African dancing). I am learning that I suck at being led on the dance floor. I want to take over. So a couple of my friends are determined to help me out with that, which i'm grateful for! It really is quite enjoyable! :)


Here's poor little sheep-y. Before he got eaten by us...


We were pretty excited about the sheep. It was a beautiful night as well, so it was good to be able to be outside!



Saturday, Lindie and I went for lunch and then swimming and helped the South African clan set up for camping in the backyard before heading into Vancouver.




What time is it? Fry time!! Lindie and I go to Red Robin's every time she visits. Mainly so we can eat the fries! So good!


And a swim is not complete without some underwater pictures of course! :)


Even if the underwater pictures are complimentary to how you look.. haha


That night, Lindie and I went to the Michael Buble concert, which was AMAZING!


A group called Naturally 7 opened for them and they were awesome. They all become the instruments they play. It was pretty awesome, especially the drummer, bass player and electric guitar. You definitely thought there were instruments being played. Pretty awesome!


And Michael Buble was awesome of course. His stage presence is fantastic, his songs wonderful and I also enjoyed his dialogue throughout-quite the comedian.


His band was full, and I especially loved the brass section! And the stage was angled, so he could slide down it every once in a while. He even did a few songs near the back on a separate stage so we were super close!


The lighting and video effects were pretty cool as well!



Then on Sunday, my mom, Lindie and I headed over to the island. First stop was Chemainus, where we enjoyed walking around, going for lunch and then we went to see Guys & Dolls at the Chemainus Theatre. It was fantastic! It is probably one of my favorite musicals, so it was great to see again! It's coming to Seattle this next season so I'm excited to go then too!


There were some fun things to take pictures of in Chemainus as we walked around.




After the musical, we drove to Victoria where we were going to spend the night. Our hotel valet suggested this fantastic Italian restaurant which definitely was incredible! Such good food! And live music too!


The group was a Yiddish group and it was fun to be accompanied by them!


I have some great sunset/dusk pictures I took, but they're taking forever to load.. so they will have to wait until some other time.


And so ends an absolutely wonderful weekend! And now the final countdown is here. 2 more sleeps until Australia!! Ahhh!! I can't believe it. Maybe I should pack.. or think about packing. Happy Tuesday!

Cameras, Chilliwack, Club

Yesterday was one of those wonderfully lazy days. As was yesterday. I decided I needed one more. The days when you go with the flow and all is well (funny enough when I look at my day, it was still quite full! haha)


The day began with a drive to Vancouver to pick up the newlyweds. Unfortunately, thanks to our summer construction traffic, I was about 45 minutes late picking them up- oops! Then I enjoyed lunch with a friend.


And on lazy summer days, what a better way to spend it than in between the hot tub and pool with family? Delightful. As is the leg across the above picture. And here I am using my new underwater camera since my old one seemed to have gotten water in it and is now broken {go figure}. And to answer, Kelly's question, I am thinking about getting a Canon 7D. And right now I have a Canon 40D with 3 different lenses that I will be able to transfer over {one of which is a wide angle which I absolutely LOVE playing around with}. And in answer to the other question, I am headed down under for 5 and a half weeks. Crazy long time! And all that is planned so far is that I have a flight to Australia. Haha.. I'm counting on spontaneity and adventure for this one.


Then I drove out to Chilliwack, to enjoy a BBQ with more family. It was my cousin's son's birthday as well, so it was fun to be there to celebrate with him. And we figured since we were at a wedding in the rain on the weekend, we could stand a bit of drizzle during our BBQ.


Then I headed to prison which was great as per usual {if you're ever interested in volunteering every other Monday night, there are a lot of women who are waiting for matches!} It's funny, because I have now played crazy 8's there quite a few times and every time I forget how to play. I'm thinking I will remember next time hopefully. My time there is always inspiring and truly thought provoking.


After, I went to Sharks Club to join Kristen and her friends in a farewell to Kristen who left early this morning to head down to grad school in California. Her and I got through our undergrads together with a lot of fun and craziness! She was one of my main university friends and I am thankful that I have a lot of great memories and laughs I can share with her!

Today I am heading to the lake for some more canoeing {have I mentioned I love my canoe?}

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Beaches, Building, Bears

The last eleven days were absolutely wonderful and exceeded my expectations on most fronts. I have a lot more pictures than I will post here, but hopefully this will give you an idea of my time in Mexico!

We drove down and left Sunday morning (4th of July). Drove through the night and made minimal stops along the way. The scenery was absolutely stunning! Especially Mt. Shasta and driving through that region. The van I was in was great. Had some good conversations, played some fun games and slept intermittently as well.


In-N-Out Burger is always a favorite stop along the way. They have fresh burgers and fresh fries that they make and cut right there! So tasty! I hadn't driven down to California in a long time, so it was fun. And it was great to get to know people on the trip while driving down.

Monday morning we arrived in San Diego where we spent the day. We went to Mission Beach which has a boardwalk and an amusement park right on the beach-so fun! It was great just walking around because the atmosphere was amazing. And we went wave jumping as well because the waves at this beach were awesome. My favorite is when you'd run out to the water and suddenly fall because there was a large hole in the sand from the waves. :)

The advantage to having a waterproof camera is days like this when you're in the water! So fun!

Later than night we went to Old Town San Diego which is where the original settlement was I think. Lots of cool shops and restaurants and interesting people to talk to along the way. Then swimming in the hotel pool and sleep before our trek into Mexico in the morning!
We arrived in Mexico and went grocery shopping for the week at Costco and the grocery store. Then we split into our work crews and went to our three different sites in La Gloria.


The foundations were all laid at each site and this is what we started with. I'm still amazed at what we put together in just a few short days! The family we were building for had had their house burn down so they were living in a tent while we were building them a new house. It was wonderful to get to know them as well while we were down there! Also a good chance to put my Spanish to good use!

The first day we framed, painted plywood for the outside and trim and then by the end of the day we had our four walls up!

The next day we framed the individual rooms in the house and also started working on the loft and the roof. I wired the electrical too which was pretty fun.
Then came drywalling and mudding the inside, and roofing and double painting the outside!
And this is the final product and a photo of my work crew with the family! I loved the people I was working with and it was fun to work alongside them and to get to know them a bit better through building a house together. Perhaps next week or sometime I will post more photos of the actual process, but that was the gist of it.
A few pics around our site of the people working on it.
The family had their first grandson and he was adorable!

I love ladder/feet pictures. Okay I never have in the past. But i really like this one. :)
On the last day, the family made us lunch. Bbq'd chicken, fresh salsa, rice, tortillas. Soooo good!! I knew some of the stuff had been made using their water but I trusted and ate it anyway and still didn't get sick! woooh!
We stayed at a bible school right in Tijuana and would walk downtown most nights. The walk was great and it was fun to see all the different people and shops, etc.
Sarah, Shirley and I were braid buddies. haha. Except I hate the way my braids look. :)

Erin and Brynje fell off the side of the wall.

There was an amazing taco stand a nice walk from the school and we went there a few times! Fresh tacos-soooo tasty!! I miss them! haha
Craig was perhaps the biggest advocate for the tacos. :) And rightly so.

And you eat them with limes and radishes! Tasty! normally I don't like radishes, but fresh with lime squeezed on them, they are really good!
The pork was a bit spicy but it was cool how they cut it right off the roast!
In the evenings, we would sometimes go visit our buddy TJ who had a donut shop. Best donuts ever! Perhaps even better than Krispy Kreme. Go TJ! :)
On the walks back to the school, we'd often have fun photo shoots.
We found a great park and playground along the way


There's a monstrous flag of Tijuana right by the school, which is pretty cool.

Sunrise over Tijuana.
On the drive home, we had the tamer van which was nice. Brynje and Erin had fun making forts in the back. And we had some great laughs. Especially when we missed the caravan continuing on the I-5 and accidentally took a wrong turn into downtown Portland. Was a nice scenic detour and we caught up in the end so all was good!
We stayed the night in Yreka, CA which has the best smelling air ever! So fresh! We ate dinner and breakfast at the Black Bear Diner which was super good. Great decor as well!

All in all a wonderful trip. I will post a bit more later on about Sergio and his ministry there (the guy who we build the houses through) because he inspired me greatly. But I probably didn't even have time to make this post.. because I have a lot of work to do in the next couple days and am living for Whistler in an hour! But I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long! ;)

So stay tuned for more thoughts on Mexico as well as Whistler adventures! Enjoy the weekend!