Guest, Gyoza, Games

The last couple weeks have been filled with Canucks games, connecting with friends and just laying low and reading a lot and enjoying my down time.


The other night at the Canucks game, it was military appreciation night and my friend Destinye and I were lucky enough to meet a group of them outside in the parking lot. We took some photos for them and chatted awhile and it was well.. random. And really funny. We took a picture of them on their camera (and one of us so they knew who had taken their photo) and then we figured we'd take a picture with our camera to remember how funny and random our parking lot banter was.


What a great evening! The Canucks lost, but I honestly felt like they won, because the whole night was fantastic. I hadn't seen Destinye in months but spending time together was like a breath of fresh air in that moment. Exactly what I needed. I'm thankful for good friends who you can connect with regardless of how much time has passed between seeing each other.

But then Finn bit her head. Thankfully she was okay.

I should probably start a collection of all the photos I have with Finn.

At the game ready to get on the big screen which wasn't working during the first couple periods!


During first intermission a guy climbed into the jumbotron.. And then I stayed up there for 2 periods. Haha. Thankfully he got them fixed during second intermission, but then he was still stuck up there during the 3rd period. Hope he had a good time stuck up there. Haha


The night before that, Jannie and I went to the Canucks game to enjoy their 7 - 1 miserable LOSS. Boo. But Jannie is on the road to becoming a Canucks fan, so it's probably best to start loving them when they're losing, and then you're a fan for life, right?


Before the game, we went to my favourite Japanese place in Vancouver, called Hon-Jin. So tasty! And such good service. And the people beside us were probably talking about us in whatever language they were speaking. Only because we recommended some menu items and I hope they didn't hate them...



And here's a photo of precious Paisley. Just because she's a perfect pink bundle. And now I will stop using the letter "p" in excess.


A couple weeks ago, Cheri and i had a gyoza night at our place and it was fantastic. Cheri is pretty awesome and can make amazingly perfect looking and incredibly tasty gyoza! Mmm.. so good!! And fun to hang out with everyone too!

I think these were some of the best gyoza I'd ever had. Mmmm..

I always forget to take photos of myself to show I was there...

About a month ago I got a special invitation to join my mom and aunt's during their birthday dinner. Usually it's all sisters but one of them couldn't make it, and they had an extra ticket for a concert, so I got to come along! We went to a Thai place in the states and then to the Celtic Thunder concert. Was really great to hang out with all of my aunts together and enjoy being their special guest. :)


And so concludes a random post with random photos I have taken off my camera. A bit of what I've been up to. I'm excited for what's been going on in my life and for what I've been learning and being stretched on. Ahh.. not easy, but oh so good.

Enjoy this beautiful sunny day!

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!

Clue, Canucks, Concert, Canoe

What a fun and crazy busy weekend!! I just realized that I posted all of my pictures backwards, so I will have to go through my weekend backwards!

Yesterday began at 5am after a solid 3 hours of sleep. Drove my mom to the airport in Bellingham, then headed back home for a morning of church. Then to my place for a youth sponsor training luncheon.

Then maia came over for a bit, then Des and Brooke came over and we headed off to Vancouver for dinner and a concert! wooh!

Most places are always packed on event nights, but we found this random pub near GM Place and the food was actually really good.
Here's us at the concert. Party Rock opened, followed by Ludacris, followed by Black Eyed Peas! They put on an amazing show!! had some sweet special effects too! and we had a great time dancing around! :)




Lots of cool lighting and video stuff too.
And guys flying around on motorbikes! haha
Lots of different costumes too
Saturday, in the afternoon, Brooke and I decided to venture out canoeing.
Here we are excited to go.. however, we kind of forgot how to tie the canoe to the vehicle.. but we did our best. and prayed it wouldn't go flying off while we were driving...
As we were driving over a bridge, we realized it was quite windy as the canoe was shifting on top of the vehicle! Oops.. might need a lesson on how to tie it to the vehicle again! But it stayed on!
We didn't think to check the wind.. but it was really strong and there were fierce whitecaps on the lake... so we hung out at the beach for a while eating our crackers and then snapped a picture and sadly went back home.
At least we had practice tying our canoe to the vehicle right? Haha...


Saturday night, Maia and I went to the Canucks game! We grabbed some street meat (aka amazing smokies) before the game.

I always talk about making signs, but never do. So here's a sign we made for two of our friends because they wished they had been at the game with us. My other sign said "Iggy, I need a golf partner. Call me!".. Okay, so I meant it more in a mocking way.. because Calgary players are not in the playoffs but I don't think everyone understood. heheDefinitely one of the top 10 games i have ever attended as far as excitement and everything. I feel the playoff energy building up! We won 7-3. Daniel Sedin scored a hat-trick, with the most incredible shot for the 3rd goal, Henrik Sedin got 4 points, putting him ahead of Ovechkin in the race to win most points in the NHL regular season. First Canuck to ever win this award, so that was super exciting to be pumped for him!

Playoffs start on Thursday and we're playing L.A. for the first round-should be a fun playoff run! And I"m feeling hopeful!!


Friday night, at church for youth, we had a youth clue night (more on that below). Afterwards, Maia, Sarah and I headed to our church's soccer game. They play in a league, so we thought we'd go cheer them on! Although it was absolutely freezing, we had a fantastic time cheering them on! :)
We warmed up at Timmy's after and unfortunately lost roll up the rim. I don't really like hot beverages, but whenever they have roll up the rim, i must drink them. Guess marketing strategies work. haha
Back to Live Clue Night. We had 8 rooms set up in the church: the library, the kitchen, the bakery, the sports room, the hall, the conservatory, the study and the games room. We had great volunteers who came and helped us out by sitting in the rooms. The youth were split into teams and went from room to room asking different questions "Was it the rope?" It was super fun and I think I will be making it a yearly event!! :)

The Library

The Conservatory with Maia and Melissa

The games room with Chrystal, Tasha and Kaeli (thanks again guys!)

The kitchen with my mom (the whole time she was cooking us tasty food to enjoy after the game!)

Waiting for the game to start.

The bakery with Julie.


The boys helping out in the kitchen.

The study with Emily

Andre's cool new jewelry



Tea turned into dancing in the conservatory.

All in all, a fantastic weekend! But I'm wiped! I don't think I really had any minutes to spare all weekend, but it was definitely worth every moment!! :)
And I tried uploading a video, but it didn't work, so hopefully that will come soon!