With the wisdom comes many other things... Age, gray hairs, fine lines, belly fat, the list goes on and on. With each birthday that passes, I find myself less wanting to celebrate but more wanting to reflect on the year gone by. Remember when we were young and birthdays meant family dinners because we hadn't started school yet to make friends? This was me up until grade 7. I had the occasional birthday with neighborhood friends, but because my birthday is in the summer, I never had classmates come. Fast forward to the age where birthday celebrations meant nights out with friends and significant others, eating, drinking and celebrating. I've done my fair share of those as well. The past couple of years I find myself more wanting to revert back to the good ol' days where birthdays were celebrated with a gathering of family and good food.
Today I celebrated my birthday by going to the downtown City Market with my husband. We had a great lunch at Dauphine's Bakery & Bistro, which included the Trio Plate and the Croque Monsieur, both came with fresh farmer's market salads. Jamie got a latte and it came in this massive bowl that neither one of us has seen before. The waitress said that's how it was traditionally served.
After lunch we stopped into our favorite coffee shop, Credo, for a London Fog w/ Rooibos tea and a latte.Sipping our drinks, we strolled along the market and purchased a variety of goodies! Fresh peaches from BC, more fresh organic peaches, lemon stuffed olives, whole wheat pita with chili hummus, cherry tomatoes, assorted tomatoes, dandelion honey, and elk antler/bones for Khuno. I also dragged Jamie into my new office building to show him where I work now.
We got home shortly after and I came downstairs to find a hand drawn card from my hubby, inspired by the London's famous, "Keep calm and carry on" fad. Then we headed off again with Khuno to Rivercree for a buffet dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. We left Khuno with Audi together alone for the first time and when we returned home, poor Khuno was so exhausted.
It's been a while since we had a fire pit night so we cranked that baby open and made some s'mores. My amazing friends came over and brought birthday cinnamon buns with them for roasting on the fire, something that we've never done before. Something about fires that just makes people want to roast things on a skewer!
This past year has been full of changes. We became husband and wife, went on an amazing honeymoon, witnessed several of our friends get married, and I took on a new challenge in my career. It really has been a year for adventure and I know the next one will be just as, if not more, exciting for our little family. Our next big project: re-shingling the roof.
Hello. Hallo. Bonjour. Ciao. Hola. We're back from our 4 week long honeymoon and it was amazing. We got to 8 different cities, 12 if you count all the Cinque Terre towns, 13 if you count our 5 hour layover Parliament visit in Ottawa and 14 if you count the Frankfurt airport. We aren't big planners as you could tell from our wedding procrastination and it was no different with our honeymoon. We stayed up late into the night booking hotels the day before we left and figuring out our Italy itinerary. It's a good thing our flight out wasn't till 10:00 PM the next day. We packed for most of the following day and headed off to Europe. Over the next few weeks months, I'll be sharing random photos and any stories that go along with it. This photo was actually taken at the last stop of our trip, Barcelona. The beach there was gorgeous with nice soft sand and beautiful golden flecks throughout the ocean water. We tried writing in the sand a couple times and could hardly snap the photo fast enough before the waves washed it away. You can see in the bottom left hand corner that the wave was already fast approaching! Although I miss laying on the beach, it's nice to be home. Happy Canada Day everyone!
In 23 hours we will be on a flight off to our honeymoon! Hope everyone has a great summer and we will be back soon (sort of)!
In case you didn't think my dog was already stinkin' cute, today I have proven you wrong with this photo. His eyes are usually almond shaped. One lady at the dog park even went as far to say, "You can tell he's a samoyed because his eyes are slanted like Chinese people." I kid you not folks, those were her words. And she said it over and over again. Khuno's eyes definitely aren't slanted in this photo. They are what we like to all call "big puppy dog eyes". In case you're wondering why he's got those big ol' eyes, please look to the left of the photo and make note of the Dentastix sitting on the edge of the bed. He's just waiting for me to say okay! Happy Mother's Day everyone. =)
A few weeks ago it was Administrative Week so all of us in the office got together and purchased our clerical staff some flowers and a goodie basket of tasty unhealthy treats. This gorgeous floral arrangement was put together by the talented Leslie of Sugar Blossoms Floral Design. She's located in the same store as the Applebox Boutique located in Highlands. One of the girls at work asked if I picked this up at Save 0n Foods. I laughed and said most definitely not. That's what I love about independently owned flower shops. The store owners are so involved with the floral arrangements that their work is stunning. I used to work at a grocery store and they didn't provide any training for floral arrangements. So if you want to get someone a OOAK (one of a kind) arrangement, it's worth the trip to Sugar Blossoms. I'm actually sad that I didn't discover them before my wedding because Leslie's wedding flowers are so affordable. If flowers or the amazing hand painted furniture by Leanne of Applebox Boutique isn't enough to draw you into their store, you'll also find my hand stamped greeting cards there! Now you have 3 reasons to check them out!
Khuno recently celebrated his 4th birthday! People say this about their children all the time, but I'm going to say it about my dog. I can't believe it's been 4 years since we got him. He's growing up so fast and in human years, he's 32. Getting close to his papa Jamie's age! He gave me some mega new mom syndrome when we first got him. We were sleep deprived and so irritable with all this bad habits. He didn't listen and he pooped and peed in the house all the time. Fast forward 4 years and he's had a few accidents here and there. He listens sometimes and he's ran off after a rabbit twice. He can manage to be off leash at the dog park and not run away. He can also be off leash in the Gold Bar dog park on the trail that runs along the river, but we turn around the moment we see/hear ducks in the river. The one time we couldn't distract him from the ducks, he jumped into the river to chase them. His pulling on walks continues to drive me crazy but at least he only pulls when there's a reason now. It's either he needs to poop, there's another life form in front, a white car is driving by, or there's a hint of scent that something has left behind. Despite all the headaches and sometimes inconvenient responsibilities of a dog, I would love to have another samoyed. The love they show you when you walk in the house and the forced snuggles I get out of Khuno far outweigh the headaches. Happy birthday my Khuno-muno.
This lil cute fella is my parents' pup, Chalkie. He is the sweetest little pug around. Every week we visit our parents along with my brother and we both bring our dogs along. Chalkie has figured out that on the days where my mom stays home from work, it means his friends are coming over to play so he will sit at the top of stairs and wait. And wait. And wait. He'll sit there and not even go to my parents when they try to lure him with food. He survives on fresh yams, broccoli stems, whatever my parents eat and a little bit of kibble. The human food isn't good for him but we can't control what my parents feed him. Doesn't help that Chalkie sits there and whines for food all the time. You'd think that all three dogs get along but Khuno actually can't stand Chalkie. Perhaps it's because Chalkie constantly jumps up on Khuno and it annoys him like a fly would annoy us. There's a lot of low growls that happen throughout dinner. Hope everyone is enjoying the great weather. I'll be back tomorrow to post photo 45.
After lunch we stopped into our favorite coffee shop, Credo, for a London Fog w/ Rooibos tea and a latte.Sipping our drinks, we strolled along the market and purchased a variety of goodies! Fresh peaches from BC, more fresh organic peaches, lemon stuffed olives, whole wheat pita with chili hummus, cherry tomatoes, assorted tomatoes, dandelion honey, and elk antler/bones for Khuno. I also dragged Jamie into my new office building to show him where I work now. 
We got home shortly after and I came downstairs to find a hand drawn card from my hubby, inspired by the London's famous, "Keep calm and carry on" fad. Then we headed off again with Khuno to Rivercree for a buffet dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. We left Khuno with Audi together alone for the first time and when we returned home, poor Khuno was so exhausted. 
It's been a while since we had a fire pit night so we cranked that baby open and made some s'mores. My amazing friends came over and brought birthday cinnamon buns with them for roasting on the fire, something that we've never done before. Something about fires that just makes people want to roast things on a skewer! 
