On The Street Where We Live

I'm quite convinced we live in paradise.






~K~

Hmmmm....

I should blog, eh? :)

~K~

New Year's Eve 2008

What an original post title, eh? I know, I'm awesome and very creative. Our party was quite creative, though, thanks to the boys, AKA [6:8] Photography. You should check out their blog..they have pictures that nobody else has...and they're funny.
We had a small crowd, 18 of us when we were all there as opposed to the almost 40 we invited, and we actually were kinda mellow for the most part. I was okay with that though, even though I occasionally like a rowdy, rambunctious party! There were a few games played, snacks eaten, hot tub soaking, and baby passing. We had a young party-goer this year...little Miss R who is 7 months old...she even managed (quite begrudgingly) to stay up until midnight with us old folk! I did a mini photo shoot with her earlier in the day while mom and dad went for a x-country ski jaunt, and I'm happy with the way the photos turned out! I've even had a request to head to Abbotsford in the spring to shoot a friend's new baby! I don't know that that will happen, because it's a rather expensive trip to make for a photo shoot I don't want to charge her for! I might have to hone my skills in baby/child photography one day, and then I might be okay charging someone for my services.
Anyway...we had a crowd out in the hot tub and a crowd chilling inside when the fireworks hit, and then everyone pretty much headed to bed. I felt so old! But seriously, I was exhausted! I think I very well might have been peopled out before people even arrived, but we all survived midnight and rang in the new year together, which was wonderful.

Here are some pics from our mellow evening of partying!
Happy 2009!

Preparing the cold drinks in our outside refrigerator :)
Little Miss R enjoying the view...is she adorable, or what?
Aw, baby face!
Little fingers
Snuggling puppy
Look, I can sit on my own!
Happy baby!
Our snack tray
Playing a game of Balderdash...oh Mark. Leah's giving you the look, you know!
Behind the scenes of [6:8]Photography...Zoe & Quinn
Our rowdy crowd! :)
Nadja, who's here on exchange from Germany, and Miss R
Santa! Can you tell who the highlight of the night was? (at least with us girls)
The hot tub crowd at midnight...less the hot tubbing part for Matt!
The inside crowd watching the fireworks go off...which happened to interrupt a rousing game of Dutch Blitz...

Well, here's to another year gone. Welcome 2009....bring it on!

~K~

Christmas Continued...Abbotsford Chapter

On the morning of December 23rd, Duane and I packed up our little Mazda and hit the highway for our stay in Abbotsford. I have decided that I love highway 3. Love it. It is nothing more than brilliant. It does, however, take far longer to drive than I'd like it to. I'm not used to more than 9 hours in a car to Abbotsford. Maybe we'll be able to hit that in the summer, but for now the roads are so packed with snow and ice that it would be unsafe and slightly insane to attempt said 9 hours.

Anyhow, we made it safely and slowly-ish to Abbotsford (Duane is most definitely NOT the slowest driver on winter roads...but probably one of the safest and most confident!), and had a wonderful time with my family. I absolutely LOVED that there was so much snow there, as any time in recent years there has not been while we've been home...and we were able to go for a few wonderful night-time snow walks with the dog. Very pleasant!

While we were home we were able to visit with friends which was wonderful...but I didn't take one single picture! Ridiculous. We got to spend an afternoon with Karen and Graham and met their new little guy, Levi, and enjoyed watching Ava open her gifts from us. What personality she has...I really love getting to see her grow up each time I go home; what a big girl she's become, and a great big sister.

After deciding to add another day to our time at my parent's, we got to hang out with Stacey on the afternoon of the 27th...so we went out for lunch at a relatively new pub in town that was SO good! There used to be a really rough nightclub in Abby that, thankfully, has been shut down and levelled. The Duke of Dublin Pub replaced it, and that place has great food and a really nice atmosphere. If you enjoy pub food, it's a yummy choice! Surprisingly, while we were there, Leah's brother Benjamin was also there and ended up joining us for lunch. Good times! After filling up on yummy food, we all ended up sitting around at mom & dad's for awhile just chatting and catching up. We also traipsed out to Andrew and Michelle's place to feed their pets...since we had winter tires and Stacey did not.

On the morning of the 28th we headed for the highway again...and after it had rained all day the day before it was quite interesting driving for awhile, and as soon as we hit the junction to highway 3, it started snowing. Go figure. Again, the drive was beautiful and we were glad to have chosen that route over highway 1. Conditions were probably similar and would have taken us the same amount of time, if not longer. We arrived home safely exactly 12 hours later, after stopping to rescue a couple who had ditched their van around a corner in front of us. We were only about 20 minutes outside of Castlegar, so we were glad to be able to help.

As soon as we returned, organization began for our New Year's party. More on that later!

Here are the Christmas pictures!


We just HAD to stop for shots of this tree along the way

This shed was across the streetAt the highway pull-out in Osoyoos..beautiful!

Christmas Eve day in Abbotsford...and so it beginsChristmas Day


Buddy's portrait :)

The light was beautiful on the trees across the street
Duane carefully following the Lucas "no ripping" rule...good boy!


Christmas Day evening...Nigel NOT carefully following the "no ripping" rule!! And quite enjoying it, I think!Sister shot...missing a sister :(

Duane carving the most delicious turkey ever! Good job mom!The family setting up to play LIFE

Tradition...making cinnamon rolls! Yum!Our gift from mom and dad...made it home to Fernie safely, and is now displayed in our upstairs entryway!
~K~