Cheam cubed

Our friend Jarrid came for a visit last week and since we have found it easiest to duplicate our visitors experience (same hikes, same meals, same vacation destination) we hiked up Cheam on one of the last beautiful days of summer.

I will not bore you with too many of the same pictures three posts in a row (maybe it's a bit like the movie "Groundhog Day," every time you come to our blog you feel like you're reading the same post over and over.) but I will post a few good ones of the day.

It was much redder this week. Amazing the difference a week can make.

Then off to the sand castles.... again! This time we actually paid to get inside instead of just looking through the fence.




Marc and Jarrid looked a little like evil twins this time around. Here is what their mug shot would look like if they ever got arrested together.

We also gave Jarrid a flute we had purchased for him in Egypt. Marc took this video......






...... while I was in the kitchen making this face.


I am not a fan of the sound of the Eygptian chamfer. (Who knew that was another word for flute!)

We are off to Vancouver Island this weekend for Marc to run an adventure race. Have a great weekend!

parental guidance strongly advised

september is half over and visitors numero dos have come and gone. my parents came through chilliwack after visiting shareen and craig in victoria and my uncle gil, aunt helen and cousin marcie in surrey.

we picked my parents up from my aunt and uncle's place where they had already been shown a grand time in vancouver, biking all over stanley park and granville island.

on our first day with them we got a picnic lunch and set out to explore tynehead park in surrey. what we found were blackberries... lots and lots of blackberries.
after completely filling our stomachs and upper esophagi we found we could not stop ourselves from picking these brilliant black bulging buds of berrylicious bonbon so we started filling doggy bags (and i dont mean paper bags from a restaurant) to take home and bake with.

after gorging ourselves on blackberries we proceeded to langley where we first visited oma g (no relation), who has recently moved from lethbridge to a stunning new seniors village in the valley. we surprised her and she was so excited to see us alberta imports!

after a nice visit (and a nap in a chair for me) we moved further up the valley to our good friends martin (oma g's son) and sonya and jannessa and mike, and their dog chester.

there we had a fantastic dinner (bacon wrapped steak - oh joyous juxtaposition!) and martin enthused about their new house and its location right next to a gorgeous little ravine where we walked our dogs.

(warning - this next paragraph may sound familiar to regular blog readers)
the next day was anchored by a hike up mt cheam, the most prominent peak in chilliwack. we saw no bears along the way and stopped to eat some of their huckleberries while they were or were not otherwise occupied.
yes, that's right... we hiked up cheam for the 2nd time in a week, and we may do it again tomorrow... it is that beautiful. my parents loved it and my dad couldnt stop taking pictures of the peak from various vantages throughout the valley thereafter.



after cheam we travelled see our friends and my mom's cousins gerry and anne. they are always a fantastic time and this night was no exception. at my parent's request we watched the final of canadian idol to witness the crowning of theo tams... lethbridge pride! at gerry and anne's we feasted on icecream cake and blackberry/apple crumble.

the next day involved a hike on harrison lake to a nice little beach


and while my parents and kylie continued along the harrison river i ran back and rented a kayak to come out and meet them.

after enjoying an ice cream cone while perusing the world sandcastle competition entries we took a sunday drive (on friday) back through fraser valley farmland to our house where we hosted our friend dave, who introduced me to some sweet tunes and caught up with my mom.

all in all another great guest visit. i really loved hosting my parents and watching them enjoying all the beautiful sites and great friends.

more mister multiple molten motes

sept is a busy month for us. and by that i do not mean to imply that i am working very hard. i mean to imply that we are having many guests and are being sorely taxed having to ferry them around and show them all the sights of the fraser valley. our first guests are a case in point. fraser and kara stayed with us on their way home from seeing dave matthews at the gorge in washington.

on the first full day of their stay i took fraser downhilling on vedder mountain while kylie and kara walked around cultus lake and picked blackberries. fraser was a natural downhill rider. with nary a day of downhill biking experience he strapped on my friend chad's armor and proceeded to storm the mountain, complete some huge stunts and fly over his handlebars on multiple occasions. unfortunately i was too busy biking to document any of these events. the testament must be born by the length of time it continues to hurt fraser to breathe deeply.


then we trekked out to the chilliwack river where we had a fire, enjoyed eating hotdogs
and watching a young beaver show off in the current.

after that it was back to cultus lake for a late night dip.



the next day was anchored by a hike up mt cheam, the most prominent peak in chilliwack. we saw 4 bears along the way and stopped to eat some of their huckleberries while they were otherwise occupied.


mt cheam is a stunning hike with beautiful new views at every turn.


the views off steep drops well above roiling clouds were particularly awe inspiring.

once home we enjoyed my favourite food, kylie's (version of r ray's) italian stuffed pizza, along with a stunning salad and a nice bottle of wine courtesy of mister motes himself. oh, and and blackberry tart... mmm... thanks kylie and kara!

as you can tell, it has been a difficult week for us. if it wasn't for fraser and kara doing all our dishes we would be at our wits end, because my parents are coming in to town tomorrow and we are going to have to show them around all over again!

Princeton, pillows, pillows and more pillows!

Marc and I are currently in Princeton. We have been here twice before and while Marc is working, I have been busy reading and watching TV. It's a rough life! We currently don't have cable at home and I have soaking up the channels for the two days we are here. I have been amazed at the lack of quality programming on television, but not amazed enough to turn it off yet. (As I write, the new NKOTB video is on, did you know it was #3 last week on the MuchMusic countdown?!!!!????????? I put all the question marks there like I was too cool to like the New Kids but I had the posters, the lunch boxes, multiple shirts, the books and even slept on their sheets with Joe's face close to mine every night.) :)

Anyways the reason for this post is much more pressing. I have bought a new bed spread. And a lot of throw pillows. Which Marc hates.

Let me start from the beginning. When Marc and I were in Egypt we bought this beatiful, intricate bedspread which I absolutely loved!! (And still do!) However when we got it home we realized that everyday wear and tear on the bedspread was making it pill and some of the seams were starting to tear. Being that I am IN LOVE with this design and that a trip to Egypt to replace it if we wreck it is not happening anytime soon (although I would totally be up for it, cheap juice here I come!) and I would be devestated if it was ruined, I decided it was in my best interest to purchase a new bedspread. My plan for this one is to hang it on the wall to display it.

Here is a picture of our room before the new bedspread. Yes Niko is on the bed and no we usually didn't stop him from jumping up but he really wasn't on the bed that often so I found it quite amusing that he was on when I went to take the picture. Also do you think he has a bit of an Elvis sneer in this picture?

And here's the new bedspread, which both Marc and I love! The pillows, not so much! I love them and think they look great! Marc however does not.

I would love to show you some better pictures here, where I am not laying on the bed or talking on the phone and we have hung our pictures above the bed but unfortunately I am in Princeton watching videos of women acting sexually available. (As my cousin Erin would say.) As a sidenote, the award for the skankiest video ever goes to Girliscious and their video "Stupid." I need to find out where these awards are handed out and submit my suggestion! I would not want to attend in person though, all the nominees in this category in one room would be a little too much for my retinas to handle. ;)

Please disregard the tags on the pillows, I (or should I say we or he, because I have decided) have not yet decided whether to keep them or not.

Soooooo... what I am trying to say in this long, disjointed, rambly post, is that I love the pillows and think they look great and tie the room/bedspread together but Marc hates them. He doesn't hate the way they look, in fact he thinks they look quite nice, he just hates throw pillows in general. He thinks they are totally non-functional and make it impossible for him to lay on the bed during the day. He was not open to my suggestion of moving some over before laying down. I also was willing to compromise and take two of the pillows back. He is not willing to take that compromise and wants me to take ALL of the throw pillows back. My penchant for throw pillows is not new, before we went to Kenya I had quite a few on the bed as well. Not quite 8, but still! (Is there really 8 throw pillows on the bed?! That is a lot!)
Anyways, I am opening up the discussion here. What do you think of throw pillows? Should I convince Marc to keep them? For those of you who know Marc this will be quite the feat, in fact if I can convince him to change his mind I will deserve an award along with Girliscious! Hopefully not the same one though!!!