:: Merry Christmas! ::

:: Ha Ha Ha --- I can't believe I'm doing this but here I am wishing y'all a fabulous Christmas and it's January 5th 2010! Oh well, my intentions were to have posted this a long long time ago, but I was too busy doing plenty of other things, of which I hope to update y'all very soon ::

:: Love to you all and Happy New Year! ::

:: 9 years ::

:: As I said before, November is a big month for us. We have Cole's birthday, Paul's birthday, then my birthday -- all within the first 11 days of the month ::

:: We also have a quiet celebration of sorts, just before November. I say quiet, because we don't really do anything to celebrate it, it's just a day as any other. But it's not. It's the day 9 years ago that my Daddy had a severe seizure and collapsed in a hotel room with my Mom. They were away on a trip for the family business ::


:: Dad ended up in the hospital as this seizure was not in anyway expected and he had no real signs of showing the reason of the seizure. Obviously upon an MRI scan of his brain, they knew the cause and it was pretty much the most horrible news you can get. My Daddy had a brain tumor ::

:: Nine years ago, around this very celebratory time, my Daddy was told that his life would change - it affected everything. I took a leave of absence from my job at the time in the Big City to help take care of business with Dad because Mom still had to keep the "show" going with the family business - it was a crazy time ::

:: None of us really talk of that time nine years ago, as it's truly a distant memory - a pang of desperation to see your Dad in that situation, but good reigned. God fixed it all, if you don't know yet, we are a family of great faith in our Heavenly Father. This is how I remember it {it's the Cole's notes version}, Dad went into the hospital for another scan, it was there and forming and growing, not giving him any other side affects but still there. The doctors were neglectful to remove it as it was so close to the, well the rest of his brain - and SO many other side affects could be caused by removing it. Then we had a prayer meeting at our house one of these Fall nights in November and prayed for complete healing over my Daddy. A few days {probably more like weeks} later, Dad went in for another scan - the doctor couldn't believe his eyes, the tumor was gone ::

:: Beyond anything else that we had gone through we knew that Dad had been healed by the Great Physician - our Heavenly Father. So, it's been nine years since that great ordeal. The other day, I had to just say to my Mom "it's been nine years" and she knew exactly what I was talking about. See, it's not that far from our minds and certainly not far from our hearts, everyday I am reminded that God's promises are true and we are blessed to know personally the healing hand of God ::

:: Daddy - Grampie - Bobob * we celebrate you and the life that you have nine years later ::

:: Love Love Love ::
*S

:: Celebration ::

:: Today is my Mr's birthday - he's 30 and holding ;) ::

:: I've got a few things up my sleeve for his celebration tonight, just the two of us ::

:: Since, three out of the four of us have birthday's in the first 11 days of November, we have plenty of celebrating going on in the next few days {or weeks!} ::

:: Happy birthday my love, to think that 10 years ago, I celebrated November 4th for the first time...it was the first year I had an excuse to celebrate November 4th. You're a good reason to celebrate today ::

:: All my love ~ Your Gurl ::

:: A new post, posted ::

:: You just can't see it here -- remember I said I was WAY behind on blogging and I was going to be playing catch up? Well, I still am! ::

:: You can find my anniversary post here - hope you enjoy...I'm off to finish up the cake and hopefully get my house cleaned today so I can enjoy a semi work free weekend with the family. We'll see if the boys decide to play along and let me get it done! ::


:: Happy Friday Lovelies - hope you have a fabulous and safe weekend! ::

:: *Ps. Pictures a la Jamie Delaine. Jamie, can't thank you enough for capturing us {yet again}* ::

:: Pumpkin Patch Family Time ::

:: We had a great day this last week out and about and more specifically at the pumpkin patch. It looked like it was going to be the last sunny autumn day that we had left before all the leaves would drop to the ground. So we took full advantage and wandered around the pumpkin patch and the harvest of fresh apples - specifically our favorite Honey Crisp apples...did you know that some of the VERY best apples {known world wide} are produced here in BC!??! And this is one of our BC jems, it's amazing! Local girls, they are on special right now for $59/pound @ Ralphs ::

:: The boys loved running through the maze of pumpkins at the farm market, what a perfect Fall day! ::

:: Here is our little family - picture a la the 10 second self timer ::

:: Look at all those pumpkins! What a beautiful site! And look at that crazy Cole saying "cheese" - seriously we took five tries to get him to look at the camera and he would just put his head back and scream cheeeeeseeee! ::

:: Driving back home we hit some traffic and so I snapped some shots of a local farm, this farm is right beside the plantation house I plan to own someday...well, maybe. Isn't it a beautiful site?!!? ::

:: Happy Fall Y'all! ::

:: Bigger then my Dilemma ::

:: This is a call for prayer for a sweet blogger "friend" {using that term very loosely} - I've followed McKmama for a couple years now and walked through her struggles and joys in marriage, kids, babes and just life ::

:: With that said, McKmama's family needs your prayers right now. If you have read before, Stellan is her youngest child, and he has SVT, he will be celebrating his first birthday tomorrow, of which the doctors NEVER thought he would make it to! ::

:: Stellan went into a severe state of SVT on Monday night and has had to be intubated and sidated to try and control the SVT. As well as a neck line to insert his medications into his system and more closely to his heart ::

:: Please take a moment to pray for this family - specifically McKmama, her husband, Dr.B and of course Stellan - It sure makes me appreciate that I was getting up to deal with my kids who wanted to come and join me in my bed last night, not sitting beside my son's hospital bed wondering about the what-if's of my son's condition! ::

:: God you are a great God and can overcome any sickness on earth - I pray that you'll be with all those families right now that are facing the great unknown ::

:: You can go here to see McKmama's twitter updates ::

:: Calendar Dilemma ::

:: Morning y'all! Boy oh boy am I having a hard time keeping my eyes open this morning! We've been go, go, going all week long and obviously it's caught up with me! ::

:: I'd love to get your opinion on something...I have a calendar dilemma. If you remember back in January I did this to my typical daytimer calendar, to which I have received plenty of sweet compliments about as I take it everywhere {even thought it ends up being a bit bulky}. I use it to keep phone numbers, to write sermon notes, to obviously keep commitments & appointments. Every year when I am finished with it, it gets added to the box of calendars that I have been keeping for the past 9 years. I love having a calendar to write in, I'm a bit of a book girl, so having a pen and paper on me at all times is a necessity - for some people it's not, but for me it is ::


:: So I found these super cute "momAgenda" and I fell in love...I love the look of them, but not so sure I love the design of the pages - it's not a steal of a deal like my last years Costco daytimer..but it's seriously SO cute! ::

:: Here comes the first part of the dilemma -- I keep track of all of our families events, appointments and details not only in my daytimer but also in my outlook calendar. I love outlook calendar, I can input the details of the event/function and then email it to Mr. L so he knows what is happening in our lives {HA!}. He then receives it to his Blackberry and it updates his calendar immediately, so we are on the same page - to a degree {HA, again!} ::


:: I have a flip phone, not only a flip phone but my girlfriend Trisha's old flip phone {her hubby is our local phone dealer}! When she got her Blackberry -- I got her old phone! So obviously I don't have email or calendar capabilities on my flip phone, so I've asked for a Blackberry for my birthday {coming up in November} so I can receive my emails on my phone as well as keep track of our lives on my calendar. But I'm afraid {after years} of having a "real" daytimer that I'm going to miss having my paper copy in my purse...I obviously know it's so much easier than copying things down in two places, but I'm just not sure I'm ready to be done with the daytimer. Thoughts, opinions??? ::

:: Currently the below momAgenda is on sale for 40% off - so it's just $24.00 -- I probably wouldn't get the pink one, I'm just not THAT cool! ::

:: Okay, now on to the next dilemma: Blackberry or IPhone, our carrier is coming out with the IPone in the next month or so, and I'm torn between which one I should get? ::
:: I know the blackberry will be "free" as my contract is finished, so I'll be starting a new contract -- so the IPhone will cost more, but it may be worth it as it's the latest thing {however only for the next three months!}. So any thoughts on the phone dilemma? I can't wait to hear what your thoughts are! ::



:: I better get to doing something productive around here, I've got a cake to design, floors to clean {more on this later} and babes to tend to! Happy Hump Day - oy, does it ever feel like it?!?! ::

:: Kids Clothes = Provision ::

:: Okay, so obviously this isn't "Sunday Provision" -- I'm a few days behind on the "Sunday" part...and this is why I was so delayed on my response from my bloggy birthday contest. My Saturday was a complete write-off! ::

:: So my girlfriend Lisa & I headed out early Saturday morning to our local kids swap -- We were there for door opening and had to pay an extra $4 over the regular door charge {we got in an hour early}. And boy was it so worth it! Both of us had lists of "needs" and individually we each prayed about our lists and asked God to meet our needs {now this isn't the first time, nor the last that I'm sure we will do this and find that God has met our needs}. So we discussed what we each needed to find and went on our merry mission ::

:: We encountered many other friends and they were amazed out our piles of clothes/shoes that we were gathering. We were just as amazed! ::
:: I arrived at the swap meet with $59 dollars in my pocket and a zip lock bag full of dimes, nickels and pennies. I spent $5 on the entrance fee, so I'm left with $54 in my pocket {and my cents}. I owed Lisa some money roughly $9 and so when she was out of money she borrowed some of mine, I knew I still had a $10 bill in my wallet, plus my lovely {humbling} bag of cents. So I offered my cash to her, and I gladly paid back my debt ::
:: The morning continued on and we both continued to find the specific things we had asked for, and we were finding them for GREAT deals in AMAZING shape! We felt so blessed. When I went back in my wallet to buy probably my last purchase for $7 - I found a $20 bill instead of a $10 bill. Now, I know I had pulled out 2 $20 bills, and I had the $4 change in my pocket, so where the heck did that extra $20 come from. Now lovelies - it is a rare thing for me to have cash let alone an extra $20 bill! ::
:: However, I welcomed it and continued to be blessed over and above. I know that I was shopping with Lisa, but I also felt like God was right there with us guiding our paths and saving exactly what we needed until we got to it! What provision I felt! ::
:: So all in all for $54 {or less} dollars this is what I went home with ::
1 pair of snow boots for Jacob
1 pair of rubber boots for Jacob
1 pair of slip on OldNavy shoes for Jacob {never been worn}
1 pair of BusterBrown boots for Cole
4 pairs of pants for Jacob {OldNavy & Gap}
4 pairs of pants for Cole {OldNavy & Gap}
2 dress shirts for Jacob
2 sweaters for Jacob
1 long sleeved tee for Jacob
1 pair of P.J.'s for Cole
2 pairs of P.J.'s for Jacob
1 pair of HotPaws mittens for Jacob
1 pair of winter wool socks for Jacob

Almost all of these items are from stores that I usually can't afford {or don't want to afford} to shop in so I make due at the cheaper stores, but when I can get all of this in incredible shape for such a small amount of money, how can I go wrong & how can I not acknowledge that God is showing His faithfulness through this small tangible act?!!? ::

:: So blessed, I am, so blessed! ::

:: I'd love to hear from you any provision stories you have as of late, it's such an encouragement to me! ::

:: Happy Tuesday Y'all -- We're off to pre-school and running errands for Women's Wednesday Christmas event! ::

:: The WINNER! ::

:: Well, y'all are pretty good guessers, I celebrated my 3 year blog birthday last weekend! I can't believe it's been 3 years since I started this crazy thing! It's so much fun and like I've said to so many - it's free therapy, really it is! ::

:: I wanted to give you, my loyal lovelies a chance to win a fabulous gift, just for the heck of it! So I received 17 entries, yes, only 17 --- I had aprox. 113 people visit the blog on Thursday then 134 visit on Friday and still I only had 17 enter! ::

:: So I ask, why come visit and leave no comment...no strings attached, nothing to loose, so why no comment? I have crazy amounts of traffic on this blog, friends, some close - some not so close and some that I don't even know {like my loyal reader from North Vancouver - I'd love to know who you are!}, that read my blog, and yet don't comment. I don't quite understand that, of course I understand wanting to snoop into some one's life and find out what they do & how they do it, heck that's why I like reading blogs, however if I find something that I love I give the courtesy of leaving a comment, so why no comment? If any of you could enlighten me, I would love to hear your opinion...you can email me directly by clicking my "email me" tab on my side bar or just leave a comment :) ::

:: Enough of that, on to the fun stuff! I was up to my eyeballs in shopping/cleaning/sorting clothes Saturday, so I delayed pulling a name until Sunday night. And here is how it went:

:: No, no, no -- that's not Sardh..that's just my poor penmanship! It's SARAH, Sarah darling, you won the $75 gift certificate to BeautiControl!!! I'm SO excited for you! I'll mail you the catalogue and you can get shopping! Congratulations & Happy shopping! ::

:: Have a beautiful Monday and I'll be back here for more about my shopping extravaganza and a post about provision on Tuesday morning - until then lovelies, thanks for celebrating with me! ::

:: XO, *S ::

:: Pioneer Woman - In the flesh ::

:: Hey Y'all, I know, I know...I'm way behind on my "birthday" contest from earlier this weekend, but that's for good reason, kinda. More on that later! ::
:: Right now, I wanted to tell you that if you follow Ree aka: The Pioneer Woman - as I do, you'll be interested to know that she'll be on the Bonny Hunt show tomorrow ::


:: She's blogged about it here - but I'm sure we'll get more juicy details tomorrow as the show airs. So if your tomorrow is expected to be rainy, like mine is, you may just want to tune into the Bonny Hunt show. This is actually a show that I quite enjoy watching, she's decent. Not over the moon good, but I LOVE her guests, ah, hello, REE is going to be on her show! And she has GREAT topics. Clean, concise and to the point {so not me!} ::

:: Happy watching and tune in tomorrow morning to find out who won the contest...I know who you are and you're going to be very happy! ::

:: Just until Noon tomorrow ::

:: Only a few short hours left until the cut off for the "birthday" contest --- make sure you enter it here
- due to some extra grace I found tonight, I've extended the contest until Saturday @ noon...go and enter yourself in my birthday contest! ::

:: Celebrating Thanksfulness ::

:: We celebrated Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago now {I know, shame on me, I'm so behind on here!}. We had a full weekend, filled with family, food, and of course thankfulness ::

:: Here is my little family on Monday afternoon ::

:: We joined with Mr. L's side of the family on Sunday to enjoy a feast - we had smoked meat, turkey & multiple side dishes ::

:: I didn't get any shots of us at the table, it was a bit of a gong show with 4 kids under 3! ::

:: But after dinner due to my youngest child peeing through his pants, we threw 3 out of the 4 kids in the bathtub and oh what a sight that was! Oh, so much fun to have cousins so close in age! ::

:: We enjoyed 2 pumpkin pies, a la Mrs. Kirkland! ::

:: Here is the table all set to go at my parents place::


:: Here is Jacob asking for yet another mint chocolate from Grammies pumpkin, I think he ate three before dinner - or should I say before he didn't eat ANY dinner! ::

:: Here's Cole ready for the party to start! ::

:: And that's it! We had a wonderfully long weekend together as Mr. L also took off the Friday as well as the Monday ::

:: Happy Thanksgiving Y'all - I'm thankful for SO much! ::

:: Happy Birthday! ::

:: I've celebrated a birthday {of sorts} around here over the weekend...can you guess who/what birthday it was that I celebrated? ::

:: Here is Jacob on Saturday night -- he found H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y candles and stuck them in 1/2 a pound of butter that was in the same cupboard. Then he walked over to me at my desk and said "Happy Birthday Mama" - and reenacted it for the full affect over and over and over again. It was truly very sweet! Paul grabbed the camera and got this shot ::

:: So if you can guess what "birthday" I celebrated this past weekend, you'll win a $75 spending spree at BeautiControl {the SPA products I can't get enough of!} ::

:: So guess away, you have a limited time to guess, this post will be closed by 5:00 pm on Friday evening ::

:: I'll be pulling a name randomly on Saturday morning and posting it by noon -- happy guessing! ::

:: XO, *Shawna ::

:: Playing Catch-Up - Take 2 ::

:: I've updated another post back from September --- You can find our camping adventure here! Enjoy!!! ::

:: XO, Shawna ::

:: Easy as Pie...but it's not Pie ::

:: Hey - one more thing here...I just thought I should post this recipe {currently my house smells amazing from this very "fall" comfort food dish} ::

:: I was raised eating this for Sunday lunch, as my Mom could stick it in the oven, turn the timer on in the oven and we'd come home from church lunch would be r-e-a-d-y! Aren't moms so smart! ::

:: It really is a stupidly easy recipe, but add a side dish of a veggie and dinner {or lunch} is done! ::

:: So here it is ::

{PS. I use any kind of "cream" soup I have in my pantry - it comes out just the same!}

CHICKEN & RICE CASSEROLE
Butter a shallow casserole dish. Put a cup of dry rice in. Lay chicken on top. Add one can of cream of celery soup mixed with one can of water. Sprinkle 1 package of Lipton onion soup mix over all. Cover and bake about 2 hours in oven at 350 degrees. Do not add any seasoning.

:: Luxe - Special just for YOU ::

:: Hey Lovelies -- I just have a minute here but I couldn't wait any longer to post this fun and fabulous deal for YOU! ::

:: When I was at the One of a Kind show in Vancouver I stopped by the Luxe Design booth and visited with the owner Joanne {so great to see you again Joanne!} -- I oogled over their new designs and decided that I need a different chain for my personalized Luxe necklace, what girl doesn't need two chains for one necklace!??! ::

:: Anyway {here's the goods} while I was chatting with Joanne, she said that I could post a special promo code for y'all...now isn't that nice of her! So here's the deal, enter this code: OOAKV10 when you place your order on their {new & updated} site and that's it, you will get 10% off your order!!! ::


:: Now isn't that fabulous!?!?! Now if you are wanting this for Christmas, Joanne told me that they have a new wish list area on the new site as well, so make it easy for your hubbies this year, and just sit him down to the computer and say order this. What's that saying... a happy wife = a happy life?!?!? ::

:: Hope y'all love their stuff -- I am constantly getting compliments on mine, it's definitely a piece that I treasure! ::

:: Shutterfly Photo Book Deal ::

:: I just couldn't resist passing on this "FREE" photo book from shutterfly...it's such a great deal! ::


:: I have a shutterfly account and I have ordered cards and stuff from them before and they have always turned out very well, the free book only comes from a family tree facebook page here - or you can go here to see the original blogger that wrote about it. Apparently once you enter the promo code you've got until November 15th to make your book and all you have to pay is the shipping! Such a great deal! ::

:: Here's to almost free Christmas gifts! ::

:: If the Shutterfly one doesn't work for you - try out this free book here ::

:: I didn't do that! ::

:: Today I was in my local grocery store - around lunch time...this is a true story that happened in my world ::

:: My sons and I were running some errands around lunch time at our local grocery store, I love this store because it's small, same prices as the big box store - but less busy, except when the local high school is out for lunch, then it's a crazy place! ::

:: So my sons and I were perusing the aisles with all the young-uns {half of them that were feet taller than me}, and there was this "Guy" that kept on creeping around the girls, going in and out of the aisles, his eyes following the girls around...now I am known to overreact when a situation seems abnormal, what can I say - I come by it honestly, policing is in my blood! He was wearing a tuque, had a Celtic tattoo on his right forearm and was just SO creepy looking. So while he's preoccupied with the teenagers, I was preoccupied with him; being a Creep! ::

:: I was so ready to talk to management about him, until I stumbled across him in another aisle, and he was alone. So I gathered my gum shin and walked right up to him and said "you better stop it" --- yeah, I did. He said "what are you talking about?", I responded "I've seen you checking out those girls, they are half your age, if you don't buy your food and get out of here {he had a basket full of junk food}, I will call management and they'll have you removed!". Yeah, I did ::

:: He proceeds to whisper to me "I'm store security, I'm hired to blend in to ensure the students don't steal". Okay, I was so relieved {sort of} I still thought he was being too loooky with his eyes, but he was doing a job, not being a super creep...he was being paid to be a creep. I laughed so hard when that happened, only I would have the thought to walk up to a full grown man and tell him my mind on his grocery store etiquette! ::

:: Oh, I SO didn't do that! But, what I do know is that I can tell when somethings not right and something wasn't right! One day I might help someone that is really in trouble...maybe, one day! ::

:: For now I'm stalking the local grocery stores security guy, nice Shawna, very nice! ::

:: Happy Tuesday Y'all! ::

:: Lately ::

:: Wow, I did have the best of intentions to start writing up a whole slew of posts and posting them this last week. Obviously, that didn't happen. I had/have some sort of food poisoning or something of the sort, so I haven't been doing anything more than I have to... ::



:: Today Mr. L has the day off and, thus I have the day off {kinda - SAHM you know what I mean}. So I got to go out for coffee this morning with a friend while Mr. L went through his closet and cleared the clutter and organized his Summer wardrobe to be put away in the trunk until next year. Oh, it is pure joy to find Mr. L doing this! Seriously, pure joy! ::

:: Since it's a beautiful day here and we've been on the go since mid July --- we're in the mode {well at least I am}, to clear the clutter, organize and do those little pesky jobs that get put off throughout the Summer. As I write Mr. L is in the crawl space packing away the crib, that's right my littlest boy has been in his big boy bed officially for about a month now, and so the crib can go away. This is crazy for us as we haven't put it away since we had Jacob! Next I'm going to attack my closet, because Mr. L has put me to shame with his organization, then I'll move on to cleaning our carpets in our room...they took such a beating over the last year! Then I'll move onto the bed and put my fall bedding on our bed get rid of some of the junk that gets dumped in our "sanctuary" {yeah right!} ::

:: Once the babes are up from their naps, we'll head outside and clear the gardens for the winter, plant the bulbs {before January even! Ha!!!} and hopefully tidy up the garage a bit. We also need to re-landscape our side yard as we now have a motor home...oh, sorry, you didn't know!?!? Yeah, we bought {we is a loose term, Mr. L bought} a motor home early August, so we need to park it in our side yard so I can access the garage to park in during the Fall and Winter months. We've got a full few days of work here but it'll feel SO good to get it done! ::

:: After all that we have Thanksgiving to celebrate too! What a full weekend it will be...and hopefully {no promises though} I'll be able to get a few posts up -- geesh, I haven't even posted any pictures from our camping adventures with our new {old} motor home! ::

:: Happy Thanksgiving Y'all ::

:: Anniversary Photoshoot ::

:: I just have a moment here, but I wanted to post a few of my favorite shots from our Anniversary photo shoot w/ Jamie Delaine ::

:: We had a fabulous time working with not one but TWO photographers...Kim Kalyn came over from Victoria to have a one on one session w/ Jamie and we were their models {I use that term very loosely!}. Anyway we had a great time and look at the fabulous photos to show for it! ::


:: Check more of them out here on Jamie's site -- I'm still waiting for Kim to post hers on her site -- Hint Hint Kim ;) ::

:: I'm at work today...really I am Mom! So I better jet so I can get back at it..Happy Monday Lovelies - I'll be back later to update the blog again today ::

:: I'm still here...Seriously, I am! ::

:: And I've been sick with angst {well, maybe not THAT sick} - by barely posting anything lately! ::

:: We've been good, really good, really busy good. But the feeling of crazyi'mgoingtochopoffmyhead is coming to an end very very very soon ::

:: This is a good thing, it is. I keep on trying to convince myself of this, I like a busy life, but it's not healthy for the other members of my little world. So it must slow down. This is a long and quite painful process for me ::

:: In the meantime, I'll leave you with this; we've celebrated a lot in these past months that I have yet to journal {blog} about, so I will be doing catch up on manymanymany things. Fun things, busy things, things that have flashed by my eyes that I have barely taken time to sit and enjoy the memory of. Do you ever feel that way? At any rate, I will be going through all those memories {aka: Pictures} of the last three or four months and blogging about it, as a way to etch the fabulous experiences in my memory ::

:: So I'll be back, trust me, I've missed it around here! ::
:: XO, *S ::

{Ps. props to Mrs. Lisa B for the fabulous anniversary flowers, we're still enjoying them & to Nanny C for the beautiful lead glass vase, that I didn't quite appreciate having until just this week when I pulled it out of the box it's been in for the past 6 years, my how life changes!}

:: Anniversary ::

:: We celebrated our anniversary in the big city. We have a beautiful city, especially beautiful in the late Summer & early Fall - which just so happens to be when our anniversary is! ::

:: September 21st is almost always been a beautifully clear day and this year was no exception. Mr. L had to work, so I dropped the kids off at my parents place for an overnight excursion and headed into the big city to meet up with Mr. L ::

:: Where we checked into our hotel room with a view ::

:: Timed perfectly, we had about 15 minutes to get to our next destination - this was all a surprise to Mr. L. We walked 2 blocks further into Yaletown and found ourselves at the same building that we 7 years earlier booked our photographer for our wedding. Sweet memories we had of that day. So we walk up a flight of stairs and enter Tranquility Spa. It was delightful, I had booked us for a couples massage, one full hour of pure bliss. It was so heavenly, no rush, nothing to think about, ahhh, just heaven! We walked out of there barely able to keep our backs straight! What a great start to our 24 hours in the big city ::

:: We had made reservations at The Cannery as we had an Entertainment coupon that needed to be used. Well, what an experience dinner was! Oh my! ::

:: I didn't know this but when we were walking into The Cannery Mr. L shared with me that this was where his parents had their wedding reception 34 years earlier. It was the first wedding The Cannery had hosted ::

:: By chance we scored a window seat and we were just in time to see the sun setting, what an amazing site ::

:: They even had specially printed menu's just for us ::

:: Here I am in the light of the sunset, I don't usually look this nice, I think it was the euphoria from the spa treatment & the lighting from the sun setting ::

:: Here's Mr. L - I would dare say the same thing about him. He ALWAYS looks this good ::

:: We spent hours at the restaurant, enjoying the food, company and surroundings, it was an unbelievable night ::

:: The next morning we got up and headed across town to Granville to do some shopping, we also enjoyed the pool, steam room & sauna at the hotel ::

:: Here's what our hotel looked like from the courtyard - it was quite the day! ::

:: Next we had an appointment with Miss. Jamie Delaine to take our pictures in Kits, we did that for an hour or so then headed down to the beach to enjoy the view. It was a glorious day! ::

:: We then headed to Granville Island to walk around and people watch - Mr. L purchase this french cinnamon pastry - it was huge, at least 10 inches in diameter...oh but it was good! ::

:: We wandered through the market, looking at all the treats and beautiful sites ::

:: We then headed to The Keg to enjoy dinner, it was a great steak dinner at the brand new Keg in Yaletown ::

:: We then headed to Robson to do some shopping, Mr. L ended up finding a pair of jeans and we just window shopped the rest of the strip. After that we headed to Milestones to enjoy our last celebratory dessert together, the chocolate ganache dessert - it was oh, so yummy! ::

:: It was an amazing anniversary trip to the big city and we hope to make it a yearly event, going away, even just into the big city is certainly attainable once a year! ::

:: Babe, I love you more than the day I knew I loved you and even more than the day I married you. I'm proud to be your wife. xo, *Your Gurl ::