Another Fab Weekend!

Oh man. Brian is really itchin' to move out of his place.

It's not that there is any real serious issue with his landlady but I think she's just a little bit more involved than we're used to. We're still certain that she comes down to check on the suite when we're away but Brian and I have been making sure that the place is spotless before we leave. That's not too big of an issue. But lately she has been imposing a bit of pressure when Brian decides to cook with garlic or spices or any other odorous ingredient. Which I happen to love. She's never directly said that she disapproves. She just makes comments such as "I've noticed that you've been cooking with garlic a lot." or "I can smell the curry you're cooking from my bedroom. It's very strong." Anyways, on Thursday night Brian was cooking some of his delicious aglio e olio with a jalapeno kick when we suddenly heard the landlady begin to quickly lumber about and pace above us. All had been silent until Brian began frying up the garlic. I tried to air out the suite as much as I could by opening windows and doors and turning on fans but the bear upstairs continued to pace back and forth. So Brian turned the stressful situation into a romantic evening by announcing that we were going to enjoy our dinner on the beach and watch the sunset while we ate our pasta. We packed up all the food along with some fruit and crackers and the remaining pieces of our delicious banana bread and drove down to the Spanish Banks just in time to watch the sun set. It was a beautiful setting for an orgasmic meal.

Pics.

Picnic-packaged meal

Lovin' life.

To die for.

Not a shabby view.

Relaxed and landlady free.

So on Friday I almost died.

I made the stupid decision to have a three hour workout sesh at the gym (1.5 hours on the treadmill and 1.5 hours of weightlifting) and my body definitely felt the pain for the next few days. My calves were on FIYAH. Good thing I had a relaxing weekend in store!

Doug picked us up from the ferry terminal Friday night and we headed straight to our friend Genevieve's beautiful waterfront place where Jane and cutie Arfa was waiting. We indulged in tons of finger food and late night conversations before heading to Brian's parents' house to crash. 

The next morning we all got up to meet Brian's sister and others on Sidney Spit, a tiny island off the island. We had a bit of a late start and we missed the ferry that we wanted to take but we all eventually got there in one piece. It was the perfect day for the beach and minus the freezing water, it was pretty much a day in paradise. 

That evening, Brian prepped a lovely summer roll dinner for everyone that was an instant hit with his tandoori spiced chicken. The meal was followed by some delicious chocolate cake and by then I was ready to pass out. Everyone wanted to watch "River Monsters" and "Hoarders" so my social instincts were to join in but my eyes refused to cooperate. I was in the REM stage of sleep 10 minutes into the show. 

On Sunday, the major plan for the day consisted of an awesome blueberry pancake brunch with Heather and James providing the yummy yummy bacon. As the last bites of pancake were being taken, James generously offered one of his trophy salmon to be the main course for dinner that day so Brian and I extended our Victorian stay for the chance to partake in a sea-derived feast! And it was well worth it! We had pink salmon, corn, potatoes, carrots, quinoa salad, green beans, impromptu fried rice, and Bailey's milkshakes for dessert. I could barely move post meal but we had to get our hustle on in order to catch the last ferry off the island. We said our goodbyes and Heather and James were gracious enough to give us a lift to the terminal. It was 9pm and I was poooooped. But had a GREAT time with some GREAT company.

Visual aid.

Finally on the ferry to Sidney Spit!

Beach camp

Beach baby

Beach babes.

 Pico!

Doggy kisses!

Sibs

Super sibs

Ready to take on the spit

Le spit.

Fiance.

DINNER.

The angler and his trophy

Adventure baby!

HI ARFA!!!

Can we get a decent pic?

Lol. Nope.

Doug joins our predinner walk.

Super mom.

Will Doug eat the salmon eyeball?

Naturally.

Boys will be boys.

Gals will be lovely.  :)

So Brian and I have made it back to Vancouver safe and sound although I slept 75% of the way home. I was supposed to go kayaking today but it is probably the worst day (weatherwise) we've had in Vancouver since my arrival. It's gray and rainy and cold and just plain yucky. Melissa and I have postposed the kayak trip for another day and also scheduled in a girl's night out for Saturday. It'll be nice to go out with some gals and make some friends in the city before I leave so I'm definitely looking forward to it!

BIG NEWS!

Brian and I have an appointment with the events coordinator of the Vancouver Art Gallery this Wednesday in hopes to finally SEAL THE WEDDING VENUE DEAL. Holy cow am I ready to do this! And Brian is as well! And then I am not thinking about the wedding for a VERY long time! :D

As for my insomnia, I have been taking two melatonin pills for the past few nights and it seems to be helping. I wake up at a reasonable hour (6ish) and I try to go back to sleep but I still have these annoying fits of restlessness. What is up with that?? I'm still tossing and turning a bit in the mornings but Brian has learned to sleep through it. I'm glad my sleep duration has been lengthened and so far, no side effects of grogginess. Keeping my fingers crossed for full recovery! I am seriously considering getting a massage this week. Brian's insurance company has already agreed to let us use any medical resources necessary to  alleviate any physical symptoms and I'm thinking a deep tissue massage could definitely help my restlessness. I'll keep you posted!

Only one week left before I have to head back to another semester of craziness..... Sigh. Gotta enjoy the remainder of the summer! 

Seriously the most INSANE weekend EVER.

I am STILL exhausted from this weekend.....

But it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. Definitely one of the more craziest weekends of my life. Ever.

So my gf Jenn is a beautiful mother of two. She and her fellow mothers wanted an official Moms Weekend at the Beach and so we had been planning this little getaway for a while.

Babysitters were arranged, days were called out at work, and beachhouse was booked. It was perfect.

I went down expecting a somewhat low key day at the beach with a more mature crowd and evening of simple pleasantries.

Well I ended up getting a lot more.

A lot more drunk than I have ever been in my entire LIFE.

Yep.

Those who know me know that I. NEVER. DRINK. I hate the taste of alcohol. Absolutely abhor it. Blech. Makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.

So why the sudden change?

Two words. Jello. Shots.

They tasted like heaven.



Here's a pictorial timeline:

All the girls arrive at Jenn's beachouse (Kym is inside breast pumpin'. Seriously.)

Leone brought JELLO SHOTS. They were uh. Mayzing. Main reason why I almost died. There were hot chocolate, red velvet cake, and raspberry lemonade shots. YUM.

This is how hot moms get baby seats out of their pimpin' minivans.

Yummy jello shots on the way to Seacrets.

Final destination!

Happy to be in the nasty ass water.

Here's trouble.

Still feelin' fine.

Whatever this was.... hurt.

A lot.

Andddddd.... I'm gone.

Pulling ourselves together.

Seriously almost upchucked my kidneys out during dinner.

To make a long story short, we were at Seacrets for SEVEN. HOURS. It was insane. And I almost drowned in 3 feet of water. Not my classiest moment but definitely a learning experience. I'm surprised that none of us got sunburned because the sun was scorching.

Oh yeah. And I got super sick towards the end of the day but did. not. puke. Why? Because I was the designated driver. That's why. And I can't puke and drive. I drove and my gf who I won't name puked behind me.

We were all in bed by 9:45pm.

I woke up the next morning at 7:30am, wrote my ten page hypnotherapy paper, went home and studied for my pediatric exam. Got up this morning at 5:30am, studied some more, took the exam at 9am, passed with flying colors.


Like I said.


Awesome weekend. :)

Beachy Weekend.... :)

I'm at Rehoboth Beach with Lena, Noah and Gracey!

In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have come out to the beach for the entire weekend since I have a paper and another pediatric med calculation assignment due by Monday but.... you only live once, right? And it's summertime! :)

Grottos for lunch!

Gracey and her beloved ice cream

Beachside.

The gals.

Moi and my weekend date, Gracey

Cold ass water.

Toe ring buddies.

We just had dinner at Finn's Raw Bar and we're just taking some down time before hittin' the town!

Brian and Mama Gregg have confirmed that they saw the Terminal City Club today and quite liked it. I'm sure he will have lots of pictures for me to upload. They also saw the Magic Cruise Yacht which was pretty nice as well and half the price as the Sunset Bay Yacht. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Stay tuned for more updates! :)

Beachiness and BLING!

Hit up the beach this weekend and got my sun on! We have been experiencing PERFECT beach weather the last few days and we were itchin' to take advantage of it!

I went with my gf Brooke, Brent, and Uche. It was pretty much a last hurrah before classes start on Monday. BOO.

I have another weekend at the beach planned for this  upcoming weekend with Lena, Grace, et al. and I'm going to try not to exacerbate the low grade skin cancer that I may have acquired from yesterday's sunny debauchery.

For the reading impaired, I present to you visuals:

On our way!

Claw times.

At destination!

Da boys!

No swimming is right.

Beachin it.

Watch model in the making.

Best angle.

Beach babes.

Our chauffeur and body guard.

Thai food makes them lovers.

Sexy.

Sexy.

Setting trends.

Work it girl.

So vogue.

Fab.

So I personally did not end up going into the water because it was FUH-REEZING. Brent and Brooke took a short dip or two. Those brave souls. After soaking up some sun we shopped at all the cute little boutiques on the main strip of the boardwalk and then headed to the outlets.

I had the brilliant idea of getting Brooke to look at some ring bling simply for research purposes and fun, harmless ring try-ons (Brooke is in a pretty lovey-dovey relationship with Robert and they are THE cutest couple EVER!!!). It never hurts to look, ladies! :)

Check out the bling she picked:

If you look carefully, the center "diamond" is made up of 10 little diamonds.

Bit on the yellow side.

Cool setting though!

2 carat ROCK.

Side view.

MY ULTIMATE FAVE. The TRILLION CUT. PERFECT FOR BROOKE!!!

Gorgeous and unique! Just like Brooklyn! :)

Anyways, after we got back from Rehoboth beach, I needed some serious downtime, I was exhausted! I watched the end of the Boston v. Canucks game and Canucks win in overtime!!!!!! AWESOME!!!! I've been seriously jumping on the Canucks bandwagon. They've never won a Stanley Cup in franchise history and I think they are WELL on their way to winning their first one! So exciting! Vancouver is really making its mark! :)

Sunday funday is not going to be all fun and games. Classes start tomorrow and we have a freakin' quiz on the first day (Is that legal?). Annie comes home from upstate NY tonight so we'll all be gettin' together to have dinner and then the rest of the night will probably be dedicated to med calculations. Sigh. The fabulous lives of nursing students. It'll be all over in 6 months! It's the homestretch! :)