Day with Laura ...

The text started with "How about a birthday lunch?" and somehow ended with meet you at Stoney Hill for a hike! lol   Not sure how it happened, but there we were ... meeting at 11am for a hike.

It was a great hike, beautiful, not too hard, and just awesome to be outside with my SIL.....afterwards we headed to the farmers market for her favorite tacos at this taco truck - I loved that she was feeding me tacos a couple days before I was leaving for Mexico .... it was like a little preview!! We ate outside in the sun while Bosun drooled while he watched us .....

Afterwards, we hit up the bakery stand and ate pain de chocolate (not the best idea, but so yummy) ... but as we were sitting there eating (again), in the cold, we both agreed that a hottub would be awesome ... so we went to thrift and each picked out a suit and headed to the pool for a really relaxing soak and sauna ... we are both very much heat seekers .... while we were there, Shannon sent me a picture of my boy having a great time at the youth retreat!

Hard to tell from the photo, but this little gnome has snow falling behind him ....

Turning 44!

Woke up this morning to many of my Winnipeg friends/family starting the charge!!  I loved that Graham and Yaw were within minutes of eachother .... 

A very sweet post on Jolene’s Instagram ^^

Chris was busy working on finishing my birthday sweater ... complete with thumb holes!! 

Because he knows thumb holes are a favorite of mine ....

We had a pretty low key morning and then headed out for some running around and lunch at my favorite Pho place and then to meet the Williams at the Thetis Island ferry to get over to Pioneer Pacific camp to get a head start before the rest of Isaacs youth group arrived that evening.  Here is a quick snap of one of my favorite moments of the day - Isaac showing me where he and his friends would sleep that weekend.  He was part of the scouting team (he and Ben) who would pick the cabin they would all stay in!  It was a beautiful short walk away from the main lodge .... he took me the long way!

It was a cute little cabin ....

He claimed this top bunk that had the best view of the skylight and stars at night.  It would also give me nightmares on Saturday night when I feared he would fall out of it!!  (He didn't)

Reid loves Isaac .... he is his little shadow ... here they are making soup for our dinner!

And Shannon making a beautiful charcuterie board of yummy meats and cheeses....

Phil and Chris getting a head start on the dozens of cookies they were going make for the kids that weekend ... don't be fooled....Chris jumped up to look busy (he was mainly keeping Phil company while he baked)

I guess these two are helping too?

As are these 2??  That glass jug was FULL and heavy with water .... it didn't look like a good situation ....

Here we all are, eating again ...

Both families love food and fires .... we are a good match ....

Just a quick shot before Elliot, Chris and I would leave them all so they could run a great weekend for a bunch of youth kids!  While we were driving onto the ferry, the youth were all disembarking ... so it was fun to see them all and tell them to have a good time!!  When we left, Isaac and Ben were making a bonfire that would be ready when they all arrived!

On the ferry, and i took a quick picture of my birthday sweater from Chris and birthday necklace from Laura ... she said this necklace and its colored screamed my name.

Arrived home to some very beautiful flowers from my sweet sister!!  She was shocked to hear that I was on another island ... so she scrambled to find someone to take the flowers off my deck and get them inside before they froze lol....the Zalinkos were happy to help ;-)

Isaac made me a Christmas Tree for my birthday!  I love it ...

It was a good day .... a few ups and downs to a long day .... but lots of love.

Last day being 43 .....

The evening is being spent with these two crazies watching the muppets.  Yanin would be proud ....

Such nice boys .... the third man of the family has been knitting “something” all-night.  I’ve been warned not to enter his room.   

Today we spent on some maintenance- the gym;

Lashes and hair and this lovely lady bought us birthday cake to share to celebrate our birthdays !!!

Folks sent me a pre-picture of where I’ll be in a week. I normally hate these pictures of others. :-)

It’s been a great day.   Came home and brea and her mom came and we cleaned the house so it was a struggle to keep it clean tonight with these kids at home but I think I’ll get to wake up to a clean house tommorow!  Also - elliot gave me my birthday card early:

I asked him how he knew I didn’t put him on Craigslist and just had no takers?  He nodded knowingly.  

Elliot’s idea about pizza and world inventions.

Walking with Amanda the other night, she was relating a story she heard from Alex about a conversation they had with Elliot at youth group last Friday.  

They were discussing inventions that could change the world and this was one of Elliot’s grand ideas:

“I think we should make a pizza with poison on it but the anecdote would be located in the crust!”

This apparently would get rid of all the weirdos in the world who don’t eat pizza crusts.  

Elliot and Mittens

She tolerates him during the day. But in the middle of the night when I come to check on the boys, there she is, standing guard at his feet on the top bunk.  

Isaac passes along the Pokémon cards

Josh Williams had a birthday and wanted Pokémon cards - so in Isaac fashion, he got his binder out and decided to wrap them all individually and give them to him for his birthday lol

Also in true Isaac fashion, he saw someone on tv blowing into a conch and thought that was a cool sound!!  So he went and got the one I brought back from the Bahamas and broke part of it to get his trumpet piece into it.  Sigh

UPDATE***

Jolene turns 40!

We hit the monkey bar for a killer workout and it was pretty fun because Shannon joined us too. So lots of misery and laughing together to start the day.  Then we hit up Starbucks for her free birthday drink and thrifting at our favorite spot where we both scored some fun things. 

Home for lunch, wine, 24 Carey gold face masks is brought back from Iceland I’d been saving to use for a special occasion and a Christmas movie. 

Then it was time to hottub and do what she had been planning to do to celebrate her 40th - jump in the lake.  It was freezing.  

But she did it with gusto - like she does most things!

This was me. Not so much of a launch but a “how close to the dock can I get so I can get out quick”

Great day!!!

Butter Church

Just drove by the old butter church in cowichan bay and decided to explore a little and take a few pictures of my handsome boys ...

Susan’s birthday !!

It’s always a good time when one of us crosses the ocean .... this was my turn. I came a day after her birthday, and 7 days before mine!

She took me to this beautiful spot on the water and I had fish and chips.

We hit up the craft market that Jen had a booth at. The exciting part was that years ago, Jen came to WOA and took Sharyn’s watercolour class and then she just kept going.  Fast forward a few years and here she is with her own booth of beautiful art!!!!

It was a bit of a WOA reunion.

I muscled Sharyn into writing some beautiful words in a cute cat diary for ellie for her birthday package!!

Words like this .... with creative liberty of course.

She took it very seriously.  She loves Carrie hence she wanted to do a good job for Ellie.

Little stops through the weekend ....

Amazing coffee shops in mt Vernon

They are a sweet couple. Mike goes out of his way to make me beautiful breakfasts to order with fresh coffee every morning when I come.  Makes me feel really special.  They both do, I always go home feeling very loved.

And look who I ran into on the ferry on the way home!!

Back in my happy place with good memories ....