February 13, 2011

Whitefish/Kalispell Weekend

What a great weekend. I love that we can head out someplace with Nicole and Corey, and know we'll have a good time all together! We headed down Thursday night. I had picked up some food at 7 Eleven right after work, so we had something to eat on our way. We had to return home shortly after we left since Justin forgot his wallet (we kind of needed it - it contained all our money). Then when we got to Coalhurst there was a big accident, with a fire truck and an ambulance still arriving at the scene. Traffic was diverted through the town, instead of past it on the highway. We were held up for about fifteen minutes there.

We stopped at Pure Country in The Crowsnest Pass for supper. Nicole and I were both so full from our meal of chicken on a stick and potato wedges we both got salads. But the boys were hungry, and got hamburgers.

We crossed the border with no issues, stopped at Eureka for some drinks and a couple of Justin's favorite Salted Nut Roll at the gas station, then were back on the road again. We got to Whitefish pretty late, and there was a bit of confusion as to which condo was the one we were staying in; but with a couple phone calls, and a phone number written in the snow - we figured it out. We went to bed pretty much right after we were settled, then woke up at about 8:30 and started getting ready for the day. The condo is just a staircase down from Whitefish Lake and when we left the condo, we saw fisherman ice fishing. Justin and I still have yet to do this, and I can't wait until the weather is good, but the ice is solid enough for us to give it a try.

We enjoyed breakfast at the Buffalo Cafe. And made plans to head into Kalispell to do some shopping, get some clothes for Mexico and look at some of the outdoor sports stores.

At Murdoch's Ranch & Homes I found a nice tuque with the ear flaps on it, I didn't find a teal one, but decided that since this light pink one was less than ten dollars I could settle for it! Corey and Nicole had talked about huge camping chairs that could potentially hold three people. Then they spotted them in the store, although you can't really see quite how big they are in the first picture, the other ones sure explain it! I really wanted on of them, but knew it wasn't really a necessary purchase for about $120. But with three drink holders in each of the arms, and a set of Depends, I wouldn't need to get up from the campfire until bedtime!

At Snappy Sport Senter there were some really great animal mounts to look at: elk, big horn sheep, mountain goat and a brown bear.

After all that walking around, we were ready for lunch. We went to The Sizzler for their salad bar. Everything was really tasty, and I loved that they had a taco station and the meatballs were really yummy. When it came time for dessert, it was ice cream to the rescue! I think this was the first time of having any since before January - it was SO amazingly good!

We walked to Sportsman & Ski Haus and saw some more taxidermy. This time a cougar, non-typical white tail deer and a albino caraboo.

After shopping at Ross, and TJ Maxx, we headed back to the condo to get ready for supper. This time on the lake were four deer trying to have a meal.

We went to Mambo Italiano, put our name down on the list and since it was a 45 minute wait for a table, we headed to Safeway to by some snacks for later that night (which we were all too full from supper to even think about). We also planned on just hanging out at the condo Saturday night and just eating snackies (crackers with meat, cheese and pickles and a platter of nachos) which we shopped for too. I can never get over the wine, coolers and beer that is sold at gas stations and grocery stores in the States!

When we got back to Mambo's after waiting a couple minutes, it was our turn to get seated. We sat down, decided on some appitizers and a bottle of wine (calimari, bruchetta and a bottle of Firestone Vineyard red wine from California) . Then it was our meal desisions, which everyone had pasta. I had thought since we planned this trip that I was going to order ravioli, but after the meatballs from lunchtime, I didn't want another tomato based sauce. I settled on this AMAZING fetticini with chicken, shrimp and peas in a really creamy sauce (Justin kept reminding me that they probably made it with a full carton of cream!). There was these little crunchy bits on top, I'm thinking they are bits of pancetta, whatever they were - they were awesome. Basically I wanted to marry my pasta!

After we finished our meals (I had to get some of mine packed up), Corey ordered dessert, not that we needed it at all, which was little bits of doughnut batter deep-fried, and covered in icing sugar with warm chcolate, caramel and raspberry sauces to dip them it. Seriously, if I loved doughnuts, this would have been the ultimate thing ever; I really liked them dipped in the raspberry sauce, it counteracted some of the sweetness. Everyone else really liked the caramel sauce, and the chocoalte was just too sweet. When we got back to the condo, Corey laid down on the floor, Justin on the chair, and Nicole and I were on the couch. Very shortly Corey and I fell asleep. The next thing I knew Justin was waking me up telling me it was bedtime!

Nicole had mentioned this Cowgirl Coffee hut that her and Corey really liked. She thought it was only open during the summer months, but aftter a couple minutes of searching, we drove up to it. I wanted a hot chocolate, but when Corey suggested "white chocolate latte" I couldn't refuse. And it was AMAZING! Next time we're there - I'm making sure to get another one!

We drove back to Kalispell and headed to the Costco. We walked around for a bit, then ended up in the electronics section. Nicole and I were separated from the boys (we were looking at jewlery which was right beside audio units), then Corey came up to us and said Justin was looking for me. I found him, and this is what I saw (he was looking through 3D glasses at a 3D TV - which looked so funny. Then everyone had a try, and it was really life-like: I thought a volleyball was going to hit me in the head!).

After some more shopping at Walmart and Target, we headed back to Whitefish. This Cowboy Church had amuzed me for a while, and I wanted to get a picture.

Justin picked out the Bulldog Saloon for us to eat at for lunch, he had heard from his boss that it had good food. The food was really good, I'd say really close to how Wendy's burgers are. But the french fries were awesome! You could get sour cream and chives added to them, which was a coating of the chives with sour cream to dip into. So good!

We stopped at The Toggery, to have a look at their clothing, Nicole said they sell Mavis - which are the only jeans Justin (other than his work jeans from Costco). Justin bought a pair, and I got a pair of sandles with a teal flower on them for Mexico. We went to look at some houses on the other side of the lake, and almost got stuck leaving one of the areas. We had to attempt a slippery, snow covered hill four times to make it up. Then we headed up to the top of Big Mountain to the ski hill for a look around.

When we arrived back at the condo, we noticed this little black and white thing bounding around out on the frozen lake. We realized when she came up to us, that it was a little dog. She was the cutest little dog, and I scooped her up for some pictures. I figured Lowie could handle a dog about this size, and really wanted to keep her! We ate our snackies, watched some TV, had some drinks, watched American History X, then headed to bed.

After a load of laundry, some lint roller as a vacuum action to pick up the salt we had drug in on our shoes, and some dishes we were on the road heading home. We stopped at Eureka to eat at The Cutting Board, but after driving around and asking, found out it was closed for the winter. So we ate at the Crossroads/4 Corners Restaraunt which had AMAZING hamburger macaroni soup and Justin said that might be the best burger he's ever eaten!

I knew what this trip was going to be like before we left home: lots of eating good meals, shopping until our legs hurt, enjoying a few drinks and spending time together with Corey and Nicole before Mexico - and it certainly didn't disappoint!

February 9, 2011

Trying To Get A Nice Picture Is Like...

Tonight I've done a whole pile of laundry in order to be able to pack our suitcases tonight; apparently there was a lot more than I had anticipated. We're leaving tomorrow for White Fish right after work with Corey and Nicole. I think all of us need a little get-away. It's going to be an awesome time away from town. Eating out, spending time with family and celebrating the last three weeks before they get married (again) in Mexico!

I wanted to get some a picture of Justin and I just bumming around tonight, but every time I took a picture he was misbehaving in the background! He was so enthralled with the Garth Brooks DVD to pay much attention to the camera. He's our little photoshoot:

Justin's not completely troublesome though, I can't forget that he makes wonderful suppers. And when he has a limited amout of ingredients, that's when he makes masterpieces (we've been avoiding grocery shopping, but he did pick up a couple things - including laundry soap - tonight). He made really yummy taco soup!

February 7, 2011

Butterfly Baby

With all the blog posts about CHA Winter 2011, I've been super inspired to scrapbook lately. (I managed to get two layouts done this weekend). I've seen so much on blogs that I follow, that it almost feels like I was there (although I'm sure it's like Vegas - the only way to understand it is to experience it).

On your next layout: use inspiration from CHA that you saw on a blog post (or if you were lucky enough to go, actually from the show).

When I saw this photo from Paige's blog , I knew that I wanted to do something like that on a layout. I stopped at Walmart the night I saw it, and bought two Martha Stewart punches (classic butterfly and monarch butterfly). I knew this would be the inspiration for a layout I had in mind for Stevie. I had also seen this layout on Maggie Holmes' blog and really liked the placement, and the ribbon separating a same-sized photo and patterned paper. I took all of that, and made this layout.

I wanted this layout to be a classy baby page. Not all cutsie and bubble gum coloured. I think I accomplished that. I really like the yellow colour of the background paper, and the fancy pattern of it, it helped make the page not scream "pink." For my title, I really didn't want to use black. I really like the light feel to the layout without any dark, harsh colours on it. I looked through my stash and used these aqua coloured Thickers. Because I used this colour, I added a peice of ribbon layered on top of the pink ribbon. I like how it too added another colour that evened out the pinkness. And I inked the "adore" tab on the left side of the page to add another aqua element to the page.

It was because I happened to look over at my little muffin tin of odds and ends that I remembered these cute little ducky buttons. These buttons have the shank on them, so I made a hole big enough for it to fit through, and put a straight pin through the shank on the back of the page keeping it in place.

I started this page with punching out all my butterflies. I used up some of my scrap paper (which is a goal I'm working on), using just three different patterns. I used my Tombow Mono liquid glue on the back of the butterflies, allowed that to dry, making them re-positionable (and saving my sanity). I laid them out numerous times, re-arranging the elements on the page (at one point the photo was on the left side), until I was finally happy. I really like that this is now another embellishment I can add to my pages to be able to easily add dimention.

It's the little bits of girliness on this layout that I really love. I like these two pins that I stuck into the ribbon, just to add a little bit of surprise. And the three brads (in the row with the duck button), help add to that classy feel I wanted the page to have. (I've used up almost all of these brads, I need to run out and get another pack from Michael's). And the pink lace paper at the bottom add to it too; I still have some of this sheet left, and when it's done I'm going to count how many layouts I've used it on - it is a go-to paper for me. This time I used a spray ink to turn it this perfect pretty pink.

Journaling says: Andrew and Tracy Borg's beautiful daughter at 15 weeks.

This is the first "baby" layout I've ever done. To be honest, I've always wondered if I could do it. After this accomplishment, I now know I can when Justin and I have little kiddos of our own for me to scrapbook their cute little selves. And now I secretly hope to have girls when it's time - I'm loving little girly bits on my pages lately!

What did you find from CHA that you found so inspiring it got your imagination running wild? Leave a comment with a link to what you created from your inspiration.

February 6, 2011

From 40 To 208

Friday night we went bowling to celebrate Chelsey's birthday.

Honestly, before I left work that night, I was complaining because I had no desire to go play five-pin. I've only been once before, and my brand new shoes actually got stolen. I was not a happy camper that day! I tried to put it all behind me though, took my shoes to our lane with me, had a couple beers and enjoyed myself.

Every single time I go bowling my left hip starts hurting. Normally it's after the first game, but this time it started after the first couple times I bowled. It's really all I could think about each time I bowled, and it was making me upset! Both the parents (both Josh and Chelsey's) and the boys were doing a lot better than we were doing; I point blank said that no offense to the parents, but obviously they are older, and have had more time to hone their bowling skills, and the boys can just plain and simple throw harder than us girls! The first game my score was 40; Kayla (Josh's cousin) was very excited that she beat me - she got 47.

I was either always bowling beside Justin, or beside Lincoln. When Justin bowled at the same time as I did, he bet me five bucks that I couldn't knock down more balls than he could. I'm pretty sure I owe him about twenty dollars - but it comes out of his account too, so we'll call it good!

There were only two different ball colour choices (this is something I really miss about ten-pin), either a A&W/black swirled ball or a white/pink/teal/black swirled ball. I only wanted to bowl with the pretty one, but when I was up against Lincoln, he tried to steal them as they came back down the lane in the ball return shoot thing. I got smart at one point, and tried to get it first, but it still slipped past my hands - it was coming towards me at a very rapid speed!

A couple frames into our second game (after Chelsey had gone to ask if they could put the bumbers up for us - and subsequently being told that we are adults, and we could break them), Chelsey suggested I start granny bowling; you know, bending over and tossing the ball from between your legs.

The first time I tried this new method, I got a spare. The second time I got a strike! WHAT? Seriously, is this how I'm actually good at bowling? It was so funny, I got three strikes in a row. And my score for the second games was 208!

Such a fun night - and something different. I've been begging Justin to go bowling with me for five and a half years, and I finally got to. Hopefully I can get him to go again, maybe for a $20 date night!?

February 3, 2011

Stevie-Dawn

For the last few weeks friends of ours from Australia have been here spending time with their family that live here in Canada. (Tracy is Canadian, and Andrew is Australian.) They went to Manatoba to meet up with their friends before they headed down to Mexico for that friends wedding. Finally they were back in town, and we met up with them for supper on Tuesday night (along with another couple, Dave and Allison).

We finally got to meet Princess Stevie. She is seriously SO cute! It made me want my own, very badly (I know we have some goals we want to accomplish before this step happens though)! She is just so soft, warm and cuddly. I made Justin hold her, and he seemed quite comfortable, not scared or nervous like I kind of expected him to be like. Lately, he's been mentioning little things that make me know having children is one of his next priorities. Brings a smile to my face.

Stevie was ready for sleep when we first got to Moxie's, but I think she got a little excited with being passed from person to person, and forgot for a bit about being tired. Then she got a bit cranky, and was fussing. Allison was holding her as Stevie was crying, and announced "yup, there's a baby over here," to the restaurant. Andrew then said (just to our table), it would be different if one of us adults were carrying on like that. People just need to understand that babies don't know any different, it's part of what they do, and sometimes there is no comforting them.

We got Stevie a little gift: a fuscia Carhartt jumper, white shirt, pink Carhartt baseball cap, and little booties that are sheep skin lined. We know she won't get much use out of them (living in Australia and all), but they're just too cute to pass up! Justin picked out everything completely on his own. When he picked me up at work, he was so delighted about his find. I told him I knew he was going to be a good daddy, and this just cinched that thought! I made a cute little card with a hippo on it, that matched the fuchia of the dress perfectly - and we hadn't talked about what either of us had done.

I can't wait to become a mum, and see how Justin takes to his role as a dad. I know that when the time is right, in a couple years, that it will be perfect. Until then, I'm happy just seeing tiny babies, and getting to visit with my little cousins!

February 1, 2011

2 February Goals 2011

I decided a couple weeks ago what my two goals would be for this month. I seem to be thinking along the theme of improving upon myself and my life; which I actually want to continue for the rest of the year.

1. Go on a $20 date once a week. I'll plan them, decide what we'll do, and Justin can just go along for the ride! With four weeks, I want to see the different kinds of things we can do and creative I can be for just twenty dollars. (These photos are from March 15, 2008; we went for a drive to see whereabouts we'd be camping in May. Whenever we want to go for a drive, it seems we always head out along Highway 22, and the Porkupine Hills. It all started in 2005 on one of our first dates, and it just so happened it that we were married in that area, just off that highway. While I was looking at old photos on the computer a couple months ago, I realized that I had taken a picture of the ranch sign when we were on this drive - way before we knew it was Brent's brother and sister-in-law that owned the ranch, and way before we seriously started planning our wedding! I still remember my dad, while we were sitting and waiting for the JP, saying that it was the perfect location; he couldn't imagine us getting married anywhere else and I couldn't either. Justin looks so young, and you can really see how much weight he's lost. I really hate my glasses, they just seem too small for my head!)

2. Exercise, and do crunches video (I have an app on my phone) four times a week. "Exercise" will consist of my Leslie Sansome DVDs, skating, aquafit, or dance nights of an hour or more (basically me dancing like a fool in front of the computer listening to random You Tube music videos).

Now for January's update: 1/1 completed to what I see as successful. I admit, I could have been a lot better,(I kept track of the little bits of extra things I ate, including two that I decided wouldn't count: to celebrate New Years I had a chocolate cup with Kalua just after midnight, two fortune cookies, really small slivery bits of hard candy, bits of oatmeal with brown sugar, one peice of healthy fruit snacks, a box of Del Monte fruit twists, Reese cereal, two large frozen yogurts, sugary peach juice, and a couple glasses of regular pop), but I did way better than I ever thought I could do - it just goes to show what I can actually do (or not eat) when I actually put my mind to it; and a big thanks goes out to Justin for hiding the left-over wedding candy from me - it was the weekends while he was gone that were the hardest on me, and I know I would have indulged if I had known where the candy was!

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