A weekend in pictures

I had an absolutely fabulous long weekend... let me share!

First up... this weekend was extra special because it was our 7th wedding anniversary!  Over the past 7 years we've had some pretty terrible anniversaries-- we've celebrated by driving all day and night across western Canada in motor home with 6 other people, we've moved, one memorable anniversary I had shoulder surgery and my broken jaw wired shut, one year we couldn't find a babysitter so with took Caleb with us out to Red Robin's and the other's we've managed to squeeze a quick dinner in after work when we could find a babysitter.  Not so special.  This time around we had willing babysitters so we took off-- for most of the day!  It was fabulous.  We ended up enjoying a warm sunny day on Granville Street in Vancouver.  Perfect.

On the way in we stopped on Main Street to peek into a few antique shops.  There are some pretty expensive antique stores on that street but there were also some pretty reasonably priced places too.  My favorite was The Sellution-- they had a TON of stuff that had me dreaming.

Aren't these chairs amazing?  They are begging for a makeover...

We did a lot of walking and a lot of window shopping.  My absolute favorite store was Country Furniture.  They had so much great stuff in there.  The store was full of casual country furnishings mixed with vintage-y and industrial pieces-- lots of comfortable linen slipcovers, rough rustic wood pieces, metal, distressed lamps and artwork... I loved it.  I can't afford anything in there... but I will definitely be going back for inspiration :)

Once we had walked and window shopped enough... we went for dinner at the Red Door.  Such good food.  So great to sit on the patio and enjoy a warm summer evening with this guy...

Then we stopped at Meinhardt's for flowers, grabbed dessert, and headed home to rescue our babysitters.  A perfect day.  Although Doug seems to think that next year we'll spend our anniversary window shopping at motorcycle shops and maybe stop at a pet store or two... :)

Can't wait to see what the next seven years hold honey!  Love you.

Now... onto a couple of other highlights.  These ones are not as special and significant... but they are still important in my books.  We made a quick trip across the border to pick up some groceries on Monday morning and I made a new discovery at Trader Joe's.  Dairy free yogurt.  It's a soy product but it tastes pretty close to regular yogurt.  It's the same consistency-- which is a big one-- an even contains live active cultures.  Emerson loves it.  I'm so happy.

And... we picked up a ton of fresh raspberries.  Yum.  One of the best things about living in the Fraser Valley has to be the fresh berries.  I picked these up-- no joke-- at a little farm just down the street.  It was a 3 minute drive.  We've been eating a ton of fresh raspberries and I've already washed and frozen several pounds so we can enjoy them later.

The one downside... Eme now refuses to eat anything that's not a raspberry.  Dinner time last night was quite the battle.  While I did eventually get her to eat her steamed broccoli and beef vegetable soup-- she still won-- because my kitchen was trashed in the process and I had to give her a bath-- twice-- she was THAT dirty.

To kick off the work week I packed up the kids and hit to zoo for the morning.  The train was broken, it started to rain... but we still had fun.  We did a lap around the zoo and saw the more interesting animals.

Caleb particularly liked the giraffe this time around.  He figured his name was probably Sir Topham Hat.

Emerson really couldn't have cared less.

And now we're home.  Hooray for nap time!!