Sharks and Burrowing Owls

"Yes, i'll have 2 tall decaf soy vanilla lattes please!"

Sha and Ty man tasting the wares at Burrowing Owl

Two plus bottles of vino blanco and counting!!

Looking a feeling happy after a few bottles of Pinot Gris!

Happy Cousins playing in the loft

The Homeys in their new duds from Mimi

We just got back from a lovely jaunt to the Okanagan to visit the fam and to have a little pre-birthday getaway for the hubs and I avec our dear friends Shark and Ty. Shark, being the clever little thing that she is, booked us a fabulous one night getaway at the Burrowing Owl Winery in Oliver, BC which included a 3 course (more like 6 actually) gourmet dinner, a gorgeous room complete with fluffy robes and fireplace (and best of all NO KIDS to wake us up thanks to the very brave Mimi and Papa C), and a mouth-watering home-baked gourmet breakfast all for a low low price (due to it being off season). Sha-sha also had the brilliant idea of riding from Penticton to Osoyoos so we could get a little exercise and a good gab session en route. However, the wind gods had other ideas and decided to throw gale force headwinds our way the entire time, so the gabbing was more like shouting and the riding was more like grunting and groaning, but I am glad we did it nonetheless - and I got to show the Team Finn pride!!

Mama's Night Out!!

The boys and I just got back from a lovely 4 day trip to the Island. Despite an unfortunate incident of Griffin high-fiving the gas fireplace, a great time was had by all, and much much thanks as always to Gma and Gpa for taking the boys so I could have some much needed mama-time.

The day began with a quest for yet another perfect mama-bag, I found my original mama bag on LoJo a few years ago, but alas it just wasn't to be. However the trip downtown wasn't totally in vain as I ran into my lovely friend Jen and we had the chance to catch up over a half litre of vino blanco...bliss. After a quick turn around at home it was right back out to meet the girls at The Superior Cafe - a very cool little joint near Fisherman's Wharf - all eclectic and funky with live music most nights. The vino started flowing and the laughs started coming and I capped off the evening by some now infamous self-portraits. FUN!

Team Nielsen's Olympic Journal

Well, the Olympics are winding down now and its been a pretty amazing experience - I certainly hope all the positive energy and goodwill towards others lasts well beyond the conclusion of the games. I have to say there is something really cool about tens of thousands of people peacefully coming together to celebrate Canada - noone was rowdy, noone was pushing and shoving despite the crowds - everything was very polite and very Canadian.

Party night out with M and K of MELK fame. No pics, but my first "celebrity" run in was with Evegney Plushenko and Elvis Stojko down by the International Broadcast Centre. And yes, his nose if really really big in person.

Short track speed skating and "celebrity" sighting #2 - Me and Kevin Bieksa (of the Vancouver Canucks!) Team Canada didn't fare so well in the finals, but it was still fun to watch.

Aunty Shel and Aaron at the RUS vs CZE game

Very wet and grumpy and sick trip and to see the torch with the boys - had to placate the troops with sugary treats from Starbucks. To top it off our battery died on our digital camera so had to make do with iPhone and stills from our video camera - hopefully that explains my bloat face. Unfortunately the one thing that makes the downtown atmosphere so amazing (the tens of thousands of people everywhere) makes it absolutely hellish to do anything with kids. They pretty much need to be locked and loaded in the buggy lest they get swallowed into the massive crowds. But, at the very least we can tell the boys they were there when they are old enough to appreciate it : )

6 years and 15 months

Saturday was a lovely "day before our 6yr wedding anniversary" day marked by hubby's wardrobe overhaul (thanks Kelly!!) and an afternoon at the spa pour moi thanks to Gma and Gpa's babysitting services. Capped off the evening with dins at Salmon House, some champagne, lots of vino, and yummy food - bliss.

I guess we still clean up pretty nice even though we are a couple of old married farts now.

My darling little Griffin has been a tad neglected in the blog lately and now that he is well past 12 months the monthly updates will likely slow to every once in awhile when I get to it. He is a full on walking machine, and along with that freedom comes a strong sense of adventure. He will climb anything and everything and his best move is the "hang-ten" with no hands from atop his turtle bouncy seat thing - a feat that I am not even sure I could do! He still sleeps quite horribly no thanks in part to the seven new teeth he has sprouted lately (3 molars, 4 canines), is still a good little eater (pickled beans - who knew?!), and has quite the little temper - guess he's getting some of his mama's stubborness - guess they had to get a little of my DNA somewhere!

January 2010 Round-up

Ah, it seems as though I am having a slow blogging start in 2010. Life is busy, boys are great. Griffin is now officially walking (by walking I mean that he is on 2 legs about 90% of the time) and it is SO cute. Again a little bittersweet knowing that yet another "last" milestone has been reached, but I think we are all happier for the freedom this affords him! Now if only I can get him sleeping, even 4-5 hour stretches would be a miracle at this point - mama is running out of dark eye circle concealing options....

Highlights from Jan 2010 thus far

Guess who is so happy to be walking?!

The Insanely Gorgeous Nona Navin at her surprise 40th party. A super fun party for the entire fam and then an even better mama's night out at the Loden Hotel after! Mmmmm...champagne! Mmmmm...cake! Mmmmm...appies!

The equally gorgeous Aunty Sha-Sha with sexy short hair and baby G-man

Griffin getting his groove on at the bday party

Sha, Baby G and I hanging near the food table (of course)

Visits with Baby Eli and the girls. Wee Eli is so precious and tiny but alas, no stirring from the ovaries when I hold him, a good thing I think!

A Very Merry Cabin Christmas 2009

Momma got what she wanted for Xmas - besides of course a healthy happy family - a new digital SLR camera!! Momma also got about 5 extra pounds of junk in the trunk from much eating and drinking but ah it was so worth it!

Spoiled little boys - a new mini-snowmobile for Xmas from Mimi and Papa C!! This goes with the mini-quad they have for the summer months!

Jasper and I ripping it up on the green machine (aka mini-snowmobile). The green machine maxes out at about 10KPH so no hi-speed wipeouts should occurr, but nonetheless Jasper did not want to ride it solo. Jasper did double with Everett a few times as well which was too cute.....

A lovely but rare moment of all the cousins peacefully co-existing : )

Christmas Dinner cabin style - sweatpants and pajamas and lots of booze (and food!)

Papa C and Jasper doing a little snowmobiling around the cabin

A very tired Griffin asleep in the sleigh. This could have very easily been a picture of me as well as baby G decided that he didn't really want to sleep very much while at the cabin and much preferred having milk every hour on the hour - including a very special 5:50am wakeup on Xmas morning!

Christmas Eve and the boys model the latest in cabin fleece pajama fashions

Rub a dub dub, 4 boys in a tub....and then post-bath a naked bounce party on Mimi's bed

A Very Merry Day Family Xmas

Twas the the night before our Day family Xmas and all thru this pigsty known as our house, I realized just how much STUFF we have..... I mean ridiculous amounts of STUFF...... overwhelming amounts of STUFF...... with a lovely Christmas tree overflowing with STUFF to come. So starting then and there I enlisted the help of Jasper and collected three full boxes of toys and such to be put away to be sold at a later date with all proceeds going to Team Finn and the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I think we will make this a new year round tradition - before we add to our STUFF, we will take away some STUFF to give to charity or the recycling depot etc. Hoorah!

But back to the Xmas festivities. Last year you might recall, after the great snowfall stranded most of our immediate and extended family in North Van we had one of the best Christmases I can remember. And why? It wasn't about the STUFF, it was about having 4 generations of family and multiple families are gathered under our rather small roof - it was WONDERFUL. So we had another treat this year - along with hosting the Day family Xmas gala, my cousin James and his family and my Aunt Sue and cousin Kylie also came over for a lovely supper and a day-late (ha ha) celebration of Kieran's 2nd birthday. Again, so much family and SO WONDERFUL!!

Wed morning we are off to the cabin for round two - 4 days of snow, eating, drinking, more eating and more STUFF : )

Griffin's Big Adventure

Griffin is Mommy's little soldier. He went in last week to get tubes put in his ears to help ease chronic ear infections and fluid build up. He was totally cut off from eating/drinking at midnight the night before and despite a scheduled surgery time of 12:30, the little man didn't get into the operating room until 4:30 - gasp! Poor Griffin and poor me - my b--bs had grown to at least J cups and the little man didn't understand why he couldn't get a piece of the action. The actual surgery was a mere 9 minutes long and he was a complete champ. besides being a bit sleepy and a LOT hungry, you wouldn't have know anything had happened to him that day. We have noticed him saying more words this past week - perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps finally some nice clear ears!