Weekend Whirl Wind

This weekend was totally lovely.
It managed to be fun, busy, relaxing and peaceful all at once.
Plus productive!

Love it. 

Friday night after work we were off to our friend Stephanie's birthday dinner. I mentioned before how much I like Steph and this continues to be true. Also I like her friends, so we knew the night would be good. 

She had picked Tap & Barrel in the Olympic Village to have her birthday dinner, and though it was a rainy, drizzly night, we sat outside under the awnings and under great big heaters. There was an amazing view of the city, lots of great food and drink and much laughter.

There was much excitement over Nhi's shot glass of milk for her coffee, and also excitement over the Peanut Butter Pie that was brought for the birthday girl.

The view from our outdoor table - it was shiney and gorgeous.

The view of our table - I love how the red chairs pop.

As we waited for dinner I felt a craving for a beer, but I HATE paying $7 for a beer. That's ridiculous.

BUT I was leaning towards doing it anyways because man, I wanted that beer.

Then Paul suggested we try their flight of beer - three small beers for $8.

So he let me pick two and he picked one. 

He picked the Parallel 49 Brewing Company Hoparazzi, I.P.L and loved it.

I tried the Powder Mountain Lager and a Red Roof Cider, which I absolutely loved.

Great idea this flight!

I decided to step out of my normal and order a burger - this was a treat.

Especially once I noticed they had a poutine burger!!!

For those of you not familiar with poutine, it's a Quebec dish. Fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. OH MY WORD. You should try it. So good. 

This particular poutine burger was loaded with cheese curds, fries (in a burger!) and red wine gravy as well as all the fixings. Oh man. It was awesome.

This was Paul and I - happily full and enjoying the company.

It was so great to get to spend time with Stephanie, and get to know her boyfriend Nathan a bit. We met Nathan earlier this summer at a family wedding, but we weren't meeting him as Steph's boyfriend until now. So it felt brand new! They look really cute together.

We also got to talk to this awesome couple (Devin & Lydia) most of the night as they sat across from us. We always have such a great time with them - they have a great sense of humor and Devin gets Paul's sense of humour - so it's pretty win win. Plus we can talk about everything from clothing for the girls and well whatever the guys talk about, to deeper issues about faith and life. It's really wonderful.

Me and Steph!

Steph with the Morgans

As I mentioned, part of the fun of celebrating Stephanie was also getting to hang out with a bunch of great people. Having lived in Vancouver a while now I know a lot of people. And of course, as life moves along you don’t always get to see those people every day. So it’s always a treat to get to spend time with people that in the past you’ve spent more time with and enjoyed. This was definitely one of those moments.

As well, I’ll admit, finding out that quite a few of them READ MY BLOG and enjoy it was PRETTY AWESOME.

I mean really – I know that blogger stats say that generally all my posts are read by 70-100 people but I’m always surprised, because who are these people? I love finding out who reads – it’s always such a fun surprise.

Plus it meant that none of them minded all the picture taking because they get it, they read my blog, they know my ridiculous need to document everything. Love it.

Thanks for the kind words, ladies from the party, about my blog. I really appreciate it. 

And then it was back to the car to head home - where we discovered that the parking garage had closed half an hour earlier. Yikes! Thankfully a guy that worked there was walking by and let us in - that would have sucked! Thank you God for that miracle!

Saturday morning we slept in, then we laid in bed and read and talked. It was a perfect morning. 

I already told you about the food part of Saturday but should fill you in on the awesome fun birthday party part of Saturday. It was TC & Irene's homestay student Megumi's 20th birthday party. In Japan this is a big birthday, so we celebrated in style. The theme was 80's and neon. Every one dressed up, people came prepared to party and Irene & TC put out some amazing food. 

Megumi and I!

Paul rocking the neon orange heart shades.

FYI, when I asked if I could take his picture since these shades cracked me up, he said, 

"hmm, well who will you show this picture to?"

I said, "I can promise not to put it on facebook but I'll definitely put it on my blog"

He said, "Ok, as long as it's not on facebook"

I've reminded him that I post my blog to facebook, but somehow blog = ok for picture posting and facebook = bad for picture posting?

Mari & I. Me and Analee.

Love the pooffs.

The gorgeous chocolate hazelnut cake that Jodi made for Megumi

The birthday girl blowing out the candles

Then it was time for a game. 

I was sitting next to Sheila, so we partnered up.

This is Sheila and I.

See those squares of tissue paper?

While the music plays you dance around them.

When the music stops you have to stand on them.

Both of you.

Which is fine to start, but after each round the paper gets folded in half!

This leads to much hugging, holding and laughing.

See? Lots of "hugging"

It was awesome.

And I got to talk to lots of lovely ladies - Ma'an, Dudu, Deve, Rachel and so many more! It was such a great night. Plus because there were many of Megumi's japanese school friends there I got to meet lots of new friends and it was so fun to continue to be a part of welcoming people to Canada. 

At 10 I began to wonder where Paul was. I hadn't seen him in the party for a while. We'd been all dancing in the living room (and yes, of course we danced Gangnam Style!) and I hadn't noticed him for a bit. So I began to search and fairly quickly found him in a quiet room, asleep on the couch. I decided that meant it was probably time to head home. 

We stayed up for a bit but ended up in bed by midnight because we were super tired. 

Sunday I got to sleep in, which is always appreciated. Then I puttered around the house and did a few things (I definitely can't remember what they were but I know I did something, I swear!) before heading off to meet Ereka for lunch. We had Samurai Sushi, which is always a favorite for me. Then we headed off to Starbucks to treat ourselves. 

It's red cup season!

That's one saucy Snowman. 

Here's Ereka and I enjoying our treats.

We, as usual, had a lovely time together.

Then it was off to church. 

At church Sheila and I took a blurry photo together.

Not great.

However church itself was great - family, friends and faith and rolled into one super fun hour and a half time. Though, I was struggling with the sleepies! I had such a hard time keeping my eyes open. But I did get to sit with my sister and my nephew Connor so that was at least, awesome. 

After church we were heading to our new-ish friends John and Lindsays house. I've mentioned them a few times now and I realize I should probably go ahead and get a photo with them so they can stop being a mystery. 

We hadn't been to their house yet and we loved it. Warm, cozy and a kitchen to die for. 

Lindsay cooked an amazing Salmon dish with homemade pesto sauce and pasta. 

Mmmm.

Then for dessert, as we sat and chatted on the couch, came milk and cookies.

Love it.

It was, all in all, a wonderful, relaxing weekend.
Though somehow I left the weekend more tired than when I started, but that must be a good sign right?