Monday, July 23, 2007

O Canada!

we had such a lovely time on our trip up north. our visit was long overdue! even though i spent 24 years of my life in the lower mainland, i found that i've grown so accustomed to the landscape down in san diego that i was constantly oohing and ahhing over all of the green. my thirsty eyes drank it all in and josh made sure to take lots of scenic pictures. this sunset picture was taken from my parent's driveway one evening.
on saturday my entire family got together to get our family pictures taken at the Imagemakers studio. it was the first time that sarah got to meet her cousin tristan! my sister cherie was kind enough to straighten my hair for me...i can't remember the last time i've spent any time on my hair, so that was a treat :)

later that afternoon, josh tristan and i made our way to gardner park. i was honestly very surprised that so many people wanted to see us! it was great to catch up with my friends, many of whom i haven't seen since our wedding 3 years ago. 4 couples showed up from my old care group and we ALL have babies that were born within 6 months of each other! this picture is of my fellow bloggers leah, lovella and jennifer. sorry, korinne, that i didn't grab you for this picture!

on monday we headed for victoria. tristan was being a bit cantankerous on the ride there, so i nursed him to sleep in the ferry while josh went out on the deck and got some amazing shots.

once in victoria, we found our friend miriam's house and she took us out to the ocean before returning for a delicioius authentic italian meal with her family.

that evening, i put tristan to bed in the hotel while josh and miriam did a little sightseeing. once tristan was asleep, miriam stayed in the room while josh and i walked down to the parliament buildings. they were all lit up and the sunset was gorgeous! every streetlamp had hanging baskets just overflowing with flowers. we were both looking forward to meeting up with leah and her family the next day, seeing the sights...

...except that the next day, we awoke to POURING rain. we were completely unprepared for that type of weather...no umbrellas, no jackets...so we ended up meeting at an indoor mall before catching the ferry home. it was quite disappointing to be in such a beautiful place, but unable to enjoy it. however, we had a nice lunch with leah and fern and the kids. leah and i found a photo booth and, after barely managing to fit inside of it together, the pictures showed that we are no longer the young svelte creatures we once were. every pose was horrid and half of my face was chopped off in most of them! we both had a good laugh after that.

back in abbotsford, we had 3 full days left before returning home. we took advantage of having cara and sarah still in town and enjoyed hanging out with them. we even got some sweet smiles from sarah, as shown in the picture above. i was also privileged to see cara's sister aimee and her husband lance and meet their adorable twins, eva and elijah! i even got a hug from kathy :) we visited house of james and i was happily surprised to see so many familiar faces still working there. my cousin jennifer joined us for church with her 2 kids, and also came over for coffee on thursday.

on friday, darla and i spent the morning chatting away with each other. you know a friendship is true when it doesn't matter how long it's been since you saw one another; you just pick up right where you left off. she joined my family for a lunch of roll kuchen and watermelon (lovella's recipe was deliciously divine!) which i believe she will be posting pictures of.

while i was busy socializing during the last few days, my dear husband was Sick with a capital S. he had a fever and couldn't sleep and just felt completely miserable. despite feeling so low, he told me that he was glad that he was sick and not me, because i was able to so thoroughly enjoy my visit to my old home. yeah, he's a keeper ;)

11 comments:

lil said...

Thanks so much for the great picture blog of you time in Abby!! Sorry you had some rain, but it's the people that make the vacation great!! Also sorry that Josh was not feeling well. At least he didn't miss work, eh?
Hope you can make this an annual trip.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it was a lot of fun!! I love the pictures esp of the ones with the sunsets. That is worth a million words!!
Glad you made it home safely, too.
See you later this week.

Lovella ♥ said...

Big sigh . . .I'm so glad you had such a great time. I'm sorry that the weather didn't completely cooperate but then you did want to feel like you were at home again.

Glad you made it back to your home safe and sound and I do hope Josh is feeling better.
Give Tristan a little squeeze for me.

Sarah D said...

What a great post! I wish I could've met Tristan :) You look so good Heidi, I love your shiny hair!! Glad you're back safe :)

Marion McCready said...

sounds like you all had a great time, loved the pics esp. the lovely sunset.

M.R. Tumnus said...

Ah Heidi, you are back in your second homeland and I miss you all very much, but I have the most wonderful memories of your visit! Tristan and my times together have been fairly short and fairly far apart, but oh so sweet. Love you all dearly and will now be counting the days until your next visit.

Miranda said...

Even though I only saw you for a bit, I am glad I got to :)

Lee said...

was so nice to see you all. Your family was so kind to have us over, and share you all with us.

Demara said...

It looks like you had a blast seeing friends and family again, too bad the rain didn't stay in those beautiful pink clouds, though.

L&D said...

So fabulous to see you my darling. You are so right.....our friendship is made to last. You are a blessing in my life.

Danna said...

I've very glad that you had an enjoyable time going to your old roots.