A Crazy. Busy. Fun. WEEKEND!!!!!

What a LONG weekend. I feel less rested at the end of it all...but it was WELL WORTH IT! It started out on Friday with the celebration of my sister Kyla's 20th birthday!! My Mom, little sis Natalie, Danny, and myself, took Kyla for dinner at the Cheesecake Cafe Restaurant here in the West End. (Dad was out of town) Enjoyed some eats and then headed to Whyte Avenue to do some painting at a cute little place called CRANKPOTS. You pick your ceramic piece and then dive into the paints that you think will match the best together and they pop your finished product in the kiln for you and a week later you've got yourself a beautiful...whatever. We enjoyed it. Kyla painted a funky little tea-pot, my Mom a neat little pitcher, Danny a tea-cup and saucer for Mother's day for his Mom, and myself a small little bowl. I had the smallest thing, and I still haven't finished painting so I have to go back! Afterwards, Kyla and Danny and I went to the movie Fracture...with Ryan Gosling, and Anthony Hopkins. I don't like thriller's usually because I can never handle the suspense. BUT I really enjoyed the movie, I thought it was well done, and not overly predictable. Overall it was a really good evening.

Here's Kyla hard at work...

Delicious paint...mmm.

My Mom, the expert painter...

Danny's cute little masterpiece.

Me and my bowl...the somewhat finished side.

*Natalie didn't want her picture taken...AND she didn't want to paint. Silly teenagers.*


The next morning I woke up and met my two good friends Leah and Bonnie from Capernwray who were in town, and Jen who I know through Bonnie...she is going to school in Edmonton. We met for brunch at the High Level Diner. One of my favorite breakfast joints in Edmonton!! :) :) it was lined up out the door when I first arrived. We enjoyed some wonderful conversation and were able to catch up a bit!!! I wish they would have been in town longer!!!! Our visit was much too short. But I loved every minute of it!!

That's me on the left, in case the blonde hair didn't give it away, and then Jen, Leah, and Bonnie! Good times!!After brunch Danny and did some errands, and then dinner eventually rolled around. We met up with Danielle, and Robbie, two good friends of ours...for dinner at Gabanna restaurant downtown. It was a bit pricier than I had originally thought. They even had $700 bottles of wine, which we of course HAD to try. *kidding* After dinner we had some treats and yummy drinks from Starbucks...mmm And from downtown we took the LRT to Rexall Place...you see some interesting people on there. Some that smell like alcohol and others that just stare at you as you take pictures. We arrived at Rexall minutes later where we enjoyed a FABULOUS concert performed by JOHN MAYER. I have loved his music for I think 7 years, so to FINALLY be able to see him live was just unreal. His voice is so true-almost better that his cd voice. LOVE IT.

Here we are on the LRT with our tickets.

At the show. Giddy little fans...screaming like school girls.

Robbie and Danny were excitable too...slowly developing crushes on John as he sang. A voice like an angel...Here we are in all our glory. YAY JOHN!

This is Danielle "booing" haha, because we wanted more concert. It was still a good length show, but we pretty much love all his songs, so I don't think we'd be satisfied unless he played all of them. ha ha It was such a blast. After the show we hit up Starbucks on Whyte Ave again. Can't get enough. We're not addicted, I swear!

Africa Part Three

Well we've been back for just over 3 weeks now, it is hard to believe. It feels like it has been forever, and I would go back right now in a heartbeat if I could. Instead I guess I can reminisce. Today I am going to show you pictures of one of my favorite places we went. THE ORPHANAGE! This is the place that I miss the MOST out of all the places we went, mainly because I LOVE THE KIDS and I want see them again!!!!! We got to spend two days at this place...for only a couple hours each day. When we arrived at the orphanage, the first little kid that greeted us was Adam. He was seriously one of the funniest kids there. I gave him a big hug and took some pictures of him... he instantly fell in love with my camera, and pretty much kidnapped it from me and started taking pictures of everyone. He was so funny. He would always wear his little red underwear. And girl sandals. He had a twin sister named Eve. Adam and Eve. So cute...haha.

We then went outside in the scorching hot heat to play with the rest of the children, ages baby to 10...and there were a few teenage girls. The kids seemed REALLY happy there. They were extremely playful, had tons of energy, and seemed to be well fed. The one baby had malaria, but other than that there was just one other girl who was feeling a little sick. Everyone else was good! It didn't seem to bother the kids one bit that it was 45 degrees Celsius outside. They just wanted to play! We brought all sorts of things for them, like balloons, and beads to make necklaces and bracelets and anything else under the sun, beach balls, bubbles, Frisbee, teddy bears, candy, you name it. We had so much fun, but it was so exhausting to have kids hanging off you non-stop when it was so hot outside!!

Robbie started this marching game with some of the kids which caught on really fast, and all of a sudden there was a big line of kids marching behind him for no apparent reason...just kids being kids...and Robbie...being a kid too. :)

It was so sweet, all the kids would call us "Tante" for Auntie and "Tanto" for Uncle. All we heard, all day long was "Tante! Tante! Tante!!!" and then a bunch of French words we couldn't understand. They didn't seem to be bothered that we didn't speak the same language. They would still talk to us like we knew what they were saying. It was quite cute actually. We all sang the alphabet together in French! haha
This little girl was such a darling. So funny. She had the cutest little giggle. And she looked at me and thought it was just hilarious to "water" the water basin. I laughed. And then I told her to stop because she was wasting water. haha



Now my favorite little sweetie was Jamima, pronounced "Jameema". She was so precious, I would have adopted her in a second if I was an irrational person. She was so beautiful, and so full of life. I miss her so much!!! The orphanage was wonderful...I hope to go back someday....

A Little Getaway

This weekend, Danny and I were fortunate enough to go on a last-minute getaway to Canmore. Someone we know had to cancel on their trip, but couldn't get money back for their room so it was offered to us, and we accepted! We wanted to get out of town early-ish on Saturday morning, but seeing as it is nearly impossible for us to get our acts together on time, we left at noon. ha We're pathetic. Anyways, because we were driving through Alberta, we experienced I think almost every "season" on the drive there...snow, rain, sun, fog, etc, etc. SO very random. Thankfully we had Starbucks and fun tunes to keep things interesting.

Danny randomly burned a CD of some old N'sync songs for our drive. And we had Dance Mix 96 I think too... Don't ask me why. He's a goof! We stopped in Calgary briefly at Pete's Drive In...which in my opinion is a MUST when driving through Calgary. Pete's is an old-fashioned burger joint, that is always ridiculously busy...and delicious.

Once we arrived in Canmore, we dropped off our luggage at the cute little Inn we were staying at. It was just like a Bed and Breakfast. 12 rooms in the whole building! Our room was loft style. Very quaint!

And then we headed off to Banff to walk around outside and see the shops! Our favorite place is this little bookstore that is just beautiful inside. I like going into stores that are one of a kind. It was just nice to be in the mountains too. We always talk about what it would be like to live there. I think I would get bored. But who really knows until you try I guess.

We went to a late movie at night, and the next morning had some more Starbucks and headed back into Banff to go on a small walk around this lake area. And of course did random stupid things, because that is what we do best!!! We also went up to the Beautiful Banff Springs Hotel to do some journalling and reading, while sipping some nice drinks, and listening to the wonderful jazz music in the background. Reading is very much one of our most favorite things to do. Especially in the mountains. Glorious!

What a great blessing to be able to get away. I could go again right now!!!!!