Two Things

We saw this rainbow on the way home the other day, it was amazing!  If you look carefully, you can see the beginnings of a second rainbow above it too!  My photography isn't the highest quality, especially when driving in a car, and trying to capture the perfect shot of a rainbow between trees, but I wanted to share it with you anyways. :)

And I found this when I went to check on Ian this morning.  No joke. I didn't pose him or anything, he was just dramatically lying on the pile of shoes he had created! :)  It was so funny, he's such a character!

Whistler Highlights

Recently, (four days after we moved, to be precise :P) Stephen and I got to go to Whistler BC, for a week alone together!  It was such a treat to get away, especially after all the craziness of late, and just have some time to relax, catch up on sleep, enjoy some amazing nature, and spend time together.  

There were so many delightful little things about our time, I wanted to share some of them with you, along with some snapshots I took along the way......

 * Getting time alone with this guy.... it was like a second honeymoon! :)
*Being flexible and having fun when plans changed, sometimes drastically!

 *Seeing amazing displays of nature, like the Brandywine Falls
*Driving through more of BC, being in awe of what a beautiful province we live in!
*Really good visits, with awesome relatives!

 *Water is one of my favorite things in nature to see, and there were an abundance of streams, big and little to feast my eyes on! :)
*Seeing the ocean again

 *The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company. Enough said.

*Wandering around Whistler Village

*Getting an "arm massage" in Lush, seriously, I felt so relaxed for the next hour at least! :)

 *Staying at The Aspens.  So beautiful!
*Coffee shops around Whistler

 *Taking three hours one day to go to the top of Blackcomb Mountain via chair lift.  The scenery was amazing! 

 *We saw four black bears, plus two cubs!  

 *Being surrounded by breathtaking mountains

*Journalling at Starbucks

*Walking and talking with Stephen, enjoying being together

 *This made me smile. :)

 *Riding the "Peak to Peak Gondola," the longest gondola in the world!  Oh, and we rode on the one with the glass bottom, so we got an amazing view down, not just out the windows!

 *Cozy, rainy days, spent walking around, and inside fun little shops.

*Eating breakfast at a funky little bakery: cinnamon rolls and coffee....one of my top favorite breakfasts!

*The view from our balcony....

*Swimming in the pool
*Visiting more awesome relatives in Victoria on the way home
*Seeing a lacrosse game for the first time
*Seeing Victoria for the first time
*Coming home to our baby - I have to admit, I've never been that excited to come home from a vacation! :) 

Kalamalka Lake

I have to say, in spite of being a country girl for the past eight years or so, I am very much enjoying living in the city! Part of it is simply the convenience of everything, I love being able to ride my bike to the grocery store, or walk to Stephen's work, or drive fifteen minutes, and end up in an amazing setting like this! I love, love, love beautiful scenery! I love being surrounded by nature, and I love driving around, seeing different parts of the country that I never knew existed. Much as I would love to travel more broadly, it's so much fun staying in one spot, and exploring it to it's fullest!

I think it's beginning to kick in that very soon, taking off and just doing fun stuff together won't be quite as simple and uncomplicated as it's been up till now.

Not that we'll mind it that much, I'm sure. :) Things will just be different than they are now.

We decided to go to Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park to do a little bit of hiking….emphasis on the "little bit." It's about a 20 minute "hike" up to the top where you have the most amazing view of the lake!

The smell of pine needles and pine trees always reminds me of my childhood, it's funny how much a smell can mean to you, how many memories it can bring back.

The sweet and slightly tangy smell of pine combined with the heat rising off the path brings me back to the days that my dad used to direct a girls camp at Morning Star Bible Camp. I remember how thrilling it was to discover trails through the bush and run on the little paths that seemed to trip over one another. I felt like I was an explorer, discovering it for the first time, or finding it after years of disuse. I still love little paths that look as though they've almost been forgotten, somehow they're a little more fun to walk on than paths that look like they were perfectly planned out and maintained. :P