Felt it was time for a bit of a change. I had some time on my hand so I changed the look of my blog to reflect the season.
Up until now, there has been no snow. But come Wednesday, there will be a generous amount of white stuff on the ground. Hope everyone has their snow tires on. Drive safely.
I mentioned a while back that Jeff and I were taking a long awaited trip to Vegas. Ever since we got married, we hardly had time for a vacation that was just the two of us. We love spending time with our families but we often put our "us" time on the back burner. So our Christmas present to each other for 2008 (yes, last year) was a trip to Vegas.
Happy Birthday Puff .. Jeff. :)
It's 24-hrs of "Jeff Day". What is on the itinerary?
1. Lunch with the birthday boy
2. A romantic dinner of hot dogs and beer for two at Scotiabank Place
3. Edmonton Oilers vs. Ottawa Senators - I won't forget to wear my Oilers gear
4. Home for cake, champagne, and presents.
I'm such a good wife. ;-)
Over the Labour day weekend, we went on a road trip to Quebec City. This was our first trip to Quebec City since our move to Ottawa. We left on the Friday morning around 11:30 am. We loaded up our brand new GPS and headed out. I know, I know .. do we really need a GPS just to go to QC? Let's just say that road trips can get pretty tense between me and Jeff. Why ruin a holiday weekend with silly arguments over why Jeff can't understand my map directions or why I can't read a map? :)
Anyway, the drive to QC was supposed to be 4.5 hours from Ottawa but the traffic in Montreal was crazy. I think we were stuck in Montreal traffic for about 2.5 hours! It was bumper to bumper - no accidents and nowhere to turn off. Poor Jeff drove the GTI so his legs and feet were so tired. Clutch, brake, gas .. all while moving 5 km/hr. Oh yeah, I should mention that Quebecers drive like maniacs. Usually you leave a car length of space between you and the car in front of you. In QC, this car length of space is an invitation for a small car to just slide in. Sigh.
The hotel we stayed at was really nice. It was located 20 mins outside of QC in the Sainte-Foy area. The location was great because in front of the hotel was a big mall and there were so many dining options within walking distance. My most memorable meal was the Brazil salad at Cosmos. Here are just a few pics of the meals and sights we saw during our weekend.
We finally booked something for vacation. Hurray! We have been trying to figure out a good time to schedule a vacation and we finally booked something for October. Back in April, we were both pretty burnt out from work. We really wanted to get away but we could never find a week that worked for both of us. Six months later, we found something that fit our vacation criteria. :)
It's been three years since our last real vacation together. We've taken one short driving trip to Montreal and plenty of trips to Toronto and/or Edmonton. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy seeing family on our trips .. but sometimes we want to shake things up and travel beyond our hometowns. Sooooo .....
Over the Labour Day weekend, we will be heading out to Quebec City. I am looking forward to spending some time sightseeing around the Quebec City area and the surrounding areas. I've been told that it's beautiful out there so hopefully I come back with some nice pictures.
In October, we are going to spend a few days in Las Vegas. The last time I was there was almost 10 years ago. Jeff has never been to the Grand Canyon so we are going to do an excursion out to see that. The excursion description said it was a 14 hr day trip. Whoa! It's still worth it to go and see it.
I know, it's not super exciting. But when you plan last minute, Vegas always works. There are lots of last minute deals for places like Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc. But we weren't interested in going to a 'resort'. Most other vacation spots required a bit more planning than what we were willing to do. Vegas was pretty quick and easy. A former colleague once said that Vegas is like DisneyWorld for adults. :) So Vegas it is.
July is going by just as fast as June did. Feels like nothing has been done since I came back from Toronto. We had my sister Karen stay with us for a week. She joined us for badminton during the week and she kicked ass.
This week, my father in law is in town for the next two weeks. He is celebrating his 69th birthday on the 23rd. We rarely have visitors at our house so this is a treat for us.
I'm hoping that some time in August we will have time to celebrate our anniversary. We put it off last time because we were in Toronto and we said we'd celebrate in the near future. I'd also like to start planning a vacation. You know, when our two families don't live in the same city as we do, most of our vacation time is spent visiting family. We haven't had a real vacation since our honeymoon three years ago. I think we are due but we will see. Maybe Vegas?
Hey everybody. Sorry I didn't get a chance to see everyone during my visit to Toronto. It was a "me" week since it was our anniversary and my birthday all in one week. I did manage to sneak in a lunch with the lunch group though - Thanks Vicky for inviting me to lunch. It was really nice seeing everyone.
Usually when we visit, I get less than a day with my family because there just isn't enough time to see everyone. This time, I had plenty of time to meet up with everyone. I had a great time spoiling my nephew. He's 18 months now which means the terrible two years is coming up. I don't know why but they begin to act up around that age. 
ound mid-May, I remember coming home from work and finding a huge mess of grass and twigs on our front porch. I'd sweep it off the porch and the next day, another huge mess of twigs. It was getting ridiculous. I looked up above our front door and on the window ledge, there was a nest. It was a robin's nest. Jeff wanted to get rid of the nest because it dirtied our window but I insisted that we keep it. We checked the nest on a daily basis and one day, we saw that there were 4 blue eggs. Mama and Papa robin took turns keeping the eggs warm. During that time, the robins were pretty friendly. We could walk in and out of our front door without any problems. But as soon as the eggs hatched, the parents were so defensive. You could not go in and out of the front door without getting hassled by the parents. I had a flower pot on the front porch and when I got near to water it, the robins chased me away. At a certain point, Jeff and I had to double-team. Jeff distracts the birds while I water or vice versa. The nest is now empty .. the baby robins have left the nest and so have the parents. We can use the front door again. Hahaha ... Back to TOP
