Hello Vancouver,

I will not complain, because it is just pointless. I am not even going to comment on the weather.

LA was fun, but not as hot and sunny as one would expect. Smog was definitely to blame. Damn you polluters.

I was much more comfortable with everything this time around. I remembered where everything was and didn’t use the maps nearly as much as I did the last time. I also just felt way more comfortable driving in general.

We ate a lot of Japanese. Probably the best Japanese food I have ever had in my life. I’ve decided to go ahead and make the boldest statement of my life and say that Japanese food is my favorite food, more so then Italian. Chad’s not too happy about that.

I didn’t do a lot of shopping. No extra money hanging around this month. But I did sneak away with Birks, stuff for Italy, and a few jewels.

The drive to Malibu was beautiful and the beach was awesome, despite the clouds. We saw dolphins in the ocean.

I ate seafood every single day.

Our only celebrity sighting was Chris Parnell (SNL).

I have photos to share with you. Not an explosion, but enough.

I’m glad to be home though :)

Love,

Smelly

When one of your friends mentions what she wants to do on her Stagette, it usually doesn’t involve extreme sports. Well, that’s not the case for Elise. She is extremely active and adventurous, and even though I scoffed when she first mentioned going River Rafting, I knew it was right up her alley and something that would fit the day perfectly.

I wasn’t too worried about the whole thing. I guess everyone just assumed that I am exactly the same as my Mother and would be terrified over the whole thing, but I really wasn’t. I was excited for the adventure, a little apprehensive as to what to expect, but I really was excited over the whole idea.

We booked our trip through Chilliwack River Rafting and the whole experience was awesome. The staff was super helpful in setting up the stagette and their website had a lot of good information.

We got there at about 11:30 in the morning, signed in and paid our dues, then sat down for a buffet style lunch. After that we all got our gear on and were organized into two groups – Canyon Tour and Classic Tour.

I was surprised as to how many people were up there for the afternoon slot of rafting. 3 stags, 1 stagette, boy scouts and many more groups.

Our of the 12 of us that were up there 9 decided to go the Canyon Tour – which is the more difficult and experienced one – and 3 of the girls decided to do the Classic, more beginners style tour.

I’ve never been rafting before, but I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well go all out!

We were the ONLY girls who chose the Canyon tour!

The whole experience was amazing. Our tour guide was a little weary of having a raft full of girls but we pulled through and did better then some of the guys.

The safety talk we all had scared the crap out of me, but once we were on the river and got a feel for how everything worked, we were all quite relaxed.

One of Elises friends did fall out of the raft, but she was quickly saved by our guide and all was good. At least 1 person fell out of every raft that we were with (4 rafts in total).

We stopped half way down the river and had oranges as a snack. The water was freezing cold and your hands get quite sore from gripping the paddle so hard.

We made fun of Elise the most for her lack of paddling.

This is an actual action shot of our raft going through on of the tougher rapids. What I thought was really great about the whole experience is that all the rafters doing the same section of the river go down together, each raft has an experienced guide, and one guide follows everyone in a kayak to make sure everyone is safe and to point out any unusual hazards. He also acted as a great action photographer. For some reason I just thought it was going to be our little lonely raft floating down the river all by itself. It was nice to have the company of everyone else.

Our guide is  the one standing up with the blue helmet. I am right in front of him in the white helmet.

After rafting for 2 hours, we were dead tired. Not surprising at all really. When Elise mentioned going to Roosters after River Rafting I thought she was joking. I expressed the idea of how tired we would be and her reply to  me was ‘What, are you 80!?’ Yes, yes I am 80.

I wasn’t the ONLY one who was tired.

Some random kept shoving playing cards with naked men down everyone’s shirt. Liz didn’t realize what was on them until we got back to the table and she took a look. PRICELESS!

Elise spent the ENTIRE night dancing! Clearly she is NOT 80!

It was a good night, even though my cousins and I had to drag Elise off the dance floor at 1:30 because WE were all dying. She could have been their all night!

The next day was obviously a write off, but I wasn’t as sore as I thought I would be.

The whole experience was great and I’m really glad I got the chance to do it!

Where does the time go?

Elise’s Stagette is tomorrow. Chilliwack River Rafting in the AM and then Roosters in the PM. Neither of them I have ever participated in before. Have I already told you that? I have no idea what to expect, and oddly enough, the thing I am worried about the most is if my hair is going to get ruined while river rafting and how I will re-due it for the evening. Silly, yet important to plan out.

I get so overwhelmed when there is a weekend with a million things going on. I focus so much on the big picture and I just start to get stressed about it all. This weekend feels like that right now even though there is nothing to stress about and everything will work out.

I need to relax.

I don’t have any time anymore. I just keep repeating the same things over and over again. I am possibly loosing my mind.

Happy thoughts…happy thoughts.

I’m going to LA next week for work again. I was 100% positive that we were going from Wednesday to Sunday.

I was suppose to book the car rental yesterday, and I did, from Wednesday to Sunday.

At the end of the day Claudia and I started talking about LA and I realized that we weren’t leaving Wednesday, but instead, TUESDAY.

I wrote Wed – Sun to the office calendar, and even though we looked at it 100 times, no one ever corrected it.

I didn’t book the flights, our boss did. Yes I got the email confirmation, but I already “knew” the dates so I just looked at the time we were leaving.

I am not prepared for this.

It’s only one day earlier, but I am so not prepared!

With Elises Stagette this weekend, Fathers Day, my Brothers Graduation, and everything else going on in life, I think my head is going to kind of explode.

Not to mention I just realized we were sent the wrong lining for this jacket that is half way finished.

I think I’m going to puke.

It took me a week, but I’ve finally got the highlights of our camping trip organized and ready to post!

You know how I’m notorious for posting a million pictures, well I really tried to pair it down this time…if you can believe it.

So…here are the highlights!

Sometimes husbands are very thoughtful. My husband is usually thoughtful only when it comes to booze. He knew how much I love the Jack and Lemonade they serve at Memphis Blue, and found this stuff at the Liquor store. Yay!

We always go gourmet when it comes to camping. Dinner for 6 – Flank Steak, Baked Potatoes, Caesar Salad, and all the fixings!

There was some very interesting conversation that when around the camp site including a comparison of the male genitalia and the Canadian/US border.

A photo ruined by a classic Beer Pass.

BEST FRIEND SHOT

Every time Mike went to pee, Elise would throw rocks at him. She successfully hit him several times.

It started to rain Friday night so we had to adjust our seating.

Chad braved the rain with a home made water proof vest (garbage bag) and Colin brought out his Golf Umbrella.

Chad and I had a Beef Jerky Tug-O-War.

Neil sat in his chair after it had rained for quite a bit and got his ass wet. The solution? Warm it by the fire.

Elise was clearly not impressed by this.

Dario made everyone Flaming Etna’s. Chad had a hard time getting it down so Neil had to help. You can clearly see how Steve felt about it.

Pat resists 2010, Bitches.

Chad left his shoes in the rain. Classic. He tried to warm them but ended up burning them.

What happens when you have too much ice in the cooler? Frozen Eggs.

Steve was too lazy to get a fork so he used tongs to eat his eggs. Ha.

Dario doesn’t believe in Ketchup. Well, maybe not ‘doesn’t believe’ but he doesn’t like it. Therefore, he does not have any in his house. Now, this poses a problem when friends come over for burgers and expect to find it. Solution – buy Dario Ketchup for when we come over!

What is the smartest thing to do when you are massively hung over? How about eat your most hated item of food! Thats what Neil did! Eggs and Baileys nom nom nom.

The Pouwel/Tyrrell McMuffin.

The photographer emerges.

TREES

Neil spent most of the day like this.

No need for words.

Dario and Nyla play.

CAMP

Neil and brunch

Patz tent and our tent are holding hands. Awww.

Ol’Man asleep in the daisies.

Summer Toque.

The boys played poker, but were too drunk to remember to put it away. Bad idea since it poured Saturday night.

1 ruined Poker Set.

The making of the BACON burger. A dedicated post of this to come.

70% Bacon

Grill grill grill

The Bacon Sleeps

Adam and Alicia show up and Adam immediately gets naked.

Nice and hot down at the beach!

Adam naked again.

SQUIRREL

The moving of A & As tent. Long story short – the rangers kept screwing us over and our second campsite was moved…3 times.

Mike the hobo takes a nap.

Stickball induces anger.

The Resolution of Stickball.

One damn sexy couple. I think I see some nipple.

Elise got fish eye again.

Two best friends with a bet on who can out live who.

Steve made the first successful Jiffy Pop I have ever seen.

Nyla is hungry.

Darios Dinner

Ryan is passsssed out.

Someone thought it would be a good idea to burn a chair.

You can blame us for global warming. Sorry Al.

Thank God for this toque.

Most successful hat of the weekend goes to… The Fort Saint James LED hat! Woot Woot

THANKS MARLEE!

The Family Photo – minus Colin who would not get up.

Another successful camping trip.

Most of the quotes from this weekend are R rated, so they probably won’t go up on the blog. THANKS STEVE!

Want to see the rest of the photos? Click HERE.