Saturday night we were invited to a Lumberjack party. Why Lumberjacks you ask, well, because Lumberjacks are AWESOME!

I got our outfits ready Saturday day and was so happy to find our suspenders tucked away in one of Chads drawers. You really can’t be a Lumberjack with out suspenders!

Dario brought the Chain Saw. Don’t tell Grand-Maw.

Little did he know that sitting down like this would create a trend for the evening.

Welcome to Lumberjack Chad’s Rustic Bar!

These two were meant to wear Plaid!

Giving Paul Bunyan a run for his money

Cozying up to the Bartender

Is he allowed to do that?

Fellow Lumberjacks

Mario!

I’m so distinguished

The Hosts

Facial hair locked and loaded!

DARIO!

Axes for Life

The Moustache Crew!

Bahahahaha! I love this man!

If only actually grow a moustache like that

Moustache Cup

I’m ready to cut me some logs

Boys at the Bar

HEY!

Amy doesn’t like Dario very much…

Just joking!

These two again!

Amy demonstrating her Swiss Army Axe

Chop Chop!

Lumber + Jack = HILARIOUS

It was such a fun party. And to think, I wasn’t planning on bringing my camera! Good thing I did, the photo ops were ENDLESS!

Tuesday night Alicia and Adam invited us over to celebrate Mexicans. There is a long standing joke between Adam and the rest of us that Claudia is Mexican. This is why every year at Christmas Claudia gets a little Mexican gift in which to decorate her office with. We’ve tried to correct Adam and inform him that she is Chilean and not Mexican but he keeps forgetting. Sometimes he even thinks she is Peruvian, or Ecuadorian, or anything Latin other than Chilean. It is beyond amusing for everyone except Claudia!

I not a Mexican! Clueless, I love you.

Alicia and Adam made us amazing fajitas with so many options to chose from. They even did Mexican rice which tasted SO good in the fajitas, I don’t know why Chad and I have never thought of doing that. MENTAL NOTE.

We sat around the TV and chatted the night away. The boys stayed in their work clothes just so they could feel extra special and a little Mad Men-esque.

We watched the episode of Modern Family with the pigeon. Claudia wanted to watch it so that we could all have a visual example of what she went through when the pigeons attacked her apartment. I’ve never watched an episode of Modern Family (yes I do live under a rock) but I  have heard so much about it. OMG hilarious! Chad and I need to get our TV watching act together.

After our little TV episode the men settled in with rather large glasses of scotch and talked business, while us girls chatted about girly things.

It was a wonderful evening that we need to do more often!

This year we went away for the Canada Day long weekend heading up to Neil’s family cabin in Merritt on Nicola Lake. There were three couples invited along and I was very excited to get away and relax, especially with lake side mountain views.

I took the afternoon off so we could leave early on Thursday and beat some of the traffic. Everyone else left later so we had some time to kill in Merritt. Dinner and drinks at Boston Pizza? How romantic.

Neil told us to head to the cabin as the neighbour would let us in, so we did. Chad spent the time trying to pump up the air mattresses. It took him over an hour to do one, which seemed beyond ridiculous. Once he finished, he took apart the pump only to realize the seal was bent and wasn’t actually blowing any air into the mattress. It took him 10 minutes to blow up the next one. Oh Chad.

Hello View.

Morning boys.

Brutus stole the show. Chad and I were a little obsessed all weekend long. We need to get a dog.

Our room was tiny. It literally fit our 2 mattresses and that was it. But it was cozy and lovely and I was glad to be indoors!

Neil, his family, and friends built this cabin all by themselves.

Stop. Hammock Time.

I brought up the rest of my Palm Bays and made a Palm Bay Rainbow. They are such tasty Summer drinks. The new Strawberry Pineapple, and Key Lime Cherry are the perfect addition to the classic Pineapple Mandarin Orange and Ruby Grapefruit. I don’t think I can pick a favourite. I love how I’ve got the boys hooked on Palm Bays too!

It was Shannons first time meeting Chads toes.

Spot the German.

Tecmo Bowl. Are you old enough to remember that?

Pug Snuggles

I don’t think that’s legal.

Neil took us out on his old Salmon Finish Boat.

Brutus would get scared every time Neil went really fast so he jumped up on Chads lap and hid his face in his arm. It was friggin adorable.

I then looked behind me and discovered an oil leak. That was the end of the boat trip.

Chad had never been fishing before, so Neil taught him.

I don’t think thats how you do it…

Mike caught a fishy!

Crazy Man Ciavarro was wondering around in his PJs eating an apple and carrying a butter knife. This here is a glimpse into my future.

Bret Favre

One last look at the amazing view.

Time to head back home.

It was a great long weekend, despite the fact that I started to get sick while up at the cabin. We ate well, we drank well, we relaxed, we had fun, and we spent it with great friends.

If you want to see the rest of my pictures you can do so HERE.

I love lake side mountain views.

Pat and Dario got back from their Brokeback Mountain time in the woods on Thursday so we all went out for one last dinner of togetherness Friday night. Naturally I wanted to plan the evening out. My goal – get Aimee & Pat to eat the best pizza of their lives and then show Pat that the be all and end all is not THE CAMBIE.

We got down to Nicli at around 6ish already planning that we’d have to wait a bit. We put our name down and headed off to the Blarney stone for a drink.

The waitress’ clearly had better things to do than serve us so after 10 minutes of being ignored the boys went up the to bar to get us drinks. Then, naturally, the waitress came over to see if Aimee and I wanted anything. Thanks, but no thanks, the boys are taking care of us. Seriously have no patience for shitty service.

Just as Chad got to the table with the drinks he noticed that Nicli had called him. What! Our wait was for 45 minutes and it had only been 20. He tried calling back but no one answered so he made a quick jaunt over to see if our table was ready. Thank God for Gastown and its conveniences. Turned out our table was ready so we downed our drinks and made our way over.

I guess it was a good thing we didn’t bother waiting around for the waitress, we would have totally missed our table.

I love you Nicli Antica Pizzeria.

Pat & Aimee got me Blogiversary presents. Yay!

A dog collar for Patton (even though he doesn’t exist yet), sunglasses so I can be cool (are you trying to say I’m not already cool Pat?), and the necklace I’ve always wanted (because they know how to read minds).

We got the Olives to start this time. They were warmed. Warmed Olives. How have we never thought of this before. They were amaaaaaaazing.

Hello my love.

Sneaky Ciavarro eyeing Pats Pizza!

We got Pat and Aimee hooked. Well, I guess Nicli and their amazing pizza got them hooked, but still, we brought them there.

Of course, I had to get dessert. I know I get the same thing every time I go, but when it’s good, it’s good. There is no point messing with something that works.

We definitely need to make room in our next house for this bad boy.

Yet another outstanding experience at Nicli!

I think Pat was secretly unimpressed with my ideas to go to a bar that wasn’t the Cambie, but sometimes you just need to experience something a little different. Plus we’ve always had an awesome time when we’ve gone to the Charles Bar.

Pat ordered a girly and only too 3 sips of it. Clearly his last trip out to Vancouver tainted his drinking experience.

Unfortunately I was suffering from Friday Night Sleepiness due to a super stressful week + late night blogging + one too many glasses of wine, so by 10pm I wanted to go to bed. The DJ came on at about that point and so did the strobe lights. I was so exhausted and my eyes were being really sensitive to the lights so I closed my eyes and leaned against Chad for a minute. Just as I did that one of the employees at the Charles Bar tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘Lift up your head Sweetie, the cops are here’. Uhhhh what?

I look up and there are 10 members of the VPD Integrated Gang Task-force walking through the bar checking things out. I guess the guy thought that I was totally wasted leaning against my husband trying not to puke, when in reality I was exhausted and getting a headache from the lights!

It was nice of him to look out for me though.

I wish I hadn’t felt so shitty by the time I got to the Charles Bar. I also wish we had taken the skytrain down so that I could have had a couple drinks, but then in reality, I probably didn’t need any.

Chad and I love Top 40 and dance music, so I always love what they play late at night at the Charles Bar, but I don’t think Pat was too impressed. No Du Hast or Bohemian Rhapsody over the loud speakers for him. Oh well, you can’t win’em all.

It was a good Friday night. The perfect close to the week. If only those two lived here all year round.

Here are some of the highlights of the trip…

Dario had a series of hats that he brought camping. This was probably the most useful one. I didn’t think they actually made umbrella hats.

I was contacted by the good people at Palm Bay (well, technically their marketing team) asking me if I’d like to try out some new Palm Bay flavours. I was all over it, expecting to receive a couple of delightful beverages. Little did I know I would receive a giant ice bucket filled with Summer Time treats! What an excellent surprise!

It was so awesome that the Palm Bay came just in time for camping. I brought half up with me and am saving the second batch for our Canada Day Long Weekend Adventure of Awesomeness.

This little guy kept coming around eating all of our crumbs off the groud. He was very friendly and so beautiful! It’s not every day you see a bird this pretty in the forest!

He’s just adorable so I had to throw in a picture of him!

Stick ball commenced as soon as everything was set up. These guys were laughing too hard to actually play, but it was amusing to watch.

1) Pats nipple were on display all weekend. 2) Pats got a gut. 3) Pats t-shirts are too small for him.

Lady hung out with us all weekend sniffing stuff and eating chips.

Chad is 76% Dog.

These logs were a hatchets worse nightmare. We destroyed the hatchet by the end of the weekend.

Dario found a giant log and tried to play stick ball with it, turning stick ball into Log ball. It was way to hard so him and Mike tried to split the log by ramming it into a tree. This is what happened (notice the look on Mikes face). His chest was never the same after that.

The log got the best of Dario. That’s what you get for killing the ecosystem.

Dario dropped a turd.

Jeremy liked using Lady as a Machine Gun.

Flank Steaks are my best friend.

Dinner cheers!

(Ryan & Elise are not here because Ryan had to go back into town to join Elise at a work dinner, just so you know)

Chad thought it would be a good idea to do Olive Oil Shots. Yea. Like he needs more grease.

Of course I Italian Housewifed it.

Pat & Aimee brought cigars.

Dario found his own cigar.

They dubbed me Ernest Hemingway. Yes, we bought stainless steal wine glasses. Yes I wrote notes by the light of my lantern while smoking a cigar. Yes, I am amazing.

I don’t know what the hell happened here.

Another Hat!

This is how Jeremy fell asleep.

Dario decided to get Zen.

I didn’t get breakfast because the raccoons stole it. First time wildlife has ever stolen our food, which we typically leave out everywhere in a drunk fashion. OK NATURE, WE’VE LEARNED OUR LESSON!

This hat really came in handy on Saturday.

The boys discoverd that Palm Bay is the perfect mid morning drink.

Harry, where is Marv?

Bahahahahahaha.

It was pointed out that all the couple were wearing similar shoes which was kind of weird.

See, same shoes. What does that say about us?

Pat made his famous bacon burgers again, except this time they didn’t make us feel like we were going to die.

Pat Zaph Nipple Antennae

MIKE. Omg was he on fire this weekend.

Sleeping in the rain.

Darios beard pic.

We finally decided to put a tarp over the fire. We were prepared to sacrifice it if the fire wanted to melt it, we were just so sick of sitting in the rain.

The boys were handy.

Pat and Dario put together chicken on a spit. This was a total experiment that worked!

Swiss Chalets got nothing on us!

nom nom nom

Jeremy was the official chicken carver. We did 2 beer butt chickens on the BBQ and then Pat & Darios creation. It was the greatest chicken dinner of all time. If only my camera didn’t die after taking this photo. DAMN YOU CAMERA!

Another great year of FUBARing it!