Making a Wonderland

Today we got to help decorate the hall. I say "got to" because it was a privilege to be part of transforming the everyday room into Wonderland. this is where we go down the rabbit hole tomorrow

this is what we started with....

the hat awaits.....

all the chairs were covered and then Barbie made the bows on the backs. She was the only one from the bridal party that made it. Everyone else, including my brother were trapped on the other side of the Ferry waiting for one that wasn't full, I think they had to wait for 3 to go first! Finally by 4:30 they got on.

flower arrangements in giant teacups...

4 different color table runners and chair bows, very Alice style

the tables were starting to come together

playing card gift giveaways for the tables, shaped in hearts

final touches on the tables, flower petals

the backdrop for the cake... the cake will be GORGEOUS just wait.... moi hahaha and that's it for now, we go back tonight for rehearsal.... and then the wedding tomorrow

on a funny note, last night we drove around looking for a beer store, we thot surely we would find easy enuff, but no. We had to go to the trusty GPS for help, so Dean typed in a beer store and the GPS sent us on our way. Then I noticed that the arrival time said 1:30 am??? so we had to stop the car and check it out, the GPS won't work when you are driving, you have to be stopped. So anyway, it was sending us to a beer store hours away lol, back to square one, we just happened to pass by one. Then when we turned into our parking lot of the hotel... look what's next door!! I would've done a close up for you, but I wanted to show you the closeness, the red sign at the back is a cold beer store, we bought warm beer, and the white truck is parked along the hedge of our hotel!!

Victoria

We left in the wee hours this mornin to get to Victoria, and it was raining.... I guess that's ok since we had no real plans yet.

we rented our car and a GPS so we could find our way easier....


first stop... Food. This is where we parked, we saw this bronze statue, I'm not sure if his fingernails are supposed to be blue... but we liked them just the same!

proof that Dean paid for parking... you'll see why that's pertinent later...

pretty flowers everywhere in the courtyard.. can you find Maddie?

more where's Maddie pix...
We arrived too early to the restaurant there was still 15 minutes before opening. Maddie found a Vegan place she was so excited to try, it's not often she doesn't have to read or ask what's in everything.

a happy Maddie face

next stop the Bug Zoo, Maddie stops to take a few pictures, in which case, so did I

past the giant tulips...

Can't wait to go in...yikes!!

bugs freak me out... but within minutes our tourguide Avril, had us intrigued beyond my wildest imagination.... this little guy looked like jewellery, in fact some people do make pieces out of them, we even saw a CSI episode where they had done that, it was true!

next a huge cockroach.... eek I had the eeby jeebys just watching Maddie hold it!

a scorpion, you have to be 19 to hold it, so Maddie could only pet it

ok... that's seriously BRAVE a millipede mustache....arghhhhh

i forget this guys name, but the damn bugs kept getting bigger!!! If you saw Men in Black, this is the bug that the coffee drinking aliens were modeled after!

see!! bigger and bigger


Maddie wasn't the only brave one.... well ok still not so brave!!

our tour guide was awesome, she had tons of fun facts, and witty comments!! Very fun place, it surprised me how much I enjoyed the bug zoo!!

now onto the Royal BC museum. The first floor had lots.... and lots of stuffed animals.... oops sorry Maddie, it never dawned on me the museum would be full of them duh!! but what was really creepy was the bird section, usually you see stuffed birds in a kewl pose... well uhmm this bird display looked like what you see when a bird hits your window??? head twisted to one side and lieing on it's back.... okay ewww!! I'd much rather see them in a pose.... and they had a display of chipmunks with white bulging eye things??? glahhhg get me outta here. lol anyway then we went to the Imax theater and watched dinosaurs... so that was better, but there was one more floor of the museum to go...

Now we're talkin, this is more the museum-y stuff I like ...trivia and our history
don't even try and read this it's too blurry I don't want to make you dizzy, I'll tell you what it says.. #28 is the Jettson, a 1998 creation of BC shoe designer John Fluevog!! haha 2 months ago I wouldn't have known what that was but I do now :-) and the "New Coke" premiered at Expo 1986

those blue shoes are the fluevogs, and the New Coke can is obvious :-)

Did anyone else have this easy curl as a kid! I did lol

this part was so kewl, me and Maddie couldn't stop taking pictures this huge section was like walking thru time, you could go upstairs into the "house" or walk the shops, there was even Chinatown and a stable, and a seaside with seagulls waiting for fisheads from the salmon factory.

unfortunately when we got back to the car we had our SECOND ticket on it!! The first one was because we went overtime in the bug zoo not realizing we would be longer than 2 hours! and the second, the ticket dispenser didn't print out a ticket... welcome to Victoria!! P.S. the tickets are plastic... you know it's a rainy area when your ticket is plastsized!

on that note, we headed outta town, to Nanaimo. That's where the wedding is.. until tomorrow's adventures... c u then :-)

gettin ready to go...

As we wind down and pack our "Mad Hats" to get ready for my Brothers Wedding! there are a few things that must get done first...

have lunch with the girlies :-)

still lunch

and run down to the Crossroads market to get the kewlest comics EVER!!! Can you believe Archie was at Stampede....

and Spiderman!!! hahah too kewl for words.... ok all you followers, let's see what BC brings in the next few days :-)

Bus ad

I saw this kewl bus ad.... Thanks Calgary from the Stampede! Yes thanks Calgary, til next year, when I dust off the ole' Cowboy Hat for another 10 days :-)

Olympic Moments At Work.

There are some interesting moments that sometimes happen at work.

A few weeks ago I had an Olympic moment.

I was called to a dental office one day for a minor problem. I usually don't really pay attention to what is going on around me. Dental offices are so busy and I need to get to the next job so I want to get in and out as quick as possible before the next call comes in.

However, I overheard someone say to a patient "I meant to phone you. Did you bring your medal?" My brain registered that this was a strange question and perhaps I should pay attention. It just so happened that Silver Medalist Cheryl Bernard happened to be in the office that day. And she brought her medal! Wow. She was really nice and set her medal down on the desk for us to examine. Wow - the medal is impressive! It is super heavy and well, just really cool to see one live. Here's a pic:

Cheryl was a great sport and even posed with it for us to take a picture when we asked he to put it on.

And that was my unexpected Olympic moment at work.

The Curious Case of Mitsubeeshee.

A couple of weeks ago, Selena noticed that something just wasn't right with our second largest cat. He seemed lethargic and lost a whole bunch of weight. If you know Mitsubeeshee, you know he has some bulk to him so this was not normal. Selena took him to the vet. The vet took a look at him and Selena noticed the vet was quite concerned and was very worried about Beeshee's weigh loss. Uh oh. So he put him on a couple of pills and told us to make sure he was eating. So every day for a week he was allowed upstairs while he took his medicine. He seemed to be enjoying himself in his new surroundings.

We heard back from the vet on his blood tests and everything was normal. Very, very strange. The pills seemed to be making him better and he was eating. Less than usual but eating. So if everything is normal - what is going on?

Selena is very observant. A skill she learned from all those hours watching Columbo! Anyway, she saw Beeshee chewing an exposed area of the cat tree and eating it like grass.

She figured that he was eating this because there was some strips that looked like grass. Yellow, plastic grass but grass all the same. We sometimes let him out in the yard and he loves to eat the grass so we can see why he did it. This plastic was making him sick. The Curious Case of Mitsubeeshee was solved. He is much better now and we are making sure he stays clear of the yellow "grass".

Adventures with Dianne

Maddie and I met Dianne and Spence for lunch. Our adventures went as follows.....

first stop Mezza's for a falafel. Maddie had one at Stampede that was kinda yucky so she was nervous about eating another one.... But this one was Amazing!!!

Here is Mezza's 213 - 6th Ave SE Great food!!

next we went to Spolumbo's, we were too full to eat so we had dessert

and a cappacino.

On the way home Maddie saw a costume shop, and all she did was say "oh that's where it is" and before you knew it Dianne was pulling over so we could go in. She's such a sweety :-) anyway the kids tried on a couple of costumes and we just had to take a pic! We couldn't find the right hat for Spence until after he was changed.... oh well still fun! There were quite the assortment of costumes here! Great ideas. Thanx for the fun day :-)

I missed a post!

I totally forgot we took pictures of this!! On the drive home from Montana July 18th!! it looked like the hills had just had a snowstorm??



but upon closer inspection we realized...

it was HAIL!! thankfully we missed the downpour of this, and were just able to see it before it started to all melt!