taking five

Jeff, Lola, and I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Powell River at the cabin. The cabin is actually our friend Grady's house, which he shares with his awesome daughter Clancy and their cat, Mittens. We spent the weekend in a town of 20,000 without a whole lot to do. So we drank a lot of coffee, we made some delicious food (including a Tofurkey and cranberry sauce, which I love), and hung out with a lot of horses, dogs, and even a cat or two. It was pretty much heaven. Above you can see a picture of me with my giant dog friends, Honey and Bear (a.k.a. Chunkstar and Leo). You can also see our black and white dog, Lola, taking five. We took a lot of fives, too. Have you seen Fubar? You really should. Most of it was filmed in the city Jeff and I used to live in. It's kind of a must-see movie, whether you're Canadian or not. This trailer is definitely not suitable for work:

I'm going to Montreal this weekend to visit with friends and to spend some time in a fun city that I haven't been to in over nine years. It's a long overdue visit and I can't wait to hang out with Jeff, Jesse, Marigold, and Camilla all week long. I'll be back when I can with pictures and stories!

summer mountains

Jeff and Lola and I spent the weekend in the mountains. This weekend. And yes, this weekend there was still lots of snow on the ground at higher elevations, like Joffre Lakes where we attempted an easy-ish 7km hike only to be turned around after crossing a boulder field and encountering yet more snow. Not that I don't like snow, I just don't love summer snow. The first four photos were taken in Pemberton, BC. I'd never been there before, but we both really liked it. It's outside of the tourist-y nonesense that is Whistler and just far enough from Vancouver to actually feel like it's not a part of Vancouver. It's also beautiful and has great breakfast joints, like The Pony Espresso. Now for an oldie but a goodie. Oh yeah, Jeff and I have been watching The Killing. Is anyone else into that show? I love that it's all filmed in Vancouver, in some pretty crazy locations like at the Save-On-Meats on Hastings. Don't tell me how the season ends, though! We're behind!

fresh air: denman island

This is the final post of photos from my island adventures over the weekend. These photos were all taken on Denman Island, another Northern Gulf Island and the island that we were staying on. Jamie invited us to stay with him at his family cabin, which was a cozy home base where we made great dinners and watched satellite tv. Our last day on the island was warm and dry and we spent a good part of the afternoon on a 9 hole golf course that's been built in a farmer's field. I've never golfed before and I took a few swings on this course only to realize that I think I swing left. I think this because swinging right felt uncomfortable and looked insane, but my first left swing felt way better and actually moved the ball in the right direction. I was mostly the animal wrangler during the golfing though.

The course was pretty unique and was completely covered in sheep crap, which Lola ate by the pound. It was totally impossible to stop her, as it really was everywhere, but I tried to prevent it as much as possible. As we left the course an island kid hit a ball in our general direction and just missed us by a few feet. What a brat! By the end of the day Lola was completely burnt out from insane outdoors adventures for two days straight, so she curled up in the cabin garden in a little hay-lined nest she built for herself. Ridiculous. Now she needs a bath possibly more than she's ever needed a bath before, and she's still tired. Jeff and I probably won't see a whole lot of her for the next day or two. She's worn out from vacation while I can't wait for the next one!

AND in Day in the Life news, next Monday's post will be by Hwasoon Kim from the amazing Morning Calm. You are not going to want to miss this one. It's going to be the perfect Monday morning post.

my dog on vacation

I know that many of you enjoyed seeing some pictures of my adopted dog, Lola, and some of her friends in an earlier post. Well, believe me! I have a lot more photos of Lola to share with you and thought I'd make a post of it today. Call it procrastination, call it a necessary break from CAD, call it whatever you'd like. Here are some of my favourite photos of Lola on vacation. The best part? These were all taken in the last year or so. We do a lot of travelling around this beautiful part of the world together and Lola loves a good hike or swim, though, as I've mentioned previously, she hates camping. At the bottom of this post I'll tell you a little more about the places we visited in these photos.

1. Lola in the rainforest around Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. We love going to visit our very good friend up there. Lola is maybe not a fan of two ferry rides, but she loves the drive and the inevitable hikes that we take her on.

2. Okay, I wish that I could remember the name of this place. It's about an hour past Hope here in British Columbia. You have to drive up this sketchy, winding, very high road to get to an amazing lookout point that was bustling with marmots. So beautiful.

3. Since we're apartment dwellers sometime we just have to visit a nice lush lawn. Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver.

4-5. My friend Lara's cabin. This was one of my favourite mini vacations last year. So much dock-sitting and swimming and sunshine. Oh, I can't wait for summer.

Inspired by Micaela's post last week asking her readers to share their vacation photos, I'm wondering if you have any photos of your pets on vacation that you'd like to share. Send them to me at sadiedesignsca at gmail dot com with the subject line "pet vacation" and I'll publish them next week. Make sure you tell me where you took the photo and send me a link to your blog if you've got one!