An Epic Begining

We have had the most ultimate start to June.  If these past ten days have been any indication to how our summer is going to go, it might just be the best ever.  

It started our with a few great hikes, one to the top of some hill overlooking Stave Lake.

And another to the West Canyon Trail at Golden Ears Park.

On Tuesday we had company come in from Edmonton. Shane's brother Chris and his fiancée Eva, hi!  We had everyone over for dinner, and with one too many gin cocktails I nearly destroyed dinner twice.  In the end everything was fine, we had marinated olives, fresh bread, roasted poblano and corn quesadillas, smoked bbq chicken, a cobb pasta salad, warm potato salad, roasted asparagus and for dinner a baklava cheesecake.  It was ever so slightly epic.

On Wednesday we met after I took a few hour nap, at Dragon Fort for lunch and from there proceeded to Bellingham for a day in the sun.  Our time in Bellingham was spent shopping, walking along the boardwalk on the ocean, consuming burgers and beer at a beer garden and ending with a trip to Costco.  Shane and I capped off the night with blizzards from dairy queen.  

Thursday might have been my favourite day of all.  We met just after noon and we took our guests to our favourite Riverside Park for a picnic.  Though I didn't snap a picture of it before it was all gone, lunch was great.  We had meat buns, leftover cobb salad, carrots with a buffalo blue cheese dressing, homemade lemonade and local strawberries.  After we were thoroughly stuffed we drove to Cultus Lake Waterpark for after-school sliding, where we laughed ourselves silly for three hours of killer waterslides!  It was way too much fun!  After filling up on ice cream and pizza we spent a few hours sitting by a fire at the river eating s'mores and drinking rum.  Does life get any better?

Friday was crazy.  We had pancakes with our parents and then all headed to the range to shoot some guns.  It didn't go entirely as planned for myself and after Eva shot a few guns her and I decided sitting in the sun sipping cold tea was far more our speed.  When we got back to home base we booked our flights for our trip to Edmonton this New Years for Eva and Chris's wedding.  We spent the evening drinking at the local pub, until they raised the music so loud we couldn't hear ourselves talk.

Saturday we spent hiking Elk Mountain on what was a clear day in the valley.  After an intense hike to the top though, we discovered our views were totally thwarted by some very cold clouds.  We ate our sandwiches (for whomever loved them so much they had: mayo, chopped olives, avocado, tomatoes, white cheddar, red onion, five kinds of meat and lettuce, all on a ciabatta bread) sitting in the clouds.  When we got back to town everyone was ready for a nap, so I went for coffee with my mom and bought some tomato plants at Minter Gardens.  My father-in-law made us dinner that night and much later in the evening we took a trip to Mt. Woodside where we had views clear over Harrison River to the fireworks being set off on the other side.  The rest of the evening was a swirl of fire, good company and rum.  A pretty great end to the week. Our guests left early Sunday morning.  Shane starts work on Monday.