Bobby's 29th

It was Bobby's 29th birthday on the 10th... so naturally, we celebrated this entire weekend! 

Side note: because I am the crazy hedgehog lady, and not one post can go by without mentioning, Kiwi, the late Chaos, or hedgehogs in general.... I finally picked up this hedgehog doormat at Crate and Barrel!! 

Hedgehog on hedgehog!

Okay, so it was Bobby's birthday on Friday... and on Thursday, I bought him some beers to drink this weekend. It's increasingly difficult to buy beer for Bobby since he wants to try original craft beers... all I can say is, thank god for untappd!!!!

The first stop on the birthday tour was a romantic dinner for two at Orrange. However, because there was a pet store near the restaurant (and because I knew there are hedgehogs there)... this became our first stop.

Go away crazy humans!!

These hedgies are not socialized so they were really hard to pick up...

Such a little cutie!!!! This hedgie is very shy but it didn't bite!

Okay... so after we played with the hogs, we went next door for some food! Orrange is okay, decent food, decent prices.

Birthday boy with his guinness

After dinner, we went to Bobby's favorite store:

After Home Depot, we went home for affogato (on our super awesome espresso maker)....

... and birthday cake (Chocolate Explosion and Tiramisu from Whole Foods)

Too distracted by the affogato/not realizing there is cake in front of him

Kiwi came out to wish Bobby a happy birthday beg for cake

Bobby and his Rogue Voo Doo Donut beer!!

Okay so that was Friday... the real "party" was Saturday at Port Moody Ribfest!!

Now, it has been uncharacteristically hot in Vancouver the entire month of June. It was 30+ degrees for a couple of weeks and there are 100s of forest fires all over BC due to the extremely hot and dry weather.... Basically, we have all be praying for rain... and while I am glad it rained, I wish it did not happen at Port Moody Ribfest while I was standing in line holding my uncovered half rack of ribs!! It seriously poured rain and all I could think was, should I wait in line for corn as well?!?!? But I digress...

Giant pack of baby wipes to help us get through this meal

The food at Ribfest was okay. Maybe the rain dampened the mood a little bit... but the craft beer was definitely underwhelming!!

Sebastian met up with us at Ribfest and then we met up with Brad-Ja-Luca for menchies!

I hope you had a great birthday weekend Bobby!!! Love you :D

Happy birthday Bobby!!!

A recap of Bobby's birthday festivities/Khatsalano Fest 2014

Bobby celebrated his big 2-8 last Thursday. I haven't bought his actual present yet (he needs a new watch, but the one he wants will not be available until the end of the summer). However, I wanted him to be able to open a present. Now if you know Bobby, you would know that nutella is his favorite food group (in Bobby's personalised food group chart) - he is constantly sticking his face in nutella... so I decided to buy him a tub that's actually big enough from him to stick his face in! I bought this 3kg tub at Ninja Bubble Tea for 40$ with tax. I told Bobby to be sure to keep note of when he opens this tub (July 12/14) and when he finishes it (likely two weeks or so away from that date ;) )

I also wanted Bobby to be able to blow out some birthday candles! Cake is a slice of the "chocolate explosion" cake from Whole Foods. I also picked up some super awesome candles (the flame is the same colour as the candle, which unfortunately is not obvious in this picture) from Michael's.

And then in true Bobby fashion, he celebrated his birthday with some Scotch - he finally opened up the bottle of Laphroig I bought him for our anniversary months ago! And that wraps up Thursday night's festivities.

We have a whiteboard on our door where we can write notes (usually along the lines of "Bobby, don't forget your lunch"). Bobby is constantly writing himself "notes from me" though. 

Friday night: I planned to take Bobby to the Keg for his actual birthday dinner. Our friends Brad, Janice and their adorable son recently moved about 10 minutes away from us, so I invited them along. The Keg never disappoints! Steak is always awesome! :)

Whenever I go the Keg, I get a Kiwi-tini. Sorry Kiwi!!

How cute is the kid's menu?! Tinier steaks for tinier people :)

What I like about the Keg (in Coquitlam!) is that they always ask if you are celebrating an event once seated. The first time we visited this restaurant, it was our anniversary. When they find out we were celebrating our anniversary, they gave us dessert! Totally unexpected, but such a sweet gesture! This time, they asked us again, so we mentioned it was for Bobby's birthday. They were so kind, they brought our dessert a good 30 minutes after we finished eating because our server saw how we were all ready to explode!

Warm brownies with ice cream = best dessert idea ever!

Yesterday (Saturday): Bobby opened his tub of nutella. Here's the ceremonial first dip.

We hit up Khatsalano Fest 2014 in the afternoon. I went mainly for the food ;) It was soooo hot and there were lots and lots of people... but we managed to find some square footage in the sidelines where we got to enjoy our poutine, and beaverstails (and chips courtesy of Brad/Ja). We hit up a liquor store afterward to get some refreshing adult beverages... I picked up the Stiegl Radler Grapefruit (the zitrone one is better). We all settled into a park with this awesome view... and we took turns entertaining Luca while he entertained all of us. 

We all had dinner at "Topanga's" after. The food was amazing! We were pretty much sunned out at that point and went home.

Happy birthday Bobby! I love youuuu! Hope you got to enjoy your weekend of festivities :)

Birthday festivities!

So I had my friend birthday party yesterday. The festivities started around noon at Craft. We had lunch with Brad-Ja-Luca. They gave me their present (two hand knitted hedgehogs - awwww, and hand knitted socks, which I am wearing right now by the way). After lunch, it was raining lightly but Bobby was determined to fly a kite he built (flying a kite was on my bucket list). Yesterday morning, Bobby build a kite with newspaper and paint tape and sewing thread. I mean this thing was doomed to begin with. Anyway, he was determined to make it fly... it started raining pretty hard so we had to force him to stop (newspaper isn't water proof anyway).

Because we were going to be gone for the night, I made sure to give Kiwi a lot of attention. Here I am flipping her on her back and harassing her with faux grass.

Beers at Craft! 

Bobby and his kite

Luca was skeptical to begin with!

Bobby and Marco trying to get the kite in the air

After lunch, we drove over to our hotel. We had booked a room at Opus in Yaletown. I was pretty damn excited to stay at Opus because it's a cute, small, funky hotel, with bright ornate furniture. Plus we got a good deal. The room was 240$ and we got 100$ back in Amex giftcards. I was a little disappointed AFTER booking when my coworker told me Opus is known to be a hotel for escorts... and then my friend Sebastian confirmed that rumour last night as well. AH!

Bobby had a lot of fun jumping on the bed. Oh to not being 30!!

Dinner and the party were at The Distillery at 6:45. I had such a great time! My friends are so awesome!

I had a pretty rough morning. I was soooo sick and nauseous last night so I threw up. I passed out.. then I woke up nauseous around 4am and so I got up to throw up again... but I was SOOOO hungry so I couldn't go back to sleep. I was so annoyed. Seriously. All I could think about was how hungry I was. I caved and ate a chocolate bar from the mini bar area. Then I woke Bobby up early so that we could partake in the crappy complimentary breakfast. We went back to the room to sleep some more.. then checked out aroun 11am to eat some actual food. We hit up Milestone's in Yaletown because they used to have the best eggs bennies. However, they changed things up and it is no longer good. How disappointing. We drove home. We were back around 12:30 and I napped form 1pm to 3:30pm. Then I got up to clean up and unpack and get ready for my family birthday dinner at the Boathouse and Port Moody.

So anyway, slight tangent, two months ago, during the gold medal men's hockey game at the Olympics, I brought my coffee mug with coffee (and milk!!) to my brother's house because we had to wake up really early! I accidentally left it there... and my brother didn't empty it or wash it. He didn't realise it had coffee in it. So I got it back after two months and... Oh my god it smelled so bad I left it in the parking lot. I thought I was going to vomit. I'm still kinda gaggy just thinking about it!

Thirty, flirty and thriving

So... I turned 30 yesterday... I had a pretty good day.. However, I made the worst life choice ever by scheduling a job interview during my lunch break. Mondays and Fridays are pretty stressful days at work because we are usually down one staff (yesterday we were down two)... So basically, I was pretty busy in the morning and getting stressed just before my interview. Therefore I was stressed DURING my interview so I'm not sure just how I did exactly (I'm guessing not too well).

Anyway, last night, I was watching 13 going on 30. It's a cute movie. Its about a girl who is turning 13. She hates her life because she is unpopular, so she wishes she was "thirty, flirty and thriving"... and seemingly wakes up at 30, living the life she thought she would want, but she ends up hating it because the friends she has are backstabbing Bs and she had alienated her family and her childhood friend. 

I'm ready for your thirties! 

The end of a year

Day 365 (part three)

This year went by so quickly! When I wake up tomorrow.. I'll be 30. To be honest, I was pretty damn depressed over the past week. I think turning 30 was starting to get to me.

However, I have so much to look forward to from this point in my life on. We have a new place to set up (still a work in progress) and a wedding to start planning. We've actually scrapped the idea of getting married this summer. Money is pretty tight with trying to set up our place and we're running out of time (its getting harder and harder to find a venue). So we will be getting married next summer instead. The bonus of waiting is that we'll get to go on a super awesome honeymoon! (Europe!!)

I have soo many happy memories from this past year:
- Friend vacations in Portland and Lillooet
- Ziplining for the first time in Whistler
- Planning a suprise brewery tour for Bobby (which in the end got spoiled, but we still had a blast)
- Spending time with Bobby's family in Florida and spending Christmas in Disney World
- New Years Eve in Manhattan.. and of course getting engaged

Of course, there are also low points:
- Losing our Kay Kay :(

In general, I have so many great memories from my 20s. I kind of look forward to what the 30s has in store for me :)

I still plan on updating this blog... most likely not everyday (unless I get really into it again).. but I definitely want to post about the progress of setting up our home.

Thanks to anyone who ever took the time to read this blog :)

I leave you all two pics of me and my loves:

PS: Wow, I blogged 442 times over the last year (slightly more than the 365 required ;)).

PPS: I finally got my hands on a copy of this month's National Geographic... I don't normally buy this magazine... however, this month's issue feature one of Kiwi's distant cousins!

My little cover girl!

Last weekend as a 20 something year old, part two

Day 365 (part two)

So after opening Bobby's present, we made lunch and headed out for some bubble tea. We went to Ninja Bubble Tea near Coquitlam Centre. Bobby and I got the ferrerro one and Marco got nutella. It was pretty good. The guys got the giant size one, but I got the smaller size (which I thought was more than enough).

Bobby looks like he had too much sugar... before downing that jug of bubble tea!!!

We went to Coquitlam Centre to return a few things (story of my impulsive buying life) and Marco bought us a new coffee grinder as a house warming present. Then we went to Lafarge Lake/Town Centre because my mom wanted to meet and give me my present (and also to show the guys the huuuuuge park). We went home after. Bobby tested the grinder and apparently the coffee tastes more amazing (I see no difference, lol). Chilling out before dinner...

Last weekend as a 20 something year old, part 2

Day 365

Today I am 29 for the last day ever!! It is a beautiful, sunny day... so I definitely will be heading out to enjoy this awesome day :)

So I woke up today... and found my birthday present from Bobby on the kitchen counter!!! He was so kind to even screw it shut...

But then he lent me some tools to get it open... I get a custom walk in closet for my bday! Woo Hoo :)

I also got this awesome card!

I immediately had to flip Kiwi on her back after ;) Poor Kiwi-Keys

Last weekend as a 20 something year old, part 1

Day 364

Today is my last weekend as a 20 something year old. We had friends come over to check out the new place around lunch time... They gave me this really pretty orchid for my birthday! I really need to read up on how to take care of this because it is too pretty to kill

We just got back from Target and Bobby bought this round placemat to go in the middle of our round dining table :)

So after our friends left, I went to the mall to return the second jacket from this blog... then we came back to work on installing Bobby's new floors. Since he is using his office as his workspace, I wanted him to cover the laminate floors (to help prevent them from being damaged). Well, yesterday, our neighbour downstairs wrote us a lovely letter how we were being too loud.. and that we need to be more quite between 8pm to 7am (um ok.. we work...??) The letter really pissed me off (I mean, had he told me to keep it down past 10pm, I think I would've been more compliant... but 8pm?!?!?), but before I digress too much, Bobby bought cork to go underneath the flooring he chose. The cork was suprisingly cheap at Home Depot. Two rolls cost 55$/each. His room needed just slightly more than one roll so we have tons left over for other projects. Plus, my parents gave us a Home Depot giftcard as a house warming present... so technically, the cork was free :)

Before: with laminate

After: with faux tile :) It took us about two hours to get the cork rolled out underneath and to cut the laminate to size. The baseboards will need to be re-added tomorrow so as to not piss off the crazy man living downstairs

Anyway, so once we got the cork laid down, I made sure to let Kiwi play around on it.... Here she is with me holding her paw. Such a little cutie!!!! <3<3<3

Now, we're home. The place is a mess... too lazy to do anything about it ;)

Look out world!

Day 327

The already terrible Kiwi is officially entering her terrible twos! Hide your fingers and any other body parts she can bite... and read on if you would like to know more about the world's cutest hedgie.

Kiwi was born on March 6, 2012 (3/6/12!!) so today marks the 2nd year of her existence! Here's some photos of Kiwi (and family) over the past couple years:

The babies at 14 days old

Weighing the baby fatties. Bowser (middle) was always the biggest, then Kiwi was always the middle sized baby and Purdy was always the smallest

Bobbly head Kiwi

Kiwi's first bath

SO CUTE!!

Chaos stealing food from Kiwi (typical Chaos!)

Kiwi thinks that if she can't see others she is "hiding"... silly Kiwi ;)

Angry Kiwi

Kiwi and Chaos hanging out..

Sleepy Kiwi

I've got so many more pictures but don't want the blog to go on and on forever!

Here's little miss Kiwi officially at two years old today:

Kiwi salutes all of you with her left hind leg

Happy birthday Kiwi-Keys!!