weekend pics

it was a lovely and busy weekend - each began with a lazy morning. well, except for Saturday when i was at hot yoga and kai was playing soccer - but after that it was a lazy mid-morning!  and each day ended with a lazy evening.

each morning starts with tea

reading harry potter

casting harry potter spells on his papa; stupify is his favourite

we spent one afternoon in new westminster, a suburb of vancouver and one of the oldest cities in british columbia.  it's location on the waterfront of the fraser river makes for a great escape during the summer with its greenways and walking trails.  when we visited it was a very wet day so our exploration was limited.  we visited antique row; a few blocks of vintage shops selling everything from 50's collectibles to high end victoriana.  we found a lovely mid-century floor lamp for kai's room.  we made a stop at the holland shopping centre where stefan and kai stocked up on baggies of licorice (i am not a fan, i think you have to be dutch to appreciate the stuff).  i stocked up on speculaas, a spiced cookie perfect for dipping in a cup of tea.  we also visited the waterfront - indoors at the westminster quay market, a public market where wild rice, a modern chinese restaurant, is located.

wild rice prompted our visit to new westminster. we have known the owner of wild rice, andrew wong, since our move to vancouver. our first home here was a rental and our landlord was once andrew's business partner. andrew recently opened a second wild rice in new westminster and he was having a grand opening party.  although we were unable to attend the party we wanted to show our support and went by the restaurant for an early dinner. the food is always perfection. stefan will be blogging about wild rice soon so do visit his blog.

 

  

 

a pretty wall of tea available at the westminster quay market

  

 

kai started his snowboard lessons this weekend which means i am back on the mountain snowshoeing.  it was very wet, my legs were completely sore from yoga the day before, and i didn't have stefan with me (he had to work). despite this, it had snowed the day before and so it made for a lovely (although difficult) uphill walk in powdery snow!  next week i will make it to the top!

the best part was the afterwards - we visited our friends, the phillips, who live near the mountain.  they had a fire going when kai and i arrived cold and wet.  they cooked up a lovely dinner consisting of chicken, roasted carrots and sweet potatoes, rice and a lovely sherry based sauce (sans cilantro for me).  and, the meal ended perfectly with homemade double baked biscotti (which i dipped into my tea!).  we felt totally spoiled and grateful for such good friends.

 

 

riding down the mountain is most fun!

 

the most delicious biscotti right out of the oven!