My Birthday!!!

Hi!

Last Friday was my birthday, so I thought I would share my day with you! Tina had planned a whole day for me and I had no idea what was happening - she loves giving surprises, I just don't like being on the receiving end as much :)

My morning started with Tina singing 'Happy Birthday' to me and cooking me Raisin French Toast, with Maple Syrup and peaches for breakfast (my favourite!). Tina and Chris gave me a package of Murray River Salt (gotta love home!) and a Pandora charm of a babys pram to signify the time I spend here with them.

Tina had to work only the morning, so after work she came home and we started making my birthday cake.... Pumpkin Trifle!!! Katie (Tina's sister) had made it before for me and knew how much I loved it so sent over the cake so I could have it again! We then went out for lunch to have some 'girl time' in the local area.

Chris then joined us and we caught the Skytrain downtown to have CUPCAKES!!! I have wanted to go there ever since I left in 2004 and missed out on going... so I had a Red Velvet cupcake and we bought a candle too! We went across the street for the much needed Starbucks 'Can I please have a tall, non-fat, no whip, half sweet, white chocolate mocha' and found two guys who were smoking so that they could light my candle :) We ate and drank and met a German man who wished me a German Happy Birthday 'Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag' and gave me two kisses for my special day!

We then walked around downtown... mainly to let lunch and coffee settle before dinner.. and found a wonderful tea shop that Tina completely and utterly fell in love with! We wandered around (I still had no idea what was happening) til I saw a sign that said GO AUSSIE GO and realised that we were eating at Mooses Downunder for dinner - an Australian pub! They had footy tops framed all around the pub - but unfortunately were out of Coopers Pale since the Olympics - apparently Canadians didn't understand how much we Aussies like to drink :)

We had a 'gander at the grog' menu and read all the interesting facts they had about Australia. The funniest was teaching Chris and Tina what 'Budgie Smugglers' were - then they couldn't stop laughing! Eventually after we ate and drank some more we walked back to the Skytrain, heading home. Jess, BJ and Sydney (our neighbours) joined us for a game of 'Whoonu' and the famous Pumpkin Trifle!

It was a fantastic day! :) Which made it easier from being away from home - even though I got a little homesick :(

Hope you are enjoying the updates! Soon the baby will be coming - due in 3 weeks so we are getting the room ready this weekend and getting more and more excited to meet the bundle of joy - I will keep you updated!!

Kiri :)

The Olympics!

Hi!

So I have finally gotten around to getting back on here! My attempt at once a week didn't really pan out that well (sorry Deb!) so I thought I would back track a little and let you know about the Olympics.

I was really lucky to be able to go and see the Dress Rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony. It was held on the Monday before they opened on Friday. One of my friends was in the ceremony, giving all the crowd the signals for what they needed to do. It was a great experience, there were about 30,000 people there and it didn't cost the $500 the actual ceremony was costing! Seeing it again on Friday was great and we hardly missed out on anything... well apart from the athletes, but we all cheered anyway. There must have been heaps of Aussies there that night, because I wasn't alone when the flag came out and I stood and cheered! Seriously... I couldn't help it! :)

On the Saturday Tina and I went and saw the Womens mogul events up at Cypress mountain. We were pretty excited til we got to the university where we were catching the bus with everyone and they were running nearly 2 hours late. It was raining and people weren't to impressed! We managed to get up to the mountain just before the qualifying round started, and it was PACKED! We watched the ladies do their thing, and saw the Australian girl. She was the only one who was interviewed on the night because she is so young, so that was cool! She came in 17th to start with but dropped lower... but she was still so excited! I think she is only about 15 so she is doing pretty good really!

This photo shows how much fun we were having!! Right??!! Is it convincing?? :)

We went and got dinner at half time, and waited 2 hours for that as well. Unfortunately it was the first even on Cypress so they were just working out the kinks. It was cold, raining and I was wet up to my knees. So by the time we finally got food we decided to head home and watch the rest on TV! I know... not very committed but my feet were swimming in water by the time I got home... but it was an experience none the less!




This photo to the left, shows how much snow was brought in for the Olympics as everything else was green and brown!

I think the photos look like we are having a better time! It was great to say that we have seen an event, just not the most comfortable!

Kiri :)