Wonderful Visitors....great weekend!

Daughter with mom - Friday morning

Son with mom - Friday evening

It has been since last Christmas that we were all together as a family.  How nice to have both of our children visit on the same weekend.  Ginette arrived @ the Abbotsford airport this past Friday @ 8:20 am. and Deni arrived at the same airport on Friday evening @ 7:15 pm.  They both live in Edmonton and flew in for the weekend.

Abbotsford Airport, British Columbia - 10 minutes from our new home.

Deni's girlfriend, Courtney had arrived 5 days earlier to visit with her family and friends.  She met Deni at the airport and they came over to the new home.

Ginette's husband, Trevor stayed back in Edmonton to look after some much needed chores but they will all be out  again in four to five weeks.  Can't wait!

Having arrived on an early morning flight, Ginette was looking forward to a good cup of coffee.

Spending time catching up on news from her world and ours.

Touring the new home.

Freshly painted and completely organized.

New look.

Ginette liked the new home.  Our two kids pretty well grew up in the former house in White Rock.  We had lived in our previous home for over 21 years.  Both liked the new place and gave it their seal of approval.  Yeah!!!!

Courtney and Deni both liked the new home too.

Getting familiar with the new kitchen too.  Deni loves to cook and a kitchen is of primary importance to him.

So, after the 25 cent tour of the new home was completed, we settled down to chat and plan the weekend activities.  That started the ball rolling and we found ourselves at a goat cheese family run operation in north Cloverdale on Saturday morning.  The owner was all to happy to give us a tour of their new operations.  Most impressive.....and the goat cheese is to 'die for'.

Looking  for the 'kids'  - baby goats that is!

We walked over to these 8 month old goats.  They should be milking in about another three to four months.

Most interesting goat farming operation.

Can't help but like these nice faces.

Even the guard - Llama - had to check us out to make sure we weren't a threat to the little goats.

Following the tour, and loading up on fresh goat cheese, we headed further west to Granville Island in downtown Vancouver.

South side of False Creek in downtown Vancouver, BC.

Granville Street Bridge - above.

Having grown up and attended university on the west coast of British Columbia, our children relished being downtown and enjoying the fruits and flavour of Granville Island.  We spent some time here gathering various foods for our seafood barbecue on Saturday evening.

Crowded with shoppers like us.

Delicioso!

Jeanette purchasing some fresh veggies.

Deni and Courtney went off in search of some fresh prawns.

Deni is having a long look at those carrots....but we settled for asparagus.

People, people, people everywhere......!

After battling the crowds for an hour or so, we decided to have lunch here and enjoy some of the outdoor entertainment on the False Creek waterfront.

Street light banner.

Looking west toward Vancouver Island.

Deni & Jeanette watching kids feeding the pigeons.

Long lens shot of English Bay.

Following a couple of hours of shopping and touring Granville Island, we headed back for home to prepare our foods for a seafood dinner.

Ready for the barbecue

Preparing the salmon steaks.

Arranging  the asparagus.

It didn't take long for us to get all the food stuffs ready.

On the barbie....

....and in the belly!

Ginette missed out on this great dinner to spend some quality time with several of her best friends.  Deni, Courtney, Jeanette and I really enjoyed this feast.

As with all great visits, it ended far too quickly and on Sunday morning, Deni left with Courtney to spend time with her family and in the early evening,  we drove Ginette back to the Abbotsford Airport for her return flight back to Edmonton.

Deni & Ginette with mom on Sunday morning.

A great weekend though!  Yeah!...the NHL Vancouver Canucks won....and we now are leading the quarter finals by three games to none over the Chicago Blackhawks!!!!  Gotta love that!!!!

Thanks for dropping by.

Almost done!

It has been a busy time with the move; painting, unpacking and settling in to our new home.  While managing these tasks, there is little to blog about.  One can only show and tell so much.I can say this though, upon Jeanette's return from a 10 day trip to Alberta, she loved the colour scheme. Yeah!!!!

Our week has been filled with appointments, preparing tax stuff for our accountant, and putting the finishing touches in the house.  It's all good.

 

The weather girl called for a sunny day before another wet and cloudy system comes through the coastal area so we  chose to take advantage of the sun and take a motorcycle ride in the countryside for some fresh air.

I finished painting the last room....and cleaned things up.

A good friend dropped by to have a look at the new place and for lunch.

After Sue left, Jeanette and I geared up and left on our three hour motorcycle ride.  It was a pleasant afternoon with temperatures hovering between 50 and 55 degrees.

We avoided all four lane roads and freeways in favour of the country roads.

We are blessed with so many choices for riding.  We can ride all over the greater Vancouver area and - with some exceptions - can avoid the freeways and major arterial roads.

Numerous hobby farms in our area.

....and humongous estate homes too.

Another of the dozen or so huge country homes we saw in our travels.

Very nice back roads in and around south Langley, BC.

We didn't have a destination in mind when we left our home but, as is usually the case, we were drawn to the mighty Fraser River. 

This switchback road will lead us to the Fraser River.

We're on the south side of the Fraser River but this CN train is blocking our view.  That's commerce at work. 

It must have been the time of day because there was a lot of long train transport activity.  We waited for three different trains during our ride.  No complaints.  I love watching trains roll by.  It conjures images of the goods they transport and their final destinations.

With so much train traffic, Jeanette got off the motorcycle and took photos.  I just watched them all roll by.

When we able to get across the lanes towards the Fraser River, we were met with these wonderful views.

We loafed around the dock for 15-20 minutes, simply enjoying the views.  From here we took a brief ride to a tributary of the river where these boating enthusiasts were also taking advantage of a wonderful Friday afternoon.

We are in the town of Fort Langley, British Columbia's first capital city before moving to New Westminster and then to Victoria, on Vancouver Island.

Kwantlen First Nations Reserve on the north side of this tributary.

Coming or going?  Not sure!

Whether for practice or pleasure, these rowers were burning the calories.

No more train traffic.

So with the mid afternoon trans Provincial trains en route, it was a seamless, non stop ride, back towards home.  By riding the country roads we completely avoided all the typical end of the week traffic snarls and grid lock.

We had one stop to make along the way back home.  We stopped here for a couple of electrical switch plates that were missing in the new home.

This grocery and hardware store is mere minutes from our south Langley home.

This photo doesn't do justice to its size.  We took out a membership shortly after moving here.  With rare exceptions, this store has almost everything we need.

So back home we rode.....and called it a day.

Our front driveway.

Thanks for dropping by.

Things are looking colourful

Colour change....from boring builder beige!!!

Followers of this blog will recall our recent move to our new home and of our decision to paint the entire house before we unpack.  Well, that task is better than 85% complete.  Other than the bathrooms, Jeanette's sewing room and one bedroom, I managed to paint the rest of the house while Jeanette has been away in Alberta.  She will have been away for 10 days when she returns.  This house will not look at all like it did when she left.

Open staircase leading to the loft.

Jeanette flies back home tomorrow, from Edmonton, and the new paint scheme will be her first look.  She was not consulted on the colours so we'll gauge her reactions as she visits each room.  Painter's choice, right???

Wonder if Jeanette will like this colour scheme?

It is possible that Jeanette will check the blog and if so, it could trigger a telephone call with requests for colour change.  You think?  Seriously though, I think she will like this.  Hey, she can always take paint to brush and start over, right?

Navy blue accent is quite striking.

Ceramic tiles will replace this existing kitchen floor, in the months ahead.

Front entrance.

I'm sure looking forward to seeing the sun in the coming days.  We have not seen any sun since I started painting and it would sure be nice to see the effect of this effort with sun shining through the house.  We have had a lot of rain and cloudy days since our return from the desert.

Just got rid of the boxes in the loft.  Still sorting our how the office will be configured.  It's all subject to change.  Once that's accomplished, the numerous wall hangings will be placed.  Still a bit messy here...but not for long.

Well, I'll let you know what Jeanette thinks of these improvements.  More on that in a future blog.

Thanks for dropping by.