birthday vacation part 1

i was so ready for a vacation.  work had been a lot of work lately if you know what i mean.  overtime, early mornings, blood, sweat and tears--you know.  i slept most of the ferry ride and listened to an old man's crazy anti-government mumbojumbo bragging the rest of the time.  katie picked me up at departure bay because duke point still wasn't open.  the thing i remember most about that night was michealah suggesting i do a photo shoot of her for her birthday so we could do a calendar of her for her.  i had a good laugh about that one.  and katie and i watched 17 miracles and had good chats.  

next morning katie had to visit teach so i decided to go for a walk in search of hills and to take my camera with me.  it was a gorgeous sunny day, but still a little cool.  i asked brent how to get to lantzville and he told me.  i walked all the way down dickenson to the beach.  here are the photos i took along the way:

these are the cherry blooms that always come at my birthday.  i love them.  my fave part of this pick is the blurry parts along the branch. i think it looks so pretty.

i took this pic for elicia.  she grew up playing on this beach by her oma's house.

i thought the seaweed looked cool plastered gracefully onto this rock.

then i watched this crow give himself a bath in the stream.  i thought it was cute.

later i saw these birds up close.  california quails.  so cute and funny looking.

by the time i was done i think i had been gone 2 hours so i knew katie would be home.  i called and told her she could pick me up if she didn't want to wait an hour for me to get back.  she said she would come to meet me and so i started walking.  i wanted to do a considerable amount of the long hill before she got to me and she got to me just at the top.  i was sweaty and hot and feeling great.  filled up with peace and quiet and beauty and accomplishment.

we went back to the co-op and i changed and we went out to lunch for my birthday.  it was my birthday eve but brent would be away for my actual day.  we went to montana's.  i had this delish burger that had kapow shrimps on top.  hello!  elizabeth made me draw everyone on the the paper table covering.  her kids meal came with 3 little ice cream cones for dessert.  i was a little envious but too full for dessert.  oh yeah, they first brought me just a plate of kapow shrimps and some fries by mistake.  so they left the fries and i ate them and then they brought the real burger with some fries and i ate those too.  so i was f-u-l-l.  and they gave it to me for free.  thanks man.

brent had to leave for yet another trip.  this time it was just vancouver.  that night katie and i and the girls went canvassing for the canadian cancer society.  before this happened we lost all the stuff and frenzied searching did not turn it up.  just when we were about to give up and the time window for knocking on people's doors was almost closed, natalie found them in a weiwd spot--the shoe closet.

canvassing was actually a good time.  almost every house gave something.  we all took turns talking and each had a job. i  was receipt book girl.  i was supposed to be a neat printer but under the pressure i may or may not have become quite messy.  but i did get the honour of wearing the canadaian cancer society pen around my neck, so.  michealah handed out the daffodil pins which were very cute this year and natalie held the money envelope.  hey! what did katie do?!  tricky tom sawyer, katie is thy name.  two seperate houses wrote cheques for 100 buckers.  we quit when it was dark and cold and nine.  i was wearing summer clothes because i have a believing heart.

katie and i decided to watch something not too long that night because she was getting a cold and needed to go to bed early.  i don't remember what we watched just that we scoured netflix for a long time.

the next day was my 38th birthday.