We had a GREAT holiday!!

Hello! We're back from our canoe trip - and we had an awesome time! It was good to get away for a week with just the two of us - it was relaxing and fun! The weather was cool, but mostly dry so that helped a lot!
I thought for the next while, I'd just add a post every few days to share a bit of our trip with you. Doing it this way will also help me remember the trip a bit better when I finally get to doing some scrapbooking about the trip (since I know I won't get to that anytime soon :).

Getting ready...

Our canoe trip to Murtle Lake is coming up... and to say that we are excited would be an understatement!!

Besides just normal camping prep, we've had to dehydrate our food and make a canoe cart. There's a 2.5km portage to get from the parking lot to the lake, and a cart will definitely make that part of the trip easier considering the gear we'll be bringing in. We could have bought a cart, but Martin found a plan online to make one - and we thought it would be a fun project. I forgot to take pictures until it was almost done, but here are a few anyways. It's meant to be collapsable (is that a word?) so that we can fit it into the canoe when we're not using it... but not quite as much as one of the pictures shows! We thought we would try it out before glueing the pieces that need to stay together... and as soon as we started moving the canoe, it totally fell apart! Kinda funny if you ask me :). But it's fixed now, and all ready to go!

We underestimated...

...the length and grade of the logging road to the trail head for Mount McGuire! A little while ago, our friend Melanie asked if I wanted to go hiking with her some time. I thought it was a great idea... and when we decided that the holiday Monday worked best, that meant Martin got to come too! He thought it would be fun to try another new hike... the last one (Needle Peak) turned out good, so why not?

Weren't we in for a surprise! About one kilometer down the logging road, a bridge was washed out, so there was no way for a vehicle to cross. We debated going on a different hike, but figured we'd just stick to this one. We had our bikes with, so we thought we could just bike the logging road, and then start our hike. 4 1/2 hours later, we finally got to the trailhead. We did part of the hike, but we were so exhausted, and the trail was so steep, we decided to just turn around. Kind of disappointing, because the view from the top would have been amazing! We did still have some beautiful views of the mountains - and we definitely created a memory for us!! Martin wants to try it again sometime... but he'll have to find another hiking partner for that...it would take quite a bit of convincing to get me to hike that logging road again!

Walking the bikes...too steep to ride----we left the bikes here-------This is where we were headed!

Beautiful view of Mt. Baker! ------------Super steep hill!! ------------------------Reward for the work - quick ride down!

Hey girl!

I have to admit, I was pretty excited about how this one turned out. It's just a fun little card to give to a friend pretty much any time! The stamp is from Close to my Heart, and I got it from my mom when she gave me all her scrapbooking and stamping stuff - and it had never been used yet! I was excited to find a good use for it!

It's really a pretty simple card - some cardstock, strips of patterned paper and some brads! I colored the stamped image with pencil crayons... I don't own any of the fancy markers - and this did the trick.

That's all! We have a busy Saturday, so I better get going!

Some birthday thoughts...

Friday was my birthday... 28 years! To be honest, in someways it feels weird getting closer to 30... but mostly it doesn't "feel" like anything... it's just life. And I'm blessed! God has given me so much and I'm so thankful!
I had a really great weekend! I got tonnes of notes and emails and calls from people - I was pretty overwhelmed by it all... it was great!
Martin and I went camping to Emory Creek - which was so relaxing and fun! Then on Saturday we went on a short little hike up Mt. Lincoln. It was a nice hike... but it didn't really compare to Needle Peak a couple weeks ago! Oh well - we had fun!
One of the things that hit me most the last while as I realized I would be turning 28 soon, was that my mom was my age when she came into our family. I can't imagine doing what she did at my age - picture me with 4 kids, age 9-4! Seeing it all from this perspective has given me so much more respect for my mom... and thanks to God for giving us someone who was willing to do this for our family! The road hasn't always been easy, but Mom, thank you so much for all you have done for us! I love you!
It's a tradition in Martin's family to read the Psalm coordinating with your age on your birthday - so this year, that means Psalm 28 for me. My father-in-law highlighted vs 6-7 for me - and I'll end my post with those verses:
"Blessed be the LORD, because He has heard the voice of my supplications (my cries for mercy)! The LORD is my strength and shield; my heart trusted in Him and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him."

A card for the "cupcake challenge"

Two posts in two days??? Well, I had time to participate in Taylor's Cupcake Challenge this week, so I had to quickly post the card I made.

There's not much to say about the card - I think if you look at it, it's pretty self-explanatory. I don't actually have cupcake stuff, so you'll notice I never use cupcakes for the challenges... it's actually not a requirement for the challenges - it's just a theme that Taylor likes to use.

Anyways, that's all for today! Apparently we're re-organizing the office today, so I better go help :)

Needle Peak - best hike ever!!!

Yup, we even figure that this hike tops Cheam! What we liked best:

• it was fun to just get out there and do something like this
• it was an absolutely beautiful day
• there was a lot of variety - some steeper hiking in a forested area, nice walks along the tops of ridges as we made our way over to the peak, and best of all - rock climbing! it was the kind that didn't require any climbing gear - and it was so fun!
• incredible views!! we saw Baker and all the coastal mountain ranges - and to the other side you could see the more "rolling hills" of the okanagan.

There was still quite a bit of snow up there - so that provided a bit of an extra challenge - especially on the way down as we totally lost the trail and ended up having to do a bunch of bushwhacking as we tried to find the trail again!

It really was a great day - we'd recommend this hike to anyone!

That's the peak! ------------------------ Some steep parts... ------------------- Some snowy steep parts...

See the "chimney" on the right? ------ That's what we climbed up! ------------ Sitting right on the peak