a little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Where to start... well this weekend, I wasn't home... hubby and I went to our nation's capital - Ottawa for a little business and a little pleasure... He had stuff to do, and I got to tag along and play tourist!

Here are just a few pictures from our weekend, we took way too many to include here.

Us on Friday afternoon in front of the Parliament building...

On Saturday, hubby had business to attend to, but Saturday evening landed us at the Hungarian Embassy for a reception... I found some lovely needlework while there too and thought I would share it...

A lovely little lace doiley, not sure of which region it is from, but I thought it was so pretty and delicate.

A needlepoint picture of one of the Kings of Hungary, it looks like it was done with wool, and it was very beautifully done when you looked at it up close.

On Sunday, we had time to play tourist before our flight home, so we went back to the Parliament buliding and took the tour there. It was great! My favourite place was the Parliamentary Library. Such a beautiful and breathtaking room! I could just sit there for hours not doing anything but enjoying its beauty! Too bad its not open to the public, other than as part of the tour.

Isn't this card catalogue just breath taking!

Last but certainly not least, since it was Sunday and March 4th it was also time to start our last girl in the Carriage House Series - Suzannah... Well we got home fairly late - around 10:30pm from the airport, but since it was the day to start her, I did just that!

I didn't get much done, but I did manage to put a few stitches and lengths of thread in... here is my small little progress on her apron...

Hopefully next Sunday I'll have more progress to show on her!

an escape from the city... picture heavy

After my last post on Wednesday, my dear hubby called and said he doesn't need to work till next week so let's see if we can still get a room at the hot springs and head out for a few days... so I called booked a room, and off we went!

We had a great couple of days and here are some pictures from our little mini get away...

canada day revisited (picture heavy)

I totally forgot to mention that on Canada Day, my hubby and I decided last minute that we would head out for a little mini vacation. It was a very last minute decision, as we decided right on the morning of Canada day - I think our saving grace for being able to get a hotel room, was the fact that the holiday fell on a Wednesday this year.

Anyways, we decided to head out to Fairmont Hot Springs for a couple of days... here are some pictures of our trip... (click to biggify the pictures)

Some of the mountains - you can see the devestation from the 2003-2004 fires, as well as all the beautiful new growth as the forest is literally reborn in front of you. I love driving through the mountains, they just take my breath away no matter how many times I've been before.

Some pictures from the view from our room.

Some of the Canada day fireworks...

I've also included a video of the finale part of the fire works...

And last but not least another mountain shot from the drive home - Castle mountain - my favourite mountain.

a weekend in the mountains - picture heavy

A group of 7 of us went out to Banff for the weekend and had a fantastic time. We had a great place to stay (despite the construction going on), went for a walk, had a spa afternoon and went out for a fantastic Japanese(aka sushi) dinner. We laughed, we ate,we drank (even me) and we played poker and yahtzee. All round it was a fantastic weekend for fun and relaxing. I believe we all had a good time and we really need to do it again sometime soon.



The first 4 pictures are from the drive up, of the beautiful mountains, next up the view from our room, then getting ready for dinner (I didn't get to help right away, as I was still in the poker game - I did loose shortly after though), then a few from our walk before it got too dark to take pictures. We also have a group shot (hubby's missing as he's the photographer) from after the spa afternoon, but before dinner - of course I'm the only one who's got the spa hair going on but oh well, it was worth it! And last but not least a shot of the guys.

Summer adventures (picture heavy)

Things have been busy the last little while, my nieces from Hungary are here visiting and from June 27 till July 6th they were with me. They are with my other niece this week and then next week my SIL and then sometime after that back here with me before they head back home.



I took a few days vacation so I could be with them and do stuff, so needless to say we've been busy! For the long weekend we all went down to Fairmont hot springs (click for more pictures) and had a great time playing in the pool all day long and visiting with friends who were there as well. We met up with a bunch of wildlife on the way down - including many deer, mountain goats, a young moose as well as this guy ...






I couldn't get a good picture of him as my camera lens seemed to fog up a bit from the humidity or something becuase all the pictures I took are fuzzy. I didn't get any pool action shots as I was in the water as well, but here is the view from our room. We had a fantastic time and the weather was great as well -we all got a little colour.





















Next up was Canada day, and my previous post showed our stitching progress but here are the girls in action














The next day was a very busy and fun filled day for us, we headed out to Butterfield Acres - a petting farm here in the city. It was fun, I've never been before either so it was all new to me as well. Afterwards we went to Cochrane for a nice lunch and then we went pottery painting. We had a whole group of us, as my three neices, my neice's husband and my great nephew as well as one of my best friend's and her son came along as well.

























That Thursday hubby and I took the girls to up to the top of the Calgary tower and then afterwards it was the start of the Stampede, so we headed down for the sneak-a-peek (Stampede's official opening was the following day)

















Friday I had day off as the girls had a day with Granpa and they went to Drumheller for the day to check out the dinosaurs.



















Saturday during the day was just relaxing at home and then later family came over for dinner and Sunday was pretty much the same except after dinner the girls went home with my oldest niece.