Happy Birthday To ME!!!

Several years ago my sisters and I went to Canada for my birthday. We only had one night to spend and it's one our favorite memories!

So it has become one of our traditions to go to Canada for my birthday, this year (as with the first) it happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day. While many of you were stuffing yourselves with turkey and ham and sweet potatoes -- J,C and I were playing in Canadia!!

We started our adventure in Seattle on Wednesday. My sistas picked me up from school and we headed out. Our destination was a place called Costas Opa! a greek restaurant that came highly recommended. We're greek, we love food, we love greek food and this place was YUMMY!!!! We took pics of all of the food we consumed on this trip. I guess we could rename this blog "All the food we ate and LOVED!" anyway, after a quick visit to the Seattle Troll, we had the most delicious tyropitakia. I also got free birthday baklava. We then met Aunt Debi, Sunny and Dakota for a second chance at TWILIGHT!

tyropitakia





I LOVED IT!!!!! it really was better the second time.

Well, we slept for a couple of hours and woke up to Aunt Debi cooking us delicious breakfast, including a small birthday cake!

We drove to Canadia. Mr. Grumpy was at the gate, but let us into Canada for the night. After checking in, we went to Granville Island for lunch. I think it was the best lunch we ever had. We found bits and bites from the different stands in the market. Some greek olives, feta cheese, hummus, rosemary bread and cheese and pepperoni... I am hungry just thinking about it!






We took a drive through Stanley Park on our way to Grouse Mountain. They have this really great gondola/cable car that takes you a mile up to the top of the mountain. Once there, we took advantage of the offerings at the chalet. Meaning, we watched a couple movies on their "IMAX style" theater. yeah, not IMAX... not even close... anyway, it is right before ski season and if it weren't for the convention going on, i think we would have been the only ones there. They have 2 grizzly bears that live on the mountain and we were sooooooo excited to see them. They said it was only a 5 minute walk... we went on the bear hunt and came up empty handed. Well, not completely... we found some MONSTER large statues of sports guys overlooking the ski resort. We wandered until we could wander no more and then C and I went ICE SKATING!!!! It had been FOREVER since either of us had gone. True confession-- I used what I call the "ice walker" for the first few rounds. There was nothing else to hold onto. We held hands and skated like we were kids again. Then headed in for some hot chocolate and spiced cider. We had an extra treat of a gospel choir to serenade us.


After out mountain adventure, we headed to dinner. Our choice was a Malaysian place called the Banana Leaf. YUM! fried bananas and ice cream for birthday/thanksgiving.



After our usual toasting time when we got back to the hotel, We CRASHED hard. I totally forgot to open my birthday presents.

We headed home the next morning and we planned on NOT going to Seattle, but as we were driving through, there was an accident and looooong delays, so we went to Pike's Market for a bit. SO FUN!!!


I love the adventures that I get to take, especially the ones that I take with my sistas!

NKOTB Obsession!!!

SISTAS!

20 Years BABY!!


We all heard the the New Kids were back. After hearing about the reunion tour, I debated on getting some tickets. I know someone that could get me some tix to the Rose Garden and thought I would try that connection to get some seats. I couldn't afford much, so if that didn't work out I wasn't gonna cry about it. But about a month or so ago my friend Jill went to the NKOTB concert in New Jersey. Immediately after the concert, she bought floor seats to the D.C. show! After hearing how AWESOME the show was, I made an effort to find some tix.

Jen and Breezy and I are celebrating our 20th Anniversary! We have been best friends for 20 years and I don't know what I would do without them. We decided we had to do something BIG to celebrate. Caribbean cruise was the decision, but as is the way of life... other more important things came up, like foot surgery and car repairs. I convinced Breezy and Jen that NKOTB would be THE PERFECT 20th celebration. They weren't quite as convinced as I was, but they love me and we found $20 tix, so they relented. And boy are they SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad they did. B flew in from Houston and I flew from Oregon and we met Jen in SLC for the weekend.

There are no words to describe what happened at the concert. But I'll try to put a few together for you. It was like my 30 year old somewhat mature self was overcome by a SCREAMING 15 year old girl. I found myself jumping up and down screaming at the top of my lungs. At one point I thought I was gonna pass out, I had to sit down. It was so great to just react and be and not worry about the person next to you thinking you are a TOTAL FREAK... because they are doing the SAME THING!

I am a really lucky girl, cause not only was I there with my bff's, My sisters were there too! J converted C to the NKOTB fan base and they got tix with us. I got to sit in the middle, so MY GIRLS were on my right and MY SISTAS were on my left. IT WAS AMAZAZING! A perfect way to celebrate our BFF anniversary and a magnificent sister memory!


addendum ---- this concert was SO AMAZING that I went 2 more times!! I drove to Vancouver BC with a friend of a friend. We were in row 27 on the FLOOR!!!! I touched Donnie and Jonathan!!! *sigh* and toward the end of the show, I snuck up to the eighth row!!

I also went to the show in Tacoma with my girls from the 'Couve. I snuck onto the floor for the B stage show and touched Donnie and Joey AGAIN!!!!!

Enjoy the pics, and remember to breathe!