Cue the marching band

Well, we survived Grey Cup weekend in our own city.  The result:

A great outcome.  Since you probably already knew that the Lions won, in their own city after starting the season 0 and 5 I will give you a sample of the festivities leading up to the game.

We did the usual party rooms.  Ian doesn't travel to any of these parties without his crash helmet, which inevitably everyone has on their head at some point during the night:

Yes, that's me getting kicked around and roughed up.

Dan had his turn and didn't get nearly as roughed up:

You're number one.

We attended the Grey Cup parade.  Typical Vancouver weather resulted in us standing around for two hours in these:

Like those orange toes you see, don't ya!

Lots more crazy stuff went on this weekend, which you won't see here.  I will however give you a peek of game day preparations.  Game day always seems to start to early due to late nights the night before.  However, the guys managed to get their make up done in time for us to head down for more fun before the game:

The pictures are a little out of focus (although the guy on the left looks like he's been added in after the fact!)

Once the boys had their war paint on, we headed out on transit for a ride downtown that got us a lot of odd looks.  That might be because the men looked like this:

How come nobody wants to sit with me?

And looked like this:

And, our Grey Cup virgin, who looked like this:

Once we got downtown it was all good.  They blended right in with the crowd.  No make up for me this game - my hand wasn't very steady that early in the day.

After some socializing with a great bunch of people, it was down to business.  Can you please stand and remove your hats for the singing of Canada's national anthem.

I won't say it was the outcome we all wanted.  Our Edmonton fan friend is still crying.  He's blaming it on a little bit of beer that got sprayed on his prized Ricky Ray jersey but we all know he can't get over the *ss kicking his team got in the western final.  GET OVER IT.

A very expensive but great weekend as a result of:

and

and the rest of the BC Lions.

Only seven months before next season starts.  That will give Edmonton lots of time to get over the spilled beer and their loss.

I am such a girl

Yeah, I know, I have been a girl for, well err, since day one.  However, I did not think I was that much of a girl.  You will see what I mean soon. 

Recently that lovely husband of mine and I went and got me that ATV that I've been wanting.  I did not go with his brand but got me a Yamaha - probably far too big and powerful for me.  That will change, at least I'm determined to prove that it is not too big and powerful for me. 

So, here's my new ride:

See, even the dog thinks it is far to mean to get close to!

So, we arrive at our wonderland in November and unload.  I take the beast out on the gravel road and think to myself  'hmm, this fun'.  Don't forget that I mentioned I was ON THE ROAD.  It is flat.  I return when I can't feel my fingers anymore (did I mention it was November) and Dan decides he would like to try the beast:




See ya all real soon.

 The next day we headed out on the bikes together and I'm thinking to myself 'gosh, this will be fun'.  Yeah, wake up lady - not so much.  This is where the 'girl' thing comes in.  We got out on the trail beside the property and it wasn't long before the husband started thinking to himself  'what have I gotten myself into'.  At the same time I was thinking 'what the HELL have I gotten MYSELF into'.  I don't want to mislead you into thinking the husband took me on some hard core trails.  We were on what most probably think were easy going trails.

I preferred this speed:

I could not adjust to the shifting sinking feeling - leftsidedipdown, rightsidedipdown, reallydeeptotheleft.  We rode for a bit (a short bit according to the husband) and I managed to get up and back down a hill that was iced up before husband says 'okay, come on, i will take you to an easy trail'. He was somewhat having fun and hoping to extend the ride:

I will end this part of the story on the trip by saying that the trail here looks nice - looks can be deceiving.  And the ride to our friend's place on the 'easy' trail resulted in "if I wanted to walk out in the bush I would have left the bike at home".  Yes, he who loves me most had to get off his bike, walk up a hill and ride mine down cuz I was a 'girl'.  Later that day I suggested to one of our neighbors that I should have gone out riding with her.  Her reply - just get on the damn thing and eff'ing ride it!  Yup, time to suck it up and stop being a girl.  The weather changed and we didn't get much riding in after that.

Back at a neighbor's one afternoon, we watched a storm move in. The day was beautiful but you could see the dark approaching.  We were by the lake and it was a good afternoon - for November:

That lake is starting to get iced over.  Fortunately, we were there for a fire.  Not a fire like us city folk build such as:

We have a good size fire pit according to city standards.  However, those that live in the 'boo have different ideas when it comes to a fire:

As you can see above, people were moving away from the heat.  It really makes the whole 'go big or go home' saying make sense.  It was just serious heat:

Brooke was happy to be invited over for the fire.  She got to see her Hwy 24 beau before his hair got messed up by the snow:

Shaggy is twice her size, and we don't live with a small dog!  He is a gentle giant.  However, the 'no fun police' dogs that were also present didn't allow them to play much.  Once the snow started falling, this is what the big dogs resorted to:




Honey, u still there?

 The snow started on day two of our trip.  By mid afternoon of day three I was starting to get worried because although it was not coming down hard, it had not stopped.

Then one morning I spied tracks in the driveway.  Very hard to get a picture of but oh so interesting to look at:

As I said, the snow wasn't stopping.  Then the power went out.  We are city folk - no power is NOT  a good thing.  We tried to wait it out but decided when the batteries on the trailer we starting to get low that we needed to drain water and winterize while we could.  When Dan was nearly done that project, the power came back - but the snow didn't stop:

I would really like to preserve that tree, in that state, bring it home and set it up in my living room for Christmas.