Well, I've been back since late Sunday.  I have no excuse for not posting except to say I've been lazy.  Extremely lazy.  Apparently the older I get the more I realize I need a vacation to recover from the vacation.  Or at least to recover from the marathon 11 hour jaunt in the car to get home.  Man that drive home, while beautiful, is brutal.  We once again hit the Okanagon Valley for holidays.  Man I love that place.  The sunshine wasn't as co-operative for us this year, lots of cloud cover and some rain, but we still had a wonderful holiday.  We did some beaching, some reading (I finished this one...review tomorrow)

and got a good start on this one

We did some of this...

and lots of eating.  Lots and lots of eating.  Who can resist all those orchards and the delicious fruit stands everywhere?

Anyway, I'll do a better post at a later time.  Right now I'm trying to get back to work mode.  It's not going so well I must admit.  My heart and mindset is still back in Kelowna. 

Friday's Fave Five #206

Hello!  It's Friday and I'm excited to be back at FFF.  I've missed you all and I totally missed reading all your favorites from last week.  It's been a crazy busy week this last week.  I haven't even had a chance to wind down from holidays and I was right back to work.  And on top of that I've been unloading kitchen cupboards and trying to find where to temporarily put everything.  Hubby's been tearing out the old cupboards and fixing the walls in readiness of the new ones.  While he's doing that I've been trying to amuse and feed the dayhome kids without a kitchen.  It's been....interesting.  Yes, we shall use the word interesting. But moving back to FFF,  here's guidelines if you need them.  

1.  Of course, family holidays are at the top of my list for the last week.  I'll never take for granted that my grown kids still enjoying come with us on a holiday.  We went back to beautiful Okanagan Valley, made the city of Kelowna home base and went adventuring out from there.  Beautiful, beautiful area.  I can't get enough of it.

2.  Biking the Kettle Valley Trestles.  What an incredible ride.  A brutal forestry road drive of 8 kms brings us to these amazing railway trestles that you can now hike and bike over.  We really wanted to bike it, because we like biking and because we wanted to go all 24 kms (12 kms each way).  So glad we did.

The views were stunning.  That's the city of Kelowna in the valley in the background.

Trestles we'd already passed over.

One of the longer curved trestles.

One of several tunnels.

And yes, we are those people that can't leave the dog behind.  And why yes, that is a baby carrier he is in.  He loved every minute and didn't protest once.  Actually the hotel won't let you leave a pet behind for so long when you're so far away and it was too hot to leave him in the car so we had to get creative if we wanted to bike it.

How else could I get this great shot of best friends.

3.  Ziplining in Peachland.  Whoo hoo, I did it.  On the highest zipline in north America, third highest in the world.  So much fun!  I'd do it again in a minute.

I was a tad nervous on the first one.  Can you tell?

But I stepped off and did it.  Proof right here.

4.  Beach time.  Visited our favorite beach in Summerland.  Soaked up some sun, water and read almost 3 books over the holiday.  Perfect!

5.  Finding an awesome little family restaurant.  Part of the fun of holidaying is all the eating out.  I'm just being honest here  It's a favorite thing to do as a family.  We stopped along the highway after ziplining just outside of Peachland at this cute little restaurant that we've passed by every time we visit the Okanagan.  It's right on the highway with the lake right in front of them.  English pub food the sign said so we gave it a try.  Oh my goodness.  What a hidden treasure.  We ate on the patio, the owner even let us take the dog out there, one table was just finishing up and didn't mind. My oldest & I ordered spinach, mushroom and brie pie, Youngest ordered chicken, leek, tarragon pie, son ordered Pigs wings, and Hubby ordered fish and chips.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  We went back the next day after the beach because we just had to try their awesome sounding burgers.  And we weren't disappointed.  Yummy.  I noticed the menu is a bit different on the link, more English stuff like lamb in the shepard's pie, not beef, and more burger choices but you get the idea.  

update:  Here's what Pig's Wings are, from a link on the internet.  I didn't take a pic cause my camera was in the car.

And I haven't even mentioned going to the orchards, eating enough peaches to feed a small country, shopping, walking and enjoying quiet down time at the hotel while the kids made good use of the indoor and outdoor pools.  Sigh.  I love holidays when we can get away somewhere.

What have been your favorites this week?  Please link on if you do an FFF post!

Fun, fun, fun

Remember what I did last year on holidays?  A reminder in case you don't remember:

Well, this is what I did this year, but before you run the video I just want to make a disclaimer.  If one is going for a fashion statement, harnesses are not the way to go.  If one is looking to make it across a canyon with a bear in it,  351 feet high in the air, then one will overlook the unflattering things they do.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

(Highest zip line in North America, 3rd highest in the world as of 2012.  351 ft over a beautiful canyon)

Friday's Fave Five #154

Hi Everyone!  Thanks for excusing me my lack of a post last week.  I didn't have my computer because I was on holidays and I was unplugging.  I borrowed hubby's laptop but couldn't get to my buttons or anything.  Oh well.  It still looked like a great number of you carried it for me and played along.  Thanks for that!

Like I said, last week we were on vacation.  In the beautiful, sunny, wine country of Okanagon.  So beautiful. I've got my heart thinking I'd love to retire there.  Better start saving my shekels.  But anyway, in that vein my faves are going to be about the vacation.

1.  Family Time all wrapped up in a getaway.  I'm so thankful to still go on a holiday with this great bunch of people who have my heart.

I'm under no illusions that this is a great blessing.  The chance to get away as a whole family is something I greatly appreciate.  I know many "kids" 21 and 19, and sometimes even 16, don't want to go with Mom and Dad on a holiday.  My kids still want to be with us and for that, I am so thankful.


2.  Guts.  Yes, the guts to knock this little activity off my bucket list.

 I've been wanting to do it for, about 28 years.  And I finally did.

It was worth the wait.  And I'd do it again in a minute.  So smooth and peaceful and not scary at all.

3.  Fruit in Abundance.  One thing that makes the Okanagan valley so amazing is all the fruit orchards.  Miles and miles of them.  Fruit stands everywhere.  And what we really enjoy doing together is picking our own fruit.  This time we picked peaches.  There is nothing like fruit that you picked yourself.  Fun and yummy.

4.  Mountains and being in the midst of them.  Though the drive home was an 11 hour affair done in one stint, it took us through the amazing Canadian Rocky Mountains.  There are breathtaking.  They are big, and rocky and majestic.  I just can't stop taking pictures of them.  Even though I'm doing in a car that's whipping on down the highway.

5.  Relax Time.  Plenty of down time.  Swimming in the motel pool.  Reading in the pool chairs.  Sitting on several of the many beaches in the Okanagan Valley.  Reading on my towel.  Swimming in the lakes. Reading in the car.   Eating more cherries than any sane person would do at any time except on vacation in the orchards.  Trying new restaurants.  Taking walks.  Exploring streams.  Sitting in the hot springs.  Sigh.  One week was not near enough.  But I'm so thankful for that one week!

Our family doesn't go on a big getaway every year but I'm so thankful this was one year that we did.  What were your favorites from this last week?  Share in a post and don't forget to link on up so we can visit.  If you're new, please read the guidelines first and then jump right in and join us!

I Need More Vacation

As you can tell, I stepped away from the computer for this last week.  And instead of doing so much of this

I was doing a bit of this:

Just a tad of this:

Some of this:

A bunch of this:

And a whole lotta this:

but I was most thrilled with doing this:  

Yes, that's really me up there.  Let me show you:

Tis me on the left.  
Anyway, now I just want to do this:

I need a vacation to recover from the vacation.