Busy weekend

Feels like we've done a lot this weekend. Yesterday got off to a slow start but after meeting Nicole and Michael at Granville Island for lunch we went to MEC where we spent a small fortune on all sorts of backpacking goodies. We got a super small and light stove and a fuel canister, a water pump, a new thermorest for Luke, 2 chairs (fabric frame that turns your thermorest into a seat), a headlamp for Luke and some clothes. I got a pair of hiking pants and a hat and Luke got some pants and some new shorts and socks too.

We came back home and Michael and Luke embarked on a mission to make a lantern for Illuminaries. This was at about 5:30 and the festival started at 7pm. Using a microwave/fan combo, they mangaged to get it dry and it actually looked pretty cool. We scooted over to Trout Lake park for the festival just after 7. I wasn't really feeling up to being out and about so I came home early and played with our new camping toys and went through our wedding photos. I'd been feeling a bit bummed about our photos since so many people at work are getting married and their photos all look so professional. We made the decision not to hire a photographer and now if I had to do it all over again, that is the one thing I'd dish out the extra cash for. I'm glad I went through the photos and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm definitely not anything close to a photo editing pro, but I think I did an ok job.

This morning I was up early to go to Mysore. Home at 9:30, I woke Luke up around 10 and he made a fantastic breakfast. Did a bit of tidying and reading and decided to do a bit of a fridge clean-out. I made a huge pot of vegetable stew which will be great for lunches this week. I found a recipe for pickled red onions and made that too. I made some pesto for the first time too, that sure was easy. For dinner we had a pesto orzo salad with sundried tomatoes and pine nuts, sauteed mushrooms and peppers and marinated halibut.

I was going to make a couple desserts from my new vegan cookbook but when I made the pie on Friday, a bunch of berry juice oozed out and spilled all over the bottom of the oven. I turned it on to heat up tonight and it got pretty smoky so I'm running it through the self-clean now instead. Tomorrow I'll do the desserts. I've got to use up the frozen bananas that I'm accumulating in the freezer! I have a recipe for a berry crumble bar and a banana cake bar and I think with all the zucchini that will shortly be coming out of my garden we are going to be seeing a lot of zucchini bread. Mmm, banana zucchini bread with chocolate chips.

Just waiting for Nicole to stop by quickly and then I'm off to bed! Have a good week!