So much to share!

The last week has been incredibly busy and I'm still somewhat overwhelmed by everything that needs doing right now so I will post further on everything very soon.

But the most recent and exciting news for us...;
Last night we crossed the border into Canada (yes we'd left - confusing but thats what comes of talking about the most recent happenings first!). We are now proud owners of Work Permits valid for 2 years - we are overjoyed!! This is the first step (big step) in our dream to living in Canada. We are no longer tourists, we are legal workers (heaven forbid!!)!! And can stay and make progress on setting up our new lives here. Happy, happy people here - we've been jumping up and down doing the happy dance all day! The whole process took us a couple of hours waiting around at the border crossing whilst the immigration officers figured out what/how to do the paperwork and $300 later we drove off. It was a late night - we didn't cross into Canada until 10.30pm and drove most of the way back to Kelowna - stopping at 2.30am in the morning for our nights sleep before heading home the final stretch in the morning - and delivering Chris to WORK for his first official day! Hurrah!

So that's the big news for us - can you sense the HUGE smile on my face whilst I write this?!

In other news....I've just got back from an amazing 4 days in Arizona at Creative Escape - I will be posting more and photos later, and the weekend before we spent more awesome days on a 3 day motorbiking trip to the Kootenays - photos coming for that too!

Rod Stewart in Kelowna

I have to say - Rod ROCKED it!!

It was a bit of a last minute decision but I'm really glad we went. When we arrived the gates hadn't even opened and already a long queue snaked its way through city park, but once we got in we positioned ourselves right up against the barrier at the front of the general admission area and settled down for a nap (gates opened at 5 and nothing happened till 6.45!). I thought nothing more of it - our position seemed reasonable enough....it was only MUCH later that evening during the concert that I looked behind us - there was just a SEA of people - and it was then I realised just what a plum spot we had!! :-)

The Kin (some Aussie band) played as support - I thought they were pretty good actually - very listenable music (often when it's not familiar music its difficult to get 'into' it I think.)

Rod strutted his stuff for 1 3/4 hours - belting out lots of his classic hits - D'ya think I'm sexy?, Maggie May, Some guys have all the luck, and during a rendition of Hot Legs he was using those 'hot legs' to kick footballs out into the crowd. It was a great, entertaining evening and the few spots of rain didn't dampen any spirirts.
(and I have to say I'm pleased as heck with this photo taken with our zoom lens!)

CE Quote Swap

In just a week and half now I'm off to Creative Escape in Phoenix. I'm so excited to be going, but it is the new friends from the yahoo group I'm most excited about finally meeting. The past 2 or 3 months we've been chatting, taking part in various swaps and sending each other RAKs (random acts of kindness - basically fun little gifts) in the mail. It's really added to the excitement of the event and has helped the time go by much quicker. I've taken part in several of the swaps - some have been exchanged by mail and some will be at the event. This week I got my 'Quote cards' back from the hostess. Everyone had to make 10 identical cards with their chosen quote - they would then be sent to the hostess and swapped back out so you'd get 10 different cards back - I did 2 sets of 10 so I got 20 different cards back. And here they are...

aren't they all gorgeous?! Constantly amazed at the creativity of the group - I love them all and will treasure them! and thank you Sunny for hosting this great swap!

Center of Gravity fesitval

A couple of weeks back already we headed down to the city park, right on the lakeshore for the Center of Gravity festival. All through the summer Kelowna hosts so many fesitvals and events and we thought we really should check some of them out! Center of Gravity was all about being on the beach with loads of sports demos and competitions and entertainment. We turned up in time for the bikini competition (and we know whose in charge of transportation in this household?! Furthermore from the collage below I'm sure you can figure out who was on camera duty during most of the afternoon - he lost interest when the bare-chested biker dudes started strutting their stuff!) In the evening Bif Naked was live on stage. Apparently she's quite popular here in Canada....if you're partial to a bit of ear-bleeding....we'd actually spotted her buying a latte in Starbucks 1/2 hour before she went on stage - not that we had the faintest idea who she was at that point!

It really was some awesome stuff! However I can't get the hang of all this new 'youngsters' language - actually according to the commentator of the freestyle biking it wasn't awesome at all - it was in fact 'sick'.....yep - they were 'throwing down some sick tricks man'.....okaaaaay....

...I'll be the one in line for my free bus pass.