February 2016

It has been a very eventful month for Ken and I. We started it off by celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary. My how the time flies: we were married in Ken’s parents’ living room with a total of eighteen people in attendance. My brother Jim who is a pastor preformed the ceremony in the early evening on February 7^th 1976. Fast forward to today. Ken and I have had a pretty wonderful life together raising our two beautiful daughters. Like most marriages, it has had its ups and downs but we have been very fortunate that we have always landed on our feet.
It turned out to be a full weekend of celebrating with family and of course time for just the two of us. Friday evening, our extended family joined us for dinner at the Olympia Greek Taverna. The food there is always superb and it was the best place to go as they welcome children and our young grandsons were with us as well. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the service was excellent.

Ken and I spent Saturday being lazy and just enjoying the beautiful February day. Mid afternoon, we drove up to Sparkling Hill Resort. Our daughters’ anniversary gift to us was an overnight stay and dinner for two at the Peak Fine Restaurant . What a beautiful place to stay. We had a lake view room and the two of us started out by sitting with a glass of wine staring out at the lake. There was a helicopter pad right below us so it was fun to watch it take off. This is a wellness spa and we made full use of the saunas and pools. I especially liked the salt steam sauna. I know you aren’t supposed to stay in each one very long, but it was hard to leave that one. It was just soooo relaxing sitting there in the dark with all the steam around me. Another favourite of mine was the igloo. Talk about one extreme to another. I didn’t last as long in the igloo as the temperature was about -10 Celsius. Ken wouldn’t come in that one at all. “I’ll meet you in the swimming pool.” He said. Ken loved the outdoor pool and that’s where I found him. Imagine swimming out doors in the Okanagan in February. I never thought I would do that and to see Ken do it was even more incredible .

Unfortunately, we had to cut our time short in the spa as our dinner reservation was for 6:30. I would recommend that anyone doing that should eat later as you probably wouldn’t feel like going back to the spa after dinner anyway unless you were interested in the European Hour. That’s between 9:00 and 10pm. Ken wouldn’t take that in.

Dinner was amazing. We started with a salad. Ken had a Caesar that looked wonderful, and I had mixed greens with a lovely dressing. Sorry, I can’t remember what kind it was. For the entree, we both chose the prime rib. It was cooked to perfection and we really enjoyed it. We sat for two hours over dinner just relaxing and reminiscing over forty years of marriage. We’ve been through it all.

The next morning we went back to the dining room for brunch which is included with the stay and enjoyed most of what was offered. After that, we went back to the spa and spent another couple of hours there before we regretfully had to check out.

When we got home, we didn’t feel like doing much, in fact, I took a nap. The spas were so draining and relaxing. When I woke up, we turned on the Super Bowl game. Not really something Ken and I are interested in but we found ourselves watching just about all of it. I loved the half time show.

Thank goodness the next day was a holiday as I know Ken sure wasn’t ready to go back to work. It was a pretty incredible weekend.

The next weekend of course was Valentine’s Day. Many years ago, when Ken’s Mom was alive, she had what she referred to as her Love In. For several years Mom would always bake two chocolate cakes and have all her grandchildren over to decorate them for Valentine’s Day. She made it a competition but of course, it was always a tie. Lisa decided to continue the tradition and now she throws a party for all the little ones in the family. This is one of the master pieces from this year. All the children had a great time and it was fun watching all the adults enjoy themselves as well. 

The rest of the month was very busy with appointments and parties.