Grateful Friday!!

View of Mt. Baker from eastern Vancouver island

Sealife near Campbell River

Whew, what a crazy few days. I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to sit down here and post away. It's crazy having house guests, isn't it?! The inlaws are our first official ones, so we're still learning I think. Being back home in Vancouver, in our house, has mellowed us all out a bit, which is great. The parents have been going off on adventures of their own, while R got back to work and I spent my first morning at my new job! I think we all needed a bit of space. The new job looks wonderful! No day will be the same, I'll be busy, and have a wide variety of tasks to do, so I think it's going to be interesting and give me a chance to learn a lot, be creative, and meet all sorts of people. I've got a headache from information overload, but I love it!! I got to go out for lunch with my office to say goodbye to the woman in my place, and say hello to me - it was brilliant! How are you all doing?!!
The trip was full of lovely long drives down new roads, beautiful trees just on the edge of turning colour, small communities and very nice people, and it was such a treat to just be free. It felt a lot like Nova Scotia, where I grew up, which was a nice surprise. It didn't make me home sick, just happy to be around something so beautiful, so bizarrely familiar. It felt like "real Canada - but I don't know what I mean by that exactly! Tofino was our favorite place - went on a whale watching trip. Loved being on a boat in the sunshine, we even saw a bunch of grey whales! The beaches out there are gorgeous, so alive, so vibrant. Eating dinner on the beach with R, watching the sunset, the amazing colours and just having time together. I'm so going to go sea kayaking and surfing when we go back. And we are SO going back there.

Victoria surprised us, after having been there a couple times and not really enjoying it very much. It was a great city to walk around in, had a real downtown core to explore, and a beautiful harbour. It helped that it was a magical sunny day too. We had a great meal out for G's birthday, he was quite chuffed anyways. Stayed in a wonderful heritage house owned by the backpackers, so we each had our own suite - highly recommended if you ever go to Victoria!! Ocean Island Suites. All the places we stayed were wonderful actually. We did well! Time flew by, especially once I came down with the cold - felt like my head was literally in a bubble. But it didn't damper things too much, only meant I used a lot of kleenex!!

Coming home was a treat as well - we've never been away from our place that long before, so nice to come back home. Life is in transition once again, but that's life right? Crazy to think it's almost October, but I'm really looking forward to the trees beautiful colour show - expect many photos. I'm like Ruby and Meg, fall is a new year for me much more than January. I love this time of year.

Missed my first grateful list last week, so this one may be a bit longer than usual - bare with me.
This week I am grateful for:

• my wonderful R and his patience and getting to have some quality time together, away
• my inlaws, even when they drive me batty! bless them
• our lovely little flat
• traveling and seeing new places
• Tofino
• the BC ferries
• sunshine, sunshine, sunshine
• Indian Summer
• the coming fall colours
• bookstores
• Vancouver
• Vancouver Island
• my mom - happy belated birthday! glad she was born, really
• Grey's Anatomy
• soft kleenex
• the internet - for helping us plan our adventure
• rental cars - love the freedom of wheels, cannot wait to buy our own one day
• the air mattress we're sleeping on
• my new job and the people I'm going to be working with/for
• our camera
• being on a boat on the water
• long walks on the beach, even getting sun kissed
• sunsets
• time away from reality
• not thinking about work at all - old or new - for a whole week
• being able to show off where we live - and man, it's gorgeous!!
• being lucky to have seen a lot of the world and experienced so many things - having stretched my comfort zone so many times and getting to learn so much about myself and the world
• the sound of children laughing
• Granville Island, my yoga studio, my art store, and getting to learn what other fabulous places are over there
• my new commute on the ferry across False Creek
• my old crap job for helping me find this community and my creativity again
• getting real letters in the mail
• being able to wear flipflops still
• my new clothes for work
• change
• acceptance and letting go
• family

Wow, I'll stop now, don't want anyone to fall asleep reading this! Weekend full of tour guiding ahead for us, might head up to the mountains. Hope you all have a good one!