Sunday, December 17, 2006

Xmas shopping, a new 'do, and dinner at MidTown

Hello family and friends! Well this past weekend (not over yet, thank god - don't you just love weekends!) was another busy one for the Valliers, but all in all pretty good. Friday night was spent watching the Devil Wears Prada on DVD - a nice relaxing end to a long week. Sara had Jury Duty on Mon + Tues, a Montreal trip on Thursday (as she managed to not have to serve the entire week of Jury Duty - lucky girl!) - and Seth had a very busy week at work with his new branch and a work function he had to attend on Thursday night.

Saturday Seth had to work yet again, and Sara got up early to do her update on the Ultimate Survivor Pool blogsite she contributes to. That and some light housework, by 1pm she had to bust her butt down to Fiorio for her hair appointment - highlights and a cut in time for the holiday season - a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon! While Sara was getting her hair done, Seth was getting home from work and relaxing from the way-to-early-morning he had - then at 4pm we both met up at the Eaton Centre (Seth shopping - shocking!) to do some more xmas shopping - thank god we're almost done!

From shopping we headed straight to a new restaurant that recently opened in our 'hood - the old Summit House - now called the MidTown - it's a well-priced joint with good food - and a great wine list. That was enjoyable. After that we went home and watched yet another movie (Clerks II - Seth's pick) and made it a relatively early evening.

Today will be spent on the couch watching football for Seth, and Sara will be making up all the cookie tins/trays and finishing her xmas cards - we're late this year! And tonight - the season finale of Survivor - woo hoo! A great weekend all around for the Valliers...

Monday, December 11, 2006

Early xmas, baking, b-days and football

Wow - it was a crazy busy weekend for the Valliers! Seth had a quasi-bachelor party to attend that took him (with a gaggle of ganders) to Windsor + Detroit for a weekend of drinking, poker, football and much debauchery we can only assume. He arrived back home at 4:30am on Sunday night (Monday morning) and the poor guy is still tired - good thing that he had Monday off work!

Sara's weekend (which you'll get much more detail on, as I'm a girl, and really the only one of us that ever writes this blog...) was also super busy. She drove straight to Kingston from work on Friday night - making excellent time on the highway and getting to her Mom's around 8pm. It was Sara's Mom's 60th bday - so she got a new purse, some angels for the tree and a certificate for a girls' weekend all expenses paid by her lovely daughter ;) to Toronto. Yes, she's a spoiled mum.

After a couple of drinks and catching up, it was time to wrap A LOT of presents - we were doing Xmas early with Derek, Amy and the nieces on Saturday afternoon - and being the only grandchildren in the family (so far), they are S-P-O-I-L-E-D - and we love doing it. The next morning it was off to a girls brunch with Mom and her 3 closest friends at Ramekins, then straight off to Aunt Reta's for the Xmas celebrations. It seriously looked like Christmas exploded in that living room - and the nieces favourite phrase? I wanna open ANOTHER present! Well, I think after piles of clothes and toys, they got their fill. And Auntie Sara got the Aunt-of-the-year award for the My Little Pony castle + accessories - that was cool. Although I didn't win the contest of favourite clothing - that went to Mom and her picks of some fuzzy jumpers that were adorable. Don't you love pre-school fashionistas? They are so adorable!

Saturday evening was spent baking shortbread, then Mom did some more cookies on Sunday morning and our annual xmas baking extravaganza is finally DONE! That's our weekend in a nutshell - check back next week for more updates!

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Wow - where did the time go?

Once again we are very behind on posting our updates - so sorry people, but we'll do our best to get you all caught up on our lives very quickly...

The weekend of 17th Sara went to Kingston for the weekend as Liz was having another shower held for her there. Lisa D - another of Liz's bridesmaids was holding it at her parents' house - long time friends + neighbours of the Prices. It was a fun shower - and again a late night - who knew bridal showers could be so dangerous? It was a great time had by all and gladly the showers are now done - it's just the dangerous-nous of the impending bachelorette that we have to worry about now!

The following weekend (the 24th) was a chance for Sara and Seth to kick back and relax a little, with no big plans and lots of interest in doing nothing. Friday was spend watching a movie, then the gym in the morning on Saturday and later that afternoon, Sara had a lunch/shopping date with a friend while Seth cleaned the house. Sat night was spent at the movies with friends, and Sunday was a busy day of football-watching for Seth and chocolate-making for Sara. Overall a productive, but relaxing, weekend.

This past weekend has been (so far) just about the same. Friday spent staying in - watching part of a movie - that is until our TV died. Saturday's agenda for Sara included a lot more Xmas baking and for Seth - a trip to Best Buy to get a new TV. Although he seemed quite determined to come back with only a slightly larger tv - of course, what was he dragging through the door an hour later? Yup, a 37" LCD - oh well, we can view it as an investment.

Saturday night was the annual Caribbean Christmas Blocko at friends', Rob & Vone's - it's always a blast, although for some reason this year seemed a little more tame than previous years. Today (Sunday) we both got up early, watch some TV and then Sara went shopping for the nieces' xmas presents and Seth got started on his football-watching.

Wow - reading this over, our lives sound pretty boring - and repetitive. Well - I guess that's what happens when you get older... ;)

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sex and the Kitchen

This weekend was the bridal shower that I hosted for my best friend Liz - preparations started on Friday night, getting a lot of the food prepared and the house decorated. Lisa Deir came over with her roommate to help on Friday night, which was much appreciated and reward with many glasses of wine - ouch.

The day of the shower was pretty hectic - there was a lot of things to do with very little time until the 3:30pm start time, but with Lisa's help it all got done - thank you thank you thank you Lisa - your help was essential - I never could have done it without you! Melissa came over slightly early too - so she helped a tonne as well - it's great friends we have! The theme was "Sex and the Kitchen" - a play on our fave show, Sex and the City, so the food was all cocktail munchies and there was an assortment of flirtinis and rasptinis - very yummy - see below for the recipes.

Desert was meant to be fruit + ladyfingers with a chocolate fondue - the only thing was that none of us getting everything ready had ever used a fondue pot before - so the fondue turned into a fondon't. Yup, we filled the butane to high, and there was an out of control fire under the pot - so the chocolate burnt and the fire would not go out - funny now that I look back on it, but very stressful at the time while everyone was arriving and the phone was ringing off the hook with the buzzer etc. So desert turned into just plain fruit - oh well, at least we had a lot of it!

With the theme, everyone was asked to bring a gift for the bedroom and a gift for the kitchen that were related. Liz got some great gifts - a French Maid's outfit - that was hilarious! Some female 'bedroom' appliances and then coordinating utensils for the kitchen, a toaster and then a cozy bathrobe (to keep her 'toasty') - everyone was very imaginative and Liz got some great stuff for both rooms of her house!

Well, that was pretty much the weekend - poor Seth had to work on Saturday, and since his home was filled with women for the entire afternoon (and late into the evening) he ended up going to Greg's to play video games, eat pizza and be 'men' - so wasn't too terrible for him.

Next weekend is the shower in Kingston that Lisa and her mom are hosting - it should be a great time and I'm looking forward to spending the weekend out of the city! That's all for now - love to you all!
S&S

Flirtini
1 part vodka
1 part champagne
1 part pineapple juice
Shake over ice, strain into martini glass, use 1/2 a strawberry as a garnish.

Rasptini

1 part vodka
1 part blue raspberry cordial (found at grocery store)
Shake over ice, strain into martini glass with 4-5 frozen raspberries as garnish.

Sunday, November 5, 2006

The Irish Weeks

Well - it was such a busy couple of weeks that we didn't even have time to post! Okay - hold on to your horses, as this will be a long one...

Louise and Phil arrived on Tuesday - in on a flight around 8pm - so we stayed up that night chatting and having a few drinks - just catching up really. Wednesday Sara had to work, and the Irish decided to sleep in (jet lag!) - so Seth didn't do much that day - he did drive them around our 'hood - looking at all the houses we can't afford! Thursday, Seth took them to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which sounded like a fun time. Another non-eventful night though - Sara made a pasta dinner and we all watched Survivor. Friday finally came - the first day of our Montreal trip - we left pretty much right after Sara finally got home from work - doing the full 5-hour drive straight there - nightmare.

Getting in just after 1am, we were all pretty shattered, drank a few beers and went to bed in hopes of getting up early to do all the touristy stuff we wanted to cram into one day. Well, 10am is early right? Haha - so we were all starving and just started wandering towards St. Catherine Street to find somewhere to eat - ended up at a pub/pizza place - it was okay, but not great food. After that we went to find out about the tour buses - the easiest way to get a 2-hour snapshot of a city! There was only one tour operator still running though - and it was a 3-hour tour - we didn't really want to eat up that much time, but we did want to get the tour done - so we decided just to go for it. It was pretty cool - although we all took a few cat naps on the bus - well, that is except Seth - who knew he was such a tourister?

So here's a pic of Sara and Seth in "Old Montreal". We kinda wished we had more time in here - it was all narrow streets and plenty of cafe's and shops - looked like a very interesting area to explore. The tour tooks us to the Olympic park and past a number of churches and the university - we did stop at one church, but can't remember what it was called.

Going up to Mount-Royal and looking down on the city was probably the best part of the tour - it was really cool. Here's Louise and Phil on the mountain.

After the tour, we did a bit of shopping, but we only had about an hour of shopping time available - so we quickly did Simons, Roots and a few other smaller shops. Found a convenience store to buy 'refreshments' on the way back to the hotel and went back to get ready for dinner - that turned into a 4-hour long chat-fest where we all had a few drinks before trying to find somewhere to eat. Luckily, we ended up finding a great little Italian place called "Bellagio" right near the hotel - fantastic dinner had by all!

That night we went to Crescent St to find some fun places to party - that street is happening! We all had a blast, and I wish we had pictures - but the Irish brought their camera, so we'll have to try and get the pics from them.

The next day was painful for us though - everyone was pretty hungover. Because of that, we didn't do the additional shopping that we thought we would be able to do before we left Montreal - but probably better on the pocketbook in the long run. We drove straight to Kingston, after a pitstop at Pete's Smoked Meat Diner - a little place on the way into Montreal that Seth found a while back and apparently has the best smoked meat sandwiches and poutine - too bad Sara couldn't try it - but there was no way to keep that down.

We arrived at Seth's parent's house close to 5pm - they had dinner waiting for us (roast beef dinner) - class! It was a nice, quiet evening - just what the doctor ordered. We sat around and chatted and watched a couple of movies before going to bed at a reasonable hour. The next day we finally got out and about by around 1pm - we were going into Kingston to do the 'touristy' stuff. Kingston has actually got some interesting places to see. We went to Bellevue house (Sir John A's home in Kingston) - toured around that which was fun. Then we did the Penitentiary Museum - which was really quite interesting. We drove them around Kingston, showed them Fort Henry, the waterfront, Queens, and last but not least - Wilton Cheese Factory for curd!

That night we went to Sara's mom's house for dinner - this time it was John's shish-kabobs for dinner - yummy! We chatted for quite a while after dinner, so didn't get on the road until after midnight - getting into Toronto at 3am - tiring, but nice to have the Tuesday to relax and do nothing before Sara & Seth went back to work on the Wednesday. Seth went to the hockey game with Rob on Tuesday night and Sara, Louse & Phil went to see an early movie - the Departed - amazing movie - see it if you can!

Wednesday night was pretty low-key, then we went out for the required Fynn's visit on Thursday night - it wasn't too late of a night though - saving up our energy for Friday. We spent that night up at the Firkin (although Seth had to leave early as he was working on Saturday - poor guy - he was exhausted!). Saturday was pretty rough - but we had to go out and get costumes for the Halloween party we were going to that night. What kind of costume do you do when you're super hungover - Pirates of course! So we all got dressed up again - and headed out to Scarborough to Kelly & Steve's for one of the best parties we've been to in a while - it was great for Louise & Phil to see everyone!

Sunday was very low-key - we needed to recover! Monday and Tuesday seemed to go by in a blur - Louise + Phil's last two days were spent shopping (for them) and working (for Seth and Sara). Tuesday night turned to be a late one - we stayed up chatting forever - trying to fit it all in I guess! So Louise and Phil left on Wednesday afternoon and to be honest, our tiny little apt feels empty without them now. It was a great couple of weeks - we had a tonne of fun and it was really fabulous to get a proper 'catch up' with them - since most of our visits have only been a few days here and there - more partying than just hanging out.

So that's been our life in the past 2 weeks - now you can understand why there was no time to post an update until now! This past weekend was quiet for us, we went to see Marie Antoinette last night (how did I get Seth to go - I have no idea) - not a great movie all in all. And now I'm all in preparation mode for the shower I'm hosting next weekend for Liz - I hope it's as fabulous as I've promised her it will be!

That's all for now - love to everyone - we'll post an update next weekend and let you know what else is new!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

A busy + sick weekend

The weekend was supposed to be very low-key, but ended up to be quite a busy one. Sara was (is) still sick from last Monday - it just keeps lingering and is now a rough, phlemy cough - which is just gross and she's wishing would just go away. But that also meant that Friday night's plans of drinks w/ a friend that she hadn't seen in quite a while were cancelled - instead, she rented a movie (the Lake House - sappy, but good!) and decided to tuck in for the night. Seth got home around 8-ish and by 9 was in bed and out for the count - guess it was a long week for both of us!

Well, Seth also had to work on Saturday, and after work, he met Sara at the nearest Ikea to buy a few things for around the house - with our impending visitors (Louise + Phil) stopping in for a few weeks, we needed to get some chairs that would give us more seating than just the couch. We got home just in time to put the chairs together and tidy up the house before our friends Rob, Greg + Liz stopped by to watch the Michigan football game. Many beers ensued for the boys, and they ended up going to the nearby pub, the Bull & Firkin for many more drinks - the girls stayed in and watched lame tv on the PVR while Liz waited for Greg to call to be picked up. Although it was a quiet (and sober!) night in for the ladies, we were still up until past 2am waiting for the boys to be done with their night.

Sunday has been spent cleaning up the mess from Saturday night, and finishing up the invites to send out for Liz's shower - they didn't turn out quite as 'creative' as Sara would have liked - but they'll have to do - they're already late going out! Oh and surprise surprise, Seth is a 'little' hungover and watching football for the rest of the day! Haha - boys will be boys!

So this week will be exciting (and a busy one) - Louise + Phil get into town on Tuesday night, and Seth has the rest of the week off to show them around Toronto and play host. On Friday we're planning to head to Montreal for the weekend - meander back through Ottawa and spend a day or two in Kingston showing our guests around the eastern part of Ontario. It should be fun and we'll make sure we post some pictures of the trip for everyone!

Monday, October 9, 2006

2 week update

Okay, so we're running behind on the weekly Sunday updates on this blog. Sorry about that - but here's a two week update for you...

Last weekend we did the Murder Mystery Party at our friends' Greg & Liz's - they hosted the party as it was Greg's birthday and he's always wanted to go to one of these parties. So he threw one for himself! It was great fun - Seth was a rich gambler and Sara was the detective (it was a Casino-themed party, so there was also Elvis, a number of showgirls, a senator + wife, more degenerate gamblers and casino staff there was well!). It was a blast - everyone really got into it, both acting-wise and in their costumes. Lots of fun had by all - unfortunately too many drinks were also had by all, so no one correctly guessed the murderer - but Sara did the get best-dressed award!

So that was last weekend - Sunday being a bit of a hangover day, with not much to do except for Seth to watch football and Sara to do laundry and other around-the-house chores. This weekend we drove directly to Ottawa on Friday night - another friend's birthday, another birthday party.

This time it was to visit Sara's friend Melissa - she was joining the 30, Flirty and Fabulous club, and Ottawa is also Seth's best man's home, so he got to visit with his friend Ryan. Friday night was a late one as traffic was so terrible from Toronto, and Saturday the girls waited for Liz to show up (she drove up in the morning) and went directly out to meet the boys for lunch at Cora's and then an afternoon of shopping!

Shopping was quite evenful - everyone got a new outfit and we had just enough time to get back to Melissa's apt to put out some appy's, get ready and have a few cocktails before heading to the restaurant for dinner and to meet a number of her friends.

Seth and Ryan had a date for the hockey game - so didn't meet up with us until after - then we headed out to another bar - had a few more cocktails and finally headed home to bed. We tried to leave at a decent time in the morning, as we were due back in Kingston for a very quick Thanksgiving visit early afternoon - unfortunately we didn't leave until closer to noon, bringing us into Kingston around 2pm. We had dinner with Seth's parents and then headed over to Sara's parents for a quick visit - then back on the road by 7:30pm, to get stuck in traffic heading back to Toronto and getting home close to 11pm.

No wonder we're both exhausted today - thank goodness it's a long weekend...

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Birthday parties, concerts and more!

Well this weekend was a busy one for Seth & Sara - we didn't do much on Friday night as Seth had a leaving party for one of his employees and by the time he got home, we were both pretty knackered.

Saturday was spent cleaning (of course) and Seth left mid-afternoon to do a bbq party before heading with some of his friends to the Tool concert at the Molson Amphitheatre - from all accounts it was a pretty fun concert.

Sara left early evening to a birthday dinner being held at Rob & Vone's - our friend Vone just turned 30 (well, on Monday) so Robbie decided to make a huge fabulous dinner (with the help of some of his more talented culinary friends) - we had mussels, lots of cheese and huge helpings of paella - very yummy. It was a great party and was fun to see everyone - a tonne of people showed up and it was great to catch up with a few that we hadn't seen in a while. Seth decided to pop by after the concert, and after a few more bevvies we headed home.

Sunday's been pretty quiet - Seth watching football and Sara trying to get motivated to start her scrapbook from a long-ago Europe trip (photos that have never made it into an album). It looks like this week is going to be a busy work week, and next weekend we have a mystery dinner party at a friend's place - haven't got our characters yet, but it should be a fun fun time!

Cheers ... s&s

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Kingston and lots of football for Seth

Another weekend spent apart for the Valliers - it's funny how we can both be so busy with so many different weekends. Seth spent the past 2 weekends away from Toronto, and this past weekend Sara did a quick roadtrip to Kingston to celebrate a friend's 30th b-day and visit some much-neglected family.

Seth on the otherhand, was actually in Toronto for the weekend - he had to work on Saturday, so couldn't make it to Kingston for the visit - and so instead spent much of his Saturday at work and then at Greg's house playing videogames and likely playing poker until the wee hours of the morning. (Although this really is all conjecture, as he never really filled me in on what happened on Sat night - except the fact that it was a late night - and then early morning Sunday golfing -
I just happened to find him in various states of consciousness on Sunday night when I finally got home from my weekend - the poor boy was wiped out.)

Sara's weekend in Kingston was fantastic though - Friday night arrival was late and she went straight to bed. Saturday was spent with her mom shopping (successful shopping) and then Saturday night was her friend's b-day party - which was a blast and fantastically put on by her parents. Sunday, Sara spent a few hours visiting with her Dad and getting some work + MBA advice, and the latter half was spent with Liz and her sister (fighting) in the car home... haha.

That was the weekend in a nutshell - poor Seth is in Niagara Falls all week for a work conference and Sara is left on her lonesome again, boo hoo. This weekend looks like it will turn out to be a productive one and fun - another 30th b-day party planned for Sat night, while Seth goes with the boys to a Tool concert.

But we'll have to fill you in on all that later ... sorry if this post was confusing with the 1st person sequitur ... it's hard to write in the 3rd person all the time.

s&s

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Finally - an update!

Wow - apparently we are worse than we expected ourselves to be at updating the blog - it's been a few weeks now, eh?

Well, the weekend after the 1 yr annivesary weekend, we went to Greg's Dad's cottage up in Presquile for the weekend. Seth had bought a new tent and airmattress for us to use and we were excited about re-entering the camping world! Too bad we didn't arrive until after 9pm, so it was already fully dark by the time we had to set up the tent - that was challenging! But Greg & Liz had dinner waiting for us - some bbq shish-ka-bobs and we discovered a new card/board game (it's called Sequence - too fun - go buy it!), so we ended up playing that and having a few 'pops' well into the night.

The next morning the boys got up super early to go fishing (of course) and Sara & Liz just hung around, chatting and ended up going into the countryside to find a farmer's stand to buy corn for dinner. Too bad we couldn't hit the beach - it looked amazing (very similar to Sandbanks), but it just wasn't sunny/warm enough to make the effort. When the girls finally got back from their road trip, the boys were already back from fishing (unsuccessful - didn't bring back lunch unfortunately) and the were already watching golf on the tv and snoozing. So the girls made lunch for themselves, played a few card games and then watched a movie and snoozed themselves.

Dinner was a hamburger + corn affair and then again, more Sequence of course (it truely is addicting!). Too bad it really starting raining hard that night - we all woke up a little more damp/soggy the next morning (oh yes - Greg & Liz were in a tent too - no one was using the luxurious cottage - that was reserved for Greg's Dad + Stepmom!) ... but Greg had pancakes and bacon waiting on us when we finally did wake up - yummy fresh strawberry and raspberry pancakes - I don't think we can ever go back to plain pancakes now! And after breakfast, Seth tore the tent down and packed up everything, while Sara supervised of course! ;)

That was a great weekend, and then the following weekend was Seth's annual boys' football fantasy pool weekend draft up in Kitchener - so Liz had organized a girls' weekend for her wedding party up in Markham! We went wedding dress shopping - picked out the bridesmaid dresses (aren't they going to be gorgeous?!) - and I think Liz really decided on a style of wedding dress that she likes too. Our friend Vone is making the dress, so she wants to start designing it soon!

Saturday night Liz had made a yummy spinach lasagne for dinner and the girls just sat in and had a few (lots!) drinks. The next morning was a little slow moving - luckily Sara made a yummy fry-up for breakfast. Stefanie (our newly pregnant friend!!!) had to leave to get back home and Liz & Sara & Lisa decided to head back into the city for a fun Sunday night.

So that's pretty much how our past few weekends have gone - still have been really busy! And I'd love to give you a full update on the football draft weekend, but I don't really know the details and Seth is away again this weekend - doing the "Fins, Skins + All-Ins" annual weekend at Greg's cottage. So I have a quiet, relaxing weekend planned for myself - and now I can scratch that first 'to do' off the list - updating our family blog! Going to laundry now - have a great weekend everyone and we'll post another update soon!!!

s & s

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Our 1 yr anniversary

What a weekend - the weather wasn't so great, although that's okay as we didn't have any outdoors-y things to do this weekend, and next weekend is a cottage weekend - so let's hope for sunny, warm weather then!

We spent Friday evening at our friends' place - Rob & Vone just got back from a roadtrip that took them across Canada and back! We stayed there fairly late (as often happens at Rob & Vone's!), and subsequently almost slept in too late the next day! We woke up at 12:45 and had to rush to get to the show that Seth had bought tickets for.

So at 1:45 we found ourselves at the Canon Theatre (used to be the Pantages Theatre on Yonge St) ready to watch Spamalot - the Monty Python musical. After that we went to dinner at a new restaurant in our neighbourhood "Lola" steak bistro. Food was quite yummy and service was fantastic!

In between there Sara had given Seth a new watch as a 1st anniversary present (clocks are the modern take apparently) - Seth had gone more traditional with the show tickets being paper and all!

Then after dinner, we headed up the street to have a few more cocktails at Spacco (great pool bar w/ a big patio for smokers) and then on to the movies to watch World Trade Center. The movie was great - but not so 'uplifting' for an anniversary date. Oh well, everything else was super romantic and fun.

And even though we forgot the wedding cake at Sara's mom's house, and weren't able to share that as a traditional 1st year anniversary thing you do - everything else was pretty perfect.

Cheers ... S &S

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Mom & Walt Vist for the Weekend

This weekend Sara’s parents visited from Friday to Sunday morning. Friday night we spent sitting on our balcony – drinking much too much wine and beer! Actually, we had to send Mom & Walt home in a cab back to the hotel (a $25 cab fare later—oops!) at midnight. Needless to say, when we had to get going that morning everyone was feeling a little worse for wear.


Luckily we managed to pull it together and get on the road for 10am – heading out to Vaughn Mills shopping centre – for the boys to go shopping at Bass Pros Shop and the ladies to visit the rest of the shops in the mall. The guys were done in a short hour, and we all met up for lunch at Johnny Rockets – a cool retro diner-type restaurant that had jukeboxes at each booth and good ol’ American food – everyone had hamburgers (except for Sara – chilli dog was her pick).


After lunch the men headed back home to chill out on the balcony and me & Mom continued on shopping. It was relatively successful. Mom got a full outfit at Fairweather for under $60 and I got 2 new pairs of shoes from Town – fabulously successful! Too bad it took so long to shop though – that mall is huge and tiring – so we didn’t have any steam left for Ikea, we just went home.


We stayed in for dinner that night – Mom & Walt had brought up 4 t-bone steaks for dinner and we had that along with corn on the cob, baked potatoes and a big salad. And after dinner a few more drinks on the balcony! We didn’t overdo it that night though.


Mom & Walt left early on Sunday morning and the rest of the day Seth and I spent cleaning out our closets and dressers, making room for new fall clothes! Haha. Overall, a fairly relaxing weekend – and another one coming up! It’s our one year anniversary on Saturday and we have a romantic dinner planned!


Come back on Sunday for the update!!!


Cheers S & S

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

An unassuming weekend

This past long weekend (well, for some of us, not so long, as Monday isn't technically a stat holiday - so Sara worked - booooooo) was a restful one for Seth and I. While we love the busy schedule that summer gives you - all the parties, patios and visiting - it does get tiring. So we were happy to be hibernating at home in Toronto, while Carribana was going on downtown, without any social commitments to speak of.

Friday night was spent sitting on the balcony, listening to music from 1993-95 and reminiscing of the time before pop was so prevalent in the music industry. When it was good ol' guitar grunge that was the most popular sound going on. It was fun though, as funny as it sounds, we don't get to sit around and chat much, so it was a welcome, quiet, Friday night.

Saturday poor Seth had to work, and Sara had a brunch that she almost missed (who sleeps in to 11am anymore - my body must've needed it!) - and then wedding dress shopping with friends afterwards - how fun to relive what was my summer of planning last year. And saw all sorts of lovely dresses for my dearest Lizzie to go try on, if I can only convince her that she has the time! Saturday afternoon was spent doing a little bit of housework, a nap for Seth, and then off to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean - it was great - really, go see it.

Sunday was an early one - we had a golf date up north of Aurora at 8am. Tiring, but nice to be out before it gets too hot and be done an entire round by the time it's pretty much lunchtime. Too bad the guys we got paired up with were tools - really annoying. A little bit of grocery shopping, a stop at the beer and video stores, and we were homebound again. We rented V for Vendetta and Wolf Creek. First one good, second one incredibly scary/gory/disturbing. At least for me - even Seth got a little freaked out at some of the more gruesome parts.

So that was our weekend in a nutshell - doesn't sound like much, but suited us just fine. And we got to do a big clean so there will only be tidying to do on Thursday night before Sara's mom & stepdad come for a weekend visit this weekend. And if you're wondering, yes, Sara's mom is just as anal for cleanliness as Sara is. Although neither of us reach Debbie's depths! :)

Cheers ... S&S

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Our weekend in Bancroft

My step-brother had a milestone birthday this Saturday (30 yrs old) and we decided it was a great excuse to get up to Bancroft to visit the family! After a lazy Friday night (a little cleaning, but not much to be honest), we spent Saturday morning cleaning, Seth ordering his Tool tickets online at Ticketmaster and me dropping off the Accent for it's last round of maintenance before the warranty kicks off.

It felt like a fast trip up to Bancroft and there was already party-goers at Derek & Amy's by the time we got there in mid-afternoon. After a few more provisional trips to the liquor store and beer store, we were finally ready to party. It was a fun party - lots of kids splashing around and lots of Derek & Amy's friends (probably close to 30 people there at one point). And I made sure that we caught the different stages of Derek's sobriety that evening - here he is at stage one - doesn't look so bad. But stage 7 is a bit different. Although we all were started to look a little messy around that stage.

We all felt pretty rough the next day - luckily Amy was kind enough to go out and get the hangover cure of the world - McDonalds! We headed out around 1pm and got home shortly after 4pm today. Now we have baseball....we're sooooooo tired.

Cheers ... S & S

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Picton Mini-Break

While we wanted to take a week off in August to celebrate our one-year anniversary, unfortunately we had to make due with this past week (July 10th), as Sara is in the midst of switching jobs (so exciting!) and wouldn't be able to take a week off so soon into the new position.

And surprise of all surprises... Seth decided he would plan the vacation - keeping in mind that we already were busy until Tuesday of that week. So a classic road trip to Picton was planned - Sandbanks, golf at Loyalist (golf course where we got married) etc. We woke up super early on Tuesday morning, and through a few wrong turns, finally ended up in the town by 12noon. We ate at a fantastic patio - pub called Coach's, and decided to take advantage of the sun that was peeking through the on-again-off-again clouds - we headed to the beach.

While many of you may wonder why Picton of all places - it was pretty perfect. Way back when, Seth and I used to go to the Sandbanks all the time in the summer to hit the beach - we both love just lying out in the sun and relaxing - and this beach is the best I've ever seen in Canada - so why not here? Plus, the town has gotten much better for shopping and there's all sorts of little bars and patios in the area. Makes for a fun little holiday.

Good thing we got the beach in while we could - it rained solidly the next day. Which of course was supposed to be our golf day! Seth booked the tee-time super early so we would take up the entire day - so we were on the ferry by 6am - you can tell in these pics! It look cloudy, but we had no idea it was going to pour down like it did. We got drenched out on the course by the 7th hole. Luckily we got a raincheck for the full 18 holes - the very next day.

By the time we had gotten back to Picton and changed into dry clothes, it was still only 9:30am - so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed into the town to do some wandering around, shopping, and to see if there was a movie we could see. There was - it was at 2pm and it was Cars - don't see it - if we weren't desperate to find something to do, we would never have gone to see this. But we were successful in some shopping - got some jeans for Seth and some little knicknacks for around the house. Too bad the spa was completely booked up, that would have been a fun way to while away the afternoon. That night we went back to the Waring House - where we'd had dinner the night before - nice little pub, and by the time we got moving at 10pm (on a Wed) it was the only thing open in Picton, aside from McDonalds.

The next day was much nicer for golf (and since with our sunburns from the first day, there was no way we were going to the beach, it wasn't so bad that the only time available was at 11:30am on our final sunny day). And we got to see our wedding venue on a beautiful sunny afternoon - that was nice!

Overall, Picton was a fantastic + relaxing time - couldn't have asked from a better surprise from Seth.

Cheers... S & S

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to the Valliers' blog - just a little way to keep all our friends and family up to date and informed on our life!

We've had a super busy summer so far and there's absolutely no way that we're going to post about the past 2 months in great detail - but we can do a quick recap...

May 2006 - we did a 4 day trip over to San Francisco to visit with some friends there - we had a blast and highly recommend it - one of the most beautiful cities that we've ever visited - especially for the ol' US of A. Here's a few pics of the trip ...

Just arrived - Louise took us for a quick trip around the city and across the bridge - here's Seth in the backseat of her convertible with the Golden Gate bridge in the background - pretty groovy shot.

And here's a pretty cool pic of Lombard Street - the twistiest road in the world - we had actually just driven down it before this picture was taken - I'm not sure how anyone actually lives on this street - not only a nightmare to park, but also way too much tourist traffic everyday...

And of course, here's a pic of Alcatraz - in the background of this shot of Seth + Louise. If you want to see all of our pics of San Fran - go to www.sethandsara.shutterfly.com - we have all of our pics from various trips + stuff posted there.

Moving right along - Sara had gone to New York a few weekends ago - to see Madonna in concert - and to shop (of course!) - that was tonnes of fun. Finally saw Central Park for the first time - it's gorgeous - why doesn't Toronto have any parks like that??

Then the next weekend we had a blast at Liz & Greg's housewarming party - it may have been a trek to get to Markham - but well worth it - especially for the paper/rock/scissors tournament - ingenious! Unfortunately lots of drinks + girls around make for a dressed up puppy - this is Fez - Liz & Greg's child!

Last but not least - on the Sunday following the housewarming party, we had my step-brother and his family in town for a visit - which of course included a trip to the Bass Pro Shop store!

We just spent the past few days in Picton on a surprise holiday that Seth planned - we have this weekend off as I start my new job next week - so it was good timing - but we'll post about that w/ some pics later on...

Cheers....S & S