Tales from The Ranch

As many of you know, I headed out of town for the weekend for a mini-camping trip and a party at The Ranch (which also the home of Kris and Sheena and isn't REALLY a ranch at all. Though one MIGHT argue that the house has rancher-style architectural elements). It's located on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. And going to the Sunshine Coast is always a great adventure as it begins and ends with a ferry ride. I'll post some ferry photos with the mini-camping post which will be coming soon to a blogosphere near you!

In any event, here's how we knew we'd parked in the right place! I loves me some good, clear signage.

We arrive! Look at all that socializing on the deck. Too bad SOMEONE forgot to take a photo overlooking the amazing yard from this very deck. Who would do such a thing? Harumph. I guess it would be the person who will now tell you that this deck overlooks a palatial backyard which sports a gorgeous picnic table, a fire pit, a hammock, a raised platform, a lovely food garden, and truck loads o' beer. The deck ALSO contained many interesting people.

Thank goodness the forgetful photographer managed to remember to snap some photos of the interesting people.

Like Avi and her dad:
And her mom: (who encouraged Avi to play Scrabble as a non-competitive game in her youth, in which the love of language was paramount. So if Avi had a great word that needed to be spelled right off the board and onto the table despite the lack of squares, she was encourage to LITERALLY think outside the box. This may explain why she's so darn smart today!)

And Stacy and Reg (possibly two of the cutest and most lovely individuals I have ever met in my life)

See what I mean? Cute.

Adorable.

Even if someone doesn't like having his photo taken.....

Speaking of adorable, it's Lauren and Karie!

Also adorable, D and L (who had some seasickness on the way over - poor little guy). I love these photos.

And our hosts for the big event. Kris (wearing the world's best t-shirt.)

And Sheena, explaining that she and Mike Reno of Loverboy have never actually been seen in the same room.... Coincidence? Perhaps not....

There was cake.

And I even resisted the temptation to push my way to the front.

It was delicious. I was also enamoured of the candy dish installation. I suspect I may have missed half a dozen anagrams, but here are the three I caught on a memory card. (I'm also trying posting these as HTML links so we'll see if they get hacked off in the process) It was a brilliant party idea.

But perhaps my FAVOURITE series of the evening were these. At the risk of being disowned by m, allow me to present Lori and m, as Lori tries to illustrate for m, the merits and methodology of being photographed....

I have so much more to share with you, so let's put a bookmark in it here. I shall return to the further adventures of the Princess campers....