Mr October!

Just had to share the exciting news that Miles won a calendar contest and will be featured as Mr. October in our Vet's 2008 calendar. I'm taking orders for anyone who is interested in having a limited-edition calendar. As you can tell from the picture, Miles is quite the handsome, noble, regal, skitzbitz that he's always been :)

The month of July

Summer is just flying by and I'm trying to catch up on some posts. I'm trying to remember what all even happened in July so I guess I'll start with the 4th. Nothing too crazy, just a trip to the beach and some hanging out in the backyard. We were dog sitting and had Riley over for the week. I thought it would be a good idea to give Miles and Riley an American flag so they could be patriotic....yeah....not such a good idea:

Miles wants to be chased....

Riley just wants to eat the flag

Our good friend Margaret celebrated her b-day in July. We went to our fav Mexican restaurant in Old Town, Case Guadalajara, to celebrate with margaritas.

Happy Birthday Mags!

The Birthday Girl and her Man..awwww...

Then towards the end of the July I made the trek back to the East Coast for family vacation at Ocean Isle. We had an amazing week...great weather....and lots of quality hanging out time on the beach. I think I read 3 books that week which is more than I've red thus far this year. JT didn't have enough vacation time to make the trip so hopefully he can make it next year.

I do love sea oats

The happy couple! Newly engaged Jenn and Paul

Quality time playing games

Dinner in Calabash

Hanging out late night on the other porch with the Schacht crew.

Continuing the Sykes tradition....the family photo by the beach

More photo opts by the Intercoastal....Me, Ken and Amber then Mom & Dad

Sunset after the storm. A perfect way to end the week!

Canada Land

Part two of Vancouver:
After I finished up the sales meeting for work John flew in Wed night and the vacation was on! We left Vancouver Thursday morning (after ordering room service for breakfast but of course) and made our way North to Squamish. Squamish is the outdoor capital of Canada and is 1/2 was between Vancouver and Whistler. The drive was gorgeous and the road twist and turned along the Howe sound. We checked in to our hostel/inn early afternoon and then headed to the base of Stawamus Chief for some bouldering. The forest canopy was so dense that it made it feel like it was dusk....not to mention that I thought for sure I'd see an elf, it had that magical feel to it. Anyways we climbed (or I guess I should say John did most of the climbing) for the afternoon and not even a rain shower dampened our day. For dinner we hit up the Howe Sound Brewery for some awesome local pale ale and eats. Day 2: we did lots of exploring by car as it started raining late morning. We drove out on the peninsula in the Howe sound and got spectacular views of the Chief and Shannon Falls. I was hoping to see a bear or a moose but all the wildlife we encountered were: slugs, mosquitoes, a crane, a snake, and a deer. The pictures turned out pretty well but I wish it was clearer out b/c it was sooooo green up there and the pictures just didn't captured the intense color. Oh well. Towards the end of the day we made the trek back to Vancouver for the weekend. We ate lots of good food: tapas, sushi, wine, and mojitos to name a few and of course worked in some shopping. All in all a spectacular city meets outdoors vacation! Enjoy the pics!

Onward.....out of Vancouver in our PT Cruiser due North along the Horseshoe Bay to Squamish!

Just before we got into the town of Squamish we encountered the Stawamus Chief a huge Granite rock which is very popular with the climbers

John's working out the Superfly problem. He rocked this out all by himself, guess that makes him pretty superfly huh!?!

Day 2 we drove out on the penninsula in the estuary to get a better view of Stawamus and Shannon Falls

Another postcard worthy shot of the marsh & estuary

Trying to accomplish the self portrait w/the scenery in the background

About as close as one would want to get to Shannon Falls, the mist was a'misting

Moss grows everywhere!!! Trees, rocks, the tops of houses we saw it all

Happy Vancouver! and Happy Mojito!