Hemlock 2010

For our eighth annual trip to Hemlock Melissa and I swore we were going to go snowshoeing. We've been wanting to try it for awhile but the weather has either been nasty or we just haven't been motivated. This year I took the full day off work on Friday, drove up with Melissa, her DH Jevon, his sister Rachel and her boyfriend Scott. We arrived at the cabin by 10am. And found out that it had just been vacated the day before by the men's snow cross team who were practicing up there!!!

We unloaded the van, settled in, had lunch and then went snowshoeing because we knew if we left it to Saturday we'd never go. It was a gorgeous sunny day. There is no fresh snow at Hemlock right now so I feel like we could have done our trek in just regular boots but it was fun to try the snowshoes...even if we were sore the next day!

Our weekend fell on Melissa`s 29th birthday so on top of the regular playing board games and watching movies, we celebrated that. She had masks and tiaras for the girls and masks, bow ties and stick on facial hair for the guys on Saturday night, oh and feather boas for everyone :) We wore them while eating ice cream cake and playing Cranium.

Erin also brought up a pinata which was hanging up but soon fell so she bravely held it so we could smack it :)

It was another wonderful relaxing weekend. Possibly my last which is kind of sad. I will miss these guys!!!

Hemlock 2008

This was a crazy busy weekend. Fun but busy. I worked Friday morning (which was kind of a waste because I was only in for a few hours and we didn't have email access so my hands were really tied). At noon I headed home and did some last minute packing before Glen picked me up. We stopped and picked up his fiance Erin and the three of us drove up to Hemlock together.

This is the sixth year that various members of this group have gathered for the weekend. Melissa, Jevon and myself are the only ones who have been there every single year. This year we had a wonderful large log cabin. It was very rustic feeling, complete with a deer head on the wall (we found out later that much like "Billy the Bass" it sang! Creepy LOL)

The first picture is me, Jevon's sister Rachel and Jevon having a very philosophical discussion about marriage and personal expectations. I was having the high class dinner of wine and cheese (read...I didn't feel like cooking :D)

There were a few different game systems set up in the living room (a number of the people there this weekend have worked at EA in the past and the rest just love video games). I tried my hand at Guitar Hero III and Rockstar. I think I found my niche as a drummer! (I don't have a picture but Melissa and Rachel are posing there for you). In fact I didn't take any pictures all weekend. Instead I just relaxed and let others be shutterbugs.

Video games and board games. With 12 people you had at least one or the other and usually both going at all times. I played Scrabble (right), Dutch Blitz (below), Uno, Skip-Bo, Settlers, Settlers with the Seafarer expansion pack (very cool), Ingenious (my new favourite game) and others.

Saturday Jevon made French toast (with French bread) for breakfast and for dinner we had chicken parmesean with pasta and garlic bread.

The bottom floor of the cabin featured a ping pong table and a pool table so we fit in a few games of that too. Saturday Melissa and I had considered going snowshoeing. We probably could have but it was raining in the morning and by the time we were inspired, it was too late. So, we just enjoyed spending the weekend inside. Oh, we also watched movies. Juno (which *everyone* loved), The Anchorman and some strange Chinese/soccer/kung foo spoofish thing. NOT my choice.

Sunday we packed up and I was home by about 2. I'll put the rest of that advenutre in a separate post.