Spring Flowers & Upcoming Trips

Dale sent me a beautiful calla lily bouquet on Friday. Awww, isn't that's so sweet of him?

Extra baby's breath because he knows how much I love that flower herb. 

Herb?!! 

That doesn't sound right to me LOL I'm calling them flowers! :P

Aren't the calla lilies gorgeousss?! 

They're so vibrant in colour and the shape is so beautifully eye catching

This type of flower really reminds me of Spring :) 

And look at the coloured pattern on the roses!
All three roses in the bouquet were this unique pattern. It's verrry pretty. 

***sigh***

Dale always seems to make my day

I can't wait to visit New York next week with him :)
I've heard so much about NY and this will be my first time visiting the city

I'm super fortunate that Dale is taking me on this trip and he always looks after me. 

And then the weekend after New York, Dale is taking me to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for sightseeing, baseball games & shopping!! Ahhh! 

I loved Pittsburgh!

I visited it for the first time last August with my family (post is here)

Aaand, Dale and I get back from Pittsburgh on Easter Sunday.
So guess what?! 
My parents invited him over for Easter dinner!
Awww, so they all get to meet each other - so nice! And lots of yummy home cooked food too.
I have so many things to look forward to this month ;)


What are you looking forward to this month?

Lake Minnewanka: Spring May 2010 vs Winter March 2011

Do you remember my pictures of Lake Minnewanka from my post last May 2010?
You can read my old posts regarding that trip here and here


Lake Minnewanka is a gorgeous glacial lake located in Banff National Park - one of the most beautiful National Parks our country has :)

Just to give you an idea of where this lake is relative to where I live: to get to this lake I fly into Calgary (~3.5 hour flight) and from there it's about a 50 minute drive

Okay, so here's are a few older pictures from my late May 2010 trip last year

This is the lake where Dale and I saw a lot of mountain sheep last Spring :)

Do you see the docking cabin on Lake Minnewanka? Tell me if you can see it in the picture below

This is what Lake Minnewanka looked like last week Tuesday March 29th when Dale took me for a drive

Do you see the docking cabin on the lake here? 

It's a winter wonderland out there, but it's still stunningly beautiful to me ;)

And instead of seeing mountain sheep last week, we saw deer during our drive

Do you see the deer in the following picture?

Okay, I'll make it easier for you to spot them LOL

I'm so fortunate that Dale took me on both these trips out West :)
It was so nice to see how beautiful the lake looks like in Springtime vs late Winter.

NOTD: A Hit with the Guys + New York

Heyyy! I'm back home in Toronto from my trip out West....and this was my welcome home bouquet of two dozen roses from Dale ;) He knows I love the coral coloured roses and extra baby's breath. He's a sweetheart

And this was my manicure during my trip out earlier in the week

For fun, I had asked Dale what colour he would like my nails to be. He said hot pink :) So I immediately thought of the China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy nail polish that he picked up for me last month. A couple of coats of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy:

Funny I didn't realize I had a small birth mark on my pinkie until I saw this picture! Huh, the things I discovered via blogging....

This colour is really bold especially on fake nails like this. I liked it but spruced it up a bit with some chunky glitter polish at the tips. I like to do this to jazz up any base coat colour

Left to right: No brand chunky blue glitter polish I bought in Thailand, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Sooo, this is the first manicure where I got numerous compliments - and all the compliments were from random gentlemen (the security guy at the airport, the gentleman sitting beside me on the plane, the male air flight attendant..etc..). I didn't get any compliments from the ladies...ah well. Hence the title of this post!


Now I gotta focus on my studies and catch up on some work stuff. But I can't complain because in two weeks Dale is taking me to New York!!! Ahhhh! I'm really excited :)

If you have any suggestions on must-see places in New York, please let me know


How is your weekend coming along? :)

Elk Island National Park

One of the things I did this past weekend was visit Elk Island National Park which is about a 40 minute drive from Edmonton

(aside: Edmonton is a three and a half hour flight from my hometown Toronto)

Canada has some breathtaking national parks - when you visit Canada, try to visit at least one of them

Elk Island National Park has an aspen parkland landscape which is one of the most endangered habitats in our country (A bit of trivia for you, like that huh?).
It's difficult to picture the landscape from my pictures because there is a ton of accumulated snow

Dale drove us to the national park because I wanted to see this:

the free roaming bison in the park :)

Dale and I were joking around a bit....I mean, you hear about herds of bison right? Well, all the bison we saw in the park were either alone or just with one other bison nearby. Anyways, I did read that the Canadian Government had recently shipped 30 wood bison from this Elk Island National Park to some remote place in Russia (Republic of Sakha). So that's pretty much the reason we didn't see many bison. So much for the herds!!
Dale and I were also joking around about how can it be possible that bison meat is lean when all they seem to do is lay down and eat. Seriously, none of them even moved their heads when we drove by them - only their mouths moved from chewing food LOL


All kidding aside, this was the first time I saw free roaming bison. They're really beautiful. I wish we could have gotten a bit closer to one of them (while in a car of course), but nonetheless it was a really nice experience for me.


Have you visited any of your country's National Parks before? 

Gorgeous

I've been out West in Calgary, Canmore and Edmonton on vacation the past few days...I'm really lucky as this trip is a gift from Dale :)

Because of the two hour time difference between Toronto (my home city) and here (Calgary), I'm waking up earlier - and caught a beautiful sunrise this morning 

This was the view of the sunrise looking out Dale's backyard - it's absolutely gorgeous isn't it?

I'd love to wake up to this everyday

What scenery would you love to wake up to? 

More winter activities: where Karen's been

I spent the past week and a half with Dale and we did so many fun things together He took us on another trip back to Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville (about 2.5 hours from Toronto) for some winter activities :)I must say that our two trips to Deerhurst Resort in the past month and a half has really changed my way of thinking when it comes to enjoying Canadian winters. There are so many fun winter

Leaf's Game, Review of Hair Salons: Deerhurst Salon & Red Lemon Salon

Sports are always 10x's more exciting in real life than on TVDale took me to a Leaf's game a couple of weeks back with the best seats I've ever had to a game - several rows up behind the Leaf's bench ;) Thank you very much Dale!Mind you, I won the bet we made - the Leaf's beat the Calgary Flames :PI asked if anyone noticed my hair colour in my last blog post....and thank you for noticing the

Deerhurst: Snow Tubing, Hayride and Carriage Ride

Another "first time" activity I did with Dale a week and a half ago in Huntsville was snow tubingThere is snow tubing at Deerhurst Resort where we stayed in Huntsville, but the area for tubing is not big and you have to walk back up the hill (there is no lift) Luckily, about a 10 minute drive away from the resort is a snow tubing park called Rock Ridge and it has a few runs as well as a

Deerhurst & Baysville Marina: Snowshoeing & Snowmobiling

One of the fun activities that Dale and I did at Deerhurst Resort last week was snowshoeing We rented snowshoes and when the staff member handed me these, I actually blurted aloud "I thought they're suppose to look like tennis rackets!" LOLNeedless to say, it was my first time snowshoeing :PSnowshoes at DeerhurstBeginning of Snow Shoe trail at DeerhurstThe snowshoe trails are well marked out

Dogsledding at Deerhurst

One of the fun activities Dale booked for us last week at Deerhurst was dog sledding I'm a HUGE dog lover - I love all animals but dogs really have a soft spot with me (Dale is a cat lover). And being with these beautiful huskies reminded me so much of my two beloved family dogs that we use to have. Dale booked the dog sledding directly with the Deerhurst resort that we stayed at and we were

Deerhurst Resort

I've been away the past several days with Dale - he took us up to Deerhurst Resort :)Image sourceIt's about a 3 hour drive up North - and we had an awesome time! It certainly was the Winter Wonderland escape we had hoped forAnd there were so many activities we did which were my "firsts" - I'll be posting pictures up shortlyBut look at one of the wild animals we saw right around the resort...Do

Quick re-cap of my 2010

2010 was a great year for me :)My family and close friends were in good health and we spent some great times together I spent a lot of time with my best friend Evgueni (I'll always love you)Rarely a day has passed in the 3.5 years I've known him that we don't keep in touch or see each otherHe knows everything about me, is always supportive, motivates me, loves me, is there for me and he's such a

Vacation Pictures: Salisbury & Stonehenge

Dale took me on a day trip to see Stonehenge on Mon Dec 13th as part of my London Birthday trip :)To get to Stonehenge we took the train from London to Salisbury (we boarded the train at King's Cross Station)From Salisbury to Stonehenge it's just a 15-20 minute driveAnd Salisbury is a really nice quaint town! I felt like I was on the set of Coronation Street LOLHere are a few pictures of

Vacation Pictures: Paris - Eurostar Train & Eiffel Tower

Dale took me on a day trip to see Paris on Sat Dec 11th as part of my Birthday giftSince we were in London, we decided to go via Eurostar Train to Paris - about a 2:15 hour rideQuick Eurostar ReviewIn comparison to my VIA train rides in Canada, the Eurostar is much much smootherI recall one time from Toronto to Ottawa, the train tracks were so rickety that I was swaying in my seat and my wine was

Vacation Pictures & Review of London Icebar

One of the things Dale and I wanted to do in London was to check out London's Icebar. Neither of us had been to an icebar or icehotel beforeSo we went on Friday December 10thFirst thing: you book your time slot to go to the bar. You're allotted 40 minutes in the bar. And there's a big timer counting down by the second your time as seen here:A note about the time: the 40 minute timer starts when

Vacation Pictures: London Eye, England

Dale took me to London England last week for my Birthday and one of the things we wanted to do was go on the London EyeIt is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe at 135 metres high - a great way to take in a view of LondonInitially Dale and I wanted to go on the London Eye Thurs Dec 9th - but it literally shut down after we bought our tickets. There were technical issues with the doors.....so we

Some Bubbly? Another night @ Spasso

Another night at Spasso nightclub in Bangkok, Thailand...this was Friday November 12th, 2010Jasmin and I flew in from Toronto to visit Oi, and Jane flew in from Singapore to visit Oi. Oi was the bride to be and these chicks know how to celebrate ;PBeverage of choice that nightMoet. I looove champagne Left to right: Myself, Oi and JaneLeft to right: Jane, Oi and Jasmin All four of us girls: Jasmin

Happy Birthday to my sister & My first 26th Birthday Present

Today is my younger sister's 25th Birthday - Happy Birthday Jenn! :)My younger sister with her boyfriend Siv in Vegas earlier this yearMy younger sister and I are 355 days apart in age....my 26th Birthday is on the 16th of this month :) And my first birthday present for this year is from Dale... a 5-day trip to London, EnglandIt'll be my first time in Europe so I'm really excited!! We'll be in

Spasso Bar - Grand Hyatt in Bangkok

I'm baaack from vacation :) I know it didn't seem like I was away with all the scheduled blog posts :P So I was in Thailand for 3.5 weeks and went there for Oi's wedding. She invited Jasmin, Jane and myself to be her bridesmaids. Here are some pictures of us all on one of the nights out clubbing.Left to Right: Myself, Jane, Oi & Jasmin. We're in our hotel room just before leaving. We went to

Jungle ATV trekking in Malaysia

You know those in-flight magazines that most of us (ah hem, moi) ignore? Well, on my 15+ hour flight from Toronto to Hong Kong I took a look at the magazine and found something called ATV Adventure Park.The company offers tours through a bamboo jungle and you ride ATVs on the tour! Plus, it's only about a 40 minute drive from Kuala Lumpur where I was staying. The jungle is near the zoo, in an