L&M LIFE

A beautiful start to the winter season although since opening the snow hasn’t been falling as much as we all had anticipated. However, we are having a wonderful trip so far and are taking the time to explore Whistler and Creekside since our norm is to stay on Blackcomb. We wanted to stay in this area this time because most of the units for sale in our price range are around Creekside, so we’re experiencing it as if we had a place somewhere nearby. It’s much quieter than Whistler and it feels like the locals spot rather than the area crowded by tourists. It doesn’t have as much choice by way of restaurants but that’s not a huge issue.

Nita Lake Lodge is beautiful - we will definitely stay here again. The rooms are great, the views of the lake are stunning and it feels like an authentic upscale mountain lodge.

Here are some photos:

What an awesome weekend and this glamping site on Pender Island. WOODS on Pender opened in 2015 as the ultimate modern glamping site. Besides the gorgeous airstreams and the adorable cabins, their restaurant Coffee + Kitchen has fantastic food for breakfast and dinner... the restaurant design and decor feel very mainland blended with that charming island vibe. 

Here are some snaps from our weekend away, celebrating Mike’s belated birthday. We’ll be back for sure. 

I found some photos that we had taken about 4 years ago when I was backing up our laptop to our external last night. It’s fun to see the changes that have occurred in both of us since then and hard to believe that this was four years ago already. Time is flying by at a terrifying pace. 

We spent the afternoon exploring East Sooke. Living on Vancouver Island is a constant reminder of how effortlessly beautiful nature is. Everywhere you go, you can find picturesque views and quiet spots like these on this massive island. We’re so fortunate to be living here. Here are a couple of photos from our hike:

Summer has flown by and yet again, we don’t feel like we had enough time to accomplish everything we wanted to. But, we were able to get a few good adventures and events in which brought us so many awesome memories. I’m currently sitting at our bar, looking outside at the grey skies. It’s only mid-September and it already feels very different than our hot and extremely dry summer. I actually don’t mind the scattered showers; dry, hot weather has been ubiquitous in this world and I’m feeling grateful for the rain.

These are some of our photos from the summer:

June 2017

Admiring beautiful old automobiles near Gonzales Beach. 

Lake Cowichan Weekends

New Sikorski Residence, Vancouver Island

BBQ Nights with friends

Vancouver Island Sunsets

Vancouver Island smokey nights - due to all the forest fires

Track days - Mercedes AMG Track Day

Pender Island - our first wedding anniversary

Kelowna BC for Stacey & Allister’s Wedding 

It was quite the beauty day - you could see clearly through to the ocean. Waking up to this every morning is going to be a real treat. We are pretty grateful every morning that we wake up to the little glimpse of the Esquimalt Lagoon that we can see. It’s always so peaceful (for now, at least). Here are some pics from the lot that day - it was bitter cold but the view definitely made up for it. The house is coming along too, as you can see. The longboard looks beautiful and is coming along rather well and the inside paint has begun. What an incredible home this is going to be when it’s finished. 

To Whistler. Our happy place. Although for some (annoying) reason, BC Ferries did not have a 6pm ferry on Family Day Long Weekend... so we missed the 5pm due to traffic and had to wait for the 7pm :(

We left what was left of the snow in Victoria for way more snow up at Whistler. It was an amazing weekend for skiing. Honestly, the conditions have probably never been better for us. We had a horrible stay in the Village. We’re too old to stay right smack in the middle of party central. After getting up there at 11pm, all we wanted was to sleep and instead of falling asleep, we laid in bed until 3am listening to the young hooligans partying and talking about who they wanted to sex (to name two: tyra banks, jessica alba)... and then come 3:30am, apparently it’s okay for the Whistler snow ploughing companies to start moving snow around. We also had to unplug the fridge in our room because it was vibrating so much. Quite the first night. But, it got us up at 5am and got us ready to attack the day and the slopes.

Here’s some footage from the day:

This place seriously brings us so much joy. We can’t even explain it. 

Oh! And I almost forgot. We met Jon Olsson and Janni Deler at Sushi Village - this was really exciting for us. We were totally star struck because we really admire the way they live their lives and we follow them regularly. Forget the big A Listers, we were totally giddy about meeting these two in our favourite place. You can check out their blogs/vlogs here:

Jon Olsson: http://jon-olsson.com 

God, I hope not but it hasn’t stopped since Sunday and it’s still going strong. Here is some video footage of our driving around today, with really dramatic music :) I thought it was fitting as I’m pretty sure that’s the theme song for most Victorians as they have been driving around today. Photos posted after the video! 

We zipped over to Vancouver Friday night for Vince’s 30th surprise birthday party - was super fun, and very very snowy. I took some pictures on the ferry while we were going through Active Pass - I couldn’t pass up the gorgeous scenery. Whoever’s house this is... has a brilliant million dollar view. Imagine waking up to that every morning. 

We took the old wheels off of the Cayenne (thank goodness) - they were the stock 18″ wheels and they didn’t do justice for the car. We purchased new 21″ winter tires and the Cayenne Turbo rims for our winter set, and Mike put them on the other night. It completely changes the look of the car. 

Before: 

In process:

After:

Trying to do the selfie thing together doesn’t ever really work for us haha. 

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

Attempt 3... kinda works. 

We picked up our little restoration project (we haven’t named her yet) and took her to Mike’s parents to show them the pretty little thing. Mike forgot to turn the lights off and shortly thereafter, battery was shot. Mike’s dad has all the gizmos and gadgets for charging cars etc etc so he helped us out. 

What a beautiful car though. Island owned, almost original everything, paint is in great condition, cleanest car record of any car he or I (separate and together) have ever owned, runs like a gem and just brings us a ton of joy. We can’t get to start adding to it little by little to make it our little summer Sunday car. 

I agree, it looks gross. And it may taste gross to some, but we love that early AM shot of green. We’ve been revising this along the way as we learn more about different vegetables and fruits and their benefits, and this is the most up to date recipe of what’s included in the delicious brown sludge :) 

1/2 or 1 full avocado 

1 - 2 carrots

Approx. 8 kale leaves 

1 C blueberries (or cranberries)

1 container broccoli sprouts 

1 tbsp chia seeds 

Lemon juice from half or full lemon

Water (enough to make it smooth) 

Optional: 

- Rainbow chard, spinach, flax seed 

The green leafy veggies in our smoothie are all high in magnesium. The kale and broccoli sprouts (esp. broccoli sprouts) are a potent source of Sulforaphane which is the latest thing we’ve learned about from Dr. Rhonda Patrick, American biochemist and science communicator extraordinaire. “Sulforaphane has potent cancer preventative effects as well as effects that likely influence cardiovascular disease. Studies have also shown that Sulforaphane has the ability to enhance the excretion of carcinogens. It has also shown positive effects on decreasing all cause mortality, aging, brain and behavior & more.” 

Here is a link to her latest video about it - it’s pretty science heavy, but we still got some good nuggets of info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4YVJ4aRfg&autoplay=1

Here are some other amazing benefits of these fruits & veggies worth noting:

(sourced from https://www.foundmyfitness.com/reports/micronutrient-smoothie.pdf)

Broccoli Sprouts: Most potent source of Sulforaphane

Kale: High in Magnesium, Lutein, Zeaxanthin, and Sulforaphane

Rainbow Chard: High in Vitamin K

Carrots: High Beta Carotene and Lycopene

Avocado: High in​ P​otassium, Vitamin E, and Monounsaturated Fat

Blueberries: High in the Flavanoids Quercetin, Anthocyanins, Epicatechins

Flaxseed: High in Alpha Linolenic Acid

We usually have this in the morning along with our Bulletproof Coffee (a blend of: coffee, grass fed organic butter, brain octane oil and collagen protein). 

More info on the Bulletproof method can be found here: https://blog.bulletproof.com/engineering-the-ultimate-morning/

We’ve had our eye on this little car for about a month. Local car to the island, in great condition, original paint - needs some love, but may snatch it up as a lot of these cars seem to be climbing in value. 

We were testing out our new Hero 5 Black Go Pro on the way up to Mike’s parents house. We bought the suction cup accessory and attached it to our car and it worked perfectly. 

Here’s some video footage heading to their new house in Metchosin - not the best day but felt very west coast. 

Headed up again for our annual friends Whistler trip - drove the SQ5 up there this time, as that was the only car that had true winter tires and we definitely required them on the drive up. ‘Twas very snowy. 

The skiing on Saturday was gorgeous - not as much powder as we had hoped for but the weather was unreal. The next day had clouded over but Mike & I still had lots of fun exploring Whistler and runs we had never done before. 

Itching to get up again.. we’re counting down the days. 

Hello! We’re back home in Victoria, BC but missing our week away at the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We had such a great trip - it was a good balance of partying, relaxation and indulgence. The resort itself was beautiful; we were upgraded to one of their newer suites upon arrival which we didn’t object to, and were greeted with a bottle of champagne, cake, rose petals and a warm bath. The newer building is very modern feeling, much different than the other part of the building (which used to be a Ritz Carlton... and totally felt Ritz Carlton esq...). There were 11 restaurants, all of which served breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was a European coffee bar with delicious cakes and other sweets, there was a candy shop, a smoothie bar (I got my green smoothie every morning..which proved very refreshing when I woke up with a hangover :S), a burger shack and a jerk shack. The bars all offered premium booze, there were pool and beach butlers to get you whatever you wanted (food from any restaurant or drinks... even sunglasses if you really wanted them), you could rent a large cabana for $25 per day (proved to be great shelter during the short monsoon downpour). Overall, the service was amazing. Our room was cleaned in the morning and then they would turn down our bed at night... it was hard coming home to reality where you need to make your own breakfast and make your bed. The gym was great - had everything we needed, there was a pub and 2 bars... our favourite restaurant was the French one (Petit Pariz) where we could get escargot and steak tar tar as appetizers. The weather was great, minus two days with rain, and we soaked up as much vitamin D as we could. 

We were planning on a catamaran day tour but it was cancelled due to rough seas :( but we did make it out to Negril midweek and saw 7-mile beach and went and enjoyed cocktails and cliff jumping at Rick’s Cafe (iconic spot in Negril, since 1974). It felt pretty nostalgic - I definitely got a 1970′s vibe from that spot.