Karley and Ian’s neighbours, Carmen and Juergen (a chef) invited us to a “Dinner Celebration” at their house tonight. It was officially supposed to be a “Celebration of Salmon”, but is was also Monet’s 2 month birthday, an opportunity to celebrate Bill and Laura’s engagement, a farewell dinner for them (they leave here tomorrow) and a farewell dinner for us (we leave next Saturday).

Karley offered for us to bring dessert so I spent my morning making both a carrot cake and a Skor cheesecake while Rick, Bill, Laura and Ian went to Fort Langley. Jay, who’d stayed overnight, hung out and played with Makai while Karley minded Monet. Makai adores his Uncle Jay and the two of them played hide and seek for hours making Makai one very happy boy.

I loaned Bill my camera to use while in Fort Langley and he had a heyday with it; I downloaded 237 pictures and most of them are fantastic. Hopefully, I can share many of them with you here over the next few days and when I do I will give credit to where credit is due. (This picture was one he took earlier of Jay with Makai.)

Tonight we had a wonderful feast of salmon “a la Juergen”; the salmon was caught by Juergen, smoked and cured by Juergen (and Carmen) and cooked to perfection by Juergen. Carmen, always the most gracious hostess, also kept us well entertained with her wonderful warmth and humour. We had a terrific evening; a wonderful celebration of a birthday, an engagement, some farewells and of course…Salmon!