It's a Girl! (We think!)

Today marked the first ultrasound of Baby G. The baby was strong and healthy and might be a little on the large side (please note, Ben was 10lbs). According to the ultrasound technician it looks like we are having a baby girl! We do not know 100% because the baby's cord was wedged right between its legs. It was being modest and shy. So, for now we are saying 'Girl' and that will be confirmed next month when we have a special 3D ultrasound. Without further ado here are the first pics of Baby G, otherwise known as Lily Joy Gulbrandsen (we think!)

We were told these are feet.

Baby curled up with little booty in the air.




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Tis the Season

The last month has been a whirlwind of travel, parties and work!

Towards the end of November we took a very quick trip down to San Francisco to surprise Sarah's parent's for their 50th Birthdays. They were really surprised to come home on the afternoon of American Thanksgiving to see all of their kids (that live up and down the West Coast) sitting at their dining room table. Later in the weekend we took out the parents for a special dinner at the Tonga Room at the San Francisco Fairmont. The Tonga Room is the Strong family's old standby for special occasions. The food is decent, but the live music, dancing and indoor rainfall make it a fun party venue.

Ben has been busy working 6 or 7 days week at the store! This is the biggest buying time for jewelry so he wants to make sure he is available for customers. We had a professional window dresser come in this year and decorate the store. It looks amazing! If you live in Victoria and desire beautiful (but affordable) jewelry, you should stop by.

Just this past weekend Sarah was in charge of her company Christmas Party. She bused in about 100 people to Butchart Gardens and basically took over the place. It snowed the day of the party, and the Gardens looked like an enchanted fairy kingdom. It was a true winter wonderland. If you are interested in seeing more pics from the party you can them out on Sarah's company blog at http://www.neverbluemedia.com/blog/

Oh, I guess one really big thing that we have not announced yet in the blogosphere is that Sarah is expecting. She is 17 weeks pregnant along and will be having her ultrasound appointment on December 13th. We are counting down the days until then. So be sure to check back next week for the first pics of Baby G!

Mom & Dad's 50th with the Fam.




At the entrance of Butchart Gardens

Dancing with friends in the snow at Butchart

The Enchanted Garden

Romantic Trailer Parks

I know that you are all waiting at the edge of your seats for our most recent thoughts and musings. We are now in the middle of October and our blogging has been lazy lately. What can I say? Life has been busy & interesting.

Rather than bore you with our life details from the last two months, I will simply post pictures of our most recent adventure. Over the weekend Ben thought that it would be a great idea to go away for a 'romantic weekend.' I jumped at the opportunity but was surprised when he then mentioned the words 'camping' & 'trailer' along with word 'romantic'. If you know me, you probably know that I am not a real 'roughing it' type of girl. But I am willing to give anything a shot- at least once. So we borrowed a tent trailer and camped out 10 minutes away from our house at the Beachcomber RV Park. This mini-trip was a test run to see if we could hack it later on at a destination couple of hours away from home. In the end, it was a gorgeous location and I am excited to explore new 'trailer parks' in the future.

Sunrise at the RV Park

Home Sweet Home (at least for 1 night)

View from our 'bedroom'

Ben the Master camper

August has come and gone..

Bev and JanEgil took us to the butchart gardens for fireworks on a Saturday in August. This was a fun way to send off Heidi. She is now in Hawaii doing her Masters.

I guess the other pictures of fun summer activities are at home on the computer there. We were in San Diego and have been on the boat, gone camping with friends and there might even be on of Sarah's new skin disease. Lot's of things to post. So get to it Sarah!

Hot Fun in The Summertime

This past weekend officially kick-started the pool party season. A few friends, family & tons of babies congregated at the Gulbrandsen homestead for an afternoon of sunburns, food & a couple of mixed drinks.

Eric, Bev & Trisha Keeping Cool

Ander's the 'Bikini Inspector'

Swimming Cousins Sienna & Hunter

The always suave guys kickin' back enjoying the rays

July Long Weekend

Sorry for the poor writing. Sarah hasn't updated "our" site in awhile so I thought if I posted something she'd probably edit and change everything. (Most likely you're not even reading this)

So we had a long weekend. July 1st is Canada day and the Monday was off for most everybody. I happened to get some visitors from out of town, so I took Fri-Sun off. Some old friends from my ISS high school days. Phil attended our wedding, and is from Germany, but we last saw him together with Gareth 2 summers ago in London. We commented that we always seem to get together when there are bombs going off in London. Kind of Strange.

And finally Gavin. Hadn't seen the guy in 8 years. He looked older and more mature, but I'm only saying looked mature. He was the same old :)

We'll hopefully post more this upcoming weekend. Supposedly the first days of summer have arrived. 30+ C degrees (80+F). This weekend we'll throw a massive pool party and if you know about this blog, you're invited.

The Life & Times

This is the latest installment in the happenings of Ben & Sarah. For all of our faithful readers we profusely apologize for the delay in posting. It seems that stalking (ahem... I mean adding friends) on Facebook has been taking up too much of our internet hours.

The month of May was busy with lots of parties & celebrations. In mid-May Sarah orchestrated a fundraising ,1950's Sock Hop on behalf of her work and the BC Cancer Foundation. The event was a huge success complete with live music, dancers and a silent auction. Sarah even got a little air time on the evening news dressed up as a lovely (but rather drag-queenish) pink lady.Then on May 30th Sarah celebrated her 26th Birthday with friends & family at her Canada's Next Top Model Birthday Party. She is now officially on the 'other' side of her twenties and not quite sure if she likes that.There seems to be a bit of a theme here... Yes it is true, May has been declared Sarah's month.

Just last weekend we were able to hang out with some of Renee's family from New York & Florida and attend our adorable little nephew, Anders', baptism. Anders looked extremely handsome in his very own Norweigan 'bunad.' After the baptism Roy & Renee threw a bash at their place with lots of friends & family.

Tricia, Baby Hunter & Lisa chillin' at the Baptism Party

We are looking forward to traveling a bit in the months to come. Ben recently returned from a jewelry buying trip to Las Vegas. Ben says nothing wild went on but this is difficult to judge since Ben and his dad can get pretty rowdy sometimes. Later in the summer we will hopefully be taking a camping trip or two and then in August we will be heading down to San Diego for beach time with Sarah's family.

In closing, we would like to congratulate Sarah's parents, Ken & Teri on reaching their 30th wedding anniversary on June 11th. Way to go mom & dad!

5 Years Down...Lots More to Go!

Happy Anniversary to us! This week five years ago we were married at the Jefferson Street Mansion, in Benicia, California. The Canadian family came down on the'love bus' and joined the wild American family for the wedding of the year! The last five years have gone by in the blink of an eye. In five years we have graduated from university, lived in another country, moved four times, adopted Bella the Cat, opened a store and mostly have had a lot of fun. We were only 21 & 22 when we tied the knot but it is still the best decision that we have ever made!

In celebration of our first five years of bliss we decided to explore Vancouver Island- Parksville specifically. We played at the beach, met some lovely goats in Coombs & chilled out at the Grotto Spa. It was a blast! We definitely would like to return to Parksville later this summer to hang out at the beach, camping anyone? The following are a couple of pics from the past weekend.

Dinner at the Cedar Room

The Goats on the Roof at the Old Market in Coombs

The amazing beach at the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort. The tide goes out really far every day & leaves warm pools of water.

Sweating like Superstars

On Sunday, April 29th we strapped on our running shoes and raced with 8,500 other runners at the Victoria Times Colonist 10k. We competed on Sarah's work team the "Neverblue Neon Sweatbands," hence the beautiful neon bands that adorn our heads in the pictures shown below.The weather was clear & sunny- perfect for working up a sweat. In the end our times were Ben- 50min and Sarah-54min. The times were just OK, they will motivate us to train harder for next year! Next up on the running agenda... the Victoria Marathon? We shall see!


Ben pushing it during the run. Notice the look of agony on his face!

Looking a little bit grotesque but happy after the run along with Gareth from the G Team

ahhh... the Finish Line!

Spring is in the Air!

The grass is green, the tulips are blooming & you can buy Easter chocolate at half-off... Spring is definitely here!

The Strong family gathered from around various North American locations and converged at our place for the Easter Weekend. It is so different hanging out with siblings and parents now that everyone is grown... it is almost fun. Just kidding, it really was fun. The following are a few pics from the past weekend. Enjoy.

Tiff & Eric enoying their Easter Festivities

The Girl's Tea Time

The Group Shot

Ben's Birthday Part 2- The XBOX

Today is Ben's official 27th B-Day, he is now officially in his Late 20's. One would think that as a man matures into his adulthood things like video games would not bring joy to his life. For Ben this is absolutely NOT the case. As you can see in the pictures above Ben is showing expressions of pure delight at the unveiling of his favorite gift: the Xbox 360. I have a question for all of you ladies whose husbands indulge in Xbox on a regular basis, what do you do with all the hours (days, nights, weekends) apart from your signficant other?

Birthday Part 1- The Keg

This past weekend officially kicked off Ben's Birthday Celebrations. Yes, I said celebrations plural. Birthdays are Ben's specialty and he likes to celebrate his several times and with style. On Saturday night, a group of 16 headed over to the Keg Steak House to celebrate the March Birthdays of Ben, Beth & Rayael. The Birthday Prince and Princesses dined to their hearts' content and then headed over to la Casa de Gulbrandsen for further eating festivities.

Ben the Birthday Boy & his Favorite Wife Sarah

Sienna trying out her kung fu moves on her cousin Anders.

Be sure to stay tuned for Ben's Birthday Part 2 coming after March 19th- it is sure not to disappoint.

Gulbrandsen Family Dinner

A nice family dinner at big house! Anders is the hit of the party, like usual.

A week in the sun!

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to Puerto Vallarta. We Stayed at the Palladium and the temperature was consistantly 30 celsius and sunny.