An Eventful Long Weekend and Dining Room Decor

We had a busy weekend, Sunday was Mike's birthday and Monday was our 13th wedding anniversary; our marriage is now a teenager.  But instead of being moody and spending all it's time in the bathroom looking at itself in the mirror, our marriage is in a decidedly more even-keeled middle-age; juggling schedules and raising children.

We had Mike's parents, cousin and her husband here for the long-weekend.  Mike's cousin hadn't been here since the year we got married and her husband had never even been to Medicine Hat, so it was nice to show off the city a bit to them.  If you've never been up to the city look-out across from McCoy High School up in NE Crescent Heights, then you should definitely check it out. It gives a fantastic view of the city, and if you're lucky, like we were, you'll also see a few antelope up close.  Unfortunately the weather was not that cooperative and the rain we had everyday prevented us from having a lot of outdoor fun.  That didn't stop Mike's dad from doing a crazy amount of yard work and repairs around the house though, including assembling the girls' trampoline with the other two men out in the rain.  It looks like we are in for rain all week, whatever happened to the Farmer's Almanac prediction of a cool and dry summer?

I had finally decided on furniture for the dining room, and called an acquaintance to find out where she got hers, only to discover that the store had gone out of business!  I hate having to settle, but it looks like I'm going to have to.  This is what I wanted:

The Saarinen Tulip Table

Here it is in a room:

The chairs I would like with it would be the matching ones like in the picture above, or the Panton Chair or the Phillipe Stark Louis Ghost Chair (knock-offs of course, I could never afford the originals):

Panton Chair

Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair

I saw that Target has a Ghost knock-off as well as another clear acrylic chair, if they would just hurry up and get their Canadian locations opened, I could maybe tolerate these instead.  Now I'm going to have to comb Kijiji, eBay, furniture and thrift shops to try and find something I can live with that will also fit into our oddly shaped dining room.  And don't even get me started on the living room furniture situation!