whirlwind weekend

I love those kind of weekends where you lie in bed on Sunday night and think of how much you did, and how much fun you had. I'm all for relaxing and being lazy all weekend long... that's all fine and dandy if it's only one or two weekends of the year.  I'm incapable of relaxing, sitting still, and just doing absolutely nothing. This is tough for my old-man husband, who can't keep up to my young, energetic self. (I'm just kidding, if I get any less than 8 hours of sleep I'm excessively grumpy these days.)  

This weekend was a good dose of chaos and fun.  Friday night we drove to Red Deer after Ryan fixed my car that was literally falling apart.  We chatted with Ryan's parents for awhile, and wished his mom a very happy 60th birthday... though the real celebration was the next day.  

Saturday arrived, and I was drawn to the kitchen by the smell of bacon that had wafted to the second level. We ate some breakfast and lounged around the house before heading out to do some shopping. I think that Ryan and I need shopping rehab, and a ban on buying any more airplane related items. We can't help ourselves. Here is a sample of our typical though process in a store... "An inflatable airplane pool toy?! That would look great in our spare room!" ...or the all too commonly used "We'll buy it for when we have kids!" Lord help us if we end up having a daughter first. A daughter that loves pink, and hates planes. We'd probably disown her. I'm kidding. Kind of.  

Anyways, I digress, as usual.  This round of shopping we left with an airplane piggy bank, an airplane step stool, and cupcake liners that had nothing to do with airplanes. We went for lunch at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant because I'd been craving Pho all week. No, I'm not craving things because I'm pregnant, which is something that I feel I need to clarify often since getting married. Next up was a long overdue haircut. I'm so tempted to chop it all off now that the wedding is over, but I know that I'd regret it a week later. All prettied up, we headed back to Ryan's place. I still call it that, despite the fact that "his place" is our house, in Edmonton. People began arriving and we enjoyed food-filled birthday festivities. Oh cake, how I love thee. 

We'd normally stay until Sunday, but our early morning plans meant returning to Edmonton a night early, with a slight detour to say hi to my Grandma in Ponoka. We got back, went to sleep, and morning came way too soon afterwards. 

It was an early one for us, as we got ready to do the MS Walk with our friends!  Waking up at 6 am on a Sunday was a challenge, but we did it and managed to have a fun morning as we walked for a great cause! Unsatisfied with the free lunch provided, we made a collective decision that ice cream was necessary. Very necessary. Shoving aside all guilt (my diet has been ridiculously disgraceful as of late) I chowed down on my birthday cake ice cream with Smarties. Life was good.  

It was a bit of an unspoken agreement that Ryan and I would return to our healthy habits come Monday, so we did what had to be done... headed to our favourite restaurant and enjoyed a small feast. We were full, but happy... until we got home. We'd both been gaining weight since returning from our trip, although Ryan didn't realize the full extent of our binging, as he'd avoided stepping on the scale and devoured everything edible for weeks. He finally accepted his fate, stepped on the scale, and let's just say... we're off the junk food again.  Feel free to remove it from our home. I don't have the heart to throw candy in the garbage. 

And just like that, the weekend was over. They always go by way too fast! Monday rolled around and it was back to work.  Back to the 9-5 grind that I swore I'd never do again. 

Without my weekend fun, I'm not too sure how I'd get by!  Yes, I've got a great life with an amazing husband, but when I get this bored I get clingy and want him by my side all of the time... and quite frankly, he'd rather hang out in the garage and work on his car. I can't say that I blame him, I just wish that I could find hobbies to love like he does! 

Dear Sky: If you want me back, I'm so ready to be all yours again. Who am I kidding, I've been ready for months.  

a few last words to somebody great.

When you lose somebody important to you, you suddenly think of all sorts of great things to be said about them.  Last week we lost somebody special to us, and it made me realize that maybe you should be saying these things to them when you actually have the chance.  

Gary, I'm not sure if you'll still read my blog, because from what I know the wifi signal is never great from the middle of a lake... and I'm pretty sure that's where you are, catching some big fish. But if that fancy boat of yours is high tech enough, perhaps you'll get a chance to see this. I've got a few things to say to you, and I'm sad to say that I missed my opportunity to tell you in person.  

1.  Thank you for being such a great husband to my Grandma, even if the two of you snuck off and got married one random day in December without telling anyone else. (I like your style.)

2. Thanks for being an awesome step-grandfather to us girls.  I'm pretty sure that when you first met us, we were all young, stubborn, brats, and you still put up with us. Except for me, I was perfect..  (I'm kidding Chantelle and Kiara, I'm kidding... kind of...)

3.  Thanks for cooking me many, many delicious meals. 

4.  Thank you for encouraging me to chase my flight attendant dreams.  I'll always appreciate that.  

5.  Thank you for turning my Grandma into a camping and fishing queen.  Most especially when some of your delicious catches ended up on my dinner plate.

6. Thanks for making Ryan feel welcome in the family and for taking him fishing... even if he rolled his ankle and stole my seat in the truck on the ride back up.... 

7. Thanks for making us laugh and for being an all around great person.  You will certainly be missed by all who knew you. 

Fishing with Ryan last summer... while I stood and watched, and refused to touch a fish or worm.

The last photo that we are in together... taken on his iPad... how high-tech are my grandparents?! 

our wedding: the canadian edition

Ryan and I were engaged for a year and a half... a pretty reasonable length of time, if you ask me. 

Especially considering that for the first 6 months of our engagement, we lived on opposite sides of this great big planet.  Despite this, by the time the wedding rolled around, our friends and family collectively agreed that it was "about time". 

All of the stress and organization that go into planning a wedding often seem crazy when you consider that when all is said and done, it's only one day.  After a year and a half of planning, it would be all over after that day.  That didn't sit well with me... so we did what any wedding-obsessed couple (and by couple, I mean myself) would do.... we had another wedding. 

Okay, so it wasn't really a wedding. It was more a gathering of friends and family... intended for those who hadn't been able to make it to our real wedding in Mexico. I did wear a white dress, we did have a cake, and my personal highlight of the day... our colour-coordinated candy buffet. Creating one of these was the sole reason that I considering opting out of a destination wedding, so to be able to have both made me the happiest girl in the world... and not just because of the sugar high.

We also treated our guests to Jone's Soda... taking those from our generation back to junior high and spending our allowances on the fizzy deliciousness.  

Ryan's mom (who is as talented as Martha Stewart minus the going to jail part) baked us adorable cookies and an incredible chocolate cake. Mass consumption of candy meant that nobody was actually hungry enough to cut into it, so we set it aside... next month we'll toss the "R" and eat it for my birthday.  

My husband donned his wedding attire one more time, although this occasion wasn't quite worthy of shaving his face.  

There was no way that I was wearing my dress (that is still filled with sand) around the house the entire day, so instead I hung it outside to blow in the wind for everyone to see and put on something a bit more comfy. 

Loads of our family and friends showed up.... people that I hadn't seen in months! We felt so lucky to have such fabulous people in our lives. 

The afternoon was full of all sorts of great things... eating, viewing our professional wedding photos for the first time, jumping on the trampoline and blowing bubbles... because marriage doesn't mean that we are completely grown up. 

And now? Now it's officially over. All of the madness that is planning and having a wedding.  While I'm at a bit of a loss with what to do with the time previously dedicated to D.I.Y. projects and scouring wedding blogs, I'm content with the main event being out of the way. Now it's time to be married, which is a pretty big adventure in itself.  

A Photo Overload... OUR WEDDING!

As the wife of a wedding photographer, I understand how long it takes to edit an entire day of photos for each wedding.  I also understand that most brides are extremely impatient when it comes to waiting for their photos to be ready, and I swore that I would be different.  I lied. 

I checked Facebook approximately 79 times per day.  I stalked our photographers blog. I rushed home to check the mail. I was ridiculous.  

Finally, the day arrived. We had our photos, and I felt like it was Christmas.  There were hundreds of them. I loved them all. 

If you are getting married, hire Dylan and Whitney from En Vogue Photography. You won't regret it.

And now, what you've all been waiting for... our wedding photos... or at least a small portion of them. 

 

 

  

There are about 600 more that I'd love to share... but I'm pretty sure that I've wasted enough of your day already, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is to upload photos on Blogger.  I'm so happy with how the photos turned out, and how they highlight just how awesome our wedding day was! Yay!