Salt Spring Island

My parents took J home to Kelowna with them so that we could celebrate Jason and Maria's wedding day with them. We had a lovely time on Salt Spring Island. Photos, you do the talking!

The morning before the wedding we spent some time at the market in Ganges. Alex discovered his "secret" other profession

Maria arrives with her mom

The kiss

Maria and Jason, happy husband and wife

Look, it's us! Amazing! I don't know the last time we had a picture taken of just the two of us

With Maria and Jason

The view from our balcony

And it wouldn't be a holiday without lots of yummy things to eat and drink!

Alex and his ice cream...okay, fine, one is mine!

Mmmm...afternoon porter by the harbour

Halibut burger

Spinach ravioli with prawns

Iced tea

Pulled pork sandwich

Spicy pizza goodness

We had a great weekend and, as you can see, we ate lots of yummy things!

Happy Day

Congratulations Steve and Jane!


Alex's brother got married this afternoon. The sun came out on what was supposed to be a horrible, rainy day...perfect! We had a nice day with family - it's always fun to celebrate a happy occasion!

Happy Wedding Tomony!

Yesterday masses of Stewarts, Rosses and Bjs descended on Jack Robinson Park. We were joined by some Aussies for Tomony's wedding. Harmony and Tom had a beautiful ceremony in the park and then were joined by their guests and they road and boarded down to the reception.

here comes the family

sealed with a kiss

riding off into the sunset

the happy couple

the cake

The Mulvis, all dressed up - Paul, Colleen, Shannon, Alex, Kelsey, Rebecca, and Jared

first dance

JUST MARRIED

CONGRATULATIONS TOM AND HARMONY!

weekend in Calgary

Friday morning, Alex and I flew off to Calgary for the weekend to attend Christy's wedding. We stayed with my cousin Melissa, her husband Neil and her son Carsen. Yet another weekend that was over FAR TOO SOON...Oh...and I guess I took a lot of pictures...

We arrived at the airport SUPER EARLY because of the security measures and got to eat with plastic knives, although we got real forks and spoons. Alex was also very happy to be able to watch the sports...

let's go! let's go!

thought bubble: I wish we had a tv with sports on it at home...

see the lover-ly plastic knife?!?!

The wedding was beautiful. Christy and Rob both looked so happy! They were surprised to leave the church and find Christy's Swiss dancing ladies waiting to greet them and a horse drawn carriage to take them to the reception. Christy's sneaky dad waited until she went on vacation before the wedding and arranged with her colleagues for a police escort too!

Leaving sunny Vancouver

The Rockies

FLAT Calgary

Carsen with his new cars

Alex and Carsen playing with the pumpkin balloon (and Harley, the dog, sulking cause he didn't get to play too)

Alex was the chief navigator...we made it everywhere we needed to go, even when we made the directions up on our own!

Christy and her dad, Hans

Mr. and Mrs. Rob and Christy Christen

SURPRISE...Police Escort

see you at the reception...

Alex boogieing with the bride

Alex happy to go home...look he's got the paper and Starbucks...what better way to wait out the snow is there?

snowy, foggy airport

de-icing the plane

Oh and by the way...I still want to be a paleontologist (yes, I know these aren't fossils, but they are dinosaurs!) and I DID go to Calgary too...I'm just not in very many of the pictures...

pterodactyls

see, here I am...double chins and all

The Gift Opening

I think Canadian weddings must go on forever! This one certainly last three days! After leaving Hiromi at the airport to go home to Japan, we went back to Megan's grandparents' house for more of the spectacular view and more delicious food...mmmm....

ummm, Hans...that might be meant for Megan!

Then Edna, Hiromi and Sarah went into Victoria with Megan, Hans and the Danish contingent and Alex and I went to Cobble Hill to visit my grandma and hang out with some wildlife.

The Reception

After the beautiful wedding there was a reception at the same wonderful location as the rehearsal dinner. The reception had a lot of traditional Canadian elements to it as well as some very cool Danish traditions, like all the men kissing the bride when the groom left the tent and the women kissing the groom when the bride left and stomping on the floor (in this case banging on the underside of the table, cause it's hard to stomp on grass and make noise) to get the bride and groom to kiss UNDER the table.


Megan's grandpa and his barber shop quartet (okay, I know there are more than four of them, but that's what they called themselves) sang for us.

Hiromi did a traditional Japanese dance.

Pauline and Edna

the girls - Shannon, Sarah, Edna, Megan, Vanessa and Hiromi

the first dance

Danish tradition: As the couple dances their first dance, the guests form a circle and move in closer and closer to the bride and groom until they can't move. Then they kiss and the dance is over.


Another Danish tradition: After the first dance the men grab the groom and cut the toes of his socks off. It's symbolic and means the couple should never have to worry about things like the cost of a pair of socks.

putting Hans' shoes back on

Uh oh...Megan had to toss the bouquet three times before it landed with someone...the first time she threw it over the heads of all the single girls. The second time it landed short and someone stepped on it...the third time someone almost caught it...but fumbled...and in putting my arms up to protect my head, the bouquet somehow ended up in my hands...seriously, it was deflected off of someone else and landed on me...

Megan and Shannon

Yes...I am wearing an ugly sweatshirt...it was cold and some smart person left her sweater in Vancouver....