Mark and Sylvie's wedding

September seemed like a busy month as we had something going on every weekend. For the last weekend in September we were off to celebrate my brother Mark's wedding to Sylvie.
Our journey began on Thursday as we visited Shelby's parents in Courtenay and left Keisha with them. On Friday morning we went south and headed to Shawnigan Lake. The weather on Friday was a beautiful sunny day and I was thinking, it would be nice to switch the wedding to today as I knew it would slowly get worse as the weekend went on.
We stopped by our bed and breakfast place in Shawnigan Lake and it was very nice, had pretty much everything you would want in a place including another hot tub!
In the afternoon we went to Mark and Sylvie's new house in Victoria for the pre-wedding get together to meet some friends of Sylvie's and our Mexican relatives who had flown up the day before.
Then we headed to dinner at a place called The Med Grill. It was good food and made for a nice place to eat. As we were driving home, I noticed I left my camera at the restaurant, we weren't too far away when I noticed, luckily my cousin had grabbed it for me. Could have been a big deal as I was the photographer for the wedding on Saturday.
When we got home Mike and I checked out the hot tub which was nice, even had massaging jets on it.

Here is our B&B we stayed at, this was taken on Friday. We were on the bottom floor.

Saturday morning we had some free time, as I didn't have to meet Mark till noon to take pictures.
I took Aaron on the canoe and Viva joined us. We went out on the lake for about 45 minutes and had a nice canoe ride.

Mike and my cousin David took out the kayak. I think this is where they are trying to pass us on the canoe.

Kyle watching from the shore.

I was watching the weather and it seemed to be holding, although it seemed like it could rain at any moment. Since their wedding was not till 5 pm they decided to do the photos before the wedding. I met Mark at his house and we went to Sylvie's parents house where she was patiently waiting for Mark to show. Maybe she was waiting too long as she had the 'Will Mark show up for the wedding?' thoughts. Finally in Sylvie's parents apartment she was able to come out of the bedroom where Mark was stunned at how beautiful Sylvie was. Eventually after the shock and kissing we were on our way to get some photos.

The grand entrance

Photos were taken in Beacon Hill Park, thankfully the rain held off or these shots would not have been.

Yes this was a little pre-emptive, but oh well

After the photos we headed up to Shawnigan Lake, where the ceremony and reception were to take place. On the way they were getting a little hungry. So a stop to A&W was in order, but no ketchup on anything!

As we got to Shawnigan Lake the rain began to fall and it was decided to have the wedding indoors in the Banquet Hall. The ceremony and reception took place at Steeples the Church Restaurant as it used to be a United Church. The ceremony went well and after which we headed upstairs for more pictures and dinner.

One way to describe the wedding would be quaint. There were about 30 guests, so not too big. For the most part things were kept pretty simple, but that is just the way they wanted it. Sylvie makes a great a addition to our family and we wish them best in a long future together.

A Sunshine Coast wedding

Almost a year ago I was asked to take pictures for our long time friend Kate's wedding to Glenn at Robert's Creek on the Sunshine Coast. When I was asked it seemed like such a long way away, but eventually the day would come.
Meanwhile Shelby found a place to stay for the weekend nearby called the Trails End Cottage
So last Friday morning we left the kids with Shelby's brother for an 'Unc Unc Weekend' and we took the ferry over to the Sunshine Coast. When we arrived the Sunshine Coast was anything but sunny, more like the Rainy Coast!

We found our accommodations and the cottage right on the water, very nice. We didn't have much time at the cottage at that point as we had to head to the pre-wedding BBQ to meet the others that were part of the wedding. After the BBQ, I went to check out some possible locations to take photos after the wedding and then we got to spend the rest of the evening and the morning at our cottage by the sea. There was even a hot tub and I took a few pictures of the area.

We were not totally sure what the weather was going to be like on Saturday, as there was a storm that passed through the night and some thunder for Shelby to enjoy.

The next morning we awoke to beautiful sunshine as the name implies.

We had the morning free to explore, so we went to Sechelt and found the farmers market.
Shelby found some nice smelling(or stinky as I like to call it) soap and a cool glass ring.
We also walked along the beach and we both took some pictures.

Well noon had arrived and I headed to Kate's house as she was finishing getting ready. My job as photographer would begin. I ended up taking over 700 pictures figuring there should be at least a few good ones in there:-)
The wedding was a lot of fun in a beautiful setting on the beach and the weather was great as well. NO one yet, except Shelby and I, have seen my pictures, so YOU our faithful few blog readers get to see a few of the pictures from the wedding to give you a glimpse of the day.


The Bride

The Ceremony


The Toast


The Voyage


The Party


We eventually headed back to cottage after midnight and you would think that without kids, on a secluded beach cottage, you should be able to sleep in, but no 6:30 came and I was wide awake! Anyway we had a busy/fun weekend and headed back to our kids. Not sure if they even missed us as they had lots of Unc Unc stories to share. Thanks Jamie for looking after our kids.
And Kate and Glenn, if you read this, congratulations! and sorry for all the grammar mistakes!

Webb comes to town

On Friday my friend Webb from Houston, TX came to visit for the weekend.
He was kind enough to pick up some fresh tortillas along the way, which we have enjoyed at a few meals since has been here. On Friday night we ended up watching Night at the Museum, which I thought was OK, generally predictable.

On Saturday morning we went to the Country Celebration at Campbell Valley Park. We have been a few times with the kids and they usually enjoy it, so we went again this year.

Aaron and Kyle were able pick a piece of pottery to paint with mom's help , then they glazed, put it in the kiln and we were able to pick it up 2 hours later.

The kids generally had a good time although Kyle was a bit sick. There were different crafts for the kids to do, various entertainers and some games for them play.

Attack of the bubble machine!

Goin' fishin'

A high five from Jerome the Gnome

In the afternoon we headed to White Rock as it was a beautiful afternoon.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and then after Kyle's brief nap, we went to a few playgrounds, we for a walk in the woods and they were able to check out a geocache nearby as well.

So that was our last official weekend of Summer.
Thanks Webb for visiting us again, it always makes for a memorable time.

Spontaneous camping trip

Well we went on our second camping trip after going for the first time with our kids two weeks ago. Around dinner time on Thursday we decided that we would go for one night camping to Hicks Lake with Ray and Ginny and the girls. It might not count as true spontaneity, but we did have less than a day to get ready to go. We left about 2:30pm on Friday and headed to Hicks Lake. Since school is back now, the campsite is on a first come, first serve basis. So with no reservation we headed up there to see what we would find. When we arrived we found the campground about 3/4 full and steadily filling up, we grabbed a site for ourselves and one for the RayGin family.
We set up camp and realized we needed a few things from town. So I headed to Harrison and took a few pictures along the way like this one.

When I got back to camp RayGin had just arrived as well. By the time they arrived there weren't many campsites at all left, so it was good that we grabbed some when we did. I think we kind of crashed their weekend away, but we did help out by getting them a camp site.:-)

Can you see Aaron sneakily crashing the RayGin family party?

Actually we had a fun time camping together, we even reminisced about when we camped last together at Hicks Lake, before kids, about 6 years ago. Things were a little different this time. The kids had a great time though as well and again got the best sleep out of all of us.

When everyone went to bed Ray and I went to the lake to look at the stars and do some night photography. The stars were amazing with shooting stars every few minutes. I took one 20 minute exposure and then we started playing with an LED light.

On Saturday morning we all went to the lake. It was a nice warm day and the lake was nice and refreshing.

Unfortunately we could only stay the one night as we had other previous commitments on Sunday, but we enjoyed our time nonetheless. It helps now that we are camping-with-kids veterans!:-)