Our Adventures

We've been moved in for about a month now and things are slowly coming together the way we want them to be. We've sort of decided in our month of reno's that I stick to the details like painting and Chris sticks to the handy man stuff like installing and that has worked out well. We've finished two bedrooms upstairs and the bathroom downstairs, fixed up a corner in the family room and repainted, I painted many doors and trim and Chris put new handles and knobs on doors, new light fixtures on the ceilings and new closet organizers in two closets. I think we're on a good pace for getting it all done by Christmas but we shall see. Things have been pretty busy doing stuff with the house but we've also had some time to enjoy it with having friends over to watch Riders games and to just hang out. Having a ping pong table and the Wii definitely draws people to our house too but that's alright with us. I haven't been getting too much work these days, I guess people aren't getting very sick anymore but I've been using my time to fix the house up so that's working out okay. Although I would like to have some more work just to keep me on my toes with teaching. Chris is busy these days coaching the Grade 9 boys basketball team but is really enjoying the group of guys that he has to work with. He also put up our first set of Christmas lights the other day, let's just say they're Rider green, gotta bring a little bit of SK to BC. Not much else is new around here, pretty much our house consumes our life at this point but hopefully by Christmas we'll be able to relax a little more and just enjoy all the hard work we put into it. Now for some pictures, the first is the last wedding I did this year, it was on Chris' birthday but I didn't have to do the reception so we were still able to have a party in the evening. They turned out well and the fall colours definitely made some of the pictures even better. Then what you've all be waiting for... the before and after shots of some of our finished rooms. You'll have to wait and see for more to come.

William and Jessica: October 17, 2009


Our stuff all packed up and ready to move

The first thing Chris was concerned with, setting up the TV

THE BEDROOM
The bedroom before, a nice pinkish tone

The painting is finished

New queen bed is set up

So much more room to sleep!

Another view


Facing the bathroom and closet

Closet before, this nice yellow tinge was the original colour of all the walls in the house

Setting up the new organizer

The finished product, this colour will be the colour of our hallway too

THE OFFICE
Before: Mint green and white walls, with a lovely floral wallpaper border on the top (which I ripped down before the picture)

Handyman at work putting in new door handles

Dad putting up the new chair rail, which used to be in our bedroom

Room is ready to be moved into


Our new desk and drawers

Bookshelf and new closet

Another look

THE BATHROOM
Before: Nice blue tiles and pink paint over flowered wallpaper


Tiles are ripped off, time to mud the walls

Plumbing time

Freshly painted walls, the same colour our living/dining room will be

New light fixture and tap

Refinished cupboard doors with new handles

So there you have it, all the work we've done so far. Well, we've also finished our family room but I'm waiting for some prints to come in so I can hang them up so pictures will have to wait on that room. But we're pretty happy with the results of what we've done so far, now just three more parts of the house to go!

I think fall has finally arrived. It's getting darker and cooler at night and a little more nippy outside. That's okay though because that means we're getting closer to moving! Things are coming together for moving, my mom seems to be almost all packed up and we'll start packing maybe next week. I went over there last weekend and even started ripping wallpaper and moulding down from rooms that we want to paint. Another exciting thing that has happened lately is I have been working! I've worked the past four school days at two different Christian schools, one in Chilliwack and one in Abbotsford. Not being on the public district TOC list doesn't seem to be a problem so far. It's been really great to actually get back into a class and do what I got an education to do. I've even had one kid tell me that I was a great substitute teacher so that's a good sign.

A few weeks ago we went out to Cultus to see my brother and his new dog Keila. She is part border collie and part lab and very full of energy. We may help take care of her once we have a house that she can come to when my brother is at work. We also took some family pictures while we were at his house seeing as how the last one was at our wedding.





Last weekend a bunch of us headed to Vancouver for the Riders vs. Lions football game. It was fun being there with everyone but not such an exciting game to watch. The last two minutes were great but other than that, not worth paying money to see.


Another thing that I have been working on is my website. I wanted to update it for a while and since I had a whole bunch of time before I started working that's just what I did. There may be a few kinks to work out still, like some pictures that show up blurry, but it's pretty much how I want it to be. Go check it out, you may even be on it somewhere!

Square One Photography

I only have one more wedding shoot this year and have finished editing until then. Coming back from Europe I started editing Ryan and Randi's pictures so they would be done before my next wedding. I got them edited and mailed off the day before my next wedding. I wanted to make sure that they got to see them first before putting them up here but now that they've seen them the rest of you can too. I was really happy with how they turned out and I think they were too.

Ryan and Randi - July 25, 2009

My last wedding I did was on the brink of rain all day but it held off and we were able to get some great photos. I spent the whole day with this couple from the morning into the night at the reception. They also turned out good which is great both for me and them.

Justin and Janice - September 5, 2009

Other than weddings I have been trying to get my foot in the door at schools to TOC. Since the public school districts are taking their sweet time to interview and hire I went out to some Christian schools and got on their TOC lists. I've gotten on Unity Christian in Chilliwack and MEI in Abbotsford but I can't officially TOC there until my certificate comes in which is also taking longer than I hoped. So basically I'm waiting around hoping to put my education to use. Pretty frustrating to not be able to work when I'm done everything and ready to teach. Hopefully they'll be more progress next week and I'll be getting some work.

As for moving news, my mom has started to pack up her house, listed things for sale and bought new things for their condo. Trying to get rid of 28 years worth of stuff can be a bit tricky. As for us, we haven't been too busy with thinking about that yet since we don't have as much stuff to move or get rid of. We're pretty excited though to move into the house and fix it up to make it our own.

We've been home for over a week now and we're officially back into the groove of things. Chris' first full day of school was today and I've already had one wedding this past weekend. So we're both very busy again. We had a great time in Europe but were ready to be back home after a month of being away. We came home to find that my parents had found a condo that they liked and were wanting to sell us their house. After finding a mortgage broker and seeing if we would be approved, we were and made it official yesterday. So as of the end of October we will be home-owner's! Yeah it was a little fast right after coming home but it seems now is the time to buy and who knows if my parents would ever find another place they liked like the place they found. Things will be a little busy around these parts for the next couple of months but we are excited.

Getting back to Europe....I'll do a brief synopsis of what we did in each country to give you a little idea of the adventures we had. Get ready for some reading...

We started off in Italy. We flew into Rome at around 9am and had the whole day ahead of us with no sleep. We did pretty good seeing major sights like the Colosseum, Palantine Hill and the Roman Forum. We were pretty exhausted by the end of that day. The next day we headed to the Vatican where we paid for our only tour of our trip because we didn't want to walk around mindlessly not knowing what anything was. There we saw some pretty amazing things like the Sistine Chapel and St.Peter's Basilica. That church was so huge it was crazy. After taking a break in St.Peter's square we walked to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps. We had our first Italian pizza right behind the Pantheon but I have to admit, it's not as good as pizza at home. So that was our two day packed adventure in Rome. We also had two old ladies yell at us in Rome on each day for slighting bumping them when we walked past them, that was quite a scene...Onto Florence.

We spent one day in Florence. First thing we did was climbed the Duomo where we could see all of Florence. It was so hot climbing to the top and you're in this tiny little stairway going straight up but it was nice when we got to the top because there was a breeze. After the Duomo we walked down to the main square and went into the Uffizi Gallery where there are original paintings by people like Michaelangelo and all those artist guys. We're not too artsy so that was about as artsy as we got on our trip. In the evening we headed to Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge that has a bunch of shops that sell gold. We hung out there for quite a while watching the sunset and listening to a pretty good Italian singer who set up shop in the middle of the bridge. To end our night in Florence we of course bought some Fanta to refresh ourselves. That is one thing that will always remind me of Europe, Orange Fanta. I don't think we have it here in Canada.

The next three days in Italy we spent in Monterosso which is part of the Cinque Terre along the west coast of Italy. This was probably one of our favorite stops of our whole trip. On our way up there we stopped in Pisa for about an hour to quickly go see the leaning tower. Monterosso is a small little town with not much else to do but hike and relax at the beach. We were ready for some of that after days of running around trying to see so many things. The room we got was a patio room overlooking the whole town and beach which was pretty amazing. We would spend our nights on the patio playing cards and just relaxing eating our trail mix that we brought along. Our first full day in Monterosso we did the Cinque Terre trail which is about a 5 hour hike between the 5 towns of Cinque Terre along the coast. It was a great hike but very hot and harder than we thought it would be. Let's just say we were ready for our beach day the next day after that hike, we got very burnt and very sweaty. So as I said the next day we spent on the beach, we rented two umbrella chairs and dipped in the water and relaxed all day, with of course a stop for some gelato. Everyday we were in Italy we had gelato, maybe even twice a day. That stuff is delicious.

Our last stop in Italy was Venice. Our first night there we wandered the alleys and got caught in a downpour and thunderstorm but I got the best picture of our trip of lightning crossing over the grand canal. I was pretty excited about that. We phoned home that night and surprised everyone. Our next day in Venice we went to the Doge's Palace, which is where their king lived. We also took a trip on a Vaparetto which is the water taxi that people who live there take to get around in Venice. We didn't want to pay 100 Euros for a gondola so we took the taxi which was worth it because we got front row seats. The next day we walked around to the less touristy parts of Venice to where the parks are out on the edge of the island. We had a pasta supper that night and some more gelato. Although Venice was great to see I think that three nights was too much, we probably only needed two.

Italy: August 4 - 13


Our next stop was Innsbruck, Austria. We actually stayed in a little town called Absam which was about a 10 minute bus ride from Innsbruck. This was probably the nicest room we had on our trip. We had a long train ride through the Alps that day so by the time we got to our bed and breakfast all we had time for was a little stroll through Hall in Tirol which was a town next to Absam. The next day we saw lots. We got the Innsbruck card which covered all public transportation and entrance into all the major sights so we went to as many of them as we could. First we headed up to the ski jump that was used for the Olympics in 1964 and 1976. Then we went to the Schloss Ambras which was Ferdinand the II's castle. There were lots of stuffed animals and armory in there because I guess he liked hunting and weapons. Our next stop was the best stop in Innsbruck. We took three gondolas up the Alps and climbed the peak to get to the very top of the Alps. If we had spent more time in Innsbruck we definitely would have done some hiking around there. The view was amazing from up there, you could see all of Innsbruck and its surrounding towns and tonnes of other mountain peaks. The last thing we saw was the Alpine zoo which was built onto the mountain side and was basically a vertical zoo that you climbed paths to get to the next exhibit.

The other place in Austria that we went to was Salzburg. Salzburg is all about Mozart. There were bands on the streets playing Mozart and souvenirs with Mozart and lots of operas and musicals you could go to. We stuck to seeing the sights like the Dom (which is their big church), Mozart's house and where he was born, walked along the Salzach River and even saw a brothel. In the evening we headed up the hill to Hohensalzburg Castle which was a fortress that was never used because it was so big that enemies didn't attack it. From there we had a really good view of Salzburg. The next day in Salzburg we took a train out to a little town called Werfen. Then we took a bus up a mountain to the trail leading to the largest ice caves in the world, Eisriesenwelt. These caves have humongous ice formations and supposedly there's 40km of them but the tour only takes you on the first 1 km. A guide gives you lanterns to light up the cave and takes you up 300 steps which goes beside huge ice formations and then he lights up magnesium strips to light up the ice. It was so crazy to see these huge pieces of ice, a once in a lifetime experience for sure. On that trip we met a couple from Saskatoon, small world. Once we got back to Salzburg there was just enough time to get a Bosna (hotdog with curry and onions) and Kasekrainer (hotdog with cheese inside) to eat by the riverside.

Austria: August 13-17


After Austria we went up the Eastern side of Germany with our first stop in Munich. The main thing about Munich is beer halls. There were quite a few in Munich and there would be hundreds of people at them drinking 1 liter beers. While we were there we had to stop at the most famous beer hall Hofbrauhaus to share a litre of beer. It was so loud in there with hundreds of people and the oompa music going in the background. It's definitely a different culture, beer is everywhere and you're allowed to drink it at age 16. We also went to the first concentration camp in Germany called Dachau. This was a very somber morning as we walked around and saw the barracks, bunker house, crematorium and pistol range. This camp was the only one to last for Hitler's full reign over Germany and over 35,000 people died here and over 200,000 were imprisoned. It was good to see but not something I ever need to see again. While in Munich we also rented bikes and tried to be like the locals. We stuck to park trails for the most part, not trusting ourselves on busy sidewalks. We went up to English Garden which is a huge park and biked around there for a bit before going to the beer hall. Munich was also one of our favorite places on our trip because although it is a big city it felt like a nice friendly town.

Going north, our next step was a medieval town called Rothenburg. If you've ever seen those little Christmas villages people have as decorations, this is what this town looked like. It is famous for its Christmas ornaments and their pie dough balls called schneballein. Our first night we had a tour with the "night watchman" who gave us some history of the town and showed us around. The next day we just relaxed, walked around the city wall, had some schneballein and bought some Christmas ornaments. It was a nice little town but not one that we needed to see for two days.

Next was Dresden on the far east side of Germany that was once communist and you could see the remains of communism in the block buildings around the city. This city was almost completely destroyed in WWII so much of it was rebuilt. They tried copying many of the buildings that used to be there but there were also many new buildings built too. Our first day there was kind of cloudy and rainy but nothing we couldn't walk around in. We went and saw the Zwinger Palace, parade of princes mural (which was one of the only things not destroyed in the war because it was made of porcelain), the Church of our Lady (the only Lutheran church we saw our whole trip) and we ate some bratwursts by the Elbe River. The next day we rode our first double decker train out to Saxony Switzerland National Park which is a park with huge sandstone outcroppings that come hundreds of feet straight up from the ground. If we were rock climbers we would have been in heaven. We spent the day there hiking way down and way back up hundreds of steps.

Last stop in Germany was Berlin. Berlin was a great city to see, so much history and change has happened there. We stayed with my old roommate from Capernwray and her husband in a little town called Hermsdorf just outside of Berlin. Our first day there we went to Potsdam where all the Prussian kings had built their palaces and gardens. Our second day we spent touring the city of Berlin. We went on a free tour that lasted three hours and we got so much history out of it, it was definitely worth our 6 Euro tip. After our tour we went back to all the places we had briefly seen and took pictures and read more about them. We saw things like the Berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the memorial to the murdered Jews and even the hotel where Micheal Jackson hung his baby out the window. It was crazy to see how thin the Berlin wall actually was and to hear stories about people trying to escape to West Germany. We ended our time in Berlin by going to the Reichstag which is like their parliament building. It had this huge mirror inside a glass dome that you could climb up and go to the outside to see all of Berlin. That was pretty cool. Berlin was another of our favorite stops.

Germany: August 17-25


Getting to Denmark was quite the process. We took a ferry from Germany to Denmark and expected the train on the other side to wait for the ferry to cross but when we got to the train station one had just left. So we were stuck in the middle of nowhere for two hours waiting for the next train. Then when we were waiting for the next train the station people came out and told us the train was canceled. How can a train be canceled? We were given a taxi to get to the stop we were supposed to connect in but our driver took us to a different town. So then to get to where we needed from that place we were delayed even longer. We finally made it to Koge to see my family after 11 hours of traveling when it should have only taken half that time. We told them all our story and they just said "yeah that sounds like Denmark". I guess trains aren't as reliable in Denmark as everywhere else we had been. That was our only trouble with trains on our whole trip so I guess that is pretty good.

Our first two days in Denmark were spent with my dad's side of the family and my many cousins and their kids. We arrived to one of my cousins house on the beach and saw Danish and Canadian flags surrounding their yard. We felt pretty welcomed. One of my cousins kids is a chef and made all the food for that night which was delicious. We were also given a huge cake that said welcome to Denmark on it. We spent the evening catching up and talking. The next day we went with my cousin Cindie to tour the city of Koge. We met up with her mom and one of my other cousins and went to see a mini-town that these retired people had built of Koge in a 1:10 ratio using real bricks and building materials. It had taken them 20 years to build what they had and would take another 20 to finish. Then we all had lunch in the square and Chris and I headed off on our last train ever to my other cousin Jan on my mom's side.

Jan was there to pick us up at the train station with his little boy Marius but Marius was not too pleased to see us and cried the whole way home. He warmed up to us pretty quick and by that evening was showing us his new lunchbox and his tractors. We spent the next day in Copenhagen going to places like Nyhavn and Tivoli, which is an amusement park that I loved when I visited as a kid. We took Marius on a few rides that were my favorite but he was pretty scared, he liked the slower plane ride though. We had some huge ice cream cones while we were there and then Jan and Chris decided to go on the fastest new ride there that went so fast it made 5 G's. After Tivoli Jan took us to his running store called Kaiser Sport. He gave us the tour and even got us on the treadmill where he video taped our feet and analyzed our run to tell us what kind of shoes we needed to improve. It was a pretty cool store, nothing like I've seen anywhere else. Jan even gave me a pair of Birkenstock sandals and gave Chris two pairs of running shoes out of the 100 that he had at his house after testing them a few times. The next day at Jan's we meet our other cousin for the first time and her family. One of our Uncle's just died and she was in the will along with my mom and Jan but we had never met her before because her dad, my mom's brother, wasn't in her life very much. So we spent the afternoon listening to a lot of Danish and having Jan translate for us every now and then but it was good to meet her. That evening we went for a Danish supper where Chris tried a fried eel from Jan's plate and I ate a huge flounder. Then we came home and played some Settlers. We found out that a lot of the things we do in Canada, they do in Denmark so we had a really easy time having fun and doing things we all liked. We had such a great time with Jan and Rie and can't wait for them to come to Canada with the boys so we can show them everything here. The next day we left for the airport after I made some Kraft Dinner for the boys which I had carried with me the whole trip. It was worth it though because they had never had it before and they loved it. Our plane ride home was uneventful, we got home at night so it was perfect because we could just go home and go to bed instead of having a full day of trying to stay awake like we did when we got to Rome. The trip was great, a once in a lifetime thing and we're so glad that we did it.

Denmark: August 25-30


After a week of being home we have adjusted to regular life. We've ordered a new bed for our new house and will slowly start preparing for the big move. It won't be such a big move for us but more for my parents because they have so much stuff and not as much room to put it all in in their new place. I'm waiting for phone call's for interviews to be a teacher on call so hopefully in this next week I'll be getting some jobs lined up. But while I wait for that I'll be editing more wedding pictures. So that was our summer, tonnes of fun and full of memories.

I thought I'd post for probably my last time this summer. We're heading off to Herbert this Sunday and we'll be back for two days and then we fly to Europe for the month of August. I can't believe it's already here but I'm so ready for it! I just have three more assignments to get done and then I'm officially no longer a student and hopefully officially a teacher. I've been working hard at editing pictures before we vacation and I have finished my last wedding of the summer, besides Ryan and Randi's. I was very pleased with these pictures, we had some good variety for backgrounds and had some fun with them. It also helps that the couple was very photogenic. I'm glad to be done editing for a while though, that was one busy streak I had. I'm sure I'll be back at it once I have all our pictures from Europe.

Chris and Bryanna - July 4, 2009


It hasn't been all work around here though, we did have a chance to get out in the sun last weekend. We went to White Rock and enjoyed the beach, had supper and of course some ice cream. It made me feel like we were in Hawaii or some other tropical location, it's a good little spot to go on a sunny day.

White Rock


We've also played our last baseball game without even knowing it was our last. We were supposed to play one last time tomorrow, where I was going to take some pictures of the team, but it got canceled for some reason. So I guess I'll just have to remember my last good hit I had to make me want to play again next year. While I've been editing and doing school work Chris has been filling his time with watching many many episodes of Star Trek. His new favorite spot is on the bed in the dark with his laptop. Yes, he is a geek. I think he's ready for vacation too.



See you in September!

I'm taking a breather from my crazy editing busy life. I have one more wedding to edit and then I can relax for a bit until we get back from Europe. Besides editing I still have two online classes I've been doing papers and online discussions for so I've been spending a lot of time at the computer. That's not all that's happened lately though. We had a chance two weekends ago to go backpacking in the Stein Valley with Eric and Carmen. Although it's known to be bear country we did not see one although Chris says he saw a bear's bum. We hiked for about 16km the first day because after getting to the end of the trail we decided to hike back a bit to a spot we liked better for camping at. Altogether we hiked about 26km, that's a lot. It was tonnes of fun even though we got attacked by mosquitoes and I got two nasty blisters on my heel. During that week we also helped Carmen and Eric move into their new house. They are now officially homeowners, time to make some babies. We've also been having some good times playing baseball and just enjoying the nice weather we've been having. These next couple weeks before we leave for Herbert and eventually Europe we're trying to see friends for one last visit and getting everything organized that we need to take care of before we leave. It doesn't really feel real yet that we're going to Europe because we've been so busy. It probably won't until we're at the airport but I'm really looking forward to it. Here's some pictures from the last few weeks...enjoy.

Stein Valley Hike


Brent and Allison - June 6, 2009


Stahl Family

Here's the two weddings that I took on the last weekend of May. I still have a lot of work to do so enjoy!

Tracey and Jamie - May 30, 2009

Danny and Rachel - May 31, 2009

We've had some pretty fun-filled weekends the past couple of weeks which means I have new pictures which means I have a reason to blog. Last weekend we celebrated our third anniversary one week late. The day of our actual anniversary I had 3 major assignments due, had school until 6:30pm and had baseball that night. Not much time for celebration. Then I had a wedding to shoot on the weekend so we went with the next for our celebration date. We had a two for one coupon to the aquarium so we headed down to Vancouver and stopped by MEC to get Chris some new hiking boots and a waterproof jacket on the way. I hadn't been to the aquarium in a long time and Chris had never been. Plus there was a brand new baby beluga that was all the hype around there so we had to see it. We saw some interesting creatures but the beluga had to be the best. The dolphins were pretty cool too. After the aquarium we walked around Stanley Park for a bit and then went to Hell's Kitchen for some pizza which was delicious. On our way home we stopped by Birchwood Dairy and had some really good ice cream. All in all it was a good trip and a lovely late anniversary date.

This weekend we were quite busy. Friday we had a staff party with Chris' staff. Saturday we went to see Ben and Christina at a little post-wedding get together. It was good to see those guys again, although Christina was in one of my classes this past month and a half we hadn't seen Ben for a few years. Our big event of the day though was the Coldplay concert. We got there nice and early, got our seats and enjoyed the opening acts of Howling Bells and Snow Patrol. I cannot even explain how great Coldplay performed, it was the best concert I've ever been to, a once in a lifetime event. They pulled out all the stops like big yellow balloons, confetti shaped like butterflies, coming out to the very back of the stadium into the cheap seats and performing in the middle of the crowd. They heard rumors that Vancouver had the loudest fans so they decided to film their video that night, so maybe if you look real close in the upper deck you might see us. Yeah it was an amazing night and something I won't forget. I'll try and upload some video clips of the concert (just remember it sounded a lot better than the video) but if those don't work I have plenty of pictures in the slide show too. Then after getting home at 12:45am we got up this morning and had to run the games at our church's father's day picnic. It wasn't the best weather and it started raining halfway through but I think everyone had fun with it. Let's just say I'm a bit tired.






Our next big event is going camping next weekend with Eric and Carmen, then I have a wedding the weekend after that and then we're heading to the Glen with the gang the next weekend and then to Saskatchewan the next. Right now I am in the middle of editing three weddings and am trying to get them done before this next one in a few weeks so then I can finish that one before heading out to SK. Plus doing homework in between, although I need to pick up my socks in that area a bit. So it doesn't look like things will get any less busy around here until we're on the plane to Europe. Then I can finally relax, actually that will probably be a really busy time too but a different kind of busy. Check back for some new wedding photos soon. Hopefully I'll be done two after this week. Oh and don't be afraid to comment, I know you're out there...

The Canucks are out, so the beard is gone. Lately we've been watching a lot of hockey but now that the Canucks are out there has been a lot less of that. Chris grew out a beard since the beginning of the playoffs and let it grow until the Canucks lost. It was about time in my opinion but it would have been good to see the Canucks go further.


Things are once again very busy for us these days. Hence the no blogging. School is in full force but I only have to drive to SFU 6 more times for two of my classes and then I only have two online classes left until the end of July. Before that happens though I have many assignments to do. Classes have been going good though. PE has been the most fun, we've done some hip hop dancing, some jump roping, games, gymnastics and there's a lot more to come. It definitely makes a four hour class go by quick when you're playing for most of the time. The online classes aren't as bad as I thought they would be so that is good too.

Last weekend we had some fun which started off with a wedding for an old friend of mine, Kevin. He's the bro of Jen, who was one of my bridesmaids and is one of my close friends. It was a good time had by all except for when the staff at the reception were rude to everyone. That part wasn't so great but the rest was. One of my friends Lauren spent 20 hours making the wedding cake which was pretty impressive. We got to see some people we hadn't seen in a while like Jen and her new boyfriend from Saskatoon and Jon and Bonnie with their almost ready to be born baby.

The next day we headed down to Seattle, stopped by the outlet malls and watched the Mariners play the Red Sox. We sat out in the bleachers of left field and got very burnt after sitting in the sun for four hours. It was a really good game and Seattle ended up winning it in the last inning. We took our time getting back stopping by a mall and eating at Red Robin's. Then we sat in line for an hour and a half at the border with all the long weekend traffic coming back a day early, silly people. All in all it was a great little day trip.



I had a wedding a few weekends ago and I finally finished editing them so there's a little sampling below of them. Next weekend is when the picture taking will get crazy. I have a wedding on Saturday, Sunday and then the next Saturday. Let's just say I'll be at my computer for the next month. That plus all the assignments I have coming up will make for one very busy time but once these two shorter classes are done it shouldn't be too bad. We're just really looking forward to the middle of July when we can head out to Herbert and then head to Europe for August. That will be the prize for all this work that I have now. Can't wait.

School is done and I don't know what to do with all this free time. I've been finished for a week and a half and still have over that much time to go until I have an interview for TOCing in Abbotsford. So I'll keep myself busy with some blogging for now. Lots of exciting things have happened around these parts lately. Besides being done school and having a nice chunk of time off before I have to start my courses we've taken a trip to the Island, booked our flights to Europe and gotten lots of sunshine!

On the Easter Weekend we took a trip to the Island and visited Kevin and April, my friends that I went to Capernwray with that are now on staff there. We spent Thursday night to Saturday Afternoon with them and their boys, exploring the ocean, attempting to make easter eggs, playing games and having an easter egg hunt. It was great to see them again and to finally meet their boys who are great little guys. On Saturday we went out for lunch in Duncan with just Kevin and April and then headed to Victoria. We lucked out on having one sunny day in Victoria so we spent most of that day walking around the harbor and enjoying the sunshine. The next day it was rainy and windy so we just relaxed in Chapters, read some books, had Starbucks and also chilled in our hotel room watching the Masters. That evening we used up my Earls card that I got from my practicum teacher and I had some clam chowder for the first time, it was pretty good. Chris was disgusted. Monday we didn't rush getting home, we went and looked around in the MEC just down the road one more time and had breakfast at a really good local restaurant called John's Place and then we took the scenic view on the way to the ferry. It was a great little get-away for us and made us refreshed and ready for the next busy period coming up with school finishing for both of us.


Other big news is our trip to Europe from August 3-30th. We decided this might be our last chance to go before we start making babies and buying a house and all that grown up stuff that happens. So with our big tax return we decided to take a trip across Europe. We'll be starting off in Rome, going up through Florence, Cinque Terre and Venice and then up to Austria and Germany and finally end up in Denmark where we'll see all my relatives that Chris has never met and I saw 7 years ago. I've been spending a lot of my time planning out where to go, what to see and what to do so that has kept me pretty busy. Anyone who has an tips for us, send them our way.

On Saturday we're going to check out a baseball team that a guy in our care group said we could join. I'm a little scared because it's actually baseball, none of this slo pitch stuff so it might be a little too intense for me. We'll see. Then on Sunday Chris is going with Eric and Carmen to do the Sun Run in Vancouver. 10 kilometers in downtown Vancouver with a ton of people crowding around you and doing my least favorite thing, running. Doesn't sound fun to me.

Well, that's all I have for now. I may be back since I'm not consumed by school right now. Enjoy the sunshine (those in BC).

Chris and I are on our last couple days of Spring Break. Although, I didn't quite get a break because I had to observe in a Middle School and meet with my PDP module. But it has felt like a break because I haven't had to be so busy planning, marking and doing other school stuff. This monday I go back to my Grade 5 class to finish off some teaching and to do my final with the two people who observe my teaching. It'll be a pretty easy week because all afternoon everyday the class is going swimming. So I basically just have to teach until lunch. The week after I'm done at the school we have some PDP stuff to do and then I'm done! It has gone by fast and it was a really great experience. I've registered for my classes in summer and I was able to get two classes that end in the middle of June and two that are online until the end of July. That way we can go out to the farm for Ryan's wedding and I don't have to worry about missing school. I'm planning on applying to TOC in Abbotsford and Chilliwack soon and that could start as early as April. It'll be nice to be making some money after all this work.

A few weeks ago in February I had a wedding and it turned out to be a nice sunny day so we lucked out. It took me a while to edit them all with me being so busy with my practicum but I got them done and my next wedding isn't until May so now I have a little break. But once May comes I'll be very busy again, one wedding on May 2, May 30, May 31 and June 6. That'll be nuts.




Last weekend a bunch of us headed down to Carmen's family cabin near Mt. Baker and had a weekend full of shopping and snowboarding. There were amazing conditions with one and a half feet of new snow. It was the most fun I've ever had snowboarding, except for driving down the hill at the end of the day. The Glen had a hot tub so we spent a few nights there and enjoyed just relaxing. Of course we had to have some entertainment so Chris and Eric broke out in song one night from a song they learned in elementary school.


In other news, we've got tickets to Coldplay on June 20th which we're pretty excited about. Also, we're heading to the island over Easter break to visit my friends Kevin and April who are working at Capernwray on Thetis Island and then we're heading to Victoria for a few days. That'll be my reward for finishing this practicum. Can't wait to have it done. I can see the end of the tunnel and there's lots to look forward to so once I'm done with all this craziness you'll be hearing from me more.

Here's a brief update on our crazy busy lives over the last month....

Chris had the chance of going snowboarding in Whistler for free as a chaperone with his school so he took that opportunity up. He got to ride the new peak-to-peak gondola as a little lunch break. I think it was a good start to the snowboarding season for him.

Chris and Mike on the Gondola
Gondola going the other way
View from the peak-to-peak
Gondolas
A bunch of us headed down to Mt. Baker a few weekends ago. I borrowed Bonnie's snowboard and it worked like a charm and even made me want to go again some day. The trails and the weather probably had something to do with it too. Instead of cold wind and pelting snow like I usually experience, it was a beautiful sunny day. It could've been a little less icy on the hill but other than that it was perfect snowboarding day. This first picture is what I get when I ask Chris to take a picture of me snowboarding....

Does anyone see a snowboard in this picture? Didn't think so...
Eric
Josh and Cassie
Chris
All of us at the top
Besides the odd snowboarding fun I have definitely hit the busiest time of my practicum. I've been the full-time teacher for two weeks now and I have four more weeks to go. This last week I had to take two sicks days because of a nasty cold so that sort of put a wrench in some plans. I'll have to play a little bit of catch up this week. Teaching has been going quite good so far, it feels natural to be the teacher already so it should be smooth sailing from here. There is one challenge that I face everyday in one student but she actually did really well last week so hopefully that will be a trend for her. Let's just say she can have some pretty big outbursts over any little thing and you never know when she might blow. She's in the middle of getting psych testing done so we'll see if they can determine what sets her off because there doesn't seem to be a way to calm her down once she's in her "hissy-fit" stage as she likes to call it. In one way it's good that I don't have this magically perfect class for my internship because if I get a handle on dealing with challenging kids now I'll be better prepared for my classes in the future. But I'm also pretty good off because other than this one student, the class is a very good group of kids that make it easy on me.

Chris is also very busy these days, report cards just went out and basketball is almost winding up. He has his first playoff game tomorrow which they should win because they are #2 playing #7 but now I probably just jinxed it. Oh well, it's about time basketball is over. Someone needs to make supper. And that's not going to be me in the next 4 weeks. Just kidding...sort of.

What else...not much. Or lives have pretty much been consumed by school these days. I'm already starting to feel a little more relaxed with it though, there's not as much to prepare for now that I have an idea of everything I need to teach and have worksheets and whatnot made up and ready to go. Just lots of marking from now on.

So to end things off I leave you with a picture of what happens when you're so busy that you lose your brain (my husband's of course). For some reason he thought it was a good idea to put oven mitts in the microwave after taking food out of it. This was the second time he did it so I had to get proof to show how he acts when he has too many things on his mind.

Things are getting back into to the swing again for us. Monday I start my long practicum. I have two weeks to ease my way in to being the "full-time" teacher for 6 weeks. Kind of scary. I'm just to the point where I want to get into the class and get to know the kids and then I think it'll be fine. I've had to long to think about what I could do with them that I need to actually start doing some of those things. We had an interesting week this week. Monday and Tuesday there was no school for me because of the snow that piled up to at least a foot. Chris had school on Tuesday but I didn't. Wednesday Chris stayed home from school because he had some sort of stomach flu or food poisoning. Whatever it was, it did not make for a pretty sight the night before. So we both lazed around on that day and watched a movie in the middle of the day. Thursday we were both back at school, I was at module learning things like what to do with bratty kids who talk back to you and stuff like that. Yesterday we went over to Jon and Bonnie's for the first time in a long time. The first time since they've been pregnant and that's been 16 weeks so it had been quite a while. We had a good time eating some pizza and playing games. Hopefully we can see them more than we have been. I've met with two new couples this week to book weddings also, so it's been quite busy. So far I have 9 weddings for this year. Looks like this little business of mine is taking off. I finished editing the photos that I took in the freezing cold in December so here's a little slideshow of some of those.



Since we got over a foot a snow at the beginning of the week and today most of it is already gone, there has been a ton of flooding around the farm areas here. Not only the snow that melted but the 100+mm of rain that fell in a few days didn't help the problem. We know some people who have a foot of water in their living room and some people have even been evacuated. That would not be fun. So hopefully the water will start to soak into the ground or do whatever it needs to do so people can get back in their homes. What a mess. Well, I guess I don't have much else to say. I will be entering the busiest time of my life in exactly one and a half days so we'll see how much I update this during that time. Enjoy the new year everyone!

We made it back safe and sound from our trip out to Saskatchewan. Let's start from the beginning. Chris ended school on the 19th, then on the 20th I had a wedding shoot in probably one of the lowest temperatures we've had all winter. But I got on the front page of the local newspaper because of it so that was pretty cool. On the 21st we went to my parents and had Christmas with them and my brother. Chris got a new camera which he was very pleased with and I got a bunch of new teacher clothes. On the 22nd my brother drove us into Vancouver for our flight. It had snowed the night before and we saw about 10 cars in the ditch on the way there. The airport was nuts, we stood in a mile long line to get our bags checked and had to wait 6 hours before our plane actually left. We were lucky that our flight didn't get cancelled because probably every other flight did. Some people had already been waiting in the airport for two days. Once we got to Edmonton we were stranded. We had missed our connection to Regina and there wasn't another flight until 5:30pm the next day which we might have had a chance of getting on with stand-by but it looked doubtful. We decided to rent a car and drive to Calgary and stay the night with our friends Dustin and Rebekah. Then we drove to Medicine Hat the next day where Chris' dad picked us up and drove us home. So we made it home one day late but we got there a lot earlier than we would've if we had stayed at the airport. We had a good time at the farm, playing lots of Wii, cross-country skiing, me doing puzzles and Chris branding cows. We had the Braun gathering on the 27th and 28th which involved hours of basketball for the guys and lots of games and food for the rest of us. It was great to see everybody again. We even got to see Colin and Andrew even though they were in Hawaii. They texted Ryan and told us to look up this website that showed a webcam in Hawaii and we got to watch them on the streets of Honolulu, it was pretty funny. Our trip home was much smoother; no delays, no connections and no snow. Since we've been home we cleaned up all our Christmas stuff, bought a new 40" Samsung TV, had a new year's party at Mike and Sarah's and used one of our movie passes to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We both start school this monday and then it's back to the grind. It's going to be a very busy next couple months with Chris still coaching and with me doing my long practicum. I don't know if I'm quite ready for it but I guess I'll find out pretty soon.

On the front page of the Chilliwack Times

Christmas Happenings

Colin and Andrew in Hawaii

Wii Boxing

Extreme Cross-Country

Chris' new baby

New Year's Party