Steve & Leane's wedding

I'd been living in England for a couple of months when I got my invitation to Steve & Leane's wedding. At first I didn't think I'd be able to make it but as time went on I decided that I could tie the wedding in with my nephews first birthday and a big surprise visit to Vancouver.

So I drove up to Kelowna with Juliana and Jo who are friends of Leane's as well as a friend of Juliana's who we dropped off on the way. We checked into our apartment which had a fab view overlooking the Okanagan Lake and the mountains across the way. It was super spacious with 2 double bedrooms and 1 bedroom with 2 twin beds. Jo, Juliana and I stayed in the suite with Monica (another friend of Leane's) and Monica's husband Brian....poor guy!!!

The apartment was great....well ours was. Unfortunately the bride and groom's suite ended up being deemed "structurally unsafe". Scary!!

Friday night was drinks at DJ's after the bride, groom and family had dinner. Good fun but a pitcher of margarita's was $30! Wow.

We woke up on Saturday morning and went for brunch at a cute little place in town and then went on a mission to find sticky tape and wedding cards...yes, we like to leave things to the very last minute. After that Jo and I went for a dip in the lake. Man was it cold!! But after getting used to it, it was gorgeous. Next was showers and getting everything ready and then upstairs to Leane's suite where the lovely Monica did everybody's makeup (thanks again Mon!)

Around 4:15 we were all shuttled off to the winery. The reception was at 5:15ish and Leane looked gorgeous - who would have known that she was 4 months pregnant!!!

Leane and Steve must have spent so much time planning. The day went off without a hitch and was organized so well. After the ceremony there was a champagne toast and then a wine tasting and appetizers while the couple had photos. Then upstairs for dinner and drinks (yay more wine) and then onto the dancing - the most entertaining part of the night. We've all had FAR too much wine and the "Hair Farmers" (the band) started on to the 80's tunes. Woohoo!!

I'm getting flashbacks of tequila which I think was Steve's idea. But I was very impressed with Les, Leane's Dad for doing a shot with me! Good job Les!

Needless to say I had a great time and I'm sure everybody else did too. I met some fantastic people there who I'm sure I'll keep in touch with.

I wish Steve and Leane nothing but happiness and again thank them for inviting me!

Surprise Visit to Vancouver

I arrived in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon, just in time to head over to my sisters in-laws for my nephew Max's first birthday dinner. My Dad dropped me off at the back off the house, he went in the front door and I went in the back 2 minutes later. Couldn't have been better. Poor Mom was crying and everybody was surprised. Two minutes later my sister arrived and I jumped out in front of her. She stood there for a couple of minutes, silent and then when she clued in it was me - she seemed pretty excited as well.

My friend Bonnie came up on Friday to see my sister and I got to surprise her too! I was in a store and had just payed for some things when my sister and Bonnie walk in. I turn around and say "hey Bon" and she did the same thing as my sister - just stood there looking at me for a couple of seconds. Then she started screaming haha....that was fun. Everybody probably thought she was a nutter!

Went for a brunch with some good friends, Trista, Rena and Cyndie on Saturday. Trista knew I was going to be here and I assumed she told the other girls that I was as well. But I soon figured out that they didn't know when Rena walked up to the restaurant and was giving me the strangest looks and then Cyndie did the same.

Good times! I can't believe the last week has gone by so fast though and that I leave to go back home in 3.5 days.

Leane and Steve's wedding is coming up this weekend and I'll post separately on that....looking forward to it!