We moved on Sunday the 1st, thanks to the wildly generous support of our friends, and the (seemingly-improbable but inexplicably continuing) health of Ray's truck. Then we did a HUGE dump run for our ex-landlady, which resulted in the rapid return of our damage deposit (something we thought we'd have to go to arbitration for).
Then... Wednesday we left for Kaslo. Actually, we spent two days in Kelowna visiting Rita, then we went to Kaslo. The visit was great:
This is Rita, my Maid of Honour and bestest friend. She moved to Kelowna a year-and-a-half ago, and I don't see her nearly often enough. We went for a great walk on the Kelowna Greenway, and she took a pic of Steve & I:
It was a short but satisfactory visit.
We dashed off to Kaslo on the Friday, and drove down the Kettle Valley on the way. We stopped for lots of photos!
We arrived just in time to drink beer & play pool at the Legion with my parents. Well, watch my parents cream all comers, actually. They are pool sharks. I did not inherit that gene.
Saturday we went jeeping in my dad's tiny 4x4 up scary mining roads to get to a little hiking spot.
Here is a photo of Rod & I:
Steve and Rod (and Angel) went a little further up the mountain as it was my first hike since burning my foot. Steve took a photo of Angel (eek!) on the edge of the peak.
Sunday I sifted through boxes I had stored in the basement. It was like Christmas! except that Steve doubted I would ever get the boxes I decided to bring home all fit in the car. Infidel! Then back to the Legion, where I beat Steve by one ball at pool, and my dad only beat him by three.
Monday was Turkey Day (yum) and we all, including Alex, went up to Mt. Buchanen in the jeep. It was a beautiful but cold day, and we had another really nice hike.
Here is a family photo:
Here is a picture of me and my mum, Tracy, on the old fire lookout station:
Tracy took a photo of us lounging on her new carpet with Angel, post-hike. It was a really comfy carpet (and looked pretty, too).
Steve doubted my chosen pile o' crap would fit in the tiny little car, but it all fit, including the dog.
The trip back was a marathon 12 hour drive from Kaslo back to Gibsons. We made the 7:20pm ferry by 10 minutes or so. We made sure to stop quite a bit, including a screeching halt on the side of the highway (and a little illicit backing-up) to see a ginormous herd of California Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road.
They were amazingly beautiful, and even though it was mating season, all the photos are g-rated.
It was a fun trip, and it was great to have Steve hang out with my family with enough meetings under the belt to relax and enjoy the time. Steve & Rod bonded over hiking; Alex & Steve bonded over music; Tracy just loves him. This all bodes very well for future family happiness.
On other family news, Steve's grandmother in Maine hasn't been doing well, so his dad's been in Maine. We've been going into town every weekend -- mostly to visit Gayle and once both to visit and so Steve could play at a party for an environmental group he used to be active with. It's been fun -- the gig was great, the visits were fun and even included a marathon shopping trip -- even though the reason has been sad. The manager-lady at the restaurant where the party was really cracked us up. Once she heard about our highly romantic meetings (we arrived early, so chatted with her before everyone else showed up), she was just tickled. She gave us one of the roses from a table-vase as we were leaving and invited us to come back after we were married to have dinner on her! We'll take her up on it, because the restaurant (El Cocal on Commercial Drive) was awesome.
We were in town this last weekend so Steve could help babysit the triplets (I love them very much but am not very knacky with them, I fear). We abandoned Gayle for Saturday afternoon as it was our one-year anniversary... we went to Chinatown, had incredible (!) Indian food for lunch, found the Daniel Le Chocolat Belge factory store (!) and I even got Steve to go into two (2!) fabric stores in Little India to look for silk duponi to price for my dress. It was a lovely afternoon, and sure beat the heck out of unpacking, which is what we would have done on the Coast.
Having looked at fabric (the nice stuff is Not Cheap), I decided to look at boughten dresses instead of having one made. I found dresses/skirts I REALLY like on this website (www.ariadress.com) :
http://www.ariadress.com/designs.htm
I especially like this skirt:
http://www.ariadress.com/Desciptions/DesignsS-156and157.htm
and I like this top to go with, though I think my tshirt/cardigan idea has merit also:
http://www.ariadress.com/Desciptions/DesignsS-125and120.htm
I would get them for me in white shanghai silk (basically duponi). They also have vests and ties in silk, and I was thinking Steve in a vest (no point in getting him a tie) and Mike in a tie would be very cool. For some reason, having the bridal party at least kinda matchy is appealing to me. That would mean, of course, that the bridespeople would also need to get attire from the same place.
I'd like to give my lovely bridesmaids the option of getting any skirt they want and doing the tshirt thing, or if they would prefer (can afford it/would be likely to wear again) one of the dresses. Many of the skirts aren't too dear, or at least aren't more dear than buying fabric and having a skirt made (and finding a dressmaker and pattern etc. etc.). Even the dresses aren't that expensive considering the quality and material... that way I just have to pick a colour, assemble sizes and place the order.
I just don't know if it's fair to impose that amount of cost on my bridespeople... then I look at websites like indiebride or (more probably) the Knot that have brides who are asking their people for much more expensive things, not the least of which is making their people fly to god-knows-where for destination weddings PLUS the dress PLUS hair & makeup. But, of course, I don't want to BE one of those people.
Apparently bridal guilt is common.
Guilt aside, indiebrides have very good things to say about this dress company: the clothes are quality, the silk lovely, the sizes normal... I like the chocolate brown.
What do you think?
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