www.West.Coast.Vaca.com

My mom and I arrived in Vancouver Friday afternoon, I hadn’t slept at all on the plane but got about an hour and half on the hard chairs in the airport – stopped in to pick up Jaime and Bessie to take them to Maple Ridge where we had to take a ferry to get to -because it is across some river. We arrived at the houses of the grooms parents and sister – where the bride was much stressed out and re-sewing her wedding dress (straps and bustle). We proceeded outdoors to the backyard where the wedding and reception were to take place. We visited a little bit, ate dinner and then rehearsed the ceremony. After the rehearsal we tied ribbons around the napkins and then headed to the hotel. Bessie, Jaime, Mom and I shared a hotel room with 2 double beds. Jaime (My cousins’ 10yr old daughter) and I swam in the pool and in the hot tub. After a quick shower – a short talk with my dad on msn and we were in bed for night. Remember: we’re 3 hours behind home – so dad was just heading to bed – even though it was really late our time.

The following morning after waking up with my famous curly fro, I straightened my hair, headed for breakfast with the girls then went to be a bridesmaid for the 4th time.


The bride was in much better shape this time and was entirely focused on making sure her toes looked fabulous for some reason. However she looked amazing all around.

The wedding went smoothly and it was beautiful. I was paired up with a tall groomsman named Jeff Goldbloom. My cousin – the sister of the bride (and the one who’s going to do some or all of my flowers) did the flowers for her wedding – mostly cut out of the grandma’s backyard. The food included cold cuts, fruit and bright blue and chocolate brown cupcakes.
It was neat to meet the groom’s family as well as his friends to get to know him a little better. It was also funny to have a family reunion with the majority of the family on the west coast instead of in Ontario – since more have to travel west then would have to east.

It was wonderful to see family again that I only get to see about every 4 years or more…. then get to spend a few days with them. We fall easily into a family relationship with my cousin Tammy and her family, laughing, joking, teasing and saying things you can only get away with, with family.








Saturday night we watched the Hannah Montana Concert in 3-D.

Sunday morning Mom made homemade cinnamon buns to which were almost gone instantly then we went to church with them and then went to Lynn Canyon – where we hiked to the Twin falls across a suspension bridge and up and down many stairs in the hills.

I taught the kids how to do Ostrich racing – which is where you put your legs through the arm holes in your sweat shirt and your head through the head hole – you look funny and it is so hard to walk. I made it up a flight of stairs to get the adults and on the landing took quite a tumble as the adults opened the door and witnessed my misfortune.

That night we watched a couple movies. The first we watched was Father of the Bride Part 1 – because Jaime had never seen it, and in our family every little girl HAS to watch it with her father. The two cuddled on the couch throughout the whole movie and Tammy kept cuddling with Jeremy her youngest, whispering in his ear: “never get married” “please don’t leave me” “I wuv you” etc. By the end everyone was in tears. It was the first time my mom has watched it since I’d gotten engaged.

The best part was following the line that George Banks says as Annie leaves with Brian McKenzie. (If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what I mean). Jaime (10yrs old) looks up at her dad and says “daddy what’s a c**d*m?” to which everyone tried to not react – as Ed (her dad) explains what a Condominium is. We held in the snickers until we looked over at Aunt Bessie who was crying she was laughing so hard. Jaime also did my hair for me:

Following that movie after the kids went to bed – the girls watched Penelope – which was cute but wasn’t that fantastic.

Monday we took the kids to the daily swimming lesson. I hopped in the hot tub to sooth my aching muscles from the ostrich racing. Then we went shopping in Fort Langley – a little town full of cute shops and we had lunch at a 50’s diner. At the 50’s diner we discovered that out of all of the people we have every decade from the 40’s to the 2000’s. How cool is that? We watched Game Plan that night. I thought it was cute. Mom and I made dinner for the family. We made a pork roast, fried potatoes, asparagus and corn on the cob – all things the family doesn’t have often. I got a bumper sticker on facebook from Nick that said: “If you think missing me is hard – you should try missing you.” I thought it was soooo cute.

Tuesday we went to swimming again, this time mom, Tammy and I all swam lanes for about an hour, then sat in the kids hot tub with them. We came home for lunch, then off to my cousin Kevin’s where he showed off all the work he’s done on his townhouse. We came back to the house to get ready to head out of the province. We were sitting in the living room after being all packed when the doorbell rang. The newlyweds were in the area so they stopped in. We got to see their wedding pictures!
Now as I type this I’m sitting in the airport, not quite sure what time it is because my body probably thinks it is 10:30, the clock on the wall says it is 11:30 and my computer (still on home time) says 1:30. My mom is asleep on the chairs covered in blankets dreaming of the fantastically loud sneeze/shower I had on the plane and the 3.5 hr flight home and 1.5 hour drive home after that. It’s the middle of the night as we speak – it’s going to be a long day/night!!!!!!

I have a 2nd interview for the job at SAU that I really want on Thursday at 2pm and then I get to see Nick again after almost 2 very long weeks apart. While I was in Vancouver he was fishing with his dad. He left his cell phone there so he’s going to need peoples’ numbers to put into his new phone.

I’ll post this when I get home – and I have to wake my mom up soon to get food before we board the last plane ride home – to get our last glimpse of the mountains!!! It is impossible to capture the laughter and fun we had in this weekend just with words.