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Cape May: Part Two - The Wedding!

Now you may have wondered what possessed us to pack up a four, and a six year old and drive twelve-ish hours away, into an entire other country just to splash in some salty water. Well, I'll tell you what. We had a much better reason to visit the beach than just to pick up some shells. The real reason we decided to go to visit Cape May was that we were going to a wedding! 

And not just any old wedding. My Little Brother's wedding. P.J. (or Uncle P.J. as he is known around here) is my little brother only in age, as by the time he hit grade 10, and I was in Grade 12, he was already almost a head taller than I was. Our Little Guy once referred to him as "dat tall uncle wif da no hair." And now that tall guy has finally met his match. Not in height of course (as you will see from the pictures) but in humour, temperament and interests they certainly see eye to eye. 

Lisa (or Aunt Lisa, as she will heretofore be known) is an American, and grew up in Philadelphia, but went every summer to Cape May for a vacation at the beach. Since many fond childhood memories are there, and she knew how beautiful it was, she wanted to have a wedding on that sweet little beach from those happy childhood days. So off we went, with the promise of a seaside vacation into the bargain.

And thus it came to pass, that on the morning of the 13th of June we went to the beach and it looked like this: It was bright, but windy. The surf was choppy and we wore bathing suits and water wings and lots of sunscreen. 

BUT, on the afternoon of the 13th of June we went to the beach and it looked like this: Sunny and bright, with a clean blue sky, and we wore our summer Sunday best, (and still more sunscreen) And where there had just been sand and beach umbrellas before, there were now rows of white chairs, and a little arch with flowers on it, and a man in a top hat waiting for a lady in a long white dress to come and meet him. And all those nearest and dearest to them were waiting to hear them tell each other of their love, and how they would live the rest of their lives together. 

It was lovely. Our little family had our small parts to play in their big day as well.  As the youngest child in the extended family, our Little Guy had the honour of being the Ring Bearer! He took his job very seriously, but luckily did not get nervous about it. He held the little ring cushion very carefully as he sat in his seat, and when the Officiant said, "May we have the rings", his cousin sitting next to him gave him a nudge and he popped up and went straight up there to deliver them. And I had a job too. Besides being the self-appointed provider of sunscreen to small children and the unprepared, I was the photographer. I really enjoy taking pictures, and despite the fact that my brother does NOT enjoy having pictures taken, (never did, even as a child) even he could seen the need to record this beautiful day. I was very honoured to be given this responsibility, and took it so seriously that I wore flats. (For those of you who know me, you realize that this practical footwear decision on a semi-formal dress occasion is a great acknowledgment of the of the importance of my job. ahem.) 

And so they tied the knot and sealed it with a kiss. 

And then smiled and stood and posed for pictures with all the family. (This one is just our immediate family on the Groom's side)

The Ring Bearer ran off with the Bride's parasol.

And the Bride and Groom smiled and posed and posed and smiled for as long as I could get two people who don't care much for posing to do so. Though I must admit that they were more than usually smiley. They must have been having a pretty nice day...

And I'm going to pat myself on the back and say I did a pretty good job with the photos. This one is my favourite. 

And then it was time to head off to Menz's for the wedding dinner, and of course, CAKE! And oh the excitement when the little boys discovered that the cake had LEGO PEOPLE on it! Our joy was complete when they found that each place card was set with a little lego man too. As the little cake banner says, it was the BEST DAY EVER!

This was the first wedding that our boys have attended, and I must say, Aunt Lisa and Uncle P.J. set the bar pretty high as they not only had lego men at their place settings, but were personally gifted with action figures as wedding favours from the bride and groom.  Oh Joy!

Batman flew all over that dance floor!

The night went on, with cake and food and lego people playing, and the bride and groom and all their guests talking and laughing and revelling late into the night, until I finally packed in my camera, picked up the boys and took our tired, happy bones home to bed with the promise of another day at the beach tomorrow. 

Best wedding ever. 

Cape May: Part One

oh, I have SO many pictures to show you. We just got back from our very first family beach vacation. Also, our very first family road trip. Also, our first swim in an ocean. Also, our first beach wedding! So many firsts. But one thing at a time. This is going to take a few posts as we saw so much stuff and had so much fun that it can't all be crammed into one little post. So here goes.

After a 10 hour drive, which was really a 14 hour road trip (what with the stops to eat and stops to pee and stops to eat some more) we arrived very late at night in warm and beautiful Cape May, New Jersey. I don't think I've ever actually been to New Jersey before, and was only vaguely aware that it had beaches due to a certain reality show which is the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I did actually watch. But " Jersey Shore" did absolutely nothing to prepare me for how lovely Cape May is. Cape May is down at the very bottom of New Jersey, and is a small, picturesque beach town, full of victorian architecture and some of the prettiest beaches on the Atlantic Coast. It was so pretty and the scale of it was so manageable. I really liked it. 

Anyhow, gushing about the location aside, we got up on our first morning in Cape May and after breakfast went straight to the beach. The beach we chose was recommended to us both by the owner of the house we rented, and my soon-to-be sister in law (more on that later). It was The Cove beach, rated in the top 21 beaches in America. And whoever does those ratings was right. The boys had never really been on an actual ocean beach before (we dipped our toes in the Pacific for about 10 minutes the last time we were in Vancouver, but didn't have a proper beach visit there really) and were full of excitement about it. We go to a little lake beach here in Ontario from time to time, but aside from the occasional bottle cap, there is not much to find in the sand there. But here, in Cape May: SHELLS! So many SHELLS. They could hardly contain their excitement. 

When we finally tore them away from the tide line and its bounty, it was a joy to watch them experience the waves for the first time.  They were just delighted to feel the waves wash up and slosh against their legs. 

Their squeals of pleasure at the simple reality of the tides was one of those parenting moments that you look forward to. 

They were easily convinced to put their buckets and shovels down, get their water wings on, and hit the surf. 

Though of course, when you are four, you don't actually do much swimming in the ocean. You mostly just wade in and get buffeted about by the waves.

And its all much easier if you have your mom or dad's hand to hold onto. 

I should also mention, in the interest if "keeping it real" parenting wise, that taking a vacation with kids is not really a vacation per se. I prefer to call it a trip. We took a trip with the kids. Which was fun and all, but also still a lot of work. I mean, look at these kids. 

I probably had the two whitest kids on that beach. Honestly, I looks like we climbed out of a basement in Iceland or something! Like, have they ever even seen the sun before? I swear, we do go outside in Canada from time to time. Anyhow, my point is that my kids are so white that they practically glow in the dark. And as I know from my own life, skin like ours only has two settings: white or red. Maybe a little light pink in between there. But basically, we do not tan. (this is all my Dad's fault by the way. My mom gets a beautiful, golden brown tan. My dad burns like a lobster. I blame the red hair gene). Which is all to say that when we go somewhere sunny and hot, putting sunscreen on little people is my full time job. Oh, and have I mentioned that little people HATE HAVING SUNSCREEN PUT ON! They hate having it applied almost as much as I hate applying it. The phrase "greasing a pig" comes to mind. Except I'll bet the pigs don't whine as much. 

Back to swimming though. One of the best features of The Cove beach was this great tidal pool. It was big, and clear and warm from the sun, and not connected to the ocean once the tide went out, so it was the perfect place for little kids to play and swim. No waves, no undertow, no deeper than a pair of adult knees. It was perfect. The kids spent hours in there. 

One of the best parts of this trip, according to my seven year old, was all the wildlife we saw. There were lots of crabs on this beach. Teeny tiny ones like this guy, and bigger ones too. Though none to big. But I did get my toe pinched when I was wading out in the water. Twice! Hubs thought I was imaging things, but I was not. Other beach goers confirmed the pinchieness of the local crabs. Not enough to break the skin though. And so very fascinating to find some, dig them up with your shovel and watch them scurry along and burrow themselves back into the wet beach sand until just their little eyeballs peeked out. We could have done that for hours!

We did a lot of beach combing, and found so many shells, though the locals all tell us that the shelling is not as good as it used to be. We found no whelks, and many shells were small and broken. Which did not matter much to us, as pretty much all of it was a wonderful novelty. But this was my favourite find of our whole trip. This odd little bit of broken shell, drilled through all over with the most perfect holes. Its a larger, hunter/predator shell creature that does this. Though they usually only make one hole. I don't know why this one was so full of holes, but I do know that I find it beautiful. I want to make a pendant out of it and wear it when its cold outside, so I can remember the warm place where I found it.

And after our long day on the beach, full of wonder and sunscreen re-applications and slightly sandy snacks, we headed back to our beach-town cottage and rinsed off the sand in the outdoor shower (another marvel!) and put on fresh clothes and curled up in chairs on the veranda for a late afternoon cup of tea and a cuddle. It was a good day.

packaging

I have been a little absent this week because, well, it was my birthday and I was busy celebrating. By being lazy. By filling my evenings with going out to movies and staying in for movies and sewing until the last possible moment in the evenings. While watching movies. So it hasn't been a very blog heavy week. And I despite all the sewing, I don't have a finished project to show for it, (its taking me awhile) so I thought I'd share a little gift wrapping idea with you. Because look what was on my plate at breakfast on my birthday morning: I know! How cute it that? It was the Little Dude's idea of course, combined with a little help from creative Hubs. 

Here he is, demonstrating how to put it all together (once I had taken it all apart of course).

And here's my present. 

The Little Dude assures me that he picked these out all by himself, but I can see Hubs guidance at work here too. Which is good. Because although L.D. and I share many interests, I don't think my wardrobe needs a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle earrings.

Oh my Little Dude! There is no way to gather up all the cliches and lay them out in an original manner, so I'll just say this; how is it possible that they grow up so fast, and yet take forever to grow up? This kid is just a crazy little mass of contradictions these days. One moment he is a sweet little cat, lying in the sun....

...and a split second later he is a feral dog; a twisting, torquing muscle burst of energy and incoherent babble. That picture pretty much sums it up. And I, along with him am all contrary, at one moment cuddling him close, loving his chatter and enthusiasm and wildness, and the next moment at my wits end with all the crazy and the running and the screaming (and the glaaaaavin!) and doing the math on how long it will be until he is in school full time, enough of this every-other-day nonsense! sigh. 

But as the birthday this week reminded me, time marches on whether you want it to or not. And so the inevitable will happen and slowly but surely he will grow up. And I will breath another sigh. Whether it is one of relief or regret only time will tell. And knowing me, it'll probably be both. 

 

steam train!

I don't know about you, but my facebook feed was full of first day of school photos this morning. Lots of shining faces and new backpacks. Such a big moment. Though you won't find that here today. The Little Dude does not start school until tomorrow, so today I'm going to share with you the last bit of summer fun we had. I'm really not a camper, and have yet to undertake the effort required to pack up our bags and baggage to go on a family vacation with the four of us and all the stuff and food that entails. And we had a busy summer, what with the Farmer's Market and all, so we mostly stayed around home, enjoying trips to the beach, the splash pad, the park and of course, Grangran and Grandpapa's house, which is a sort of a cross between an amusement park and a conservation area in and of itself. We've certainly had some good times this summer, but I was feeling a bit badly that we did not go on a proper vacation, so on the Holiday Monday this week we decided to try and cram in one more bit of fun. My Mom and Dad had taken my nieces and nephew to this paritcular attraction when they were little ones, and it was enjoyed by all, so we thought it was about time to try it ourselves. You can find more information about the South Simcoe Heritage Railway here, (and here is information about planning an excursion of your own) but suffice it to say that we rode on an antique working steam train from 1886, and the whole deal was run entirely by volunteers, which was quite impressive. Everyone was knowledgeable and friendly and clearly passionate about trains. 

Even for someone who is not 'into' trains, I found this impressive. 

I was pleased to see the engine was built in a town that I love. 

We weren't allowed to climb up into the engine, but the nice engineer took a picture for me. This was no fake train, with modern parts and smoke and mirrors, but a real working steam engine.

As we waited for the train to leave, I walked around outside taking pictures, and I have to say, I've never seen so many smiling excited little faces looking out of windows before. 

Rain had been predicted for the morning, but at the start all was sunny and bright. 

And soon we were on our way. I'm a good mother, so I didn't encourage my children to lean out the window just for this photo op, but Hubs is a grown man and so I felt it was safe for him to hang out the train window like a dog enjoying the wind. 

The interior of the cars were quite lovely too, all antiques and all lovingly restored, and though we weren't supposed to walk around, we could change seats and move from one side of the car to the other, and enjoy the different views. No car seats here much to the delight of all the children present.

Which gave everyone the chance to move around and sit with different people. The Baby in particular enjoyed his chance to roam, until he got himself snugged in between Gran and Auntie Gwen, and they he could not be budged. Not even by Grandpa's special combination of cajoling and blustering.

After we got home that night, he was talking about the excitement of the day with, and listing off the people who were there too. "GranGran dere, Grandpa dere, and Auntie Gwen." "Yeah, that's right Bub," said his Dad, "Auntie Gwen was there too." "I yike Auntie Gwen," he declared "she pretty nice." Indeed. 
And the views really were lovely. The overcast day made it feel like we were riding the train through Scotland. 

And then it started to rain, which made it really feel like Scotland. Its was such a great outing because it was the kind of thing that it did not matter at all what the weather was.

It even got all dark and moody at one point, but honestly, it was just added to the ambience.

Beautiful rippling fields of corn everywhere. And everything looking so particularly lush due to the rain. 

At the end of the trip we were very pleased with our excursion.

And went to go get a closer look at the engine. 

I must say, this was such a great excusion to do with the little ones. The whole thing took up only the morning, so after a nice lunch in Tottenham were were home in time for naps. Also, along with the fact that it did not matter a bit what sort of weather there was, there was also very little schlepping involved and nearly no walking around in the hot sun. All things which make me think its the perfect outing to take with pre-shoolers. 

And now, I'm off to bed. Big day tomorrow. I'm probably going to check my alarm clock more than once to make sure it is set so that we don't over sleep and miss the bus. The BUS! Sheesh. 

 

babysitter

We live in a small town. Its the town I grew up in, and I can't say that I hate it, but also, I would be lying if I said I loved it. But it has a few good things to recommend it. The Library is great. Its easy to get around and parking is plentiful. Its close to the country and some nice wide open spaces. The people are generally lovely. But I'll tell you, what I like about this town most is the fact that my parents live here. If you read this blog regularly (or know me, for that matter) you know that GranGran and Grandpapa are a big part of our lives. We see them at least a couple of times a week. And my ever generous mother helps me out from time to time by taking the boys for the morning, or popping over during the afternoon for an impromptu playdate, which always helps me in my never ending quest to get things done. The fact that my kids are getting to grow up in close proximity to their Grandparents is going to be something that will enrich their lives, building a network of memories that will be with them forever. And the fact that my Mom can pop over for a few minutes in the middle of the afternoon to play with my kids so that I can run a few errands is something that definitely enriches my life. 

So this afternoon I called my mom, as I had to hit the fabric store and the library, and I was hoping to do it without the boys in tow. But my mom wasn't feeling so well today, so I said, never mind, I'll just wait until they are up from their naps and do it then. No big deal. But she offered to send my Dad over instead. After all, the Baby at least would be asleep and the Little Dude would be having quiet time in his room. All Grandpapa has to do is make sure the house doesn't burn down. No problem. 

And the boys love their Grandpa. He is Tractor Man after all. He takes them on ATV rides and is good for an afternoon of picking rocks in a field. And he plays a mean game of cars. So when I told the Little Dude that Grandpapa was coming over to baby sit for a half and hour he had no plans to go to his room for quiet time. "Grandpapa will want to play Lego with me." he declared confidently. So when Grandpapa arrived I left them to build and headed off on my errands. 

So what's the difference between Grandpapa babysitting and GranGran babysitting. Well, Gran tends to read more stories. Gradpapa likes to bust out the toy tractors. Gran is a titch more sympathetic to bruised knees and egos. Grandpapa likes to encourage you to "rub some dirt in it" or "walk it off". And if I leave Gran alone with the boys in my messy house, there is a distinct likelihood that either my laundry will get folded or perhaps the dishwasher will get emptied and reloaded. With Grandpapa, not so much. Though he does come over with his tractor and mow our lawn at least once a month, so I'm not criticizing. Just saying they have different skill sets, that's all. And after today maybe I should add different energy levels too.

Because in just over a half an hour I was back. I walked through the door to find it oddly quiet. No chatter back and forth of two people playing together, just the subtle click-clack of a solitary Lego builder. I walked around the corner to find the Little Dude at his usual post, next to the Lego table. "Hey Bub," I said, "where's Grandpa?" 

"He's having a nap." the Little Dude replied, hardly looking up from his Lego. 

Sure enough, I walked down the hallway and peeked into the Little Dude's bedroom to find this: Yep, there was Grandpa, passed out on the Little Dude's bed, sawing logs to beat the band.

Aw, don't they look so sweet when they are asleep? Apparently that National Geographic article he was reading wasn't quite interesting enough to keep him awake. Nor was the presence of a chatty five year old for that matter. Its funny how similar he looks to the pictures I take of the Little Dude having one of his 'accidental naps'. Head pillowed on an outstretched arm, opposite hand crooked. They even both seem to prefer the wrong end of the bed. 

Anyhow Dad, you are fired from babysitting duties, at least until you are more well rested. 

And Dear Reader, don't you worry that I've hurt his feelings. I know for a fact that quick-retort Pete will say "You can't fire me, you don't even pay me!" True enough Peter, true enough. 

visiting Grangran

You know, I often have people tell me that I seem to "get a lot done". And its true, I like doing stuff. Stuff makes me happy. I like making things. I hate being bored. So I do a lot of stuff. But also, I've got two little kids, which sometimes makes it hard to get stuff done. Unless the "stuff" you want to get done is laundry and food prep and frequent potty visits. Other moms sometimes say to me, "I don't know how you find time for such-and-such." And since I don't want to let you think that I am some multi-armed, multi-tasking, miracle worker, let me just show you my secret weapon. 

Do you see what is going on in this picture? This is my Mom, aka Grangran in the front seat, and that is my two year old, aka the not-so-much-a Baby anymore. See, Gran has come over to take him to her house for the morning. And that morning will probably end in them having lunch, and then after lunch there may just be one more trip with Grandpa out to the garden. And then Gran will bring the Baby home just in time for nap. At which point, I'll take a short break from whatever I'm making/baking/cleaning to put him down for his sleep, and then I'll get right back to whatever I was doing. See how that works? So I can get a lot done on that particular day, because my Mom has very kindly relieved me of some of my parenting duties, so that I can use my energies elsewhere. 

Now its not like this happens every day. My mom is not the caregiver/babysitter for my kids in a regular daily context. But when I have a very, very busy week (like last week with three days of VBS voluteering and also two solid days of baking followed by the farmer's market kick-off) she does this for me a little more often than usual. Which is so very kind of her. The boys are lovely, but they are a lot of work. Sometimes she just takes one, and sometimes she takes both but either way, it makes my day less busy, and her's much more.

But they best part is how much the boys love going over there. Especially the Baby. He's always so pleased to be doing something that he feels is for "big boys". Such as riding in Grangran's car. Or going over to her house on his own. Lookit 'im there, in his "working man" hat. So pleased to be heading off on an adventure. 
"Good bye Mom! Off to Grans! See you in four hours!"  

wedding party

Ok, sorry but I'm not done with yesterday's topic. Just a tiny little bit more nostalgia here. Here is a picture of my parent's wedding party.

And here is a picture of all the members of their wedding party as they are today. Or rather, on Saturday.  They are standing in pretty much the same order as in the 50 year old picture, except that third from the right, (and ironically the tallest person there, given that fifty years ago she was the shortest) is the flower girl. Also, one of my aunts could not be there this weekend, so the middle bridesmaid on the right in the original photo is missing from the present day photo. 

And paging through my parent's wedding album I found the clipping from their local newspaper to announce their wedding. It had the usual information about who and what and where, but then, my favourite part is that it had not two, not three, but four paragraphs, about what the female members of the wedding party wore. Now I'm a feminist and all and I realize that this belies a double standard about the fact that women are there to be looked at, and that their appearance is their primary and most important contribution to any situation. And that's sad and all, but DUDE, as a lover of clothing and fashion and all things materially based, I freakin' LOVE reading those four paragraphs. 

To quote: "The sleeveless bridal gown was of white peau de soie with a jacket buttoning down the back. Lace appliques trimmed the front of the jacket and the skirt. A jewelled headdress held the bride's fingertip veil of tulle. She carried a cascade of red sweetheart roses and stephanotis. The attendants wore street length dresses of aqua peau de soie overlaid with organza, with small capes. Net halos forming brief veils were worn and they carried cascades of shasta daisies, with chrysanthemum centres. The flower girl wore a white cotton full-skirted dress embroidered in pink with pink accesories and carried a basket of shasta daisies."

And that's just the wedding party! There was also a description of the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom, and a paragraph about the bride's going away outfit. So awesome.

50 years

My Mom and Dad celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary this weekend. We had a party with lots of relatives and friends and eating and fun, and I have pictures to show you of all of that, but it is so very late at night (the usual story) and I have a full and early starting day tomorrow, so I just have a few pictures to show you. Old pictures. Fifty-year-old pictures in fact.  There they are, freshly minted newlyweds, on their way out of the church. 

Ducking and shaking off the rice that the boys in the background are throwing at them. Those would be the youngest of my uncles, from both sides of the family, digging into a brown paper bag for another handful to throw at their big brother and his pretty new bride. 

I've looked at all these pictures a hundred times in the past I'm sure, but there is something about scanning them in and looking at them a bit larger than usual and on a screen that makes me see all the little details. That all the ladies in the background are wearing hats. And in the foreground on the right the flower girl, my cousin in her sweet bonnet and glasses, peeks into the frame. And seeing how tall and slim my Dad is, and how very truly red his hair was, makes me see just how much my brother resembles him now. The redness of those roses I know, but I'd never noticed those little white flowers in there too. And how my Mom's profile as she looks back and smiles has not changed one little bit. What a gift old photos are. And what a gift my Mom and Dad's relationship continues to be. Congratulations you two. Thanks for getting married. 

fifteen years

This morning, when I stumbled groggily out of bed at Hubs' request to find him making breakfast and getting the Little Dude's lunch ready for school he said to me, "Do you know what the weather is going to be like today? Can you find out and pick out some clothes for him for school? And what's the show-and-tell theme this week? I can't remember. Oh, and by the way, Happy Anniversary!"

Oh! Riiiiiiight. I had totally, completely forgotten about our wedding anniversary. There's been so much going on around here lately, and I'm bad at remembering dates at the best of times so this one almost snuck past me. I did some quick math and realized that we have been married for fifteen years. FIFTEEN YEARS! And I'll be honest, its kinda freaking me out. How have we been married for that long? Where did those years go? How did this happen?

In an effort to jog my memory I dug around in boxes to find the wedding album. And you know what I realized? That fifteen years is a really. long. time. You know how long? So long that our wedding photos were shot on film. Seriously. I had to scan these in to post them.FILM PEOPLE! Not digital, but old fashioned, send-it-away-and-wait-for-it-to-be-developed film. I swear, its practically like looking at daugerrotypes. So, some of you might not know me personally, and I don't put up a ton of photos of myself here on the ole' blog, so you may not have the same feelings I had looking at these pictures, because you won't have a real concrete idea of how I look these days. (the most recent picture I can find on the blog is about 8 photos down in this post about the Baby's birthday in the pic where he's blowing out his candles. No wait, here's a better one.) But I know how I look these days and the predominant feeling I had looking at these pictures was "Who is that child? And why are they letting her get married? She is clearly waaaaay too young. What are her parents thinking?" Seriously, we look like we are about sixteen in this picture (when really, I was the ripe old age of twenty four, and felt very, very mature and ready to enter married adult life) but honestly, I look at this and the first thing I think is "someone take that glass of wine away from that child!" Though on the positive side, my dress does not look too dated. Though please excuse the cheesiness of the above picture, where my flower girl is trying on the wedding dress (there is so much wrong with that from a feminist perspective but at the time I was talked into it as being a 'cute' photo op) I like the way we are connecting in this photo though, my sweet niece and I. I'm showing her the embroidery I did myself on the dress, which was my favourite part of it, so that's nice at least. Though I don't have a single good photo of the embroidery, which was definitely an oversight on my part. I was going for simple with my dress, and there is certainly a 90's Uma-Thurman-in-Prada-y kind of feel to it, but I still like the way it looks, so that's good. Though this photo makes me wince just a teensy bit in its self-consciousness, but I'm going to forgive myself my hubris as I was, as we have mentioned, very very young. Speaking of young, look at this guy. Sheesh. 

And just to be official, here is the entire wedding party. By the way, that adorable little flower girl, my niece, is just finishing her first year of university. UNIVERSITY. Sigh. 
And here we are, walking back up the aisel together as a newly-minted married couple and very happy about it.

Although these pictures are very sweet, I still cannot shake the feeling that I'm looking at pictures of some other culture where they permit children to get married. Fifteen years have gone by, and on the one hand it feels like no time at all has passed, and on the other hand, it feels like we are a lifetime away from that fresh-faced hopeful young pair. Such a funny contradiciton. 

Anyhow, the celebrations today included lunch with with my Hubs at our favourite Thai place with no small children in attendance, some flowers from my man (the same kind we had on the tables at our wedding reception. I can't believe he remembers those details), a very thoughtful card that was funny and sweet at the same time, and a morning spent with the same guy I spent the last fifteen years of mornings with. And he held my hand any time I wanted him to. Can't ask for more than that. 

al fresco

I love Spring.
For two days in a row now we've eaten outside. And not just at dinner either.

We've had all possible meals on the deck with the exception of breakfast. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we will start our day on the balcony too!

Because the boys sure do love it. Food always goes down better in the great outdoors. And there are birds to point to, and planes way up the the sky. And we get to eat barbequed burgers and fresh guacamole with chips. Chips for dinner! Oh the decadence. 

Oh Spring! We are so glad you are here at last.