Catching Up!

It's been awhile so this post will be a little of this and a little of that.

After the week in Granada, my sisters and I headed to Brussels for my next round of meetings. Since we had already been away for a week, I didn't extend the trip so there wasn't a lot of time for me to play tourist. We arrived in Brussels on Sunday morning, once we got settled into our hotel we walked down to Grand Place and over to see little Mannekin Pis.   There was a folk festival on in Grand Place with bands and these giant puppet characters. Mannekin Pis was dressed in one of his little costumes.

We ate out one evening at the Hard Rock Cafe Brussels.  Now I've been to the Hard Rock in Rome, Berlin and Brussels and will probably add London and Orlando to that list early next year.

Once my meetings ended on Friday morning, we did have the afternoon and went to visit the Atomium, which was part of the World's Fair held in Brussels in 1958.  For me, it was the first time I had been out of the downtown core of Brussels.  We walked through a park and to another wonderful old church.

Once home from this work trip, I wasn't in the office for long before I headed off to western Canada for my nephew's wedding. My brother and one of my sisters flew through Ottawa from Moncton NB so that we would be on the same flight to Calgary. We met in the Ottawa airport where we had lunch together.

There had been a lot of snow already in Airdrie, Alberta but by the time we got there, thankfully, most of it had gone.  The wedding was on Saturday and we arrived Thursday night so on Friday we went to the Calgary Zoo to see the pandas that are currently there on loan. The pandas were resting which I hear they do quite a lot.  We did see many other animals including the lions who had just be returned to their exhibit after meat had been hidden around for them to find.

The wedding on Saturday was a small but fun affair. My nephew and his new wife did a lot of the arrangements themselves with help from family and friends.

One of my nieces with her partner 

One of my sisters, with her daughter and son-in-law

The bride and groom with the groom's sister and mother.

Me, my brother and sisters (less one)

We weren't flying out until Tuesday so we decided to drive to Banff for the day on Sunday.  You can see the mountains from Airdrie but you need to go a bit further west to really see them. It was quite a scenic drive; only takes about an hour and half to get there.  Once we arrived we got a quick lunch at MacDonalds and then walked around and did a bit of shopping. We even went to the Fairmount Banff hotel as they have the best views of the Bow River off the back terrace.

Downtown Banff

View from the hotel

Since getting back from that quick trip, I've been back doing agility. We had a trial the past three weekends.  Keltic is still looking for that first Masters qualifying score; I know it will happen but I hope it doesn't take another year. Beckett has been whittling away at the number of qualifying scores he needs for his Silver Expert Snooker and Silver Expert Jumpers. Well, last weekend we got the last two qualifying scores we needed for the Snooker title.  And now we only need one more qualifying score for Expert Jumpers; once we get that final qualifying score, it will also give Beckett his Silver Versatility title for having achieved Silver Expert in four events.  A Silver Expert title means that you have 25 qualifying scores in that event except in Steeplechase which requires 50 qualifying scores.

That's it for agility for 2018, looking forward though to a good year in 2019.

Down Home

Well, it's been awhile since I sat down to write a blog post, I'm falling behind. Perhaps I'll have more time in future as now every weekend will be a long weekend. I'm starting my transition to retirement this weekend; for the next two years I'll only work four days a week.

Any way last month, my sister, brother-in-law and I went to to Halifax, well Dartmouth actually, for a family weekend.  My youngest niece was getting married on the 12th of May. She and her family are Mormons so we were not be able to attend the ceremony itself, we decided to see if my mother's brother and his wife were available to spend some time with us while we were in town.  Not only were they available but they invited us to spend the weekend at their house. Had they not been available I doubt we would have gone.

We flew down on Thursday getting in around 9:30 pm.  We had a great time sitting up and chatting with my Aunt and Uncle who we hadn't seen since my father passed away. We were able to sleep in the next day as the wedding ceremony wasn't until the afternoon.  By the time we arrived at the Temple, my sister, her family and the bride and groom had already gone in. We waited with other guests in the waiting room for their sealing ceremony to be completed. The bouquet had one of my mother's brooches on it so that in a way she could be there too. Afterwards many many photos were taken before we headed off to a restaurant for the wedding dinner.

First Kiss

The bouquet

The dip

Karen, Keaton, Kayla and Kevin, the bride and groom with Kayla's parents

The restaurant was small but we had the whole upper loft area for our group. My youngest sister and her husband who have been travelling the US this past year had worked their way back to Canada and joined us for dinner. The dinner was very nice. There was a choice of  four dinner entrees along with cakes for dessert. It was the first time we had met our youngest great-nephew Haig Arthur the 4th.

Maureen, Steve and Aunt Helen

Juanita, Joe and Baby Haig Arthur

Saturday, we headed over to Halifax, we took the ferry over.  I was born in Halifax and went back there to go to university but this was the first time I ever took the ferry from Dartmouth to Halifax.  We walked along the waterfront to Pier 21 which is now a museum to immigration in Canada. In the 20's and 30's it was a large immigration centre for people who came to Canada by ship. After taking a tour of the museum we had lunch then headed back along the waterfront to meet Maureen and Steve at the Lower Deck pub.

On the ferry

Halifax Harbour

Waterfront walk

Citadel Hill

Local Brew

After a beer with Maureen and Steve we headed back to Helen and Terence's where we had the classic East Coast lobster supper, a little less expensive to have at home than at a restaurant.

Sunday afternoon, some of my cousins, two of my mother's brothers and her youngest sister came over along with other members of the family. We had a lovely pot luck supper.  It was great to see everyone. I'm sure I hadn't seen  my cousins' children since the kids were little now most of them are adults.

My sisters and me with our Aunt Helen

Uncle Terence

We flew back home on Monday. Hopefully it won't be as long until we see them again.

Wedding Weekend

Whew, what a whirlwind of activity we had last weekend. I was totally exhausted by the time it was over.

My sister and niece arrived from Alberta on Thursday morning at 5:30 am; I had to get up earlier than I would have for work to pick them up at the airport.  Later that afternoon, two more of my nieces arrived from Prince Edward Island so it was back to the airport to pick them up. All of this company was arriving for my nephew's wedding which was being held on Saturday.

But before the wedding, there was on Friday, the graduation of a young cousin from the Royal Military College of Canada. My sister, Annette and I made the two hour drive from Ottawa to Kingston to see the graduation parade. The parade had to be moved indoors on account of the rain so it wasn't the spectacle that it should have been.  Our view of the parade was of the junior wing so we actually didn't see much of the graduating class from where we were seated.

We had lunch afterwards with our aunt, my Dad's half sister, and then started the long drive back to Ottawa. All of my nieces had stayed in Ottawa and had gone downtown to see the sites. Unfortunately, they had the same weather in Ottawa as we did in Kingston so mostly all they did was some shopping.  You can read about their day at Uniquely Alyssa.

Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner so when Annette and I arrived back at my place, all we had time to do was feed the dogs, let them out for a bit and finish the salads we were taking over to the dinner. Then it was off to my sister Juanita's place (mother of the groom).  We had a lovely buffet supper. After dinner all of my nieces went with the wedding party to decorate the room at the golf club where the reception was to be held and Annette and I went back home. Two early mornings, I was already tired, luckily the wedding wasn't until the afternoon on Saturday.

The next morning dawned bright but chilly, I thought it was going to be a beautiful day but later on it got quite overcast. We were thankful that although it never warmed up much, at least it didn't rain.  My youngest sister and her boyfriend arrived early afternoon from Toronto, now the house was full. We decided to go to the chapel early as it was located on the grounds of the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum and we had free admission that day as wedding guests so this gave us a bit of a chance to walk around.

After seeing a few of the buildings at the museum, some of the animals and having a demonstration of type-set printing we headed back to the church.

It was a lovely service but the ring bearer, my great-nephew and the flower girl, the bride and groom's god child nearly stole the show.  I think actors have a saying about never sharing the stage with children or animals, well that's what the bride and groom had to do was share the spotlight especially with my great-nephew who thought he should have the best seat in the house.

A little blurry but you get the idea.

After the service there was the requisite photos of the wedding party. I'm sure had it been warmer, the pictures would have taken longer but since it was so chilly everyone was eager to get to the golf course club house. I made those driving with me wait until I could take a  few pictures of the bride and groom with the antique truck that was my brother-in-law's but is now my nephew's.

With this ring...

Husband and wife

The groom's family

Together

And one of the pictures with the truck

The reception location was beautiful and they had done a very nice job decorating. The meal was a buffet including a build-your-own pasta buffet. I ate far too much but still had room for wedding cake.

The wedding cake

Reception venue

Cutting the cake

Our name cards

Since the dogs had been home alone since 2 pm in the afternoon, I started trying to get our group to leave at about 11:30; I think it was after midnight we left. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Back at my place we had a few more drinks and then crashed. I think it was nearly 2 am when I went to bed after having e-mailed some wedding photos to my brother-in-law's sister so that she could see her nephew's wedding. The next morning came far too early so we were somewhat late for the wedding brunch, it started at 10 am and we all arrived at 11 am. There were no pancakes left but there was still lots of sausage, bacon, eggs, coffee and juice. After all we had eaten the night before, it's funny how hungry you are the next morning, must have been all the dancing.

The bride and groom left on their honeymoon that evening so they have not had the chance to open their wedding gifts. They'll need a day to open all the gifts and cards. I had a handmade quilt made for them and I can't wait to hear if they like it or not. The bride made the bridesmaids' and flower girl's dresses so I am sure she will appreciate the work that goes into it. The quilt and some cash was a gift from my mother and me. My Mum wanted so badly to be at the wedding; her first grandchild to be married but with her health it is just impossible.

The gift table

My wedding gift

The quilt - Gemma

Quilt detail

After the brunch, we headed back home to relax, boy I needed it.  Maureen, my youngest sister left later that afternoon for Kingston where Steve's daughters live.  The rest of us just relaxed but later that evening went back over to Juanita and Joe's just to have a little more time to visit.

Monday morning, Juanita and Joe came to take my nieces to the airport. I would take Annette and her daughter a few hours later. And so the whirlwind weekend was nearly over, I still had Tuesday off. I took the extra day knowing I would need it and I sure did as it wasn't until Tuesday that I did laundry and mowed the lawn.

Next year, we'll get to do it all over again.  Annette's daughter has been engaged for about a year; they recently selected a date for next summer and the wedding gown is already purchased.