Reflections... our crazy wedding story pt 2

... So we had decided to look into Hawaii.
*You can read part one here *

My family had been several times and found the islands to be such a relaxing place. We had no idea what availability would be like or the prices of flights at the last minute, so after deciding on the island we wanted we started looking things up online.

The Big Island of Hawaii. Kona is located on the left.

I love Kona on the Big Island. It is very low key, with no high rises or over commercialised tourism. We found a condo resort in our favourite location and gave them a call to check their availability. Turned out the recession had hit them hard and they had many rooms open. They were also going for a great price - $80 a night for a one bedroom with a full kitchen, living room and lanai.
We then proceeded to check into flights and found the same thing, great deals. Flights for around $400-$500 round trip from Seattle. Awesome!

Kona. See how tiny it is? That's why I love it so much.

We called up all our guests. Sadly, not everyone was able to reschedule at the last minute. Some were not willing to travel with what was going on, others hadn't wanted to risk wasting their vacation time and had booked other trips and some just preferred to stay home. We totally understood everyones decision. It was stressful for all involved, not just us.

But we really appreciated those who stuck with us and trusted our judgement on the new plans. I don't think you will ever understand how much your support meant to us at that time. Your phone calls, your emails, you kept us sane!
A group of us went ahead and booked the trip to Hawaii - approximately 48 hours before we were to leave. We still had no idea what we were going to do as far as a wedding ceremony, photographer, flowers, reception, anything.

Once the flights and condos were booked, we talked it over with my dad and decided that he would be the one to marry us. He already had a legal licence to do so, so it just made sense. We also decided to sign our papers here, as it would have been too complicated to go through all the necessary steps once in the States. We only did the legal part of it. No ceremony, no vows, no hype. Just sitting casually in my families living room. In the eyes of the government we were now legally married. But in the eyes of us (& God) we were not.

We started to pack our bags and think about what we were going to do about everything else.

...to be continued...

Reflections... our crazy wedding story pt 1

   

     This time 3 years ago Matt and I found ourselves in quite the stressful situation.
We had spent months planning our destination wedding to the Mayan Riviera along with approximately 40 guests accompanying us from BC, Alberta, Ontario and Washington State. We were due to leave in one week and then... the swine flu hit.
At first it wasn't a big deal. Sure, alot of people were getting sick, but we weren't about to change our wedding around at the risk of catching a flu bug. We probably wouldn't catch it anyway. But then the government stepped in and stopped all travel to Mexico, causing all our flights to be cancelled; basically cancelling our entire wedding.

     The travel company offered us last minute trips to Jamaica and Cuba. Sure, we would have to re plan our entire wedding but the resorts were similar and we could probably pull it off. But within 12 hours of making those offers they were retracted, and we were told we would have to reschedule our Mexico trip for months down the road. We explained to them how this wasn't possible. Our guests had booked time off work for this trip and put money into it, we weren't going to reschedule. They told us, 'too bad, we aren't giving you your money back.'

     Thankfully, CBC news got ahold of our story through our travel agent and immediately set up TV and newspaper interviews. You can read the news story on us here . *just a side note - we never said we were going to file a class action lawsuit. I guess that sounds a bit more dramatic though doesn't it* After we had been on the air a couple of times we got a call saying that if we stopped talking to the media, the travel company would refund our whole parties money. No problem, we just wanted our money back. Nothing like a little bad publicity to do the right thing eh?

     Now that everyone had their money back, what were we going to do about a wedding? We had several options. We could have a last minute wedding here, but we felt like it would turn into a 'pity party' event. Already when we saw people we knew they were giving us the sad head tilted to the side look followed by, "I am so sorry..." line. No thank you. Thats not what I wanted for my wedding day. Matt and I considered running off to Greece and eloping. Seriously. We actually considered this. But our friends and family had been so supportive through the whole situation that we really wanted them to be a part of our special day.

     So we decided to try for another location. First place that came to my mind was Hawaii.

...to be continued...

Growing up, lowering down

We lowered Noahs bed today. This is why.

Yesterday Matt walked into Noahs room during his nap and found him sitting up in bed playing. He has never gotten up himself so it was a bit of a shock to see. We figured he was just learning how and werent too concerned about lowering the crib just yet.

But today I witnessed him do is three times, so down it went. He decided that just sitting wasnt good enough and immediatly starting practicing standing.

I

This kid is on the move!!!

Oh, and have I ever mentioned how much Noah loves when his daddy is home? Pretty sure he gets sick of seeing me all day long. Nothing more fun then play time with daddy before bed time!

Kisses for daddy

Home decorating

We have been wanting to do 'something' with the walls in our dining room/living room pretty much since we moved in. But since we have an open concept townhouse it was hard to figure out what was going to work without messing up 'the flow.' We had gone to Ikea several times but could never make a decision on what exactly we wanted to do.

Yesterday we decided to just go with our guts and purchase the items we were thinking of. We are very happy with how it turned out!

Sorry I dont have any before and afters. Just the afters.
Here is our dining room now.

Now this is our living room. We basically just moved around our picture frames and added those two shelves. Planning to buy some light blue candles and a few other items to go on there like starfish, etc.. Thinking of maybe getting some lettering that says 'FAITH' or 'FAMILY.' I would welcome any other suggestions :)

We also got some darker shelving for our master bedroom and for Noah's room for his favourite books.

Relfections... one year ago today.

This time last year some friends and I were celebrating the royal wedding of Will & Kate. I held a viewing party, we ate british treats and sipped cups of tea.

A few of us also decided to try on our wedding dresses again for fun. We wanted to feel fancy.

 

Oh yeah - and I was approximately 6 months pregnant. So if my dress looks a little funny - its because I couldnt due it up!





It was a good time :)

Dance party

Noah loves a good dance party. It tends to happen around 8am after daddy leaves for work or while mommy is making dinner in the kitchen.

I think he is a pretty good dancer for an 8 month old.

PS - his favourite dance song right now is 'Golden Age' by the Asteroid Galaxy. No joke. Gets him going every time.

Proof.

"Whats that I hear?"

"My favorite song!?"

"Woo hoo!!!!!"

"I looove to dance!"

"La la la la...!!!"

"Thanks mommy... that was AWESOME!"



All is well

I have had a really wonderful past couple of days. I had coffee with some girlfriends, went on a date with my husband, saw a great Nicholas Sparks movie at the theatres and spent lots of time with family. Speaking of Nicholas Sparks... I forgot how much I love his books. I think I may go back and read my favorites again.

Noah seems to be in a really good zone right now which always puts me in a cheerful mood. Pretty sure he went through a growth spurt a few weeks back as he was pretty cranky and all of a sudden barely fits his 9 month attire. He is eating food like crazy, sleeping 10-12 hours straight at night and independently playing great. He is also becoming very mobile and doesn't like to sit still. He can roll from one side of the room to the other and is very good at going from sitting up to crawling position or spinning himself around in any direction. I don't think actually crawling is far away now...

And yes... he knows how to shift this thing to make it move.





Next week I am going in to get 2 of my wisdom teeth removed and I am starting to get pretty nervous about it. I will be under conscience sedation, but I just find dentist visits so nerve wrecking. Please pray that I will manage to stay calm and all will go well.

P.S - Noah has found a new fun facial expression for pictures. I call it his 'goober face.' Here are a few examples.

P.P.S - Sorry they are all phone pictures today. I havent been great at pulling out my nice camera lately. Will try harder :)