back at it...

We're back in Winnipeg! We had an amazing time in Calgary... Erin and Fred's wedding was so much fun, and they both looked amazing - we've got a lot to live up to after this. People kept asking me if I was learning anything or getting any ideas AND what I learned is that we should elope. Of course we won't... but being the centre of alllll of the attention and having an entire event be all about US is.... well it's lots of things, including intimidating, exciting, overwhelming and ??? completely worth it. I get excited and nervous all at once but yay. Less than a year to go, yikes. The rest of the vball camp was fantastic too... it was ALL good! The Sunday after the wedding we spent the day out at the Litwiniuk's eating piles of sausages.... and drinking more. And eating more cupcakes - this, I have to say, was one of the highlights of the wedding. Erin and Fred made their very own wedding cupcakes, and after sampling some of the famous "Crave" cakes I personally declared E&F the winners.... they were so good that in total I probably ate more than ten of them. Right now that sounds downright gross... but they were oh so so so good. Yum. Monday we hung out in Calgary and we spent Tuesday, Wednesday and the bottom half of Thursday in Banff. Highlights included viewing wildlife, hiking Johntson canyon, climbing Sulphur mountain, eating: a deLISH home-cooked veggie pasta meal and another deLISH Greek restaurant dinner, and drinking: wine, beer and some hard stuff. The most challenging moment of the weekend was the Sulphur mountain deal; the big climb stands out because it was directly preceded (by only three hours) by an all-night drinking episode. Cousins Pam, Paul and Steve and I drank the place dry and played Yuker, Crib and Yahtzeee until mmmmm, 5:30am or so. So yes, the 9:30 hike was challenging, and in more ways than one. The views and company at the top were rewarding (the rest of the family took cable cars up... pah!), and we felt pretty decent for both the amount of sleep, and the amount of rye we er, got/consumed. Good times.

SO! We made the trip back to Calgary on Thursday afternoon, and one-shotted it all the way back to Winnipeg on Friday - the drive was looooooong. Steve's parents and Aunt Margriet arrived yesterday and today... boot camp began. Painting. We are finally getting rid of the pink and purple! haHA! We got so much done today, I'm truly amazed. If it were just Steve and I attempting the job we wouldn't have painted nearly as much. Not even close. SO! We are mega thankful (mega thankful?) that we have such great helpers here. Yay. Not too much else to report.... I'm going to try to get a couple of pics up but be forewarned. They may be completely random.

We made it to the Stampede on Monday where I picked up this fine hat and visited some large animals...

This did NOT make me feel any better about eating bacon.

Day One (above)

Making our way up Sulphur

The view from the top... gorgeous!!

Wedding pics to come next time....