Home again home again

(My apologies to my dear Helen in taking so long to post my Vancouver entry. I'd started it Wednesday morning before the famous stair incident. Now that I'm unable to do anything useful, I'll finish it.)

After spending five days in Vancouver here are my broad generalizations of the city and it's residents:
- Everyone drinks coffee, talks on cell phones, and walks their little dogs around the streets. Often these things happen at the same time.
- There are definite gaps between the "Have's" and the "Have-not's". People either walk around with fashionable clothes and expensive accessories or else they push shopping carts and dig through dumpsters.
- The drivers are insane. Sudden starts and stops combined with random non-signaled turns made for some very tense moments on the roads.
- Vancouverites freak out when the temperature dips near freezing in February. This is Canada, people, get over it! You've got green frickin grass and flowers in February. I'm not even sure if they can be considered Canadians with winters like that.

On the topic of Trevor and Mina's wedding, it was simply beautiful. They were married O.L.P.H church (the Vancouver version, not the Sherwood Park version I was married in) in a beautiful ceremony. Their two readings were the "my love is a gazelle" and "love is patient, love is kind" ones, both of which Liam and I had chosen for our weddings. I read the first one which is the one Trevor read for us so there were some really nice memories there for me.

Mina was absolutely gorgeous. She wore a dress that had a sleeveless bodice on top and a poofy bottom with a bit of a train. There were white fabric roses on the skirt part and she had pretty white gloves as well. Her hair was pulled up and she wore a tiara as well as a veil. I wasn't alone in thinking she looked like a princess. During her walk down the aisle, she was so nervous that she was shaking and didn't look up at all. I teased her later that if I hadn't known her I would have thought she was unhappy to be getting married since she looked so serious! She relaxed a bit during the ceremony, though, and was soon teasing Trevor once more.

We had a lunch reception in a beautiful building (the name of which I can't remember) on the UBC campus. It was a cozy and intimate set-up as there were about 55 people present. I spent much of that time in other parts of the building feeding and rocking Lily as well as playing with Nicholas who had had enough of all this boring stuff before the ceremony had even finished. I had many many moments of wishing Liam were there since I felt overwhelmed with being mostly alone with two kids and even whined to Karen once "I want my husband!".

After speeches, a short dance, and some outdoor photos of the shivering bride (she was sleeveless in near-freezing temperatures!) we packed up and headed out to Mina's parents' apartment building where they had rented an area where the cake-cutting took place and various Korean foods were served. Trevor and Mina had changed into Korean clothing for this portion and Mina looked like a beautiful doll.

After a bit, Jo and Graeme drove the kidlets and I back to the hotel since we were all tired and needed to go to bed. Within 45 minutes of getting back to the hotel room, I had both kids asleep and I had polished off a cooler. I can't remember the last time alcohol has been a better friend to me. I even wrote some alcohol-induced mushy stuff about Liam in my journal. Yeesh.

We got to see Trevor and Mina for a bit on Sunday and I kept poking Mina's belly. The chick is 17 weeks pregnant and she's just starting to get a little bump! Too cute. I made them promise to send me belly pictures throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

Oh, and the honeymoon. They've headed off to Korea for a week then they'll hit Thailand for two weeks. I'm not jealous. Really. Not at all. Uh-huh.

The remainder of the trip was spent mostly in Stanley Park. We visited the more public areas at first but the 4-hour hike in the woods was much more satisfying. Nicholas found the Haunted Tree's Great-great-great-great-great-great Grandpa. Anyone who is confused about the Haunted Tree needs to tell Liam to post about it.

And that was my trip. Here are some of the professional photos that were taken. Each guest received a cd with these pictures.