Vacation Day 3: Wedding Planning 101
The morning of Day 3, we went to look at wedding location, Byron, Laura-Mae, Scott (the other photographer) and I checked out the route of carriage ride, and we all decided to meet for lunch.
We went to already-jam-packed Wendy’s with the 20 (ish) of us.

Our little family and Tali took off back to the townhouse after lunch. One problem though, we did not acquire a key. Whoops.

We hung out outside until Russ arrived and let us in.

When Liliana was taking her afternoon nap, Tali and I went downtown to try find a lens hood that Scott recommended for my camera, posted a blog post, found a birthday present for Kaylie, and got some Benadryl for my constant sneezing/runny nose. Apparently I’m allergic to Canmore.
We got a call when we were downtown to meet back to townhouse ASAP to meet up with others from our party. I took off again with Laura-Mae, Byron, Scott and Kaylie to go to the Quarry to see if we could make it another location for wedding photos.
Laura-Mae, having grown up in Canmore, thought she knew the way to the Quarry. Apparently not. But, when we were going down the wrong road, we spotted a couple early-20-ish guys with towels around their necks. We asked them if they knew where the Quarry was, and they said they were on their way there.
Now normally I’m not so irresponsible. But, it was our idea to pick them up, not the other way around. And? Byron and Scott were in the vehicle behind us, so I wasn’t too worried. The guys pointed us in the right way and we got there a couple minutes later.

This hill with the mountain in the background reminds me of The Sound of Music. It was absolutely GORGEOUS.


Kaylie was totally loving the attention that Auntie Laura-Mae and Uncle Byron were giving her.

Scott gave me a whole bunch of tips that were especially helpful since we both have the same camera.


Didn’t God make a BEAUTIFUL earth?


And since I was talking about how I was sad that I wasn’t in a whole lot of pictures with my kids, Scott took over my camera and made me go in front of it instead of behind it. Thanks Scott!

Me and the bride-to-be.
That evening, we had a birthday dinner for Kaylie (July 26th), Grandma (July 12th), and Noah (July 21st). Kaylie got spoiled, Noah got spoiled, and Grandma even spoiled Liliana and me.
After dinner, Noah, Russ, Sue, and Grandma took the kids to the park while Tali and I took off for a walk trying again to find a lens hood. We finally found the store, but it was closed.
We met up with rest of the party, tried unsuccessfully to find other store boasting of camera equipment, and finally went home. I edited photos while Noah played Scrabble and then we broke into one of Noah’s birthday presents, Planet Earth.
Vacation Day 4: Rehearsing
Went to church Sunday morning and got to hear my father-in-law speak at his former church. It was quite refreshing. Remember how I told you that I’ve been sweating since I left BC? Well it was HOT in that church (or maybe it was just me). Liliana was being fussy anyway, so I took her to the nursery in the back. It was cool and there was a speaker so I could still hear the service. It was perfect.
After church we came back to the condo and put Little Miss Grumpy down for a 2½ hour nap during which Tali and I took off and finally found those photography stores. The first one did not have the proper size of lens hood (one too big and one too small), and the second did not even know what a lens hood was. They only sold point-and-shoot digital cameras. I was a little disappointed.
One of Russ’ friends offered to have our children while we went to the rehearsal dinner, and we appreciated it immensely. Normally I’m quite apprehensive about leaving my children, but she’s a good friend of Russ and Sue and she’d been a former employee of Russ’ that he trusted so I was alright leaving Kaylie and Liliana with her. She is one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met.
We went for the rehearsal dinner at Giorgio’s Trattoria in Banff.

Noah and Tali were kind enough to post for photos while I tried to figure out how to use the horrid lighting in the restaurant. I like NATURAL lighting, and there was none to be found. I totally love the above photo though. It looks like they’re in a smoky bar drinking tequila, when in actuality, they’re with their extended family drinking water.

I think that after all the photos I made them pose for, they were wishing they were in the smoke-filled bar.

Meet Scott. The guy I go to for every and all technical questions I have.

The groom, my brother-in-law-to-be.

Are you SERIOUSLY taking another picture of me?

Russ and Jessica. Russ thinks it’s hilarious to drive his children’s friends absolutely insane. Jessica, Laura-Mae’s friend, was no exception.

Byron and Laura-Mae. Probably the most photogenic couple I’ve ever met, in my humble opinion. (Besides me and Noah of course! hee hee)

One half of the table.

My dinner. I ordered Seared Salmon; the only problem was that it was not cooked all the way through. Not my style. Apparently that’s how they do it in swanky restaurants. Since I am not the fancy restaurant kind of person (evident by my lack of knowledge of where to put a napkin) I did not know this fact. I asked very politely for them to take it back and cook it. When I got it back, it was still jello-ish inside. So, I didn’t eat it, but got it packed up so I could cook it at home. I did not want to ask them to cook it AGAIN for fear of a spit burger (or spit fish I guess) and I am NOT a sushi kind of person, unless it is California rolls, which really isn’t real sushi anyway.

Noah’s grandma and her yummy looking dessert.

We had such a great time at dinner. Friends of ours from Terrace were there because their son is the one that married Noah’s sister. It was so great to spend time with them again, as we missed them fiercely.

Noah, Tali, and I skipped out early on dinner because we had to pick up the kids by 8:00. They’d had a great time and were sad to leave. On the drive home, Scott called and said that he’d found a lens hood for me in Banff for under $20. I was stoked!
I’m sorry that I’ll have to leave the wedding day until tomorrow. I am exhausted (evident by the choppy post) even though Noah let me have a long nap this afternoon.
Before I take off though, I’ll fill you in on the job situation. I got on with a staffing company. They found a job for me a couple weeks ago, and it fell through a couple days before I was to start. They found another one for me that I was supposed to start this morning, but there was a message on the machine when we got home last night that said that it had fallen through as well. I had just gotten all the details earlier yesterday afternoon, but apparently it was not meant to be.
Don’t worry about us though. God is going to take care of us. He knows what we need and He will provide for us. Maybe He’s got a job already lined up that I will absolutely love. We’re doing our best, and giving God the rest.