Mom 2011 and Christmas Prep!

Sarah has a gun to my head asked me to post a blog of our recent life.  Not much news, work, bills, rain. Still, mom was out in mid-December, and we did some stuff.

 The coho were running, so the eagles and gulls were out for a feast.  We brought Maggie, and she rolled in one, which makes for an interesting car ride home.

Blogger is being an idiot, so this will be short. Here's some gulls.

Some plants.

 

Mom and Sarah on the couch.

 

We did this before the previous photo, anyhow: off to cut a Christmas tree.

 He wouldn't let me use a chainsaw.

 

It only fell off the car once on the way home.

 

It only took an hour to untangle the lights.

 Sarah being proud of herself. For the record, she's sitting over my shoulder censoring me.

 Decorating our tree.

 

This is shortly before it fell over (at midnight, when we were asleep), spilling water and Christmas decorations all over the living room.

R

Two recent hikes

We've been out hiking a couple times since we've been back post-honeymoon.  We're determined to get back into shape after the wedding :)  

Slesse Memorial Trail (Chilliwack, 12 km round-trip, 860 m elevation gain)

This was early October (maybe the 2nd?) and it was a hard one!  Not only was it quite a distance for our out of shape legs, but it was UP UP UP!  I actually sat down at one point and said "That's it!  You go on if you want to, my legs are DONE!"  Remi trekked on, but I was close behind - the black flies were horrendous!  Here are a few photos:

We started by fording a river... as usual ;)

 

The view was quite beautiful.  The sun poked its head out for a bit, but it was quite overcast that day.

It's called Slesse Memorial because it actually marks the resting place of 62 poor souls who were lost in an Air Canada plane crash in Dec 1956.  Climbers weren't able to find the wreckage until 5 months later due to weather and snow condition.  There's a cairn marking the end of the hike with a few bits of the airplane included.

 View from the cairn.

Snow Camp Mountain (Manning Park, 17 km round-trip [a bit more to the true summit], 600 m elevation gain)

This hike was stunning!  Likely the longest day hike Remi and I have ever done but on a well-graded trail through beautiful Manning Park, it was a breeze compared to Slesse!  We just did this one last weekend, on a clear sunny Sunday.  We were up bright and early, out the door by 8 AM and at the trail head by 10 AM.

It was CHILLY!  Frost coated everything and was still frosty when we returned to the bottom at the end of the day.  Wherever the sun didn't reach, the frost remained.

 

And fresh snow too!  Not worthy of snowshoes, but at time our crampons (thanks Evan and Tim!) would have been very nice.  I was glad to have my poles which helped prevent me from slipping off the edge of narrow traverses at times.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, these weren't "drop off the edge of the world" narrow, just "slide down an embankment and have to climb back up" narrow ;)

 

The views were amazing - as usual!  There was something magical about this hike though.  It could have been that we didn't see another soul the entire day (which is quite stunning when you're out for six hours and it's a sunny fall day) or perhaps it was the "Grizzly bear in area" signs posted everywhere... (don't worry, we made lots of noise - grizzlies don't like running into people anymore than we would have liked running into one of them!).

Anyway, some pictures of the view:

 

Remi is pictured above with Hozomeen Mountain in the background.  This mountain is actually located in Washington State.  Manning Park is located on Hwy 3, which runs very close to the Canada-US border.  It's actually the highway we took when we drove out here with our trailer of stuff in 2005.

II

Ahh, the summit!  Final elevation 1980 m.  We stopped up here for lunch and used our new "overpriced" (in Evan's words) sporks.  Which are awesome, I might add!

One last view:

And that's what we've been up to lately!  Just this past weekend we made a trip to Fort Langley to buy our new king size bed for the mattress we had delivered last weekend.  My advice to our readers: get a king size bed!!  It is luxury with a capital "L".  We also did a nice walk close to home on Sunday as it was sunny again, plus a bit of gardening.  We've been lucky with weather so far this fall!  Hopefully it continues to hold.

We hope this finds you all well!  Remember to leave your comments so we know you've been here :)

S&R

Pre-wedding and honeymooning!

Before anyone gets too excited I should say that Remi and I haven't received our wedding photos from the photographer yet.  I'll only be posting here a few taken by Alain Masson before and at the wedding, and some pics from our honeymoon.  We can't wait to see the photographers' pics either, which should happen in a week or two.  In the meantime...

Ann and Alain were with me when I happened upon my dress at Bryan's Bridal in Burnaby Dec 26th, 2010.  Alain was kind enough to take a few photos. 

 

 

 The sales lady was a genius.  If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been wearing that lovely hat on the wedding day.  I should mention a funny story that many of you have heard previously.  This is a classic Remi Masson moment:  I return home having just purchased my wedding dress and the aforementioned hat and Remi says "I hope you're not wearing one of those stupid hats".  True story.  

Before the wedding I headed home to Southampton to visit my family.  I have pictures of the beach day here. I didn't take very many photos so for more of this visit, see my Mom's blog: http://deannasteve.blogspot.com/.  She also has wedding photos up there :)  Thanks to Mom and Dad for a relaxing few days and also for helping me with place setting cards and the seating plan!  As well as for Dad's artistic stylings for the programs (I believe Mom has these uploaded onto her blog).

 

I love this photo.  It looks like Keenan is jumping so high but he really wasn't (don't tell him that though) ;)

The following photos were all taken by Alain and are from the wedding day (as you might have guessed) ;)


While he was reluctant, I'm glad my Dad decided to walk me down the aisle.  I was a ball of nerves before I made my way from the dining area and down the stairs to the aisle and he squeezed my hand and popped a joke.  Thanks, Dad!  I should mention that one thing great about this venue was that Remi couldn't see me until the last second as I was coming down the aisle.  I like big entrances ;)

 Mr. and Mrs. Masson!!

 Now we can finally relax!!  Keenan decided it would be adorable (and it was) to go around "fist-pumping" all the guests.

Keenan was not long for that tuxedo and was much happier in jeans and a t-shirt, which he wore to deliver a little 'lations to Remi and I (= congratulations in Keenan).  Kristin looked lovely and said some lovely words too!

Our first dance!  We had a dance choreographed through a lovely lady who works out of the Mission Rec Centre (our gym), named Mary.  We had two lessons and besides stepping on my dress a couple times, we pulled it off without much of a hitch!  Unfortunately the DJ played the live version (which is not what we'd been practicing too) but we made out ok!  There is a video coming from my Mom which we'll post soon hopefully!  As well as one of the ceremony for those who want to be entertained by our nuptials ;)

 

 Shortly thereafter, my Mom and Grandfather did a polka!!  It was very exciting!!  She tried to teach me but it's quite complicated!

 Ahh, the honeymoon!  We spent six full, relaxing days at Remi's parent's cottage in Muskoka (on Star Lake for those familiar with the area).  Remi took the opportunity to play with his camera a great deal, hence our first photo!

 On Tuesday we decided we needed groceries (and a new dog kennel as WestJet kindly informed Remi that ours was too big - after we'd flown with it at least 4-5 times; but that's another story!).  We headed out to Killbear Prov Park near Perry Sound at the same time.  While beautiful, I strongly believe Ontario Parks needs to re-think their off-season charges.  It was $14 to just drive through the gate!!

 

 We also canoed a few times (as all real Canadians should on their honeymoons!).

 And we read a lot! (I also stared at my bling a lot - but so did Remi!)

 And we ate a lot!! 

 A sunrise.

 A glamour shot of me - Photoshopped and everything!

 Ahh, newly wed love ;)  Alain was kind enough to leave us a few bottles of Champagne which we enjoyed immensely!  Thank you!!

 Being fall, we were lucky enough to see the leaves changing.  It was very dramatic!  Remi and I haven't been home in the fall for leaving-changing since we left Ontario in '05.  We'd forgotten how gorgeous it is.  In living colour, it's even more stunning that the photos.

 

Did I mention we brought Maggie?  Likely the first couple in history to bring their "child" along on their honeymoon ;)  We certainly couldn't spend a week at the cottage without her though!

 Images by Sarah. 

Wednesday was BEEEEAUTIFUL!  We made the most of it: kayaking, sailing and canoeing all in the same day!  Thank you to Neil and Karen for loaning us their kayaks.

 

 

Another beautiful sunrise.

 More gourmet cooking chez Remi.  Have I mentioned how lucky I am?

 And good looking too!

We walked two parts of the Seguin Recreation Trail while we were at the cottage.  This part is actually quite close to the cottage (I couldn't tell you where it starts, but it was close!).  It's used by snowmobiles in the winter and the odd ATV in the summer and it's a lovely place to walk the dog and complain about not seeing a moose.  There's a picture above in the "leaf montage" with me walking along the other part of the trail.  Here I'll include the video of Maggie meeting a turtle (which happened on the other section of the trail).

 

Ahh, one more swim before heading back to reality.

Thanks again to Ann and Alain for the use of their cottage.  And sorry about the bacon grease in the freezer *yuck*

S & R