-K

username “stretch”
password - harold’s fathers name

http://www.cowbringer.com/gallery2

Then the “stretch” photo album should appear and be editable.

To see individual photos clearly you will need to download the entire image (between 1-3MB large) and then zoom into a photo. This can be done in windows by clicking “view full picture” and then clicking on an individual picture with the magnifying glass your cursor should turn into when the full image appears.

It’s not perfect, some pictures are cut off and you can’t add text… but its a start

Full rez versions for printing are available if you click down far enough

Pictures are for personal use only.

-Kevin

Check back then!

Anyway… you’re probably looking for pictures.
The “official” photo’s are arranged into three albums (ceremony, posed, and reception) here:

Official Photos

The photographer has released the rights to us and you can go ahead and print them out on paper if there’s any of your family or us that you like (just click on the photo to make sure you’re getting the largest one available)

Everyones posted photos (along with the official photos) are here:

Posted Photos

Feel free to snoop through the rest, or through the postings. I haven’t posted much here since April (go figure )

Thanks again everyone for coming!

Yes sis I’ll email soon.

Other interesting tidbits… went to the farm on the weekend, helped with a prolapsed cow. Saw farmer Pete and watched that Borat flik… awful film… getting shivers just thinking about it. Manager Humbert is back from China so I get to go back (continue?) programming… Manager… such an easy job

Tonight its off to the Flames Bar on Stephen Ave, Bryce got us reservations… I don’t ask questions on how he got them… just going to go drink some beer and watch some hockey.

As for the wedding and where I left off… Next morning my groomsmen and I (save Andrew) were out at the McGreggor cabin. Nothing to special here, just some getting ready and waiting for Dad and Andrew to arrive. Both were massivly late (Dad and cousin Jim moved the hard alcohal to the hall that morning and Andrew was looking after his kids). However not enough to make us late for the wedding. In fact we were on time and had time to check into the hotel rooms in town (for the wedding party) and chat with some of the guests who were doing the same thing. After arriving at the church we were hustled into the pastors office as to avoid seeing the bridal party. At which time a couple of the groomsmen chose to release some pent up “gas”. So we couldn’t leave the office, and the windows were fastened shut (winter) so when the pastor came to check on us he was more than a little “overwhelmed”. It was a relief to get out of there and in front of 200 people (it was that bad).

Cerimony was pretty standard (you may have been there), lighting of candle, signing of registry, my cousin Jody sang and did a really great job. A few of my moms friends played piano and flute. All and all good cerimony. Pictures were at the legion monument park (one of my friends from high school Kristine avoided this park at all costs as I recall ) however done quickly due it being about 0 degrees celcius. It was fun getting the ring bearing to hold a beer while we took pictures of him to show to his mom later.

The church was massivly boring but I’m confident at least a few family members will have these pictures on there wall somewhere so it was probably worth it. Andrew pushed mary off the stage one point which was kind of funny (because a) it wasn’t me and b) i didn’t do it).

Finally it was off to the tracks for some ‘artsy’ shots… pretty good really, here’s a few of my favorites.

We made it back a little early so we had time to do a recieving line

The reception was pretty good. My best man got me good by getting all the girls in the audience I’d had former ‘relations’ with to drop their keys off. Every girl in the place took him up on the offer. And finally even one of my life long friends clark tried to get into the action… but I managed to hold him off.

My groomsmen Ryan also didn’t tell the Ficacia story which was a very good thing. More speechs and the cake cutting before it was time to get to the point of the entire thing (besides getting married of course)… the party. Wasn’t sure how we were going to get everyone out of their seats to clear the dance floor but turns out mom and dad (and Tom Grant, the Champion Fire Department (Buck) and a host of others) had a plan… have a new years fireworks display!

After that, well you had to be there… But it was a pretty good time …

Rumor has it ‘Cousin Jim’ could be heard singing at 4am back in the hotel hallway by all the other aunts and uncles he has woken up.

Once again thanks to everyone who helped out, came from afar, or who thought they should have been mentioned in my little (/big) blog here. At this point I think it’s time to put this one to bed. It was a great wedding, I have some great friends and family, and I look forward to the next happy gathering.

At that point we split up. Marys brother was going to try snowboarding with sis & company while me and my cousin Jim were going to hit some of the harder runs (harder as in my double black friends were not joining us until the next day, it would be blue/black for us). Turns out that sunshine had gotten some major upgrades in the last few years and people were flying up the lifts. I think I heard there were 3000 people on the hill that day and my cousin and I never waited more than 5 minutes for a lift (we hit all the lifts on the hill at various times). By noon sis had more than enough of snowboarding and decided it was time to go someplace that didnt involve being in the snow most of the time

However Marys brother was having a way easier time of it and volunteered to join us for the rest of the afternoon. I must say I have never seen anyone pick up snow boarding as fast as he did. He was doing heavy blue runs with us by the time we packed er in. That night we were joined at the rose and crown by more of the wedding party as well as my parents and marys grandmother. In hind sight this would have been called the “warm up” rehursal dinner. Much wine, food and song was consumed and once again we were joined by my childhood friend Clark who had stuck around a little longer after Christmas due to the good time he had the night before with us as Auroroa. Everyone decided we should all head back for some pre-drinking to start night number two, put the kids to bed, and for anyone else just hit the hay early. Mary and I almost headed back until Andrews friends Christian (and company) arrived to party with us from Canmore. We hadn’t seen him since the last ski trip a couple years ago. Funny guy, also serving in the army (thats were he met Andrew). Anyway after we returned to the YWCA (that’s were we were staying… pretty good really if you get the family rooms and don’t mind the absence of a pool) and I cleaned up at poker it was time for bed. At this point I made sort of a blunder as I figured letting Andrew and his family crash in our room wouldn’t be a big deal as everyone was still in cribs. FYI if you snore it’s not a good idea to be around kids in cribs. I think Karen ended up in the tub from what I understand Ah Memories. The guys who wern’t skiing ended up partying for a second night. Not sure what happened there but as far as I know a lost coat was the worst of it (later recovered).
Last day as Andrew, Bryce, Christian and Christians friend were joining us we decided to head out Louise. This being the second day of the most busiest skiing days I was prepared for the worst of lineups but once again Louise had great lifts and great parking. Marys brother Jack decieded to do up skiing and skiied with Jim most of the day, I tried some double black runs and was able to hold my own for the most part keeping up with everyone.

It was a long trip back to Calgary and then on back to Vulcan that night. My best man and Ray had missed out on the hockey game and decieded to go drinking, as well as too many “problem solving opportunities” for Mary had lead to a “its going to be ok” phone call. However by the end of the night everyone was snug in their beds and the final day of preparations were ready to get underway.

The Magnusons (local Vulcan people and friends of the family) were gracious enough to lend their cabin at the lake to my groomsmen and I, so everyone waking up in one spot made things easy (and the night of my own bed and room was great as well). First thing on the list was the booze for the open bar (of course) and a close second was the BBQ for the rehursal dinner that night. Some of our relatives from up North had come down as well as Marys family from out east so there were plenty of people to serve. Not much to tell here really. Most of the day was spent setting up the hall in champion and ensuring everyone was going to have a stress free and fun day on the actual wedding day. Thanks to everyone that helped!

We were going until almost 8pm and unfortunetly ended up being _very_ late for our engagement dinner. However the food was great (thanks to mom & dads friends, family, nancy and ray). Much swimming, billiards, more fooze and games ensued. With that out of the way it was time for the actual wedding… Whoa a long time coming.

At this point its 4 in the afternoon and its time to head over to Ryans for a BBQ. As I believe Jack was looking for some photoes I have published them at http://www.cowbringer.com/pics/ for now. Use the contact sheet to see which pictures you want to view, then back up and click on the actual picture. I’ll move them into Gallery later this week (as well as finish the post!). Or take them down later if Mary has my head! As of now the “rec” folder is still getting bigger as I upload more photos. Otherwise thats all of them.

We left the day after the wedding with a stop over in Houston. It was there I realized that my travel agent has switched my flights a couple weeks before and I forgot to tell the bus company. However we got some advice from a businessmen and found the taxi desk inside the airport. You have no idea how crazy it was outside what with the taxi drivers. They run a proper queuing system but still allow anyone to try and get a fare. wild. the queue was way less stressful.

The night our travel agent made up for it by getting our suite in downtown San Jose upgraded. It had a living room, jacuzzi, television (most hotels don’t have tv in the rooms). Really nice.

We left the next day for the beach. We were a bit freaked as the night before our cabbi had told us Limon (where we thought we were going) was a sketchy place and to be careful. However we soon discovered we were headed for Limon the province (not Limon the city) so all was well. Which made more sense as Puerto Viejo - Limon was actually Puerto Viejo, Limon. The hotel (La Perla Negra) was right on the beach and the proprietor (Marlena) gave us a spot with a balcony over looking the ocean. Very sweet. Only sketchy thing was the room didn’t have curtains. That was sort of weird except that we had the top room and you couldn’t easily see in. Everything else was class though. We walked down the beach into town. It totally reminded me of Waterton, Alberta. Mostly locals and die hard travelers. Not a 80 year old retired American in sight We also discovered it was a major destination for surfers.

We went trolling around for supper and managed to find an out of the way seafood place. Really nice owner and the chef was very proud of his cooking. Ono I think it was called? Anyway I don’t think they were open that long (or just looking to impress) as we were treated like royalty. The seafood was fantastic and we ended up eating there once more before we left.

The next day it was raining which was a bit sucky. We later learned the Caribbean side of Costa Rica is wet… alot… even in the dry season. So we attempted to turn lemons into lemonade by booking an ATV tour. Totally great idea. Got covered in mud and almost got stuck a couple times. We went out to a remote waterfall were almost everyone tried to fall at least once (except for me of course!) one guy went down on his face hard, and Mary’s knee took a big whack from a rock. We finally reached the waterfall to find a bunch of naked tourists! Gotta love naked tourists… and not ugly naked tourists which was even better. Anyway I digress. We got some great photos of the waterfall and “Jack” decided to go for a swim.

On the way back we saw a rubber tree (it’s sap is white to begin with) and a poison dart frog (cool stuff). Before we were done we also ATV’d over to a local’s farm where he had a garden with a tonne of local fruit and plants, very tasty/educational. Finally we saw half a boa constrictor on the side of the road (someone had mowed over it). That night we chatted with the hotel bartender Anton. He had lots of advice (he suggested the ATV tour) and was just a really nice guy (even if I mistook him for an ausi rather than a brit!).

We then had planned to try out my cousins recommendation of bungalows rather than a hotel room and moved over to the Azania Bungalows. Really classy place again and the bungalows were roomy and private. It was a bit more “modern” and had curtains this time:) That afternoon we trekked into town for some souvenirs. We got a lot of great stuff for us, our family, and the friends we trade souvenirs back and forth with. That night we sat on the beach and had a few cold ones.

For our last day on the beach it was a bit cloudy however the waves were still up and surfing seemed like a good idea. I did pretty good and got up on my third attempt. However after that I started to get pretty tired (my beer belly got the best of me) and only got in a dozen more rides in the next couple hours (surfing is hard!). Mary didn’t have quite the sense of balance I had (knee boarding, snowboarding, water-skiing) but nonetheless managed to get up by the end of our lesson. All in all I swallowed a lot of seawater and rubbed my nipples raw on the surfboard… I think I’ll stick to water skiing! But it was a great experience.

That afternoon Mary wanted to go down to the Panama boarder and see the park down that way so we rented a scooter. I forgot that I had never driven anything mechanized with two wheels before so the first few minutes were a bit hairy. However I managed to get the hang of it before I ran over the locals pointing and laughing. I think it may have had more to do with my looks rather than my driving ability:

Anyway that finished our trip to the beach and next it was off to the Arenal volcano. For this leg I got the honeymoon suite again and as it turns out we had a living room, tv and patio. As well as a great view of the Volcano. As we were relaxing on the patio we were greeted by a couple parrots. All of a sudden one of them said “ola!”. I figured I was hearing things and said “ola!” back. And it replied “ola!”. Talking wild parrots… well I’ll be. The grounds really made the views even better.

That night we hit the Tabacon hot springs where we spent 3 hours hopping pool to pool to pool. It was like a giant classy waterpark that was almost dark (they don’t seem to believe in lights:) hence the lack of photos). We almost didn’t go as I had been running a fever that afternoon and after we got back it broke out into an all out sickness. I was sweating pretty hard and Mary was pretty worried (as was I really, the only thing that kept me ok was that I knew i wasn’t delerios yet) however the fever broke about 5am and that was the last of it. It didn’t really interfere with our trip at all. The next day as a wedding present our cousin had arranged for horse back riding around our hotel. We did some photos, some galloping and talked with the locals about how the area had changed due to tourism in the last decade.

It was a pretty popular place for ranching and plantations until people realized they could make more money with tourism. The vista views around the hotel grew crops before they were replaced with grass for the hotel. That night I introduced Mary to the great game of Chess, shes a fast learner and we played a lot from then on.

The next day we took off for Monteverde and the cloud forest. It was only 35K to the town however we only went 20Kph the entire way. So it still took 3 hours. As the bus was full I was in the drivers seat which made the trip seem even slower. However once we got there it was again a great hotel (as recommended by my cousin) called the Arco Iris. It wasn’t long though before we were whisked away in yet another bus to go zip lining through the jungle. As our camera went dead it’s tough to describe this but here’s a picture from the internet from the place we went to:

http://www.monteverdehomestay.com/chicoLG.jpg

That night we were in the mood for some western fair so we actually found a pizza place. And it was good
The next day we had a bit of a mix up getting to the Monteverde Forest reserve. Turns out our guide thought we were meeting him at the gate and we thought he was picking us up. A quick call though fixed things up and were soon trekking through the jungle again. The tarantula spider was pretty freaky. I can believe our guide got close enough to snap this pic:

He says they won’t attack anything bigger then them… Mary and I chose to err on the cautious side. We also saw this bird, which are guide dragged us running across the reserve to see. It seems it doesn’t come out to often and it was considered a god to the aztecs.

We said goodbye to our guide and proceed to walk the reserve for the rest of the day. We visited the continental divide (sort of cool seeing as we almost live on the continental divide in Canada) and then hiked over to a waterfall. Mary took a video:

Our last full day in Costa Rica we spent at a coffee plantation. I have never learned so much about coffee so quickly. They still pick their coffee by hand at a pickers cost of 1$ per bucket. A really tough way to make a living. I now know not to select “Mountain Coffee” in the supermarket! It’s actually the second rate stuff that’s left over (at least in Costa Rica).

The ride back to San Jose was nasty. I almost got carsick for the first time ever. We went from the top of the continental divide area to the ocean area in another 30Km. Lots of switchbacks, potholes and gravel. I think I’ll look for an airport if I want to go back!

We arrived back in San Jose about 6pm that night and decided to go risk the promenade. We were told to be very careful in the capital city but the nightlife was too tempting. It turns out it was very safe and full of American style restaurants and clothing stores (think of a brand name and we saw it). We even ate at quizno’s just for fun.

Early the next morning we flew back to Calgary. The folks picked us up at the airport as they were already in town and dad fixed my truck while I was away. Good people.

Anyway that’s it… Hope you now know how our honeymoon went!