Cowbringer.com

Febuary 18th and things are starting to calm down. The wedding picutures arrived yesterday so I suppose its about time I write all this down so I don’t forget it 20 years from now and close the chapter on this one.
I’ll start from the day we left for Banff since that’s pretty much when this story starts. Rather than a souvanier to everyone in the bridal party we decided to pay for the accomodations of a ski trip instead… sort of a party before the party kind of thing. At first thought you might think this a little “nutty” to do right before the wedding due to mental stress, threat of physical injury, etc… and you would be right, except for the fact this would be the only time it would be possible to get everyone in the same area code (litterally; Earnst is going to school in Amsterdam). So onward and into party mode. The first night we went out the aurora night club. As this is a “public” website we’ll just say that some had a really really good time and had to be “helped” home. Of course highballs being 2$ a drink went a long way towards the “fun” factor. I actaully met a fooze ball player worthy of my “skills” in Ty (Ryan and I’s friend who came along for the ride). My sister was “ok” at fooze as well. Of course this didn’t help the cause of skiing the next morning but we did manage to pull ourselves out of bed. My sister and her man Ray even came out as well to try some snowboarding. I should at this point mention that we were going skiing at Sunshine on Dec 27th. This is one of the two busiest days of the year for the ski hill and we were already in line for a parking spot with ~4Km of driving to go (I kid you not), however parking cars in an open lot with no pay system meant we were only in line for 30min or so.

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.