weekend alone

i think it is funny how we have only lived together for ... 5 months, yet the thought of spending a weekend alone my house seems so odd to me. i am used to coming home to jesse, being with jesse or leaving jesse. i know that it is only a few days but it is definitely going to be odd. luckily, i have emi to keep me company in his absence.

in a sense, i think that it is going to be nice to do whatever i want whenever i want. i am working this morning until about 1 in the afternoon then i plan on going home, making lunch and taking emi for a walk. if i am lucky, i may even be able to see one of my best friends, michelle, who i rarely see since she is now living in LA (unfortunately, she is in calgary for the weekend to say goodbye to a dieing family member). at four o'clock i have a pedicure booked. after that i will probably go home and watch the hours of trash television that have accumulated on my pvr over the week. then, bed with emi. it is sort of fun to plan a day to myself when you know it is just for one day. i couldn't imagine having to do it over and over again though - knowing that i would never see jesse again.

i know this is a morbid blog post but this thought process came upon me this morning when i was searching for my photographer's blog online. i had forgotten the exact address of her blog and googled her instead - the link that google produced was a link to her personal blog instead of her photography blog and the sad, struggle that filled the pages honestly broke my heart. our photographer, christa harriman, was married to a man named tim harriman in may 2010. unfortunately, after battling cancer four times, tim passed away in july 2010. they were married for less than two months. now, christa devotes her life to capturing other happy couples as they embark on the journey of marriage. jesse and i met her in november for our engagement photos and she was such a happy, kind person who seemed to really love her job - you never would have known that she had lost her husband. i couldn't imagine photographing weddings for a living after my own marriage ended so painfully.obviously, she is still struggling with the loss but is still such an inspiring person. her blog was a combination of happy memories, self pep talks and sad struggles that really touched me and got me thinking about how lucky i am to have the person i love in my life here with me every day.

we are looking at a little bird that was flying around - christa said that this happens on a regular occasion and in her heart she knows that little bird is tim, helping her capture happy moments

so jesse, i love you. you are my very best friend and i am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you. have fun this weekend and come back in one piece, please and thank you.

montana

this past weekend we went to montana with maddy, brian, adelle and chris. maddy's parents have a place on the US side of lake koocanusa and i was really excited because this is the first time we have been invited out there with them. the lot that maddy's family has is unreal - they have such a beautiful view of the lake. unfortanutely, i forgot my camera (shocking for me, i know) so i do not have any pictures.

anyways, we drove up there on friday night after work. we basically took our usual route out to fernie and then drove an extra half hour across the boarder to eureka, a really cute, little town in montana. as soon as we crossed the boarder the first thing out of jesse's mouth is "i really hope they have a sonic". i seriously could not stop laughing. pretty sure eureka is the american version of fernie, they just got a subway. they definitely did not have a sonic. after we did some shopping in eureka we headed to rexford, about 10 minutes down a sketchy back road, where her parents land is. the oddest thing to me about montana is that the people who own the land also own the road that drives up to the land so, if you get lost and drive on the wrong road you are technically tresspassing and, since we were in american, if you are tress passing the owner of the land is allowed to shoot you no questions asked. i did not like this at all. americans are so odd to me.

anyways, we made it to maddy's parent's place on friday without getting shot, thankfully. since it took about 3.5-4 hours to get there from calgary we didn't arrive until almost ten which meant that very little happened on friday apart from setting up camp and saying our hellos. saturday, on the other hand, was action packed. we woke up, ate breakfast and immediately headed down to the lake. at the lake we loaded onto their boat and boated 2 kms down the lake to an amazing little beach. here, chris's parents, who were on a golf trip in montana, met us with their seadoo. the hougan's were nice enough to let us all play with their seadoo that afternoon. i had never driven a seadoo before this weekend and i loved it. they really are so much fun. after some serious seadooing the girls tanned while the guys went wakeboarding or wakesurfing or something with a wake. it is all very confusing to me but they seemed to enjoy whatever it was they were doing.

so after an action packed day we were starving and decided to go to the local "bar". now rexford had one restuarant, the rexford bar, which had 4 things on the menu: steak sandwich, fried chicken, breaded shrimp, or a burger (american style aka raw on the inside, of course). thankfully, the steak sandwich i had was thoroughly cooked. all and all the food was really good but i found this entire bar concept confusing. we are in the "rexford bar" yet there are five year olds at almost every other table. apparently, in america it is fine to take your children to the local pub. my mind was blown.

so, after our dinner we headed back to maddy's parents place and just had a fire and hung out. the next morning we went into town and got breakfast at the local restaurant, did some shopping and then headed home around two o'clock. jesse and i were pretty anxious to get home since we had left emi with my sister and were really starting to miss her. 

so, after a quick two day trip to america i had learned two things: 1) that americans have every right to shoot you if you get lost on their "road" and 2) children are allowed in bars. americans are seriously odd.

jesse's birthday

this weekend was pretty packed. not only was it the beginning of stampede but it was also jesse's birthday weekend. friday was a nice, relaxing night. jesse and i cooked dinner and took emi for a good two hour walk through fish creek. the weather has been amazing lately so we couldn't waste it by sitting inside.

western girl through and through

how can you not love her?

saturday was jesse's birthday. every year jesse celebrates his birthday with his good friend caleb since they are one day apart. i always feel bad for the boys.  since their birthdays, july 9th and 10th, generally coincide with opening weekend everyone is dieing to head down to the grounds and they always get stuck going to the stampede regardless of whether or not that is how they want to spend their birthday. this year we decided to compromise and have everyone a barbecuing with the plan being to head down to the stampede grounds around 8 o'clock. one thing our friends are always good for is bringing more than enough food. all of the girls made side dishes like green salad, potatoes and pasta salad, while the boys all brought meat and booze (typical). all and all i think everyone had an amazing time.

the birthday cake i made jesse.
i know, it looks like it belongs to a five year old but that is what i get for letting him choose his own sprinkles (yes, they are dinosaurs) and candles.

barbecuing

jesse seriously enjoying his birthday cake 

enjoying ourselves at the stampede grounds

emi welcoming jesse home!

we had a ton of fun on saturday and were definitely feeling it on sunday. my mom called at about eleven o'clock inviting us over for breakfast. we went over for pancakes and sausages so that my family could give jesse his birthday presents. he got some new underwear (is it weird that my mother buys my fiance fancy lulu lemon underwear? possibly, possibly....), a few t-shirts and some summer sandals. after hanging out at my parents for a while we came home and cleaned our house since it was a bit of a disaster after saturday. then, after a relaxing afternoon, we went to jesse's parents for his birthday dinner. val and kev got jesse a pellet gun and jesse, being a big kid at heart, loved it. after taking turns shooting the pellet gun we ate dinner. kev made an delicious dinner of bbq ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw and baked beans. then, for dessert, val made the most hilarious birthday cake ever for jesse: a mini emi!

the cake version of emi

honestly, i think that jesse had a really great weekend. he was definitely tired come sunday night...

PS>> the wedding invitations are officially in the mail so keep your eyes open!

emzilla and camping

 i know i keep saying that our dog is becoming massive in almost every blog post but she really is. when we took her to the vet on thursday the 23rd she was almost 33 lbs. the following tuesday jesse hopped on the scale with her again and she is about 38 which means in 4 days she gained almost 5 lbs. we should have clued in since she seems to be constantly starving, eating up to six cups of good quality dog food a day. we are scared to weigh her again...

emi in may about a week after we got her

emi about 2 weeks ago - growing like a weed

luckily, she seems happier than ever. we took her to this really amazing dog park by our house and she had an absolute blast. i am beginning to think that the dog park may create some sort of complex for jesse and i since nearly every person we run into goes off at length about how beautiful her colouring is and temperament and personality are. luckily, she is beginning to really catch onto her training. it made camping with about 10 of our friends this weekend just that much easier.

since it was canada day long weekend we hopped into the car friday morning and went camping in cochrane for the weekend.

emi enjoying the mountain air on the drive up to the campsite

making a cooking stick

emi bringing us presents.

jesse playing newfie golf

the weather was beautiful so that made the entire weekend a complete success. the group of us brought up newfie golf, boccie ball and beer darts. basically, we just hung out and enjoyed ourselves and the amazing weather. we were really impressed with emi. she was completely laid back and respectful towards everyone - we could tell she was really enjoying being able to roam free in woods. whenever she drifted too far we would call her name and she would come running. we didn't have to tie her up once.  all and all it was an awesome weekend.