Our Aunt’s friend set up a camper to watch the Stampede parade in Calgary. It was during the royal visit, and they were in the parade! We actually only saw them for about 1.5 seconds, because they drove quickly by in a closed car, but we did have cowboy hats, tiaras, and gloves to wear!

The most exciting part of our trip (except for the wedding I mean…I swear!)- we met a reader! She was working at a souvenir stand at the Stampede, and recognized us as we walked by looking for Stampede onsies. So HI!!

These are all of the girl cousins on our dads side. Minus Micaela and Kate who didn’t come to Calgary. From left- Me (Lauren), Kim, Leah, Angel, Rachel, Erica and Emily.

The cute baby bump in Denver, Colorado. It varies in sizes, although I think it’s at it’s biggest in this picture.

Denver has these awesome bikes that you can rent, and there are stations all over the city. We fell in love on our last day in the city. Well I did at least.

As a result of these trips Erica and I got to be pros at travelling together with our parents. It was awesome!

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1. The ONLY bad thing about summer (if it ever arrives…)
2. Calgary Stampede

Yes! Only 4 more days until I go to Owen Sound with Mom, Dad, Micaela, Casey and Kent for Kent’s sister Nadine and her fiance Rami’s wedding!  As the unattached and boring sister I’m going as the official babysitter, which I’m actually okay with since I’ve heard a LOT about this wedding for a while, and I’m super excited to see it!

Noo! I had a longer description of this particular No, with fear of being too TMI I’ll just say this: Cramps. Are. Killing. Me. I seriously don’t know what to do.

Yes! Next week I only work 3 days then I’m off to Denver for our cousin Joe’s wedding! Everyone in the family (even the new babies!) are going to Denver except Leah and Tim.  We’ve never been to Denver, and I’ve heard lots about the airport so I’m pretty excited.

Noo! I’m at that point where I should probably be figuring out what I want to do with my life, and it’s not very fun.  When I say I don’t know to some people they just start throwing things in my face as ideas, but when I say I don’t know to other people they say “oh that’s awesome, I’m so jealous, you can do anything and go anywhere!”. But when I get that answer I just think “no, it’s not okay, because then I’m just going to sit around like a bump on a log for the rest of my life. Then what?”.  As of right now I have 2 options, both I would be okay with, but I kinda just want someone to tell me what to do.

Yes! Joining with that last No, I have been semi planning a trip to Greece with 2 friends from high school, then a trip to Africa maybe with a friend from Ottawa after I graduate.  I really want to go on a trip (to an English speaking country) and work while I’m there.  There are a lot of programs you can go with, but I feel like I’d get to the place and not be able to get a job. Then what?

Yes! I got this shampoo from Bath and Body Works last week and it smells amazing, and makes my hair feel even better.  I’m clearly not getting any of the stress relief I’m supposed to be getting from it, but it works all the same.  Even if my hair is up in a gross hat all day and not down like it likes to be.

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Here is one of my favourite pictures from the night. I don’t know what we’re laughing at, but it looks like we’re having fun!

And the funniest picture of the night (sorry Mic! haha)

And finally, the whole family together again!

We’re so happy to have Leah back in our part of the country!

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Since we’re spread out over the province and it’s not every day that we can get together, I thought I’d share some photos.

Lauren, me, and dad before we left. We were all each other’s dates (Kent was working, mom was in a play) so we thought we’d capture the moment.

Erica and Denis and our favours… personalized shot glasses full of watermelon flavoured shots. Lara is known for her love of shots so it was fitting.

Erica, Katelyn (please note the perks of breastfeeding here, ladies!), myself, and Lauren.

All of us with the mother of the bride and Lara.

Here’s a family secret: Get a couple of drinks into us and at some point in the night you will end up seeing the “(ourlastname) sad face.” It doesn’t mean we’re actually sad… I don’t know what it means! Every family has their quirks…?

Lauren didn’t catch the bouquet but she did manage to grab a few leaves. That must ensure her a couple of dates this year, right?

And the very cute bride and groom.

Congrats Lara and Ryan!

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1. How to Get Ready for Your Wedding
2. Five blondes, no mass suicide pact.
3. Wedding Sneak Peek

I think about weddings a lot, both my own and my friends and family (I have been a bridesmaid three times and am currently an ecstatic maid of honour for my best friend’s wedding next Spring). I pretty much have my wedding planned out and pages in my diary strictly for jotting down ideas for when my times comes.

The thing I am certain I will stress out over the most is the guest list.Though as I get older this happens less and less, in the past I would have classified myself as a people pleaser and spent way too much of my time worrying about what other people think. I am worried that when it comes time to invite people to my imaginary wedding I won’t be able to draw the line on people who don’t need to be there.

Over the years of blogging and tweeting I have made many friends over the internet (as I am sure many of you have as well). These are people I talk to almost every day and develop wonderful, supportive friendships with. People like this girl and this girl. People who I tell some of my deepest secrets to and people who are there for me when I am upset or having troubles.

My question is: Do you invite these friends to your wedding? Do you invite your bloggy friends to your wedding? What if you have an anonymous blog – do you invite them and make up a story of how you met? Do you invite someone to your wedding who you have only met in person once but talk to almost every day? Or do you have to put this huge part of your life aside when it comes to your wedding day?

I for one know that when it comes time to mail my invitations you’d better believe that Reggy and Michelle will find one in their mailboxes. And I would be delighted if they chose to attend.

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1. Journey to THE wedding- (t-13 days..)
2. Tuesdays avec Micaela: Eleven Days and Dress ADD
3. Loves, ten days, and Tuesday night.

The day before the wedding after getting things set up in the tent, I asked Kent if he liked the tent and he replied “it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” which basically summed it up for me too.

Neither of us thrive in big crowds so it was nice to have our time alone in the car (with our wonderful driver Dane of course!) and taking photos before being mauled by people and flashes. My best friend is having a tent wedding next summer and I’m really excited to be part of one from the outside (well sort of outside – I’m a bridesmaid so I’m sure I’ll help out lots.) There is a lot of stress involved with being the bride and groom when you are as anxiety prone as we are sometimes!

We were taking a chance on the weather, but exactly a year before the wedding before I was engaged I remember thinking “It’s been really nice out all week. I should get married on this week next year.” So we did and I was right – in a summer of nothing but rainy Saturdays, we got really, really, lucky. Four months later people are still telling me that. The farmer who owned the wheat field was even nice enough to keep the wheat up for the wedding. How nice is that?? It would not have been the same without it. I went back to the property the next morning and it was already being combined.

Related posts:

1. Micaela and Kent's Wedding #1: At the farm.
2. Tuesdays avec Micaela: Eleven Days and Dress ADD
3. Tuesdays with Micaela: Dresses and Long Distance Relationships.

There were shaky hands and struggles with the ring:

There was an overly passionate first kiss:

There were the particular feelings of happiness that were brand new:

There were family and friends by the hundreds:

There were missing pen mishaps and more laughter:

There were two beautiful voices and one beautiful pianist up in the balcony – sadly not pictured.

There were perfectly supportive friends:

And there was now a husband and a wife.

(Next up – the reception – but not until next month as my flickr has reached it’s limit.)

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1. The Long Awaited Wedding Post- Part 4: The Church
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3. The wedding planning begins…?

My dress, made by the talented Couturesmith

Bart, our Dutch farmhand this summer got to come to the wedding. He opted to wear a bow tie. So cute. Actually he had us take a poll, and the bow tie won over the regular tie.

Krista was our hairdresser and is a family friend. She has done an amazing job on my hair for Katelyn, Erica, and my own wedding and is just the sweetest girl ever. If you are in the London, Ontario area and need a hairdresser Krista is your girl! Let me know and I will give you her info.

My bridesmaid Michelle and her adorable dimple. They requested hair flowers which I thought was a nice touch.

Pretty sure I had the cutest bridesmaids ever!

A nice one of my parents.

Leah and dad! So sweet.

My friend Dane drove us around in his amazing car. The car shots are some of my faves (and my bouquet? Amazing.)

The town my sisters and I grew up in was having its annual garage sale that day so we stopped in. I picked up a veil for $5 which you can kind of see in this shot:

And then we were off to the church! To be continued…

Related posts:

1. How to Get Ready for Your Wedding
2. Micaela & Kent's Wedding #2: At the church.
3. Tuesdays avec Micaela: Eleven Days and Dress ADD

The weather turned out way better than I could have ever hoped for, amazing for a summer famous for nonstop rain (the chance of rain for the day all week was 0%! I didn’t even look out the window right when I woke up because I was that sure that it would be perfect.) The tent looked beautiful, the farmer left the wheat in the field which bordered all sides of the yard, and the night ended with a crazy fun and wild dance party, just me and Kent’s style! Our dj was wonderful and stayed for longer than we’d booked him for. It pays to hire friends of friends to do these types of things for you!

Buuuut, since I don’t have my pictures back quite yet, I’ll stop talking about the wedding and start talking about the honeymoon! We  spent our first day and night in Los Angeles, then spent twelve days in the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Maui. It was a completely amazing vacation and I still miss it every day!

Here are a few pictures and a few highlights!

We didn’t have time for much in LA except a quick tour of Hollywood boulevard, Rodeo Drive, and the beach. We rented bikes and biked from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach, because, well, we didn’t have time to walk it! Kent made fun of me because the bike I rented was SO squeaky which he thought was a pretty typical thing to happen to me. Whatever, it was the only one with a basket!

Now in Kauai! (It always takes me at least three tries to spell that, even after being there.) The guidebooks told us to try shave ice at Jo Jo’s. It’s an amazing Hawaiian dessert made by shaving a huge rotating chunk of ice and then flavouring it with whatever you choose. I loved it and had it many times during the trip!

On our last day in Kauai we treated ourselves to a helicopter ride! I love Kent’s hair in this shot.

Before take off! We both got really motion sick on the helicopter and Kent even had his “Aloha bag” out (which is forever what I will call barf bags and you should too!) but thankfully for the rest of the passengers on board, didn’t have to use it. After the flight we just collapsed on the ground for a while then had to go for recovery drinks, although we had “happy hour” drinks every day, come to think of it. You Americans love your happy hour! Kent says it’s just as popular here, but I don’t believe him. If every bar/restaurant here had amazing drink deals every afternoon I’m sure I’d do a lot more afternoon drinking!

The Napali cliffs… nothing more beautiful than a helicopter ride in Kauai. I learned on this ride about a group of waterfalls called the “Five Sisters Waterfalls.” So neat!

Kent fell in love with snorkelling. It was like being inside an aquarium, way cooler than I expected!

Ohh, just a new friend we shared a plane ride with! Kent told everyone back home that he was going to Hawaii to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter so it could not have been more hilarious that he actually did meet him! Dog’s response to Kent asking for a picture? “Okay, ready, shoot.” He was no-nonsense! But it was really great of him to pose for pictures with a bunch of people while trying to get to his luggage.

We took a boat ride to Molokini crater and another Hawaiian island, Lanai, for some amazing snorkelling. The boat was awesome, they served us breakfast and lunch, the crew was so fun, and it had an open bar! We went with the Pacific Whale Foundation, which I definitely recommend.

Kent’s sister and her husband bought us a bike trip down the crater in Maui as a wedding gift! We were driven to the top of the crater on a bus and then we biked down. It was really cool and a bit scary with all of the hairpin turns. I loved the views from this spot, with the sheep in the field and the ocean in the background.

Of course we had to go to a luau! The food was amazing, especially this pig which was cooked underground. We ate with a cute newlywed couple across the table from us who were from Utah.

We went all out on the last night since we cooked/picnicked almost all of our meals on the trip and went to the nicest restaurant we could find. It was SO worth it, one look at this picture can probably tell you why. I love that Kent is a chef and trips to nice restaurants always feel a bit like research.

That’s it for the pictures, although I have many more that you can see if you have me on facebook. Here’s a few side stories that the pictures don’t tell, for the people who have seen all of these already:

1. Kent bought a speargun our first day in Maui from a super great local guy at a surf shop. He gave Kent a flier with the best places to spearfish which quickly became our bible. We found that the fish in Maui weren’t quite as plentiful as in Kauai and they were smarter, so he never did catch one but man did he love going out with that spear. He has always loved fishing but has definitely caught the fishing bug since returning from Hawaii.

2. On the flight from LA to Hawaii, there was a contest to figure out exactly when we’d hit the halfway point, keeping in mind wind speed and all this other stuff that went right over my head. Guess what? Kent won! Luck was on our side this entire honeymoon. When they announced his name on the plane I laughed so hard… and I was the only one that clapped, along with maybe two other people. The prize was a Hawaiian cd which became our soundtrack for the trip every time we drove (which was a lot.) After a few days this song was basically on repeat the whole time. Listening to it brings me right back! 

3. I’d never heard this before the trip, but in Hawaii people kept asking me why I had a Hawaiian name (Micaela). After thinking about it, we realized that Hawaiian words are full of vowels, and m, c (and k), and l are common consonants. That’s probably why I loved all the Hawaiian words so much and our drives often consisted of us repeating our favourite Hawaiian words over and over again. (“Lahaina!” “Haleakala!”)

I’m glad we had such an awesome honeymoon even if it means that our trips for the next year or two will be nonexistent (well, they should be anyways!) Posts to come on the wedding and on married life, which is pretty great. Last night Kent surprised me by picking me up on my walk home from work and had a picnic packed and we had dinner by the lake! Really though, nothing has changed since we still live in the same apartment together, except that we laugh every time we say “husband” or “wife.”

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1. We are married!

Bridesmaids Michelle and Michelle!

The bride before getting dressed!

Off to get pictures taken and then to the church!

Related posts:

1. Micaela and Kent's Wedding #1: At the farm.
2. Micaela and Kent's weding #3: The Newlyweds.
3. Micaela & Kent's Wedding #2: At the church.