This past weekend Corey and I went to his cousin’s wedding
in Kamloops. It was my first time ever being there even though it’s only 3
hours away. My best friend watched Zoey for us so I didn’t have to worry about
my beastie being bored.
We had planned on taking a nice, easy drive up there, camp
for the long weekend around the celebrations. That plan fell through when we
found out we had to drive his grandma up. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a lovely
lady but I had to cram myself in the back of the challenger for three hours. We
didn’t get to listen to any music either. 3 hours of mostly silence because whenever
we tried to speak, we ended up having to repeat ourselves a hundred times over.
Eventually you just give up. Haha I think the road noise is too much for her
hearing aid.
I love driving up the Coquahalla. It’s nothing short than
beautiful. Mountains and trees and lakes. Stunning. Kamloops was…..not
thrilling. Lol I expected more green but the land with its rolling hills, is
kinda dead. Hot summers and mild winters with little to no rain most of the
time leaves the land looking a little dull. We drove through the city and out
about half an hour into the farm land. After getting turned around a few times
we found his aunt and uncles farm. Did I mention he has a lot of aunts and
uncles out there…don’t get me started on cousins!
Two sets of aunt/uncles and their kids live on two farms
opposite to each other. We finally get out and stretch our legs and where
welcomed my Auntie Ellis and Uncle Rob.
As we pull up I see that they have a horse and donkey int
heir front field! So cool. Corey smiles and knows that I am going to bee-line
it for the animals once I get out of the car. He was right. Two big dogs come
bounding out of the house with his aunt and uncle and I was in heaven greeting
them all. An old boarder collie named Joey and a bouvier looking beastie named
Beemer. The horse and Donkey (Snoopy and Charlie Respectively) came to greet us
and where content to receive endless pats and scratches from me. Love love
love!
Once inside their lovely air conditioned (Did I mention it
was FREAKING HOT outside?) home they stuffed us full of homemade fruit,
veggies, bread and drinks. Oh god the food was amazing. Almost all grown from
their gardens in the back.
We chatted for a while before it was time for Corey and I to
head back to the hotel to check in.
We didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a hotel room but
forgetting that it was the long weekend, we didn’t think to book early so we
ended up spending a lot on the one hotel that still had vacancies (and didn’t
look like it would give us a disease.)
We ended up choosing the sand man and boy it was fabulous!
We were told it was just recently completed and boy was it fancy pants. We go
up stainless steel and blue glass elevators up to the top floor. The halls are
lined with silver and slate colored wallpaper and there’s crazy rave lights on
the floor.
Our door greeted us with a dandy little jingle each time we
put our card up to it. Our suite was stunning. It had a kitchen and even a
dishwasher! Flat screen TV's in the 'living room' and the bedroom. As usual we had to do the traditional jump on the hotel bed. I tried to straighten it out to take a picture as I had forgotten to do that first. The rooms where beautiful chocolate and royal purple and had a king
size bed (That I took over and nearly had Corey topple out of during the night
cause I am a bed hog apparently).
We get dressed and book it down to the church for the
wedding.
I had been nervous as what to wear because this was a
Mennonite wedding. As we arrive I am relieved to see that My dress is right
smack in the middle of the modestly scale there. Yay.
The bride was beautiful and the groom couldn’t stop smiling
the whole time. They seemed to enjoy every moment.
Let me take a moment here to step back and say that I’m not
really a religious gal. The following is a little biased because of my views.
This wedding, as I said, was Mennonite but holy bibles
batman this was more a ceremony devoting themselves to god rather than each
other. So much prayer and so much hymn singing that I felt this day wasn’t
about them at all. The only part they got to themselves was the kiss at the end.
The ceremony ended and we headed back to auntie Ellis and
Uncle Rob’s while the wedding photos took place. We hate more home made food
and chatted away until we scooted across the road to Auntie Eleanor and Uncle
Gerald’s farm where the reception was being held.
They had a beautiful backdrop of mountains and a duck pond
and the sun set behind us as the reception took place. A nice tent overhead
kept us dry when a two minute shower passed though. The sun returned and it was
stunning for the rest of the evening.
Today I learned something about Mennonites. They don’t
dance. I was so ready to get my boogey on that when a speech came up that
started with ‘In lieu of dancing..” I was surprised. No dancing. No music,
nothing.
More speeches. More prayers. Prayer, prayer, prayer. I
thought it would never end. I was even more surprised when they participated in
the garter toss though we noticed many people looked away when it was
happening.
The bride and groom left early too. I think right before
eight. People began to dissipate after that. I was left thinking…that’s it?
Corey and I got in the car but didn’t end up going back to
our hotel right away. A lightning storm had been growing during the reception
and we were treated with a spectacular after show. We watched in awe for about
fifteen minutes on this old farm road as lightning bolts dashed across the sky.
When we got back to the hotel we sat and watched some tv together while we curled up on the couch. Suddenly the room began to shake and our drinks where going nuts in our glasses. I panic thinking EARTHQUAKE and we go outside to the front. A couple from Australia is standing outside smoking and laugh only to tell us a train just rolled by in front of the hotel. Geeze. I felt like an idiot.
The next day we headed back to Auntie Ellis and Uncle Rob’s
to pick up grandma for our drive home. We ended up staying and chatting for
hours which I didn’t mind in the least. Auntie Ellis and I ended up walking
around the farm and she showed me her gardens and the barn she was working on,
the boarders of her property and the trails they went riding on. We fed the
horse and donkey Carrots fresh from the garden and she told me all about them
and the animals she had growing up. Apparently all the ladies on the street
meet up in the morning and go for a long walk with all their dogs around the
farm lands. How awesome does that sound? She says about 8 dogs go if I remember
correctly.
It was really nice talking with her. I never really got to
see them much and it was only usually for an hour or so at Christmas or
thanksgiving. I found that we had a lot of similar interests so it was really
nice connecting with her.
She loaded me up with tons of veggies from her garden. Home
grown peppers, spaghetti squash, beats and a zucchini as long than my arm!
We went back inside and chatted some more with everyone
before we eventually had to go. The drive back was just as quiet as the drive
there but this time we stopped at our favorite rest stop at Britton exit. Sadly
there were no Whiskey Jacks to feed there but we enjoyed stretching our legs
regardless.
So all in all it was a good long weekend. The wedding was a
little strange but the people where wonderful.
