Chris and Lisa's Wedding

This weekend we drove a ridiculously long time to go to a wedding in Merrickville, just outside of Ottawa.  The groom is my husband's childhood friend and the couple are like family to us, so Adam was the best man and William was the ring bearer.  First order of business was to attend a house party with the rest of the wedding party.

The party took place on Friday, which just happened to be Adam and my 5 year anniversary, so of course we pretended the party was for us.

Then on Saturday was the wedding.  When all the men and boys in the wedding party wore kilts, much to the amusement of the ladies.

Instead of a pillow for the ring-bearer, they had a big flower with the rings on it.  Adam tried to convince William to carry it, but he refused. 

So in the end, Adam became the world's tallest ring-bearer.

Being a funky and non-traditional woman, Lisa opted against wearing white to the wedding.  But Chris and his guys wore white shirts so it's all good.

They kissed!  It's official.

Even though it was cold and windy, we followed the schedule which told us to have ice cream afterwards.

Then, since we really were cold.  I bought the kids a hot chocolate at the nearby pub.

Which is around the time William started flirting with the flower girl.

Then on to the reception.  Adam made a lovely speech in which he mentioned how it was our anniversary and how much he loved me and our kids.  Then he wished Chris and Lisa that they be as happy as he has been (you know, so it ties in). 

The centrepieces at the reception were all boardgames and William amused himself at length at the battleship table. 

I mentioned they were non-traditional right?  :)

Anyway, the next day we all went out for breakfast together then said our goodbyes.  We still had one more day in Ottawa though, so we headed to the Museum of Civilization just across the Quebec boarder.  It's a nifty museum with a lot of exhibits that are pretending to be outdoors, recreations of old towns and such.  It also has a killer children's museum with a crane!  This was Jadzia's favourite exhibit:

Ottawa Weekend Gettaway

Adam's friend-since-elementary-school Chris and his beloved Lisa are getting married in September and this weekend was their Stag  & Doe.  So my parents watched the kids for the weekend and we high-tailed down to our nation's capital to enjoy the party (and more importantly to enjoy a kidless weekend).

About halfway throught the 6-hour drive, Chris called to tell us the Stag & Doe had been cancelled.  The Maid of Honour/sister of the Bride had gone into labour 27 weeks pregnant and Lisa had gone to Toronto to be with her.  We found out later that the baby, Liam, was born 2 lbs 10 ounces with lungs strong enough to cry (I'm no expert, but I think this means he's going to be okay.  The really horrid complications from premature birth are usually from lack of oxygen due to under-developed lungs.)

Anyway, while I missed the opportunity to dance with my hubby, we got a lot more hanging out with Chris time than we would have had the Stag & Doe gone on.  The cancelled event would have included lots of people we don't know, and I would have spent the evening convincing Adam to get on the dance floor, while explaining to random strangers that we really are good friends with Chris and Lisa even though we have lived in different cities for years and years. 

Instead, we played boardgames at Chris's apartment, went out to dinner, then saw the most horrible movie imaginable: Clash of the Titans.  We were expecting a plotless action flick with over-the-top special effects but what we got was a really really plotless action flick with worse writing than is usual for the genre, under-whelming special effects, and bad 3D.
If I can be allowed a brief digression, some ideas for improvement (warning spoilers):

• Have someone who knows how to write go over the script, and remember show don't tell.  For example, the talk Perseus has with his father about how he really does love him even though he's adopted, could have been said with a look and a hug.  His father's speech about being angry with the Gods was just embarrassing.
• Actually film the movie in 3D, instead of doing a bad convert of a 2D flick.
• Make Olympus look more awesome and heavenly, instead of an over-exposed version of the counsel of the Jedi.
• Eliminate the character of Perseus's mother's husband.  The back story is okay, but why have him come back for revenge?  Can't Hades summon giant scorpions by himself?
• Only once should we be told that Zeus feeds on love but Hades feeds on hate.  After that, we get it.
• The whole plot with princess Andromeda should be either scrapped or built up so that we actually care about her being sacrificed to the giant octopus thing.  Seems like a no-brainer to me that we should feed her to the Crachen to save the city, what took them so long?  Instead we killed off five guys and a tree-monster trying to get Medusa's head.  That's just not good economics.
• The two hunters that join the team but don't actually do anything after that (beyond ride a scorpion) should be part of a subplot with Andromeda and we can have fun getting to know them.  In fact, all the characters should be developed better.
• Perseus should die at the end.  The fates said he would, so he should.  He's a demi-God, so he can come back to life if they really want.
• Longer fight scene with Hades at the end.  The guy is a GOD people!  Just because Perseus killed his pet monster doesn't mean he should suddenly be able to go down with one quick jab to the gut.  Even I could have lasted longer against Perseus (who is about as Godly as my pinky toe BTW). 

Anyway, we had a great time staying in a hotel without our children.  I mean, I love my kids, I really do, but they can be mood-killers.  In any case, the break was nice.  The next day we had a delicious breakfast at a restaurant Chris recommended and then saw the Aviation museum.  Lots of planes, but a distinct lack of fun interactive exhibits.  Not the most fabulous museum I've ever been in, but definitely more well-put-together than Clash of the Titans.  Perhaps I should see the original movie...it has to be better.

After the museum we drove home to Burlington.  Not only did our children not miss us, but William has been asking all day when we are going back to Omi's house.  My parents took the kids to the Science Centre and to High Park and they may have had more fun than we did.  They definitely did less driving.

Conclusion: MORE WEEKENDS AWAY!!!

Our Weekend In Photos

Having enjoyed many a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's in my youth, I thought it an odd place to stop for dinner on a long car trip. But it was genius! William ran around and enjoyed rides and slides and games, and then konked out in the car right afterwards. And look, one of the rides printed out a momento for us.


Here we our standing in front of a wall in our nation's capital, Ottawa. We were there to visit with Adam's best friend Chris and his girlfriend Lisa. Also to sight-see.


I think that the prime minister secretly takes orders from this cat. There are a bunch of cats living on the grounds of parliament in a little house. I didn't notice it at the time, but the cat appears to have a hideous boil on his face, which I think makes him look more like a polititian.


There's Adam and William and Chris and the centenial flame. I thought this was an eternal flame, but according to Wikipedia, they extinguish it every year for cleaning. What a let-down. Anyway don't the parliament buildings look nice in the background?


Here I am chasing William on the parliamentary grounds.


A bird that's been dead a while, also on paliamentary grounds.


Here's our tour guide showing us the house of commons, where all the political magic happens.

Later that evening, we went to a family barbecue at the home of some of Chris and Lisa's friends. You know these people are cool because they have a rocketship.

And their son can ride a unicycle!

Then on Sunday, it was down in the trenches for us at the war museum. For some reason, this replica of the trenches, complete with dim lighting and scary machine gun sounds, was William's favourite part of the museum. He kept signing "more", asking to go back in.

"Mommy it's scary in here, but I love it!"

William was really interested in the tanks when we viewed them from the top floor, but once we went down to that level he lost interest. Of course, this could be because I put him back in his stroller so he couldn't run around touching everything.

Luckily we made it home to Burlington for the last day of ribfest, which we've missed every year for at least three years in a row.