Tag Archives: throwback

Throwback: Early Fall Trips

I guess September was long enough gone that I can consider this post a throwback post.

On Saturday September 20, we set out for a day in Lloydminster to celebrate Jordan’s birthday a couple days late. The weather was gorgeous, and we had a wonderful time having a picnic and going for a walk at a beautiful local park, and going to a neat petting zoo on the Saskatchewan side of town. The following weekend, I packed up the boys for an 8 hour road trip to Regina to visit our friends Anna and Karl. Always a good time with them!

Our Wedding Day

Today is our 3 year anniversary. Yay us!

I am not a sappy emotional person, so I will spare you an ode to Tim or our life together. Instead, I will bring out the ol’ wedding photographs.

All photos are by Vanessa Voth Photography, and you can view her original post for our wedding here (there are different photos than what I chose for this post).

My Something Borrowed…earrings my friend wore at her own wedding.

She had just watched the Royal Wedding the previous day, so she knew exactly what (she wanted) to do.

The flowers that lined the aisle later became the flowers for the reception tables.

Right before The Walk.

Hello Fraser River! Hello awkward hug.

The party.

The ladies.

The men.

Super secret awesome photo location: the old Albion ferry dock in Fort Langley.

Killing time at Wendel’s in Fort Langley.

There was a playoff game that night, so we had to come in like this.

Thanks for coming, guests!

I may not remember exactly, but I think we aced this test.

My Oma and I made our cake, and the topper was from my parents’ cake.

Watching the slide show.

I will forever remember this day, and look forward to celebrating many more years of marriage!

I love you, Tim!

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Throwback Thursday: 1 1/2 Years Ago

One and a half years ago we moved to Edmonton. One and a half years ago, Calvin was the same age Victor is now (yes, I know I will always be able to say that). This seems unreal to me. Calvin was still such a baby when we came here? It seems that he has always been a toddler. I don’t remember him being a baby. When did he grow up? Sheesh. Or maybe Victor is less of a baby than I think he is. Hmmm…

Well, here are a few photos from that time.

Getting packed up for the move.

Short pit stop on the way.

Learning to crawl at the new place.

Just comparing the two of them at this age, 5-6 months, they are quite different with what they have accomplished. Calvin could roll and sit (evidenced by the Mt. Robson photo), but Victor is content to just not learn this stuff. They were/are both happy babies who are easy to please and quick to smile. It will be fun to see how they grow up to be individuals.

Here is a photo of Victor, for a visual comparison.

Victor is a bit smaller than Calvin was. Calvin had already grown out of the bucket seat by 5 months, but Victor still has one more strap setting to move up to! Little shorty.

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Throwback Thursday: Paraguay

Today our backyard looks like this:

And I didn’t open the door to take the photo because the temperature looks like this:

Who wants frostbite on a Thursday morning? Not me!

So I decided to warm things up today by doing a throwback to a trip I took with my Oma to the other side of the equator, where winter is still very far off.

In early 2010, I learned that my Oma was interested in going to Paraguay to visit her family members who were still there, but being 75, she did not want to go alone. I gladly volunteered 6 weeks of my spring to head down there with her! I was interested to learn about my Mennonite roots that came from down there (this post isn’t a history lesson. I am not good at those. It’s just a pictorial account of our time there).

We mostly stayed in Asuncion where one of her brothers and his family lives. They have a couple girls about my age (he was a half brother), so we got to hang out and they showed me around town and stuff.

Oma and me in the backyard of the house where we stayed.

Afternoons were spent on the back patio enjoying terere, ice cream and frozen mangoes from their backyard tree. Delicious!

My uncle manning the BBQ that we enjoyed multiple times.

Oma and her brothers who still live in Paraguay. The age difference is because of a second marriage which is a story unto itself.

My cousins and I on a downtown excursion. This is their government building, if I remember correctly.

A street merchant made our names out of wire. I never felt so tall in my life!

Some of our time was spent in other little towns around the country, where my Oma’s brothers live.

On the road to Volendam.

They have large anthills.

Can we take a moment to compare the home of a Mennonite…

…to that of a native Paraguayan?

I milked a cousin’s cow.

Love this one.

Next up was Friesland where my Oma grew up. This was her home (now vacant), which they shared with the livestock.

She showed me how as children, they painted the bottom of the house with mud.

We made a trip to the cemetery where her young sister was laid to rest.

Interesting story: See the really old plot amung the newer ones? It is the grave of an adulterer or a murderer or something, and was originally outside the cemetery gates. Over time they had to expand and that is why it is now inside the gate.

We also went to the Chaco, which was the land that was originally given to the Mennonites when they immigrated to Paraguay,

These trees and camels have something in common.

We visited the little museum. I believe this photo is the group of immigrants my Oma’s dad came over with.

We did act like regular tourists for part of our trip too. We visited Iguazu Falls! It is probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen in person. When I first heard that we were going to do a two day tour, I was a little skeptical. What on earth would we do at a waterfall for 2 days?! But when I got there, I understood. One day you spend on the Argentina side walking along paths and bridges that are through the jungle and on top of the water and the other day you are on the Brazil side looking across the river at the falls. It was amazing!

Day 1: Argentina side

There were many friendly butterflies.

Standing in Argentina, looking at corners of Brazil and Paraguay.

Day 2: Brazil

My Oma has another brother who lives in Brazil, so we spent some time there as well.

Interesting trees on the way there.

Oma, her brother and her nephew.

The street on which my great uncle lives.

And we will conclude with just some miscellaneous photos.

Me in a mango tree! I was very sad we went at the end of the fruit’s season.

Red dirt road.

Why not nap while travelling from point A to point B?

I had a wonderful time, and am so thankful for this opportunity I had to travel with my Oma to a place that is so familiar to her.

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Throwback Thursday: It’s My Birthday

Today is my birthday! No, I’m not going to write an ode to myself and say how wonderful I have been these past 26 years. Instead I am going to share photos of past birthdays. It’s fun to look back and see some faces remain throughout all my years, and others come and go through different parts of my life.

I hope you enjoy this little look into my past!

My first birthday, complete with a giant butterfly cake, celebrated with my brothers and cousins. Aren’t my brothers cute in their plaid and suspenders?

Did every child have a McDonald’s birthday party? I have no recollection that this actually happened, so I guess I have to believe the photo.

Tea Party birthday party.
Fun Fact: I also had a tea party for my stagette.

One year the weather was exceptionally nice for early March, so the sidewalk chalk was broken out. Also, remember when we all wore our Sunday Best to birthday parties? Isn’t our Sunday Best the best?

I have two cousins, Ben and Matt, who have birthdays in late February, early March, so we would often celebrate the three of us together. Also, happy belated birthday, you two!

My thirteenth birthday was celebrated at the Rainforest Cafe. Awesome place, but it was soooo embarrassing when the staff made me stand on the chair when they sang “Happy Birthday”.

A couple of my high school birthdays were celebrated simply with my two best friends, Carleigh and Megan.
Check out those bangs, people!

A surprise 16th birthday! It was thrown a month in advance to ensure that it would in fact be a surprise. It’s hard to be sneaky around me!

Another cousin celebration. We are growing up!

This was taken the night before my 18th birthday. It was memorable because the next day I flew to China. Shortest birthday ever!

A couple years ago, my mom and sister (not pictured) and Carleigh made the the trek from Langley to Victoria on this particularly blustery birthday.

And a year ago, on my 25th birthday, I looked something like this. I was finishing the last few days of work, packing a house, moving, and awaiting somebody else’s day of birth.

It’s been a good 26 years, friends!

P.S. All the scrapbooking is the handiwork of my mom.

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Throwback Thursday: How I Met My Valentine

It’s Valentine’s Day!

To me, that means I make food that I know Tim really really likes. Oh, and I made him a little card and stuck it in his backpack for him to find when he got to work. We are not big celebrators of this “holiday” or even our anniversary really. To be fair, we have only had one anniversary and we had a two week old baby at the time.

Anyways, I thought that today would be a good day to document how Tim and I met.

When I moved to Victoria in April 2008, I subletted half of a room in a house from the niece of a family friend. The other half of the room was rented by Kate. We were room mates for a few months, and since I didn’t have any of my own friends, I hung out with her and her friends. One of her friends was Tim. We attended the same parties or get togethers a few times, but being both introverts we never spoke a word to each other. I knew Tim as Kate’s geeky friend who liked Nerf guns.

In the Winter and Spring of 2010, Kate and I were room mates once again. And Tim lived only a couple blocks away from our place. Kate would go often to hang out with him on the weekends if I had to work or something, but I never went over. Then, that Summer, we all started hanging out together more. Tim was looking for a new church to attend, so he started going to the one Kate and I went to. Since we lived near each other, we would walk there together. The walks were fairly quiet, as we warmed up to one another, but soon I considered him a friend.

A month or two after we were hanging out more, Kate got a job in For MacMurray and left us. Her farewell was something along these lines:

You two are not allowed to hang out together when I am gone because you are going to have too much fun without me.

But we disobeyed. A very short while after she left, I invited Tim to go to Symphony Splash with me, where he then invited me to go see “Inception” with him because he really enjoyed the movie, and I had not seen it yet. Little did I know that the movie was our first date, even though I paid for myself.

A few weeks in to our new found relationship, we knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, and were engaged after 6 weeks of dating. That’s how we do it, folks!

Maybe I will have a post about our engagement and our wedding another time.

And for now, here are pretty much the only two good photos we have together of our dating period:

French Beach on Vancouver Island

A perk of my old job – I took Tim on a whale watching tour. Best date ever, and it was free!

And a photo from 8 months later at our wedding. This was a nice surprise to find on our wedding disc from our photographer:

That’s Kate.

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