5 Years: An Anniversary Post

It's amazing how 5 years can feel like forever and an instant all at once.  It's amazing how when you feel like you can't love someone any more than you already do, but you find yourself more in love every year.  No one told me marriage would be this wonderful.  It was supposed to be a challenge.  It was supposed to be hard.  Very rarely it is, and the first couple years were a huge learning curve, but for the most part it's absolutely wonderful and I can't imagine my life without Nick.

We've done a lot in 5 years.  We've lived in three places.  600 square feet with a crazy landlord and the massive "L-shaped" desk Nick just had to have above all else!  417 square feet underneath rambunctious children.  And now our actual purchased home.  Oh, the photographer in me is going to be dying over the quality of 70% of the images in today's post.  Please know that we didn't own a real camera for the first 2/3rds of our marriage, lol!

We've changed careers 4 times between the two of us.  We've bought our first car, our first home, our first fridge.  (Sorry, but buying and owning appliances was really weird for us.  For the first 6 months of owning our place, we would walk into the kitchen, point at a random appliance, and say, "That's actually ours!").  We've been so poor that we've literally lived on beans, and recycled cans from my office's garbage for the extra spending money.  And we've been so well off that we've been able to invest a lot of money into gear, travel, and starting our own company.  We've been to San Diego once and Mexico twice.  We've even gone on an almost month-long road trip all across North America.  And we've been through way too many fish.  (I apparently suck at taking care of living things).

Nick, you introduced me to a lot of firsts:  First time renting a camp ground and pitching a tent.  First time picking out a live Christmas tree.  (Thank goodness our strata bylaws put a stop to that nonsense!  Haha).  You also took me on my first roller coaster (and subsequently probably my last!).  You introduced me to berry picking.  You even convinced me to like Nutella somewhat, and I think I've managed to give you at least an appreciation for Clamato juice ;).  We went on our first road trip with no destination together (other than driving sea to sea!).  I even played my first Euro-game with you the day we met, and many more since then :).  At least I can say that Disney Land on our honeymoon was YOUR first and not mine.

We've grown in who we are as people.  We've found a church home and joined in a number of ministries.  We've learned to trust God in huge ways.  God, we don't have any money for groceries this month.  God, we think You're calling us to quit our jobs and start over from scratch.  We've learned to hear Him more and better.  I'm even learning to trust Him which is a huge step from 5 years ago when I trusted no one at all.

This post was actually harder than I thought to write because my heart feels like it's just bursting with love and memories for this man I'm married to.  I feel like I'm the most blessed girl on earth to have been given him.  Nick Froese, I love you.  I love who you are and who you are becoming.  I don't love the fact that you still don't wipe the counters down when you're done in the kitchen, but hey, we're only 5 years in.  We'll keep working on that ;).

Here's hoping for another 50 years with you by my side and more memories and adventures than I can count!

Family Weekend

This Friday my dad came down from the interior for a visit.  It was a very quick trip, with him arriving Friday after work and leaving Sunday morning.  We went and grabbed some groceries, came home, put some pizza/wings in the oven, and played a couple rounds of Ticket to Ride.  After staying up chatting for a bit, he headed to bed and Nick and I watched the newly released episode of Parenthood.  Now that it's the Fall, we need to juggle all our regular Netflix shows with our favourites coming back for the new season.

Saturday morning came super early for me at 6am, though Nick got to sleep in for a bit as his wedding started later in the day.  My dad and I, however, headed off to the gun range for him to compete.  He used to be the national champion in trap shooting over 30 years ago, and is just picking it up again now.  While he registered for the day, I wandered outside to take some pictures of the dewy morning spider webs.  Unfortunately, I guess it looked like I was doing "nothing" as I was timidly approached by some of the girls working the range and asked if I could help out for the day since someone called in sick.  They showed me how to load the machines that fired out the clay targets, and I kept an eye on them throughout the day, reloading after every couple rounds in the various events.  I did, however, negotiate a free lunch and drink out of the deal ;)

After my dad did extremely well, in my opinion, we headed home for the evening, picking up a few new fish on the way - yes, more fish.  I am obviously a terrible fish owner as they keep dying / jumping out of the tank.   Later, I edited some photos while my dad napped, and then we spent the night reading and blogging on the couch together.  I wished him goodnight, and headed to bed around 11pm.  Nick didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning today, unfortunately, but Nick and I are relaxing for the remainder of today and spending some time together before the beginning of the new week :)

Aquarium, Sea Wall, and Fireworks (Canada Day)

Yesterday, Nick and I decided to play tourist in our own city.  He has lived here for 7 years and I have lived here for 5, and yet we have never done much that is truly “Vancouver”.  We were either always too broke or too busy.  This year has been a year of finding a balance, though.  It’s been a year of saying no to good things to say yes to better things.  Some of those better things are planned Summer dates with each other.  (Planned because life is still crazy busy, and also planned because we want to be deliberate about going out and DOING things rather than just collapsing in front of our screens during our downtime).

Yesterday it was a glorious 25-30 degrees Celsius out.  For this interior-raised girl, it never truly feels like Summer until you hit at least 30.  We packed up a picnic and grabbed the camera bag, heading down into the city around 2pm.  We realized about half way there that I had to look at some locations for a shoot next week, and all our gas and parking instantly became a business write-off.  We used my hospital employee pass to secure $8 parking for the day, and pulled our bikes out of the car where we had systematically squeezed them in.  (And yes, I immensely enjoyed using a discount from one job as a write-off for a second job).  

We biked through the city streets and over to Stanley Park where our first stop was the aquarium.  We’ve never been as the $34 per head puts it way out of our usual price range for activities.  But we were told it was awesome by numerous people, and when I found out there were dolphins, it sealed the deal.  And it was worth it.  Every cent.  We spent a good 3 hours there and still didn’t see everything!  I think I chewed through 1/3rd of my camera battery in that time.  It was really hard to narrow it down to some of my favourites, but here's my attempt at giving you a glimpse of all the cool sights there:

Next up on our agenda was an evening bike around the seawall.  We’re not sure how many hours it takes to go all the way around as we were took our time, scouted for photography locations, and stopped to enjoy a picnic half way:

As the sun started to set, we decided to head over to the far side of the park and complete our circuit.  Stopping for smoothies along the way, we eventually plunked ourselves down on a grassy hill and settled in to wait the couple hours until dark.  We didn’t bring a tripod, but we stacked the bikes on top of each other and wrapped the gorilla pod around the handle bars and that sufficed just fine.  The last time I attempted to photograph fireworks (two years ago - wow time flies), I think I made Nick a little crazy spending more time fiddling with my settings than enjoying the show with him.  This time I was smart.  I researched my settings ahead of time, got it right on the first try, and operated the camera on Bulb mode with my remote so I could fire the shots without even looking and thus also be in the moment with Husband :)

The show finished up just before 11pm, and we got on our bikes for the 20-minute ride back to our car - uphill.  I think we got more exercise yesterday than we have all year combined!  We found our bed shortly before 1am, and were rudely awakened by the 6:20 alarm a few short hours later, but it was all worth it :)

Photography 365 Project: (Days 168 - 173 with a LOT of extras!)

Tuesday, June 17th, I may have set a record for how late we ate dinner.  Actually, scratch that.  (We ate dinner at 11:00pm last night).  Ironically, part of the reason for the delay was because I was working on this photograph.  I didn't want to control my camera from my phone.  That would be too easy.  (Actually, I just forgot I could).  I also certainly wouldn't want to pull out the tripod when I could create a precarious tower of books and magazines on top of my piano bench in the hallway to perch my camera on.  Selfies are hard work!  

Wednesday was my last Wednesday teaching night until September.  Most of my students go through the Summer in some capacity, but none of my Wednesday kids do :).  Nick picked me up when I was finished, and we came home to make dinner and snuggle on the couch watching t.v.  It was probably my most relaxing evening all week.  Not the most fun (that comes later), but the most relaxing for sure.

Thursday was my birthday.  29.  I have one more year until I hit my mid-life crisis.  (I have been dreading 30 ever since I turned 25.)  I had a grown-up birthday.  A grown-up birthday is where, even though it's your birthday, you have to get up early and go to work.  But, it was still awesome.  My husband gave me $20 to buy lunch instead of eating the snacks in my bag.  He also gave me the remainder of his Starbucks card to get a soy latte - a vast improvement to my regular, home-brewed, cheap coffee in a travel mug with almond milk.  (Almond milk in coffee is gross, btw.)  I further got to start the morning with a great conversation with a colleague about faith that was really encouraging to me.  And I even let myself wear jeans (though technically I'm not supposed to if it's not Friday).  1.  Because it was my birthday.  2.  Because I got burger grease on my work pants the night before.  

When I got home that evening, I only had one student to teach since the other asked to move her lesson due to a work conflict this week.  I was done teaching by 6:30pm, just in time for Nick to come home and pick me up.  We went out and made it to the camera store with 20 minutes to spare before they closed.  This was good because it took me that long to pick out my present.  My current camera bag BARELY fits my camera in, and now I have one that fits not only my camera, but a spare lens as well.  He also bought me a soft lens case to hang on a belt for when I'm shooting weddings.  I got really tired of running back and forth at the last wedding I did and have now decided I'm shooting with a belt.  (He also gave me his belt - he just doesn't know it yet).  

As a side note, I didn't mean to become a wedding photographer.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I said I would never be one.  However, I shot my first wedding a few weeks ago, and now I somehow have between 10 and 13 on the radar for the remainder of the year - mostly through friends and a couple companies offering me to either intern or shoot with them.  I've only booked one completely on my own.  However, I have an inkling that I may be opening a whole new horizon after this Summer, and I'm excited about it!

Anyway, back to my birthday.  Afterwards, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some steaks for dinner, and I grabbed a new pair of earrings because I lost my old ones.  Yes, I just have one pair.  No, I don't want the responsibility of having to switch them out.  One is good.

Friday night, after work, we headed over to see our friends' new place and they were so awesome!  They had a little birthday dinner for me with my favourite snacks.  They even bought me my own little tub of lactose-free ice cream for after dinner.  I felt so loved.  This birthday was a hard one for me due to personal reasons, so I really felt extra loved by all the Facebook wishes and gestures from friends and family throughout this week.

And the truly awesome part?  SPARKLERS!!  I love sparklers.  They bought an entire pack, and we ran out with our cameras into the yard later that night and had a blast.  Photos I'm in, curtesy of Nick :)

Saturday was sleep deprivation make-up day.  I slept til noon, and Nick brought me breakfast in bed.  We cuddled, watched t.v., and then I took a nap (of course!).  I woke up around 6pm (don't judge - you have no idea how little sleep I operate on all week long), and we got ready to head out to our movie reservation.  We watched Edge of Tomorrow and shared a coke and some candy.  

We saw that it was truly a gorgeous sunset as we left the theatre, but had no good view of it with all the buildings.  We chased it 20 minutes down the road to the beach, but didn't quite catch it.  After grabbing a quick silhouette of Nick, we head off to the grocery store and had a delicious, but super late, dinner with our spoils :)

Sunday was errand day.  Returning some stuff at the Mall.  Costco (to finish our proper shop from the night before).  Taking our bikes to get repaired.  Being told they were beyond repair and that it would be cheaper for us to get new ones.  Going to Canadian Tire and spending $260 on new bikes (Mine was only $99!). 

By 4pm, we were ready to take out our bikes and explore a local park we'ld never been to.  (We're trying to "get out" more this year, and stop being bums all the time).  Before I got all sweaty, I asked Nick to quickly grab my "annual birthday photo".  For my entire life, my mother took me to have my photo done ON my birthday.  Every year.  Tradition.  After I got married, I continued the tradition, but have been a little bit lax about the "on my birthday" rule.  I usually get it done within the month.  I liked the black and white one, but it was a bit soft.  Thus, here are the candidates I sent off to my parents (minus the black and white) to choose from.  They pick, I print.  I hate the process, but love the idea of watching the age progression, and we're 29 years in, so I continue!  I spent about an hour culling out all the ones I looked truly annoyed in.  

We had a great Sunday afternoon biking around and learning how out-of-shape we are!  Nick humoured me as I instructed him to step in various pockets of light to play with the rim lighting and laid in the dirt to shoot buttercups.  We chased geese around.  We realized we should have brought water bottles.  We went home and relaxed.  It was the perfect end to the last two-day weekend we'll enjoy together until mid-October.  Wedding season begins.  Nick's booked solid, and I suppose I can't really point the finger just at him this year, since I seem to be getting in on the action as well now.  We'll sleep when we're dead, right?  

Five-Hour Holidays

Thursday evening felt a lot like a mini holiday.  After work, I walked down to my in-laws' hotel room, since the conference they were in town for had put them up relatively close to my office.  I grabbed a few shots from their awesome 23rd-floor room, and then we headed off to dinner on a sunny ocean patio.  I discovered a beautiful corner of our city that I didn't even know existed!  I always need people to come in from out of town so that I can appreciate my own city, haha.  After we finished dinner, we took a slow, leisurely walk back along the docks.

We meandered back to the hotel room enjoying the scenic route, and then crashed for a bit while waiting for Nick to wrap on his shoot.  We agreed to meet him at a local gelato place that has 218 different flavours.  Some of them are really... interesting.... We grabbed our treats, and the four of us headed back out into the sunshine to sit and chat for a couple hours.  

We said our goodbyes and goodnights and were home before 10pm, which was good because as much as it felt like a holiday, the next morning came bright and early :)

Baptisms, Beaches, and BBQs

Yesterday was a day filled with family.  Nick's parents were in town for a conference and his Grandparents had driven up from the interior to be there for the cousins' baptisms.  We arrived at the lake around 3pm, just in time to listen to 14 young people (between the ages of 13 and 22) give their testimonies.  Our cousin Sasha, who does a lot of public speaking, had us all in stitches and Nick's dad (immediately to the right of Sasha in the white shirt) and Nick's grandpa (immediately to the left of Sasha in plaid) prayed for him:

Next up was his older brother, Eli, whose mom (tucked in the back) and Grandma prayed for him:

After a couple hours of listening to all the young people's stories (and getting a little choked up on more than one occasion), we headed back to the icy cold water where the boys' dad baptized them:

Afterwards, we stole the boys away for a couple hours for a family BBQ dinner and birthday celebration for Sasha.  

Pretty soon, they'll be too big for you, Nick....

No, Grandma, you're not in my way.  You're exactly where I want you to be :)

Mother and son....

Right before we left, Nick pointed up into the tree behind me where this massive bird was perched.  I complained a LOT about only having an 85mm.  I even got Nick to come over so I could climb up on his shoulders to try and get a few feet closer.  This shows how far I will go for a shot.  I am TERRIFIED of sitting on someone's shoulder's, but I barely gave it a thought with that bird up there.  Needless to say, it didn't help much.  

In the end, I just ended up zooming in almost 100% when editing and it worked alright for this shot since my settings were decent enough to keep him from getting too fuzzy or grainy.

Do you see the attitude that bird is giving us?  We threw all sorts of food at it, trying to get it to budge.  When no one was looking, Grandpa pulled out a sling shot and fired at the branch to try and jiggle it loose.  (He's a shockingly good shot, and no we didn't hit the bird).  Finally he hit the branch soundly enough to get the bird's attention, but then it just flew away :(

As the sun disappeared, we headed back to Nick's Aunt and Uncle's place for chai teas and board games.  Well, some played, some napped, and some edited photos ;)

Sun, Summer Days, and Sisters

My husband came into downtown today to meet me for a late lunch and then work at a coffee shop for a couple hours until I was done at the office.  When 4pm rolled around, we headed off to meet up with his sister, Stevie, who is in town for a conference and hit the beach.  Sadly, we realized that we had not been to the beach in TWO YEARS.  Man, we need to get a life....  Like that's seriously pathetic considering we work right by it!  

We hung out with each other and these rather large geese that would not MOVE.  He let me walk right up to him, sit in front of him, and take his photo....

Nick and Stevie played in the freezing cold waves, soaking their pant legs, while I took pictures and sat in the sand.  (I'm the less fun one).  Here Stevie is giving Nick lessons on how to curtsey.

Skipping shells (because they work better than rocks):

Nick's family is from the prairies so they get REALLY excited to be near the ocean.  I didn't even tell her to pose here.  She's just loving it THAT much, lol.

As we got hungry we headed over to this new poutine place that Nick found when he was working a wedding last weekend and it was delicious.  Totally worth ignoring my dairy allergy for!

It had huge windows that opened right onto the busy street that you could sit by:

We had about an hour left after dinner before we had to head our separate ways, so we strolled back to the beach to catch the last of the sun.

And then I decided that I should master shooting in backlighting conditions.  I thought I would be awesome at this.  I was wrong.  Stevie and Nick were very accommodating in ignoring me while I practiced on them.

Well... for the most part ;)