Five Guys and Punch Buggies

Today was so much better then yesterday. After falling asleep two nights in a row at 6:00pm I finally felt alive at work today. My favorite part of today was when Darren picked me up at work and took me to Five Guys. I was hesitate about such a high calorie stop as I was really full from eating all sorts of snacks at work, but decided I would go check it out and maybe share something with Darren.  Darren was starving of course and didn't like this idea, so he instead suggested I get my own small burger and he would have some of it after he finished eating his. Well long story short... they messed up and gave me the larger burger as well... and surprise surprise... I ate the whole thing.

This is me getting ready to share most of my burger with Darren as it was clearly huge and I was too full for such a thing.


 ........And the day wasn't complete with out temporary new ride...

I laughed pretty hard when I came out of work and saw Darren in this as I had no idea he was picking it up. It even had the classic flower holder near the steering wheel. Looking good Darren!

Calgary Temple

We are so excited that the Calgary, Alberta temple is now complete. I had so much fun touring it with all our family and friends and even having friends lead the tours, before it gets officially dedicated. Over 100,000 people were able to come and see inside what I think is really a peice of heaven on earth, even though it was a tad squishy in there. 

One of my favourite rooms inside the temple was the Celestial Room. It is such a beautiful room which instantly evokes such peaceful feelings when your inside . One of my favourite parts of this room is the massive Swarovski crystal chandelier and a soaring panelled ceiling that "is meant to envision heaven."  

My other favourite room was the sealing room which symbolizes the families eternal nature. There are large mirrors that when you look through appears like the image in the mirror goes on forever. It was so nice to be in there with my family and remember my wedding day again. 

It was so nice that most of my family was able to make it as it seems hard to get us all together lately especially under such fun circumstances. Here is us at the temple, only missing Tessa (too cool to come... just kidding.)

From far left: Britlyn, Alexa, Maria, Joel, Mom, Dad, Me, and Darren

I love my family so much and it was so hard to see them leave but I had a great weekend to remind me what is really most important in life.

Over Easy Breakfast

Over Easy Breakfast 

My family came into town this weekend for the temple open house in Calgary, Alberta. It was so nice to have all of my family here and the temple was so beautiful, I will post photos soon. On Saturday we stopped at our favourite breakfast place Over Easy. I highly recommend you check it out and make sure someone from your party gets there early to save a seat as it is really busy. My favourite is the Original Soul in a Bowl (bottom right) which consists of two poached eggs, herb potatoes, real Quebec cheese curds, slow cooked bacon lardons & brown butter hollandaise.

I had such a nice weekend with my family and I can't wait to post more about the temple.

Darren's Birthday and One Month Married!

October 8th was Darren's birthday! I was so stressed with how I could make sure he had the best birthday ever, as he always tells me he doesn't really like his birthday... how can you not like your birthday? Anyways I tried to make sure he had a whole birthday week so he could retract his statement.

We got a tent for one of our wedding gifts, and I couldn't wait to use it. The Winters were never big campers,  so I felt so cool to finally have a tent of our very own! I asked Darren what his favorite movie, set it all up with our favorite treats and voila!

 Turns out my life filled with very few moments of camping lead to creative improvising to get that tent to stay up.... but it was a success! Nothing like Mulan and an indoor tent... yes he chose Mulan....

 With the help of my mom we tried to make Darren's favorite: German Chocolate Cake

 Happy 22nd Birthday Darren, I love you so much!

Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was so much fun. We flew to Florida then got on a 7 day cruise that took us to four islands: Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico and finishing our vacation with 2 days back in Florida. The cruise was amazing and so was the food. After a long day exploring our stops we loved our dinners. I loved seeing and reading about the chef of the night on the ship and sharing 3 appetizers, entrees, and deserts with Darren figuring out out favorites. We loved our dining waiters Selma from St. Thomas and Bien from the Phillipines and coming back to our rooms to see  the new designs that Jeremy would create with our towels and place on our bed. I will summarize my favorite moments:

1) Going though the Jungle as Darren controlled our bobsled... scary!

2) Driving down the roads of Cozumel on our little moped finding Paradise Beach and eating copious amounts of guacamole.

3) Looking at the menu everynight to see what was for dinner. My favorite was lobster night!

4)Watching Darren in the Flow-Rider competition (he would wake up every morning at 8:00 am to go surf with advance only (lol so intense)

5) Mini Golf in Florida. There is nothing in the world better then mini golf in Florida. Every hole is a dream. And to finish the night off you could feed baby alligators.

The first week of marriage was wonderful, can't wait for many more! 

Wedding Number Two

Just some fun before our Calgary Reception

I must say it was so nice to come home from our cruise and have everyone excited again for another wedding, as well as have my parents here. I also didn't think I would say it, but I loved putting my dress back on. It reminded me of just how special our wedding day was. But I was right, it did not fit and I did enjoy just a little too much food on the cruise. We were all laughing as Darren and my parents had me pinned to our bed, as everyone used all their might to hook me back in.... luckily somehow they hooked! 

Wedding Preview

The Gardner girls: Kristy (photographer) and Holly (right) 

We had such a wonderful day on September 14th. The day was everything I thought it would be and more. Can't wait till all of the pictures come back to do a full post. We just got back from our honeymoon late last night and now... time to get back in that wedding dress for wedding #2 tonight. After everything I ate on the cruise and  even yesterday alone at the airport... (Auntie Anne's gets the best of me every time....) I will be shocked to see if that dress zips up.