Hey Everyone,
Please use this post as forum to centralize our comments. You might have questions about gear or site bookings — you may want to book in beside someone you know. You might be looking to car pool, or other chit chat. This is an open forum so anyone one can respond to any comment. Let the discussion begin!
S & S
Family Day Weekend seemed to me the perfect time to ask Suzanne if she would choose to build a future with me, if she would marry me. I found the perfect (and original-looking) diamond studs to commemorate the moment, set our dinner at the kitchen bar, and prepared an ordinary (and yummy) meal to welcome my girl home. It was important to me that this moment be a part of any ol’ day that would be like all the other days of our future together — simple, at home and with the “sparkle” of our love.
It was also important to me that I beat Suzanne to the punch. I’ve been blessed in life and I know I have been extremely lucky as great things seem just to happen to me — from the incredible family into which I was born to the amazing friends whose paths mine fortunately has crossed, and even to the exciting jobs into which I have fallen. I wanted to act deliberately this time. I knew right away that Suzanne is a special person and I soon saw that we make an exceptional team. I also realized that I had never felt so excited and optimistic about the future. (And, I’ll save the rest for the vows….) I knew that I wanted to be smart about this. I wanted to secure our future. And, happily, she said yes.
The easy part was knowing that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. The hard part — we soon realized — was going to be figuring out how we would choose to celebrate our commitment to each other.
A Slight Change of Plans
We have decided with so much on the go, especially the impending arrival of Willow and Theo, we should push our wedding back…soooo, we have decided to give ourselves a bit more time, and we’re getting married on September 15th, two weeks later!
Okay, the truth is that someone has scooped from under us the sites we needed. Let’s just say that we thought we knew about Ontario Parks politicking, but now we truly are in the know about the scheming tactical maneuvering that happens to ensure one’s favourite sites.
Please re-RSVP to let us know if you will still be able to join us on September 15th. We plan on arriving a few days earlier and so, if you would still like to make a long weekend of it, please feel free to take a little extra time off work.
Original Message
We are going to celebrate our love at one of our favourite spots in Ontario on Joeperry Lake in Bon Echo Provincial Park, and we would like you to join us.
More details will follow with the actual invitation, but we wanted to get the word out before all of your calendars started to fill up.
Yes, this means a destination wedding…camping! For some of you, camping is a very scary word while for others we know there is no place you’d rather be.
Joeperry Lake is situated 1 km inside the park and has an island in the middle with a number of sites, including a beautiful spot facing west where we will exchange our vows. The perimeter of the lake has additional sites. All of these sites are accessed by a short canoe paddle, some are as close as 15 mins. Other options include car camping in the main park and, for those of you who are less adventurous outdoors, alternative accommodations are available, including a limited number of cottages at Marble Lake and a few rooms at the Pine Grove Motel, each approximately 10km down the road. More details will follow for non-camping options.
Sara and Suzanne
Taking care of two babies only ever feels like taking care of one when one of them decides to sleep for six hours straight. The other day, Theo crashed for a lengthy nap. Perhaps he’s growing, or perhaps he underslept the day before. Maybe his last time at the breast was a poor feed. But, now at two and a half months, I no longer cared why he was sleeping through a feeding, but I was simply overjoyed at the luxury of time his siesta offered us. Suddenly our afternoon opened up in front of us. Diaper changes and feedings were done without the accompaniment of impatient cries demanding that it be “my turn!” While we’ve been blessed with “easy” twins, it was only once the bigger of our two learned to sleep for lengthy sessions that we realized how much more work twins are to a singleton.
We feel we’re pretty good at this twin baby-raising thing. They’re tandem fed. At night, Suzanne changes one while the other gets a top-up. Then, we trade off. During the day, we sneak in household chores (sometimes) and even the occasional workout. We usually remember their vitamin D drops. They do their tummy time, and we celebrate their every new facial expression with another dozen photographs. We don’t race to their every whimper nor do we let them cry too long. We feel that they seem like secure and satisfied babies. We feel pretty well adjusted. And, we’re absolutely exhausted.
The exhaustion has settled in so insidiously that it has become a part of the house like the window in the sitting room or the portrait of Great Grandma Gunter in the stairwell that has the slightest covering of dust on the top of the frame. We don’t notice it everyday. In fact, we seldom acknowledge it at all. But, every once in a while…
