poplar road

Many of you have seen these already on Richard's Facebook page, but for those who haven't, here are our wedding ceremony photos and an account - more for my memory than anything - of our big day.

After we spent all of 15 minutes obtaining our marriage license Sunday morning (the web applicants' express lane), we did some shopping, came back to the hotel, and I changed into the teal blue sundress I bought for our Mexico trip in February. By 1:00 we were outside awaiting our "limousine". Larry and Richard had been making jokes all morning about Elvis-themed chapels and blue suits... but Richard did say "think like me", and I should have known, especially when he said the limousine we were waiting for was red. But no, I was surprised yet again as I saw two red Jeeps drive by and turning to Richard with a punch on the shoulder said, "those are for us, aren't they!" Of course.

Getting in and out in a short dress and heels was a bit challenging, but the drive to Logandale was quick and the off-road trail was more road than rock. The pastors, Bill and Anita (!) had never been off-road before, and we were a bit worried as they joined our guides, Tim and Quinann from Las Vegas Rockcrawlers, in the smaller lead Jeep, but they loved it. I saw a real live roadrunner as we hit the trail, and some very large cacti, but most of the route was dusty and brown until we came around a corner into the Valley of Fire. Suddenly it was all red rock, just like Moab, but a lot easier to get to for a wedding.

Debbie handed me a beautiful bouquet, another detail Richard arranged from afar with Quinann. Richard and Larry found the right (flat) spot - what a view - and Larry set up a video camera while Richard backed up our Jeep so he could use the CD player to start us off with a song.

After the ceremony, we danced to Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do, I Do It For You", which was so perfectly appropriate, and wonderful. And then a toast, again arranged by Quinann, complete with strawberries instead of a cake, and sparkling apple juice instead of champagne. We fed each other strawberries, posed for photos (by Larry and Tim), and then the sun began to set and it was time to go - we had one more Cirque du Soleil show to catch, and early to bed for a morning flight home.

Picking up the long weekend wedding story where I left off yesterday, we jumped in the car at 8:30 Saturday morning - a half hour behind schedule - and headed down to the border.

I tried to snooze but I was far too excited, and going crazy because Richard was texting the whole way. I got peeved at him so Richard fed me a story about texting because it was his co-worker Andrew on work stuff, and he didn't want to talk to him. As we reached the end of the Coquihalla, Andrew phoned twice (or so it seemed) and Richard was very abrupt and angry with him. On Monday night, he confessed that it wasn't Andrew who was texting, it was everybody coming to the surprise birthday party, and he didn't want them to know we were en route somewhere, or me to know they were calling. So poor Andrew got lambasted and Richard finally had to text him, ask him to call to support the ruse, and apologize in advance for being rude. It worked, I was completely oblivious to the fact that the first caller was Chris asking party prep questions, and not Andrew about work. Richard is FAR too good at pulling the wool over my eyes!

Now that I've mostly recovered from the shock - LOL - of Richard's series of surprises for my birthday weekend, I thought I would share with you how our trip to Las Vegas started: with flashcards.

After spending Friday evening with my girlfriends Cynthia and Saskia in Kamloops to celebrate my birthday, to end a very busy and nearly sleepless week, I was really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. When Richard turned on the lights I knew it was still dark out, and I was NOT happy. Apparently he's never seen me pull a pillow over my head quite so forcefully.

He ignored "go away!" and said he needed to show me something. I saw the time on the card in front of my face and told him it was probably -4 and my gardening tasks for the day weren't going to start until it warmed up, a lot. Coherent, good sign. Then he showed me the next few cards and I started to wake up - and freak out. He was so calm, and enjoying his surprise far, far too much. Evil man. When he showed me the plane, I finally realized something special was happening. What a way to start a birthday long weekend.