#Wedding daze

We had a wedding in the family the other week.

In fact it was The Son and Heir who got hitched.

It was a wonderful way to start the year with a wonderful family celebration.

Some background,

the couple in question met in high school, but did not get together "officially" until at Schoolies, and have been together ever since, apart from a mutual break when the bride went overseas for her final semester of uni.

The engagement took place news year eve 2011 while we were in New York on holidays so for the past year our whole family has been working towards "The Wedding Day".

I got all carried away in the moment and new media etc etc , (as you do) and started the twitter hashtag #blakewedding and posted little pictures and stuff on it, my goal was to get it trending on twitter, (not sure it made it very high on the list, but I could search for it and find it, so in my mind mission accomplished)

So I am going to try and cheat with this blog post and just copy and paste all my twitter posts for the day, so hold on and see how we go......

  

Phew it took a bit of work but I did it! (insert congratulatory pause here)

the best way to read them is actullay from the end up. That is the order in which they were originally tweeted.

 

	Katie Blake @kt2576	13 Jan
	Last minute change of venue #damn rain! #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	13 Jan
	Waiting for the bride #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	13 Jan
	Oh no rain, hope it clears by 4. #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	13 Jan
	Grooms mommy & daddy on way to the wedding #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	12 Jan
	Hairdo from the back #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	12 Jan
	Hairdresser time #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	12 Jan
	My son the groom with his mommy! #blakewedding

	Katie Blake @kt2576	11 Jan
	Working on the button hole flowers #blakewedding

So that's another one wed off, only 2 more to go! :-)

here a a couple of other pics I didn't tweet.

The bride's Father handing her over !

Take 2, the ceremony moved mid-stream and we started again.

The Grooms Car, it just seemed the right thing to do, note the sunshine, taken the next day, and please note:
Not a hair out of place on Ken!

Paddle your own canoe

I'm on a bit of a high at present, not due to the amount of Christmas season beverages consumed here, but from a little trip we did the other day. The significant other and son and heir joined me on a kayaking safari with an overnight camp stay. Now you know that I am now a big fan of the 5 million stars rather than the more mundane 5 star hotel so this was a trip I was really looking forward to.

We have been thinking about buying our own kayaks for a little while now and thought this was a good chance to "try before we buy" to see if it suited us, and the verdict is.....

checking out the size of the hatches for our gear

I'm all for it, in fact as soon as we got back I was on the net looking for kayaks for sale and checking out other potential kayaking and camping venues, I think I can confidently say I'm hooked!

GG herself having a swim at our camp-spot

 We rented our kayaks from Kangaroo Valley Canoes who are located in,  funny enough,  Kangaroo Valley,  the service was great. You leave your car there on their property and the bus takes you to your departure point. We did the Bendeela to Tallowa Dam after advice that our first choice the Shoalhaven Gorge would be very crowded, so we took the advice and saved the Gorge for another visit.

We were not disappointed, we saw Kangaroos, Wombats, Possums and even a large goanna who was care-taking our camp site. The National Park people have even put in pit toilets so that you don't have to "rough" it too much.

son and heir showing off his fire lighting skills

getting the fire set, note our tents in the background

the view along the way, nothing except the birds and you on the kayak

"Shall I pitch the tent here?"

we went about half way and then pitched out tents and set up home for the night. We had a lovely campfire and cooked our steaks on it. Bedtime was early as we were all pretty tired.  A few nocturnal visitors woke us up during the night, but that is par for the course when you are camping in a national park.

The next day after breakfast we continued, going to a spooky area which had been flooded for the Shoalhaven Dam scheme in the 1970's and all the trees are poking up from the water, quite eerie.

We arrived at our pickup point ahead of schedule and felt very pleased with ourselves ( especially me) that we did the trip.

Next time I want to do the Shoalhaven Gorge, maybe Australia Day, what do you think?

Starting how you mean to finish

Have you made your news years resolutions? I have, usually I don't share them ( so that no one can scold me when I don't live up to them) but I have heard that you are more likely to be successful if you hold yourself accountable by telling someone, so I am handing this grave responsibility over to you, dear readers to hold me to count if I don't keep my resolutions.

insert drum roll here...

so here they are:

One for the Mind:

Blog at least once a week, I need to be more disciplined in this matter, and hopefully I will make time to blog more than once a week, but this is now going to be my absolute minimum.

One for the Physical:

I am going to enter the City to Surf in August, not as a runner that would be too much but to walk it, I think that is a very achievable goal, so hopefully some you may even be there to wave me as I cross the finish line ( hope you have plenty of time to wait! :-)  )

http://www.city2surf.com.au

One for Personal Improvement:

I will not put things down I will put them away, straight away. This one has been a recurring theme over the years, and I think I have improved quite a bit on what I used to be like, but there is always the opportunity to be better, so in the interests of tidy house and tidy mind I aim to put things away in the proper place each time.

Pack away the camping gear

Put washing away as soon as it comes off the line

My dressing table, needs a little bit of organisation!

Ok, I'll start right now, see you all later.