Behold, Our Masterpiece

Trials have been ongoing since October...

Progress has been logged and photographed by yours truly...

Last Saturday, our masterpiece came to fruition in a smooth and timely manner.

BEHOLD! The tower of cupcakes! The crowning glory, the WEDDING CAKE!

Jasmine and Joel tied the knot in a simple and elegant ceremony at the Stewart Creek Golf Course in Canmore. The weather was surprisingly fantastic for an April weekend, and it was sunny and warm.

If you find yourself wondering, "How long does it take to make 67 cupcakes and a wedding cake?" The answer is 8.5 hours. 6.5 hours to make the cake and cupcakes (with a lasagna making break), and another 2 hours to make and pipe icing. Jill, Mallary and I made the cupcakes the day before, and the icing the day of-- in Joel and Jasmine's hotel suite! I think the cleaning staff was a little unsure what to think when we rolled into their room with 12 bags of supplies, Tupperware, mixing bowls and a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

The cupcakes were vanilla cake with a combination of vanilla bean and chocolate buttercream frosting. We used white chocolate and milk chocolate Bernard Callebaut shavings for garnish.

Mallary found the design for the cake decoration at I Heart Baking.com. I located the love bird wedding cake toppers in a posting on Etsy.com. I'm so happy with the results!

I think I can speak for all of us when I say I was honoured to have a role in Jasmine and Joel's wedding. 

Congratulation, you two!

Experiments and Experience

Friday was the 50th Annual Calgary Youth Science Fair. Weeks ago, Tom and I volunteered to be judges for the grade 5 and 6 students' projects. It was our first time judging, and we were not sure what to expect. I never went to the science fair when I was in elementary school, although Tom did!

I was blown away by my experience. I wasn't expecting the kids to be so eager and keen to share their work and knowledge. I judged five different projects on a wide range of subjects. Three were experimental projects on sleep, tennis ball performance and reaction time, and two were non-experimental research projects on tornadoes and the solar system. Each student or partner duo had a different style of presentation, and the time slipped away quickly as they rattled off facts and findings from their projects.

People milling around the Olympic Oval.

My favorite project was by a grade 6 student. His project tested how various products helped kids fall asleep. He tested the old wives tale of warm milk, sleep aid music and calming epsom salts. This little boy was overflowing with personality, when he declared, "I think the people who make this sleep aid music would go out of business if the results of my research was ever made public. Sleep music SUCKS! It keeps you awake." His hypothesis was that none of the sleep aids would help you fall asleep, but he was surprised to find that he, and all his test subjects fell asleep quickly when they consumed a warm glass of milk.

I was impressed by everything I saw, and how well the science fair was run. I'm sure I will be a return judge in the years to come.

Tom's mom dug up this old document from Tom's experience in 1995. I hope the kids we judged this year will hold on to their reviews for just as long.

Interestingly enough, all the things the judges had to say about Tom in 1995 are still applicable today! And he DID become a great scientist. Tom says he only vaguely remembers his science fair. He mostly remembers going to McDonald's after it was over...

The Fam

Two weeks ago, Tom's family and I braved the cold for a photo session with Heath O'Fee Photography. This was a birthday present for Tom's mom, who is always on the hunt for a good family portrait-- not an easy thing to come by!

Working with Heath was a lot of fun. He's a laid-back kind of guy, but gave us clear and concise directions. We spent only an hour with him, but got many, many shots. I'd highly recommend him! That's Heath O'Fee, everyone. HEATH O'FEE!

My only suggestion is to choose a warmer weekend! Brrr! It was chilly!

Here are some of my favourites from the session.

Full family.

Barb and Dave.

Tom and Andrew.

Parents and sons.

Can you see the goosebumps from there?

Tom tangoing me in the face with grass.

I love the drama in Andy's eyes...

Team Hikers.

Me and my man.

Red jacket -- Public Enemy #1.

We figured we'd use this for our CD cover when we become a travelling folk band.

If you like what you see, remember-- Heath O'Fee!

Brother-in-Law Birthday

My brother-in-law, Andrew, is turning 27 years old today. I'd like to say he's getting really really old, but he's actually younger than me...

Tom and I stopped by his parents' house on the weekend, and Tom saw this picture hanging on the fridge. Of course, he had to put in his two cents, and he left a post-it comment for his parents.

"Andrew has really progressed as an artist."

Andrew... I'm not really sure if you've progressed as an artist. I mean, maybe it was a neighbourhood child who actually drew that picture, but I think it looks very similar to something you would produce.

Exhibit A: Cake monstrosity of 2010, by Andrew.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

That's How We Roll

Last weekend I received tickets to the Sunday evening Flames game. I had received tickets for the same seats last year, so I knew they were really, really good. Section 120, Row 1, Seats 1 and 2. Basically, we were ice-side next to the blue line.

I invited my dad to join me for the game, but I didn't tell him how good the tickets were! When we finally found our way to our seats, we were both very excited. You feel so important sitting next to the ice! And you can actually see the faces of the players and hear them yelling at each other.

Players standing for the national anthems.

We got some pizza and some malt icecream, and sat back to enjoy the game.

Flames vs. Blue Jackets

Of course, there were many occasions where this mountain-of-a-man referee was standing directly in our line of sight. This guy was HUGE. We had a flyer that had the stats of all the Flames on it. Most of the players are six feet tall or more, but this ref had at least a head worth of height on all the players. I swear, he was seven feet tall!

Gigantic ref.

If you're wondering... The Flames lost the game. They were out-playing and out-shooting the Blue Jackets, but they just couldn't get the puck in the net. The game ended up going into overtime, and then a shoot-out. The final score was 2:1 for Columbus.

Me and my dad.

Regardless, good times were had by all!

Take 2

On our first visit to Maui we hit most of the major tourist attractions, so we hit some of the slightly less popular sights on our second take of the island.

On one particularly overcast and rainy day, we drove into the western half of the island to take a look at the Ioa Valley State Park, featuring the 1200ft Ioa Needle. This basaltic feature served as a look-out point in a 1790 battle that changed the course of Hawaiian history. The park featured paved paths, and a winding garden. There were also warning signs all over the park telling you to stay on the path because flash floods could occur at any time!

Ioa Valley "Needle."

On another overcast day we decided we would (again) try to track down the entrance to the Waihee Ridge Trail. Tom and I had tried on two occasions to find this trailhead, but were unable to locate it with google maps. On a third try, we found it, and hiked it! The trail was about 7km round trip, and featured forest, sweeping views of the island, and lush vegetation. We saw some unidentified fruits on the path, and also some fresh guava!

Waihee Ridge Trailhead.

Waihee Ridge forest.

Waihee Ridge view of the island.

One evening, we decided to check out Big Beach before we made ourselves dinner. We spent about an hour enjoying the setting sun. In particular, we watched the clouds moving over the island of (what I think is) Kahoolawe-- but it could also be the island of Lanai.

Tom also noticed a pod of whales passing through the area. If you watched the horizon closely, you could see spurts of water shooting up into the air from blow holes. And every once in a while, one of the whales would flip it's tale out of the water. In the photo below, you can see a blow-hole blast, and a tiny bit of fin.

Whale watching from Big Beach.

On our last day in Maui it was overcast, rainy and windy. We had planned to spend one last day at the beach, but the water was choppy. Instead, we drove to Kealia Pond, a bird and wildlife refuge outside of Kihei. I guess the birds weren't too keen on the weather, because we didn't see much wildlife.

Black Necked Stilts.

We spent the afternoon on Polo beach. Tom decided to take one last stab at snorkeling, but I decided to stay on the beach. While he snorkeled, I got sand blasted by the wind while watching a family of four repeatedly chase their runaway inner tube as it was blown down the beach.

And now it's back to reality. My only consolation is that the weather at home is supposed to be fairly nice this week-- but it doesn't beat Hawaii!

Sun, Rain and Maui

This is the third tropical vacation that Tom and I have taken together; Maui in 2010 and Tahiti in 2010. On both vacations, Tom ended up with a wicked sunburn. If you know Tom, it's not a shock-- he is practically transluscent! We actually DISCUSSED the previous sunburns before we left. We talked about how this time around, we were going to be even MORE diligent about sunscreen. This was not going to happen again. There was going to be absolutely NO sunburn. Which is why this time we thought we had everything under control. We reapplied as soon as he got out of the water.

Fast forward to three hours later...

Clearly SPF 30 just isn't good enough for Tom. I think we're going to have to invest in something a little strong.

During our last visit to Maui, we drove the road to Hana, which is an eastern route on the island. This time we drove western route through Ka'anapali. The road, if you can believe it, was more windy, sketchy and nauseating. Or maybe it just felt that way because I didn't take any queasiness medication. However, the windy section of the road was considerably shorter than the road to Hana, and there were just as many beautiful sights to see. The main highlight was a section off the highway of large igneous structures that are constantly being battered by the ocean.

Our snorkeling has been quite successful so far! In addition to the bajillion brightly coloured fish, I have seen two turtles, an eel and a small octopus. The water is a lot colder than I remember, and I ended up investing in surf shirt. I'm not sure if it was really that effective-- my lips still turned blue!

The last couple of days, the weather has turned on us. It poured for a good two hours in the afternoon, and it was actually a bit cold! There have been flash flood warnings on Oahu and Kauai, and recently some for Maui County as well. It has put a damper on some of our plans, since almost everything we want to do is outside. But even in the pouring rain, it's still nice here than it is back home.

We're hoping to get a hike in today, and a little more snorkeling!