Our weekend of wedding and sailing in small-town Alberta

Quite honestly, there isn't much to post about. Nothing jaw-dropping or awe-inspiring. It was a fun weekend spent with friends...like many other fun weekends spent with friends :) The first stop of our weekend was spent in Three Hills for Angela Bartsch's wedding at her parent's place. It was quite lovely; the weather was great! I think the forecast called for rain, but it's great that it didn't since the ceremony was on the lawn! It was a simple, no frills, super pink wedding. Look at the pics, and you'll see what I mean :) As most of you know, pink is most definitely NOT my favorite color, so to me, it was a bit overdone. Still lovely. The ceremony was short, 20 minutes, and almost without a hitch. Shall I explain? Aside from the bride's aisle-walking music starting about 5 times at the wrong spot, the ring bearer and flower girl didn't know where to walk(apparently the white aisle-runner wasn't obvious enough)! They did eventually find their way down the aisle, and the pink dressed little lady finally did start dropping her rose petals about two-thirds of the way to the front. As the vows were being said, all was going well...until the pastor asked for the rings. Dustin passed his to the pastor and it was placed ontop of the book pages(which the pastor was reading from). Then Ange reached for hers from the maid of honor and placed hers in the same spot. Then the pastor turned back to the front(with the rings sitting on his book). I imagine, all of you being as keen as I know you are, you can all figure out what happened next. Yes, the bride's ring fell from the pastor's book right through the platform they were standing on! Being that it was a gazebo, it made it very easy for the ring to roll through the cracks. Everyone laughed, and after a moment of sheer surprise, Ange removed her engagement ring, carefully placed it in the pastor's hand(after again trying to put it on the book!), and went on with the giving of rings :) I suppose I can't really say that was the only glitch in the day, because at the reception afterwards, which was also held on the lawn...there came many dark clouds, and eventually a storm. A LARGE storm. Torrential winds and rain, hail the size of a nickel, and lightning and thunder. It was quite a scene...all the guests huddled under the canvas tent like a bunch of circus animals at the Big Top. Mind you, it was a leaky canvas tent, so there were many clusters of people all trying to avoid the leaky spots. At one point, the wind was so strong, it knocked out the poles of one of the other awnings set up over the food table(thank goodness there was no food out at that point)! A bunch of guys ran over to take the other poles out, and at that point, weren't sure what to do with it...so they all walked with it over to the canvas tent so as to stay dry on their way back to "safety".(see photo...the sky was really dark, but I had to edit the picture to be able to see the people underneath)
After the hail stopped, Duane and I(along with many others)made a mad dash for our car. Being under a high structure in a storm wasn't really our idea of fun...lightning was a real threat. We decided not to attend the dance that was to happen afterwards, as we were heading to Dalum(near Drumheller)for the night, and didn't want to be out later than necessary driving in the storm. The rain was non-existent for most of the rest of the trip to Dalum, and the sky made for some great photos!
We made it into Dalum safely an hour or so later, and in time to see off the last of the birthday party guests for Mr. Hendrickson. From one party to another! We just hung out for a bit and told of the fast, stormy wedding, played with the kittens and eventually headed to bed. We opted not to attend church in the morning, as the one on the premises wasn't until 11, and the other was 40 kms away and at 9AM! Either way, we wouldn't have had much time at the lake for sailing before all the speed boats and church-goers arrived. We were happy to be there when we were. We had a nice grassy spot right by the shore. The weather was beautiful; nice and warm! Everyone went sailing at least once, but me. I was quite indifferent this time around. I quite enjoyed my time on shore soaking up the sun and reading a good book. I did, however, take some time away(with some convincing)to play with the frisbee and the football for a bit. I also got a bit of a sunburn, even after applying sunscreen...I guess it wasn't enough.
Sailing day didn't really include much for story-telling...it was just a nice, relaxing day of rest.
Though there was something Duane and Leah experienced in the line-up for ice cream, but I don't know the details well enough to tell them. Something about a rude woman buying ice cream for umpteen children and a rude adolescent boy who acted on his annoyance( of waiting in line too long) by butting in line ahead of Duane and Leah. I think the two of them would have liked to wring some necks...or maybe shout some expletives, but thought better of it *wink*
And that's about it.
(I'll add a post of purely prairie photos from our drive...and maybe some from Whitewood...after I size them.)