we had a potluck at jane and rich’s home with a number of my old friends. everybody cooked yummy food!

daphne even brought me a special strawberry shortcake cupcake from NYC because i couldn’t eat the sushi she ordered. very sweet (daphne and the cupcake)!

joe’s brother derek and family were visiting for the week from california. one beautiful day we went to granville island and had lunch at “go fish”, the outdoor fish n’ chips shack. i’ve actually been craving it for awhile now. the line up was long, but it was worth it!

my parents are in chicago this week to help us out with the move back to vancouver. we took a break with a nice father’s day brunch at sola, one of our favorite restaurants. my aunt kathleen was also able to drive up from indiana and spend the day with us.

joe officiated the ceremony for todd and trilisa, and we had a great time celebrating together with old friends we know and have known from chicago.

me and jana, fellow pregnant ladies.

at the reception, annalise caught the bouquet!

together with a few friends from church, we attended jean and joy’s wedding in morton, IL, a two and a half hour drive from chicago. since jean’s family is from france, we got to practice listening to and even speaking some french too during the day.

homemade cupcakes. a lovely home-catered dinner reception.

the harters are visiting for the weekend and so i had dinner with melody and the kids, together with anne and the stefanuts.

on christmas day, we were graciously invited to spend the day with our friends brian and shawna. shawna cooked up a storm: mac and cheese, a super juicy ham, stuffing, sweet potato and collard greens. it’s fun being able to share in other families’ christmas traditions.

heather got a fancy video game, which joe and brian enjoyed playing!

we spent a better part of the afternoon playing their wii. can you see joe’s mii? shouldn’t be too hard to spot…

tried the golf, and then i got into the action too with some tennis.

after church on sunday, we met up with my friend chris, who was visiting for the weekend. after a late lunch at ‘quartino’ in downtown, we took a quick walk around millenium park; christmas lights and the outdoor ice skating rink were already all set up.

afterwards, joe and i headed off to the historic chicago theatre to catch a new cirque du soleil show called “banana shpeel”. the theatre was really nice… but unfortunately the show was a bit disappointing, despite the interesting vaudeville show concept.

in fact, the caramelized banana and vanilla gelato dessert we had at lunch was probably a lot more satisfying…!

helen hosted a luncheon at her new apartment. as usual, the food was delicious and plentiful. time is always short when we’re in vancouver, so i felt lucky to see so many of our friends all at once!

i was especially excited to meet little madeleine for the first time… so cute!

the main reason for our visit to vancouver this time was to attend the wedding of joe’s cousin adrian. in fact, adrian and jenny invited joe to officiate their wedding, which was very exciting. the day started with a tea ceremony, which was our first time participating in one since getting married!

the ceremony was at sun yat sen classical garden in chinatown. it was of course a beautiful backdrop for the special day.

joe getting ready.

vows.

mom with her sons.

all in all it was a great day, albeit a bit chilly for me, but we were really blessed with the opportunity to connect with family and celebrate adrian and jenny’s wedding day.