The Wedding!!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm still way way way behind on the blog, so apologies for anyone who has been waiting anxiously to look at the wedding pictures. Drea just left New Zealand yesterday to start her job in Portland, Oregon and I've got two more weeks here before I head out so I intend to get a lot of blogging done between then and now. Anyway, imagine for a moment that it's October...

To start, thank you to everyone who helped us out along the way to getting married. Planning a wedding in California when you live in New Zealand requires asking a lot of favors and we really appreciate everyone who stepped up and helped out. We couldn't ask for better friends and family.

We arrived in California a week before the big day and set straight to work...

Starting with about 20 pounds of imported New Zealand chocolate drea started baking the cakes!And every good chef has to taste a tiny little bit of their work to make sure it's turning out right. Drea is just that much better of a chef!

The rest of the week we took care of all the little last minute details that always pop up before a big event. But we were able to have some fun running some of the errands. We went to our favourite (could be the last time I spell that with a 'u') wine tasting room to pick up wine for the wedding. We can't recommend this place enough for those of you in Sonoma county. Drea and I are pretty excited to be back in their wine club.

This is actually from the wine tasting after the wedding but is a good picture of the two moms. Thanks Moms!!

More cake baking frivolity! With, of course, more sampling of the goods!

The big day came and was absolutely spectacular. It was a blissfully warm fall day with a light breeze and the Burke ranch overlooking the neighboring wineries was just gorgeous.

The wedding procession started with our 'kid parade'.

Will Tams was an absolutely fantastic celebrant for us and we can't thank him enough.

I think my fingers may have swelled up a bit.

'You may now high five the bride!'

As part of our ceremony we really wanted to add lots of surprises for everyone involved. About two months before the wedding we were inspired to do a little dancing at the end of the ceremony. Thanks to our bridesmaids and groomsmen that were such good sports! A video of the dance is on Dave's facebook page, but eventually I'll get the video on here after I get back to the states. Here's a few pics of the dance..."I gotta feelin'!"

"That tonight's gonna be a good night"

"Yeah, tonight's gonna be a good night!"

The happy couple!

Above are a couple shots during the professional photoshoot. Our photographer has had some family issues recently, so we're hoping to have to pics from him in the next month or two. I'll try and post the best of those on here later as well.

The dinner was an absolutely delicious spread of vegetarian dishes. The goat cheese and sundried tomato tart was especially fantastic! Here's a couple pictures during the dinner and cake cutting...




The cake was made by Andrea and her brother Mark. Mark finished up the decorations about 5 minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start, but what an incredible job! Hey Mark, time to think about a new line of work!




The dinner and cake was followed up by some old time country line dancing on the Burkes back deck. The dancing was incredibly fun and the band did a great job getting people out dancing. The only problem was the dance floor was a bid slippery for the bride...

This is right when Drea took a fall during the dancing, I think the expressions in this picture are priceless. For the record, that's Drea's brother on the left pointing and laughing. Real nice Mark. ;-)

I also have to give massive kudos to Andrea's Unkle Klaus. Who outdressed us all and danced the pants (or leiderhosen) off of everyone!

Also big thanks to our very gracious hosts, Mike and Rebecca Burke! Thank you so very much!

It was a perfectly magical day and Andrea and I will treasure the memories forever. Thank you to everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us. More pictures are sure to be forthcoming.

Love,
Dave and Andrea

Black eyes and brooders

Hi all,

So the last few months prior to the wedding we unfortunately don't have all that much to report. We'd been working our tails off writing vows, booking caterers, sorting out the venue, getting rings, making frisbee designs for wedding gifts, trying on wedding dresses (mostly Drea on this one), learning how to dance good and about a thousand other things. With all that we didn't get out all that often.

We did play some frisbee here and there. Here's a picture from shortly after being hit in the eye with a frisbee. I don't recommend this to anyone getting married in two weeks...

We jokingly told the student that did this to me that he'd ruined our wedding. That might have been a bit cruel on our part. Sorry Phil. Luckily I heal quickly.

We also had a couple chickens go 'broody' on us. This is when they think they're hatching eggs, and refuse to get off the nest. Fun thing about broodie chickens is if you pick them up they'll stay wherever you drop them. Makes for fun photoshoots...

Next up, Wedding pics! Yay!!!!

Love,
Dave and Andrea

Treble Cone and Lake Hawea

Hi All,

Playing catch up on the blog. With all the wedding stuff we're 3 plus months behind. Anyway, Andrea and I went on a ski trip with our new friends Christoph and Katharina back in August. We drove up to Lake Hawea and then Christoph, Katharina and I went to Treble Cone for a day of skiing while Andrea stayed back in Lake Hawea enjoying the local scenery. Christoph's car had a bit of trouble but made it up to the top. Unfortunately, about 15 seconds after we parked the car exploded in a cloud of steam. It's a really steep road.

The victim!

Absolutely stunning!!!

Christoph showing excellent form.Christoph and Katharina

We made pasta but the cabin we rented didn't have any rolling pins.

We had a great time with our new friends and had an incredible time up in the mountains. Sorry for Christoph and his car (we took a rental car back down to Dunedin and he had to come back to get his the next day) but a great time.

Love to all,
Dave and Andrea

christchurch, the tranzscenic and our ever growing brood

Hey All,

At the end of Mike's visit to Dunedin we decided to drop him off in Christchurch and then have a little adventure of our own. We booked passage on the Alpine Tranz Scenic train from Christchurch to Greymouth and back again. We would (and probably should) have booked passage back on Sunday instead of a Saturday same day round trip but we had plans to pick up a couple extra chickens. So we had a rather long but beautiful trip over the southern alps taking in the snow capped mountains and winding tracks and rivers over the mountain. Here's a few pics we took from the train...

Brief stopover in Arthurs pass.

We stayed the night in the cute little town of Sumner, headed in to Christchurch to do some shopping and then high tailed it out of town. We picked up two chickens along the way (because what's a four hour drive without a couple chickens in the boot) and headed home. The two new chickens ,tentatively named Six and Dorking (because of her breed), greatly upset the pecking order upon their arrival. It took about a week for Fore to come to terms with the fact that she no longer ruled the roost (Six is about twice the size of her) but now they've all settled in to be good friends. With the exception that the roost was a bit cramped (I have since constructed a second roost). And bonus, they've started laying eggs again. Hooray for fresh eggs!

Love to all,
Dave

Roosters bring out the ninja in all of us (or is it just me)

Hi All,

Last week we had a visit from a very special chicken admirer. Drea came home after work one night to find a wild rooster in the tree above our hen house. Obviously up there showing off for the girls. We went up in the tree that night to try and capture it to save us (and every neighbor in a 7 block radius) from the early wake-up call. After a few misses and one very bad move on my part we were able to box him up and bring him inside. At some point Drea opened up the top of the box (to give him water!!) and out the rooster came again. Unfortunately, this time inside the house. It took roost on the sink and I suggested Drea turn the lights out to help it calm down. That's when the ninja in me came out. Chickens have pretty lousy night vision so I donned a black shirt and balaclava and went to work stalking the rooster. Logical, right??? Anyway, Drea was trying to make it difficult by laughing as I closed in on my prey but her mockery was to no avail. After very very slowly stalking it I was able to make a grab at it. Rooster captured and all is safe -thanks to the Ninja!

We ended up delivering the rooster to a neighbor (more than 7 blocks away) who was happy to have him.

Dave and Drea