A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Last Sunday I arrived in Chicago for a software development conference called Agile 2009. It was a week long event that myself and 3 other Point2′ers were attending. Our week was jam-packed with workshops and talks, filling our brains with all sorts of knowledge. I’m not going to get into the details of the conference here, but if you’re interested you can check out my posts at Point2′s Developing Code, Connecting Industry blog.

• Day 1 at Agile 2009
• Burying Agile, The FBI, Harmful ScrumMasters, and More
• Hyperproductivity, Performance Reviews, and Too Much Pizza
• Coaching, Leading, and the Experience Design

Friday morning myself and the Point2 crew took a walk to the John Hancock Center and traveled up to the observation deck. We then spent some time trying to figure out what gifts to take back to our significant others. I failed miserably so hopefully Michelle is not too disappointed. We then headed back to the hotel since the guys had to catch their flight back to Saskatoon. I was staying for the weekend so we said our farewells and I took a walk to Navy Pier.

I decided to do the Skyline Boat Tour since I had already done the Architectural Tour with Michelle. This one took us a few kilometres out into Lake Michigan and described the high profile building making up the Chicago skyline. This was OK, but didn’t even compare to the architectural tour that takes you down the Chicago River into downtown. If you’re ever trying to decide between the two, please take my advice. It also didn’t help that it was pretty cloudy out. You could only see about halfway up some of the really tall buildings.

After grabbing lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company I caught the train out to my sister’s place in St. Charles. Since I was in Chicago I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to hang out with my nephew and two nieces. I spent the weekend visiting with my sister and her family.

I just wanted to take it easy so the most eventful thing we did was take the kids out to Odyssey Fun World, a giant Ruckers type place. For lunch we went to Sonic. I cannot stress how badly I’ve wanted to hit this place up. I always see the commercials on the American stations, taunting me. I’m happy to say the burger was great, plus it was pretty cool because they are set up like the old A&W drive-ins.

My flight leaves just before 4pm today so I’m just getting the last of my visiting in. Fortunately I will see them all again in less than a month when they come out to Saskatoon for the wedding. Holy smokes! Did I just say less than a month?

Our friends Kris and Lindsay got married this past weekend in their hometown of Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada. Michelle and I headed out to wedding Saturday morning. The weather was awesome – real sunny and not super-hot. The ceremony was at a nice park on the edge of town, and was a great place for a wedding. This was one of the nicest ceremonies I’ve had the pleasure of attending.

Following the ceremony a few of us went out for a cocktail at the Hollywood Bistro in town. Unfortunately there were no celebrities there. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the Melfort Curling Rink for the reception. Dinner was delicious and the program was well done. All of the speeches and toasts were very entertaining.

The dance was next on the agenda and fortunately the majority of the attendees had the dancing bug. The dance floor was filled for the majority of the evening, and remained that way until the end of the night. These are always the greatest weddings in my opinion. And with all of these weddings I’ve attended this summer I’m starting to get really excited for my own. And as it happens, it’s the next one on the calendar.

You can check out photos from the day on my Flickr site by following the links below. Just a note. I noticed tonight that if you choose to watch the slideshow, the pictures are enlarged to fill the screen. This causes the photos to lose clarity since I don’t upload them at full resolution. To fix this, click “Options” near the top right of the slideshow screen and ensure that “Embiggen small things to fill screen” is NOT checked off.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

Michelle and I had our wedding engagement shoot with Kira Nelson on July 28th at various locations in Saskatoon. We spent some time at the River Landing, and a few other unique downtown locations, and had a glass of wine in the downtown lounge Flint.

Kira recently made a short blog post talking about our shoot showcasing some of the great shots she took during the evening. You can read her post here and see a slideshow of all of our pictures here. I hope you enjoy them as much as we had getting them taken.

One of Michelle’s good friends Sara who is currently living in France was back in Regina to get married to her main Frenchman Alex. I had met Sara only a couple of times, and had never met Alex so I was looking forward to getting to know them. I also had the pleasure of photographing their wedding.

The celebration was quite intimate with around fifty people and was held at an old country church in the Qu’Appelle Valley by Craven, Saskatchewan. The day turned out to be a scorcher, hitting temperatures in the mid-thirties (celsius). Let’s just say there were a lot of sweaty people. After the ceremony we had some refreshments and snacks while guests tried to fly kites. A few people managed to get their kites to take flight, but unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of wind that day.

The laid back reception was held at the Delta with the program intermingled with the meal. The food was delicious and the event was very classy. And as I had hoped, I managed to get to know Sara and Alex much better.

You can check out photos from the day on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr