We booked two weeks at the Azul Sensatori, a 5-star joint about twenty minutes out of Cancun. The plan going in was to just play each day by ear, with an emphasis on being extremely lazy. Most vacations we’ve been on together have been jam-packed with activities which usually results in us coming back more exhausted than before we left. This was our honeymoon and we wanted it to be just that.

Our room was great with a beautiful ocean view, but after a 30 hour downpour right after we got there the bathroom flooded. Michelle’s legendary service industry negotiation skills were put into motion and we were promptly upgraded to the honeymoon suite with premium services for the rest of our stay. Not too shabby at all.

We spent the first few days mostly sleeping, watching TV, and eating due to the crazy rainfall. But once that cleared up the weather went back to normal and we were basking in the 30 degree temperatures. After a couple of days of just lounging by the pool or on the beach we decided that we should venture off of the resort.

We booked a day trip to visit the Coba Mayan Ruins and a traditional Mayan village. This tour sounded great on paper, but didn’t bode too well with Michelle and I. Don’t get me wrong, the ruins were impressive as to be expected, but the tour guide really liked to listen to herself speak. While at the ruins she took us to a couple monuments, spoke for about 15 minutes, and then gave us about five minutes to check it out on our own. Coba also has the only remaining pyramid you can climb and this was our experience.

• Tour Guide: Blah, blah, blah….. [repeat for 25 minutes]
• Tour Guide: Ok, now you guys can go climb the pyramid. You have 5 minutes to get up it. 5 minutes to take pictures. And five minutes to get back down.

The tour also included a trip to a traditional Mayan village where we would get a chance to spend some time with a couple of families. We were told we would have the opportunity to speak with them and ask them about their lifestyle, culture, etc. This actually turned out to be a very strange experience. The tour guide once again directed everything like a drill Sergent (“stand here and take a picture”), and everything seemed to be staged. When we walked into one yard a lady was making fresh tortillas outside. The process was explained to us and we were to then move on. I held back from the group so I could take some natural picture of the lady without a bunch of tourists standing around. But as soon as everyone got out of sight, the lady wrapped up the tortilla mixture, covered it up, and went inside. I didn’t get the photo was I was hoping to.

On Christmas Day we took a 90 minute walk down the beach to a nearby village Peurto Morelos. The beach was quite beautiful and was bustling with activity as families celebrated Christmas. Michelle and I explored the town and then grabbed a quick bite to eat where I had the fortunate opportunity to experience the hottest salsa I have ever had. I ranked it a 10 on the Hemant’s Scale of Hotness (the hottest ranking yet). For anyone that knows me, that’s hot.

The next few days we got into the most excellent habit of laying by the pool reading books and sipping delicious cocktails in between deciding where we should eat. It was a very difficult existence. I also noticed something very odd. My legs and shoulders started to feel funny…a burning sensation almost. I had never experienced this before and after a moment of confusion I realized that I was actually burning. I guess there’s a first time for everything. This prompted me to use sunscreen a little more often….at least while still in Mexico.

After days of sloth-like behaviour we decided that we should probably get out and about again. Once again we booked a tour that would take us snorkeling at the stunning Xel Ha and to explore the Mayan ruins of Tulum. We were hoping that our experience with our previous tour guide was just an anomaly, but that theory quickly came to an end. We started to feel like we were in a kindergarten class visiting the museum in some big city. Despite this we had a great time snorkeling in the waters of Xel Ha to experience all of the marine life that inhabit it.

Once we wrapped up there we made our way to Tulum to see the ruins and the beach made famous by the film The Blue Lagoon. The tour guide took us to an area of grass and started his speech that would last 45 minutes. Since we only had 75 minutes at the ruins I started to slowly inch my way away from him at about the 25 minute mark, until I was far enough away to go off on my own. Michelle wasn’t far behind. I guess the tour bus thing isn’t for us. We probably should have just rented a car and visited these sites on our own. You live and learn, I guess. Regardless, the grounds at Tulum were quite very cool and the many monuments that speckled its surface were intriguing. It’s too bad that everything is roped off now, preventing you from really exploring.

Michelle really wanted to go to Playa del Carmen so we organized that into one of our final days in Mexico. The real goal was to actually meet my sister and brother-in-law who happened to be in a nearby resort for the 10th Anniversary, but because of malfunctioning voicemail, it didn’t work out. We did get a chance however to experience Playa and some more extremely hot salsa.

Our honeymoon ended up being as we had envisioned it. A time for us to get away together and just chill out. It was awesome not having anything more pressing than deciding where we were going to eat dinner for two weeks. This is a lifestyle the two of us could really get used to. I didn’t take a lot of photos which is somewhat unlike me, but you can check out some of my favourites here.

You may be thinking that Michelle and I have lost our minds in getting a second puppy, but there was a logical reason for it. Since both of us work full-time we were feeling guilty about leaving Darwin home alone during the day. We thought he would be much happier with a companion while we were away. We also thought it would be good for the two of us so that Darwin wouldn’t be looking for 100% of our attention.

We had joked about asking the breeder if she was willing to sell us his sister (since they got along so well when we left Darwin there when we were away), but we knew that Simone was being prepped for the show-dog circuit. Then one day out of the blue the breeder called and asked us if we were interested in buying Simone. It turned out that her body was a little bit long for what she was looking for in a show-dog. After a lot of deliberation Michelle and I decided to take her up on the offer. The brother and sister duo were going to be reunited (they are both from the same litter).

With the arrival of Simone, Darwin was a little bit ticked now that he had to share our love, but he did eventually warm up to her. The main problem was that Simone would not sleep through the night, plus we were having difficulties house-training her. It started to become pretty frustrating having to wake up at 3 am every night to take her outside. But after continuing with our training I’m happy to say that she has recently started to sleep through the entire night, and her house-training is nearly complete.

So everything is almost as we had envisioned it would be with a second dog. Darwin gets to hang out with his sister all day and the two make a pretty dynamic (and hilarious) duo. But something that hasn’t worked out is that instead of one dog insisting on 100% of our attention, we now have two demanding 100% of our attention.

She has also posted all of the photos from the entire weekend festivities in a private gallery. If you are interested in seeing them please send me an email or comment in this post and I will send you the link and the password. This private gallery is where you can order prints if you wish.

The camera arrived a few days after the wedding so I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it. That’s not to say that I haven’t fired off a bunch of shots with it. The amount I’ve played with it so far, I’m liking everything about it. I’m really looking forward to the next few months of really getting to know it.

Feel free to check out a few of the first test shots I’ve taken with it on my Flickr site.

Friday night Michelle and I held a welcome event at our home. Since we had so many friends and family travelling from all over the world we thought it would be a good idea to have as many of them over as possible the night before just to catch up. We ended up having a very full house (and backyard) with over 100 people showing up. My mother and relatives were gracious enough to cook dinner for everyone, and I’m pretty sure no one left hungry. We wrapped things up at 11pm and I headed over to Curtis’s place to spend the night.

Saturday morning I woke up with a strange feeling in my gut. The funny thing was that I wasn’t sure if I was nervous or hungry. At around 11am I took my groomsmen out for breakfast. When we finished I deduced that I was in fact nervous since I was full, and still had the strange feeling in my gut. We headed back to Curtis’s condo to chill before the wedding ceremony.

We threw in the Goonies to help settle my nerves and at 2pm our photographer Kira Nelson showed up to take some shots of us getting ready. She didn’t spend too much time with us before heading back to our house to shoot the bridal party getting ready. Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the Broadway Theatre for the ceremony.

We ended up getting their a little early so the boys and I crossed the street for a drink at the Yard & Flagon. We figured it was a good way to kill some time, and to help take the edge off. After we finished up the time had arrived to get married. And married I got. The ceremony went perfectly.

Michelle and I decided a while ago that we didn’t want to take a big chunk of time to do photos. The plan was for the wedding party and Kira to walk from the Broadway Theatre to the Hilton and do photos along the way. Since the ceremony ended at around 4:30 and cocktails wrapped up 6:30, we would have plenty of time to get some great shots.

We arrived at the Hilton at around 6:15 to catch the tail end of cocktails. Dinner was served followed by the program. We kept it short with toasts to the groom and bride, as well as ‘welcome to the families’. I also prepared a slideshow (watch it below) which played just before Michelle and I addressed our guests.  The rest of the evening was spent dancing to a variety of great music.  I’ve always said that you can judge how good a wedding is based on how many people are dancing.  I’m happy to say that the dance floor was more-or-less full for the entire night.

It was great that the wedding went exactly as Michelle and I had envisioned. It meant a lot to have so many family and friends at our wedding. Some traveled from afar, and some from near, but one thing was for certain – the wedding would not have been the same without any of them.  Thank you to all.  Michelle and I will cherish this day for the rest of our lives.

• 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?

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

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.

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

Up until this point I had no real interest in getting a dog, but having those two dogs cuddle with me set something off. I knew Michelle was more of a cat person so I started bugging her that we should get a dog – specifically a Chihuahua. It actually started off as a joke, but a few weeks later I found out that Michelle had been talking with breeders. It seemed my joke actually gained some traction. The next thing I knew we were at a dog show in Saskatoon to meet some Chihuahuas from a breeder in Regina.

We officially made the decision to bring a dog into our house and started dealing with Rosalie Juravle-Clark of Happy Paws Dog Care in Regina. We really liked the integrity and philosophy of her breeding practices and knew that we would get a quality puppy from her.

Two weeks ago Michelle and I made a trip to Regina to meet the puppies. Even though they were only nine weeks along, neither of us could believe how small they were. We spent about an hour playing with the dogs before heading out. After some discussion we decided on a little male from the litter. Rosalie told us we could pick in two weeks.

And today we made a quick trip to Regina to pick up our new puppy. We were a little worried as to how he would behave in the two-and-a-half hour car ride to Saskatoon, but he had a grand ole’ time playing with Michelle the whole way back. He’s been with us for about eight hours now and has been a blast as he awkwardly runs and jumps around the house . So may I take this time to officially introduce you to Dragomir Chirpy Tiberius. That’s actually his registered name, so you can just call him Darwin.

You can see a few more shots of Darwin at my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr