A Few More Animal Encounters

 The Kangaroo Creek Farm had quite a few non-marsupial animals which you could spend time with depending on your comfort levels. Being a very tactile person who wants to experience everything, Kathryn waded through a scrum of children in order to be covered in birds for a few minutes. The grey parrot in the left of frame was particularly friendly and started nuzzling up to her right after this picture.

 A slightly more confusing encounter occurred shortly thereafter when this juvenile emu took a fancy to our friend Jared and began assuming a mating position. Apparently many emus go through a curiosity phase where they are more attracted to people that other emus. While its a pretty funny situation in hindsight, being pursued by an amorous 4 foot bird is a bit alarming at the time. Maybe its for the best that the dinosaurs are all extinct...

 Rounding out or visit with the most relaxed animal you could ask for, I was able to check an item off my bucket list and spent a bit of time patting a capybara. For those of you who are unfamiliar, they are the largest rodent in the world, hail from Patagonia, and feel quite a bit like a bristly inner tube.

Hands-on with Marsupials

 On our way through the Okanagan on our way back from the wedding, we stopped in Lake Country at the Kangaroo Creek Farm for some one-on-one time with a variety of marsupials and other oddities. Based on advice from both my boss and the people at the gate, we started immediately with the line to hold baby kangaroos. There were about 6 which ranged from 3 to 5 months of age since first coming out of their mothers pouch. They come wrapped in little blankets as shown, and are just about the cutest things you can imagine.

 Kathryn also had the chance to hold a sugar glider, which is another tiny marsupial similar to a flying squirrel. We learned quite a bit about them, the good pets they make, the long lives they have, and the trouble they can have at the vet (since their veins are too small to treat in any way). They are also ridiculously soft and very patient with the number of people holding and cooing over them.

 This albino wallaby was a little strung out from being followed around by small children most of the day and was quite happy to relax with me and have its ears scratched for a few minutes. It actually leaned against me and had a little snuggle before the next batch of jam-covered urchins started chasing it around again.

 Fun fact: kangaroos often have a life-long obsession with pouches, such that grown adults will try to get into baby carriages and juvenile animals will eat my ratty pants at the knee trying to make room to climb in.

Kalene & Blair Pt 2: The fun and games

 Blair and Kalene are both talented artists and know how to host a good party, so there was plenty of style and fun to be found at the wedding. The picture below is of a huge banner they had on the side of the barn as well as on a number of the take-aways from the event. Anyone with goggles on their cat is pretty awesome in my book.

 Speaking of awesome books, they had a little kiosk which would record 7 seconds of video and convert it into a flipbook which was printed and ready within minutes. To add to the fun, there were also silly costumes and accessories available. We did a few as a couple and part of a larger group and have to say that it was a brilliant and memorable little take away :)

 And after every wedding comes the dinner, drinks and dancing with a great mix of familiar friends and new faces. We were seated at a table with other visual effects people and a university friend of Kalene's. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable evening spent with the special new couple :)